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THE PROPHECIES
JEREMIAH
WiiiiTi s gMtf ai Wa giit sntr Sinus.

BT THS R3V.
C. J. BALL, M.A.,
Chaplain of Lincoln t Inn ;
CDAriUBUTOR TO BISHOP KLLICOTT'S "COUMEHTART,*
" vai speaeek's comkehtart," etc

NEW YORK
A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON
3 & 5 West 18th Steeet, neab 5th Avenue
1902

CONTENTS.

PAGE
PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE UFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH I
L
THE CALL AND CONSECRATION . . . . „ . 58
II.
THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT , , s . 74
III
ISRAEL AND JUDAH — A CONTRAST . . . . .114
rv.
THE SCYTHIANS AS THE 'SCOURGE OF GOD ...» 134
V.
POPULAR AND TRUE REUGION  .149
VL
THE IDOLS OF THE HEATHEN AND THE GOD OF ISRAEL , 215
VII.
THE BROKEN COVENANT ...... . 34^

vi CONTENTS.

VIIL PAGE
THE FALL OF PRIDE  28o

IX.
THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS » . . 300
X.
THE SABBATH — A WARNING ....... 364
XI.
THE DIVINE POTTER . .  377
XII.
THE BROKEN VESSEL — A SYMBOi. OF JUDGMENT ... 398
XIII.
JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION . , . . , . 4II

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND
TIMES OF JEREMIAH.
A PRIEST by birth, Jeremiah became a prophet
by the special call of God. His priestly origin
implies a good literary training, in times when litera
ture was largely in the hands of the priests. The
priesthood, indeed, constituted a principal section of
the Israelitish nobility, as appears both from the his
tory of those times, and from the references in our
prophet's writings, where kings and princes and
priests are often named together as the aristocracy of
the land (L 18, ii. 26, iv. 9); and this fact would
ensure for the young prophet a share in all the best
learning of his age. The name of Jeremiah, like other
prophetic proper names, seems to have special signifi
cance in connexion with the most illustrious of the
persons recorded to have borne it. It means lahvah
foundeth, and, as a proper name, The Man that lahvah
foundeth ; a designation which finds vivid illustration
in the words of Jeremiah's call : " Before I moulded
thee in the belly, I knew thee ; and before thou camest
forth from the womb, I consecrated thee : a spokesman
to the nations did I make thee"(i. 5). The not un
common name of Jeremiah — six other persons of the
name are numbered in the Old Testament — must have
appeared to the prophet as invested with new force and
1

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF

meaning, in the light of this revelation. Even before
his birth he had been "founded"1 and predestined
by God for the work of his life.
The Hilkiah named as his father was not the high
priest of that name,2 so famous in connexion with the
reformation of king Josiah. Interesting as such a
relationship would be if established, the following facts
seem decisive against it. The prophet himself has
omitted to mention it, and no hint of it is to be found
elsewhere. The priestly family to which Jeremiah
belonged was settled at Anathoth (i. I, xi. 21, xxix.
27). But Anathoth in Benjamin (xxxvii. 12), the pre
sent Andtd, between two and three miles NNE. of
Jerusalem, belonged to the deposed line of Ithamar
(1 Chron. xxiv. 3 ; comp. with 1 Kings ii. 26, 35).
After this it is needless to insist that the prophet, and
presumably his father, resided at Anathoth, whereas
Jerusalem was the usual residence of the high priest.
Nor is the identification of Jeremiah's family with that
of the ruling high priest helped by the observation
that the father of the high priest was named Shallum
(1 Chron. v. 39), and that the prophet had an uncle of
this name (Jer. xxxii. 7). The names Hilkiah' and
Shallum are too common to justify any conclusions
from such data. If the prophet's father was head of
one of the twenty-four classes or guilds of the priests,
that might explain the influence which Jeremiah could
exercise with some of the grandees of the court. But
we are not told more than that Jeremiah ben Hilkiah
was a member of the priestly community settled at

» The same root is used in the Targ. oh i 1$ for setting or fixing
thrones, cf. Dan. vii. 9 : (VD"1)
* Clem. Alex., Strom.,!., § 120,
* At least seven times.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 3
Anathoth. It is, however, a gratuitous disparagement
of one of the greatest names in Israel's history, to
suggest that, had Jeremiah belonged to the highest
ranks of his caste, he would not have been equal to
the self-renunciation involved in the assumption of the
unhonoured and thankless office of a prophet.1 Such a
suggestion is certainly not warranted by the portrarture
of the man as delineated by himself, with all the distinc
tive marks of truth and nature. From the moment that
he became decisively convinced of his mission, Jeremiah's
career is marked by struggles and vicissitudes of the
most painful and perilous kind ; his perseverance in his
allotted path was met by an ever increasing hardness on
the part of the people ; opposition and ridicule became
persecution, and the messenger of Divine truth per
sisted in proclaiming his message at the risk of his own
life. That life may, in fact, be called a prolonged
martyrdom ; and, if we may judge of the unknown by
the known, the tradition that the prophet was stoned to
death by the Jewish refugees in Egypt is only too pro
bable an account of its final scene. If " the natural
shrinking of a somewhat feminine character " is trace
able in his own report of his conduct at particular
junctures, does not the fact shed an intenser glory
upon the man, who overcame this instinctive timidity,
and persisted, in face of the most appalling dangers, in
the path of duty ? Is not the victory of a constitu
tionally timid and shrinking character a nobler moral
triumph than that of the man who never knew fear —
who marches to the conflict with others, with a light
heart, simply because it is his nature to do so — because
he has had no experience of the agony of a previous
1 Hitzig.

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

conflict with self? It is easy to sit in one's library and
criticize the heroes of old ; but the modern censures of
Jeremiah betray at once a want of historic imagination,
and a defect of sympathy with the sublime fortitude
of one who struggled on in a battle which he knew to
be lost. In a protracted contest such as that which
Jeremiah was called upon to maintain, what wonder if
courage sometimes flags, and hopelessness utters its
forsaken cry ? The moods of the saints are not always
the same ; they vary, like those of common men, with
the stress of the hour. Even our Saviour could cry
from the cross, " My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me ? " It is not by passing expressions,
wrung from their torn hearts by the agony of the hour,
that men are to be judged. It is the issue of the crisis
that is all-important ; not the cries of pain, which
indicate its overwhelming pressure.
" It is sad," says a well known writer, with reference
to the noble passage, xxxi. 31-34, which he justly
characterizes as " one of those which best deserve to
be called the Gospel before Christ," " It is sad that
Jeremiah could not always keep his spirit under the
calming influence of these high thoughts. No book
of the Old Testament, except the book of Job and the
Psalms, contains so much which is difficult to reconcile
with the character of a self-denying servant of Jehovah.
Such expressions as those in xi. 20, xv. 15, and
especially xviii. 21-23, contrast powerfully with Luke
xxiii. 34, and show that the typical character of
Jeremiah is not absolutely complete." Probably not.
The writer in question is honourably distinguished
from a crowd of French and German critics, whose
attainments are not superior to his own, by his deep
sense of the inestimable value to mankind of those

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 5
beliefs which animated the prophet, and by the sincerity
of his manifest endeavours to judge fairly between
Jeremiah and his detractors. He has already remarked
truly enough that " the baptism of complicated suffer
ing," which the prophet was called upon to pass through
in the reign of Jehoiakim, " has made him, in a very
high and true sense, a type of One greater than he."
It is impossible to avoid such an impression, if we
study the records of his life with any insight or sym
pathy. And the impression thus created is deepened,
when we turn to that prophetic page which may be
called the most appealing in the entire range of the
Old Testament. In the 53rd of Isaiah the martyrdom
of Jeremiah becomes the living image of that other
martyrdom, which in the fulness of time was to redeem
the world. After this, to say that " the typical cha
racter of Jeremiah is not absolutely complete," is no
more than the assertion of a truism ; for what Old
Testament character, what character in the annals of
collective humanity, can be brought forward as a per
fect type of the Christ, the Man whom, in His sinless-
ness and His power, unbiassed human reason and
conscience instinctively suspect to have been also God?
To deplore the fact that this illustrious prophet " could
not always keep his spirit under the calming influence
of his highest thoughts," is simply to deplore the in
firmity that besets all human nature, to regret that
natural imperfection which clings to a finite and fallen
creature, even when endowed with the most splendid
gifts of the spirit. For the rest, a certain degree of
exaggeration is noticeable in founding upon three brief
passages of so large a work as the collected prophecies
of Jeremiah the serious charge that " no book of the
Old Testament, except the book of Job and the Psalms,

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF

contains so much which is difficult to reconcile with
the character of a self-denying servant of Jehovah."
The charge appears to me both ill-grounded and mis
leading. But I reserve the further consideration of
these obnoxious passages for the time when I come
to discuss their context, as I wish now to complete
my sketch of the prophet's life. He has himself
recorded the date of his call to the prophetic office.
It was in the thirteenth year of the good king Josiah,
that the young1 priest was summoned to a higher
vocation , by an inward Voice whose urgency he could
not resist.2 The year has been variously identified
with 629, 627, and 626 b.c. The place has been
supposed to have been Jerusalem, the capital, which
was so near the prophet's home, and which, as Hitzig
observes, offered the amplest scope and numberless
occasions for the exercise of prophetic activity. But
there appears no good reason why Jeremiah should
not have become known locally as one whom God had
specially chosen, before he abandoned his native place
for the wider sphere of the capital. This, in truth,
seems to be the likelier supposition, considering that
his reluctance to take the first decisive step in his
career excused itself on the ground of youthful in
experience : " Alas, my Lord lahvah I behold, I know
not (how) to speak ; for I am but a youth." ' The
Hebrew term may imply that he was about eighteen
or twenty : an age when it is hardly probable that
he would permanently leave his father's house. More-
lL6.• L 2, xxv. 3.
• "Wi puer; (i) Ex. ii. 6, of a three months' babe; (2) of a young
man up to about the twentieth year, Gen. xxxiv. 19, of Shechem ben
Hamor; I Kings iii. J, of Solomon, as here.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. f
over, he has mentioned a conspiracy of his fellow-
townsmen against himself, in terms which have been
taken to imply that he had exercised his ministry
among them, before his removal to Jerusalem. In
chap. xi. 21, we read: "Therefore thus said lahvah
Sabaoth upon the men of 'Anathoth that were seeking
thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of lahvah,
that thou die not by our hand ! Therefore thus said
lahvah Sabaoth : Behold I am about to visit it upon
them : the young men shall die by the sword ; their
sons and their daughters shall die by the famine. And
a remnant they shall have none ; for I will bring evil
unto the men of 'Anathoth, (in) the year of their visita
tion." It is natural to see in this wicked plot against
his life the reason for the prophet's departure from
his native place (but cf. p. 265). We are reminded of
the violence done to our Lord by the men of " His own
country " (77 irdTpt,<s avTov), and of His final and, as
it would seem, compulsory departure from Nazareth
to Capernaum (St. Luke iv. 16-29; St. Matt. iv. 13).
In this, as in other respects, Jeremiah was a true type
of the Messias.
The prophetic discourses, with which the book of
Jeremiah opens (ii. i-iv. 2), have a general applica
tion to all Israel, as is evident not only from the ideas
expressed in them, but also from the explicit address,
ii. 4 : " Hear ye the word of lahvah, O house of
Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel 1 " It
is clear enough, that although Jeremiah belongs to
the southern kingdom, his reflexions here concern the
northern tribes as well, who must be included in
the comprehensive phrases " house of Jacob," and " all
the clans of the house of Israel." The fact is accounted
for by the circumstance that these two discourses are

8 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
summaries of the prophet's teaching on many distinct
occasions, and as such might have been composed
anywhere. There can be no doubt, however, that the
principal contents of his book have their scene in
Jerusalem. In chap. ii. I, 2, indeed, we have what
looks like the prophet's introduction to the scene of
his future activity. " And there fell a word of lahvah
unto nie, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem."
But the words are not found in the LXX., which begins
chap. ii. thus : " And he said, These things saith the
Lord, I remembered the lovingkindness (eXeoe) of
thy youth, and the love of thine espousals (TeXetWts)."
But whether these words of the received Hebrew text
be genuine or not, it is plain that if, as the terms of
the prophet's commission affirm, he was to be "an
embattled city, and a pillar of iron, and walls of
bronze ... to the kings of Judah, to her princes, to
her priests," as well as " to the country folk" (i. 1 8),
Jerusalem, the residence of kings and princes and
chief priests, and the centre of the land, would be the
natural sphere of his operations. The same thing is
implied in the Divine statement : " A nab? to the nations
have I made thee " (i. 5). The prophet of Judea could
only reach the gdyim — the surrounding foreign peoples
— through the government of his own country, and
through his influence upon Judean policy. The leaving
of his native place, sooner or later, seems to be involved
in the words (i. 7, 8) : "And Tahvah said unto me, Say
not, I am a youth : for upon whatsoever (journey) I
send thee, thou shalt go (Gen. xxiv. 42); and with
whomsoever I charge thee, thou shalt speak (Gen. xxiii.
8). Be not afraid of them ! " The Hebrew is to some
extent ambiguous. We might also render : " Unto
whomsoever I send thee, thou shalt go ; and what-

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 9
soever I charge thee, thou shalt speak." But the
difference will not affect my point, which is that the
words seem to imply the contingency of Jeremiah's
leaving Anathoth. And this implication is certainly
strengthened by the twice-given warning : " Be not
afraid of them ! " (i. 8), " Be not dismayed at them,
lest I dismay thee (indeed) before them 1 " (17). The
young prophet might dread the effect of an unpopular
message upon his brethren and his father's house.
But his fear would reach a far higher pitch of intensity,
if he were called upon to confront with the same
message of unwelcome truth the king in his palace,
or the high priest in the courts of the sanctuary,
or the fanatical and easily excited populace of the
capital. Accordingly, when after his general prologue
or exordium, the prophet plunges at once "into the
agitated life of the present,"1 it is to "the men of
Judah and Jerusalem" (iv. 3), to "the great men"
(v. 5), and to the throng of worshippers in the temple
(vii. 2), that he addresses his burning words. When,
however (v. 4), he exclaims : " And for me, I said,
They are but poor folk ; they do foolishly (Num. xii.
1 1), for they know not the way of lahvah, the rule (i.e.,
religion) of their God (Isa. xiii. 1) : I will get me unto
the great men, and will speak with them; for they
know the way of lahvah, the rule of their God : "
he again seems to suggest a prior ministry, of how
ever brief duration, upon the smaller stage of Anathoth.
At all events, there is nothing against the conjecture
that the prophet may have passed to and fro between
his birthplace and Jerusalem, making occasional sojourn
in the capital, until at last the machinations of his
1 Hitzig, Vorbemerkungtn,

to PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
neighbours (xi. 19 sqq.), and as appears from xii. 6, his
own kinsmen, drove him to quit Anathoth for ever. If
Hitzig be right in referring Psalms xxiii., xxvi. -xxviii.
to the prophet's pen, we may find in them evidence
of the fact that the temple became his favourite haunt,
and indeed his usual abode. As a priest by birth, he
would have a claim to live in some one of the cells
that surrounded the temple on three sides of it. The
23rd Psalm, though written at a later period in the
prophet's career — I shall refer to it again by-and-by —
closes with the words, " And I will return unto (Ps.
vii. 17; Hos. xii. 7) the house of lahvah as long as
I live," or perhaps, " And I will return (and dwell) in "
etc., as though the temple were at once his sanctuary
and his home. In like manner, Ps. xxvi. speaks of
one who " washed his hands, in innocency " (i.e. in a
state of innocency ; the symbolical action corresponding
to the real state of his heart and conscience), and so
" compassed the altar of lahvah " ; " to proclaim with
the sound of a psalm of thanksgiving, and to rehearse
all His wondrous works." The language here seems
even to imply (Ex. xxx. 19-21), that the prophet took
part, as a priest, in the ritual of the altar. He con
tinues : " lahvah, I love the abode of thine house,
And the place of the dwelling of Thy glory 1 " and
concludes, " My foot, it standeth on a plain ; In the
congregations I bless lahvah," speaking as one con
tinually present at the temple services. His prayers
" Judge me," i.e., Do me justice, " lahvah 1 " and
"Take not away my soul among sinners, Nor my
life among men of bloodshed ! " may point either to
the conspiracies of the Anathothites, or to subsequent
persecutions at Jerusalem. The former seem to be
intended both here, and in Ps. xxvii., which is certainly

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 1 1
most appropriate as an Ode of Thanksgiving for the
prophet's escape from the murderous attempts of the
men of Anathoth. Nothing could be more apposite
than the allusions to " evil-doers drawing near against
him to eat up his flesh " {i.e., according to the common
Aramaic metaphor, to slander him, and destroy him
with false accusations) ; to the " lying witnesses, and
the man (or men) breathing out (or panting after)
violence" (ver. 12); and to having been forsaken even
by his father and mother (ver. 10). With the former,
we may compare the prophet's words, chap. ix. 2 sqq.,
" O that I were in the wilderness, in a lodge of way
faring men ; that I might forsake my people, and depart
from among them 1 For all of them are adulterous,
an assembly of traitors. And they have bent their
tongue, (as it were) their bow for lying ; and it is not
by sincerity that they have grown strong in the land.
Beware ye, every one of his friend, and have no
confidence in any brother: for every brother will
assuredly supplant " (apj;' ytpv a reference to Jacob and
Esau), " and every friend will gad about for slander.
And each will deceive his friend, and the truth they will \
not speak : they have taught their tongue to speak lies ; :
with perverseness they have wearied themselves. Thy /
dwelling is in the midst of deceit. ... A murderous
arrow is their tongue; deceit hath it spoken; with
his mouth one speaketh peace with his neighbour, and
inwardly he layeth an ambush for him." Such lan
guage, whether in the psalm or in the prophetic oration,
could only be the fruit of bitter personal experience.
(Cf. also xi. 19 sqq., xx. 2 sqq., xxvi. 8, xxxvi. 26,
xxxvii. 15, xxxviii. 6). The allusion of the psalmist
to being forsaken by father and mother (Ps. xxvii. 10)
may be illustrated by the prophet's words, chap. xii. &

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF

Jeremiah came prominently forward at a serioui
crisis in the history of his people. The Scythian in
vasion of Asia, described by Herodotus (i. 103-106),
but not mentioned in the biblical histories of the time,
was threatening Palestine and Judea. According to the
old Greek writer, Cyaxares the Mede, while engaged in
besieging Nineveh, was attacked by a great horde of
Scythians, under their king Madyes, who had entered
Asia in pushing their pursuit of the Cimmerians, whom
they had expelled from Europe.1 The Medes lost the
battle, and the barbarous victors found themselves
masters of Asia. Thereupon they marched for Egypt,
and had made their way past Ascalon, when they were
met by the envoys of Psammitichus I. the king of Egypt,
whose "gifts and prayers," induced them to return.
On the way back, some few of them lagged behind
the main body, and plundered the famous temple of
Atergatis-Derceto, or as Herodotus calls the great Syrian
goddess, Ourania Afrodite, at Ascalon (the goddess
avenged herself by smiting them and their descendants
with impotence — Or/Xeiav vovcrov, cf. I Sam. v. 6 sqq.).
For eight and twenty years the Scythians remained the
tyrants of Asia, and by their exactions and plundering
raids brought ruin everywhere, until at last Cyaxares
and his Medes, by help of treachery, recovered their
former sway. After this, the Medes took Nineveh, and
reduced the Assyrians to complete subjection; but
Babylonia remained independent Such is the story
as related by Herodotus, our sole authority in the
matter. It has been supposed* that the 59th Psalm
' The Cimmerians are the Gomer of Scripture, the Gimirraa of ths
cuneiform inscriptions.
* Ewald, Du Psalmen, 165.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 13
was written by king Josiah, while the Scythians were
threatening Jerusalem. Their wild hordes, ravenous
for plunder, like the Gauls who at a later time struck
Rome with panic, are at any rate well described in the
verse "They return at eventide,
They howl like the dogs,
the famished pariah dogs of an eastern town—
And surround the city."
But the Old Testament furnishes other indications of
the terror which preceded the Scythian invasion, and 0/
the merciless havoc which accompanied it. The short
prophecy of Zephaniah, who prophesied "in the days
of Josiah ben Amon king of Judah," and was therefore
a contemporary of Jeremiah, is best explained by
reference to this crisis in the affairs of Western Asia.
Zephaniah's very first word is a startling menace. " I
will utterly away with everything from off the face of
the ground, saith lahvah." " I will away with man
and beast, I will away with the birds of the air, and
the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks along
with the wicked (i.e. the idols with their worshippers) ;
and I will exterminate man from off the face of the
ground, saith lahvah." The imminence of a sweeping
destruction is announced. Ruin is to overtake every
existing thing ; not only the besotted people and their
dumb idols, but beasts and birds and even the fish of
the sea are to perish in the universal catastrophe. It
is exactly what might be expected from the sudden
appearance of a horde of barbarians of unknown
numbers, sweeping over a civilised country from north
to south, like some devastating flood ; slaying whatever

14 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
crossed their path, burning towns and temples, and
devouring the flocks and herds. The reference to
the fishes of the sea is explained by the fact that the
Scythians marched southward by the road which ran
along the coast through Philistia. "Gaza," cries the
prophet, "shall be forsaken," — there is an inimitable
paronomasia in his words * — "And Ascalon a desolation :
as for Ashdod, at noonday they shall drive her into
exile; and Ekron shall be rooted up. Alas for the
dwellers by the shore line, the race of the Cherethites !
The word of lahvah is against you, O Canaan, land of
the Philistines I And I will destroy thee, that there
shall be no inhabitant." It is true that Herodotus
relates that the Scythians, in their retreat, for tl e most
part marched past Ascalon without doing any harm,
and that the plunder of the temple was the work of a
few stragglers. But neither is this very probable in
itself, nor does it harmonize with what he tells us after
wards about the plunder and rapine that marked the
period of Scythian domination. We need not suppose
that the information of the old historian as to the doings
of these barbarians was as exact as that of a modern
state paper. Nor, on the other hand, would it be very
judicious to press every detail in a highly wrought
prophetic discourse, which vividly sets forth the fears of
the time, and gives imaginative form to the feelings
and anticipations of the hour ; as if it were intended by
the writer, not for the moral and spiritual good of his
contemporaries, but to ftonish posterity with a min utely
accurate record of the actual course of events in the
distant past

» Zeph. H. 4 sqq., rvnn raw nw . . . . npim )np»

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 15
The public danger, which stimulated the reflexion
and lent force to the invective of the lesser prophet,
intensified the impression produced by the earlier
preaching of Jeremiah. The tide of invasion, indeed,
rolled past Judea, without working much permanent
harm to the little kingdom, with whose destinies were
involved the highest interests of mankind at large.
But this respite from destruction would be understood
by the prophet's hearers as proof of the relentings of
lahvah towards His penitent people ; and may, for the
time at least, have confirmed the impression wrought
upon the popular mind by Jeremiah's passionate cen
sures and entreaties. The time was otherwise favour
able ; for the year of his call was the year immediately
subsequent to that in which the young king Josiah
" began to purify Judah and Jerusalem from the high
places and the Asherim, and the carven images and the
molten images," which he did in the twelfth year of his
reign, i.e. in the twentieth year of his age, according to
the testimony of the Chronicler (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3),
which there is no good reason for disallowing. Jere
miah was probably about the same age as the king,
as he calls himself a mere youth (na'ar). After the
Scythians had retired — if we are right in fixing their
invasion so early in the reign — the official reformation
of public worship was taken up again, and completed by
the eighteenth year of Josiah, when the prophet might
be about twenty-five. The finding of what is called
" the book of the Law," and " the book of the Covenant,"
by Hilkiah the high priest, while the temple was being
restored by the king's order, is represented by the
histories as having determined the further course of the
1 rmnn "1DD, 2 Kings xxii. 8; nnan "SD, 2 Kings xxiii. 9.

16 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
royal reforms. What this book of the Law was, it is
not necessary now to discuss. It is clear from the
language of the book of Kings, and from the references
of Jeremiah, that the substance of it, at any rate, closely
corresponded with portions of Deuteronomy. It appears
from his own words (chap. xi. 1-8) that at first, at all
events, Jeremiah was an earnest preacher of the positive
precepts of this book of the Covenant. It is true that
nis name does not occur in the narrative of Josiah's
reformation, as related in Kings. There the king and
his counsellors inquire of lahvah through the prophetess
Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 14). Supposing the account to
be both complete and correct, this only shows that five
years after his call, Jeremiah was still unknown or little
considered at court. But he was doubtless included
among the "prophets," who, with " the king and all the
men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem," " and
the priests . . . and all the people, both small and great,"
after the words of the newfound book of the Covenant
had been read in their ears, bound themselves by a
solemn league and covenant, "to walk after Iahweh,
and to keep His commandments, and His laws, and His
statutes, with all the heart, and with all the soul"
(2 Kings xxiii. 3). It is evident that at first the young
prophet hoped great things of this national league and
the associated reforms in the public worship. In his
eleventh chapter, he writes thus : " The word that fell
to Jeremiah from lahvah, saying : Hear ye the words
of this covenant" — presumably the words of the new
found book of the Torah — " And speak ye to the men
of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And
thou shalt say unto them " — the change from the second
plural " hear ye," " speak ye," is noticeable. In the first
instance, no doubt, the message contemplates the leaders

THE UFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 17
of the reforming movement generally; the prophet is
specially addressed in the words, "And thou shalt say
unto them, Thus said lahvah, the God of Israel, Cursed
is the man that will not hear the words of this covenant,
which I commanded your fathers, in the day when I
brought them forth from the land of Egypt, from the
iron furnace, saying, Hearken to My voice, and do them,
according to all that I command you; and ye shall
become to Me a people, and I — I will become to you
Elohim : in order to make good the oath that I sware to
your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and
honey, as at this day.
" And I answered and said, So be it, lahvah !
" And lahvah said unto me, Proclaim all these words
in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem,
saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do
them. For I solemnly adjured your fathers, at the
time when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt,
(and) unto this day, with all earnestness [earnestly and
incessantly], saying, Hearken ye to My voice. And
they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, and they
walked individually in the stubbornness of their evil
heart So I brought upon them all the words of this
covenant" — i.e., the curses, which constituted the
sanction of it: see Deut. iv. 25 sqq., xxviii. 15 sqq.—
" (this covenant) which I commanded them to do, and
they did it not" [Or perhaps, " Because I bade them
do, and they did not ; " implying a general prescription
of conduct, which was not observed. Or, " I who had
bidden them do, and they did not "—justifying, as it
were, God's assumption of the function of punishment.
His law had been set at nought ; the national reverses,
therefore, were His infliction, and not another's.]
This, then, was the first preaching of Jeremiah. " Hear
a

18 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
ye the words of this covenant!" — the covenant drawn
out with such precision and legal formality in the new
found book of the Torah. Up and down the country, " in
the cities of Judah " and " in the streets of Jerusalem,"
everywhere within the bounds of the little kingdom
that acknowledged the house of David, he published
this panacea for the actual and imminent evils of the
time, insisting, we may be sure, with all the eloquence
of a youthful patriot, upon the impressive warnings
embodied in the past history of Israel, as set forth in
the book of the Law. But his best efforts were fruit
less. Eloquence and patriotism and enlightened
spiritual beliefs and lofty purity of purpose were
wasted upon a generation blinded by its own vices
and reserved for a swiftly approaching retribution.
Perhaps the plots which drove the prophet finally from
his native place were due to the hostility evoked against
him by his preaching of the Law. At all events, the
account of them immediately follows, in this eleventh
chapter (vers. 18 sqq.). But it must be borne in mind
that the Law-book was not found until five years after
his call to the office of prophet. In any case, it is not
difficult to understand the popular irritation at what
must have seemed the unreasonable attitude of a
prophet, who, in spite of the wholesale destruction of
the outward symbols of idolatry effected by the king's
orders, still declared that the claims of lahweh were
unsatisfied, and that something more was needed than
the purging of Judah and Jerusalem from the high
places and the Asherim, if the Divine favour were to
be conciliated, and the country restored to permanent
prosperity. The people probably supposed that they
had sufficiently fulfilled the law of their God, when they
had not only demolished all sanctuaries but His, but had

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. I?
done away with all those local holy places where
lahvah was indeed worshipped, but with a deplorable
admixture of heathenish rites. The law of the one
legal sanctuary, so much insisted upon in Deuteronomy,
was formally established by Josiah, and the national
worship was henceforth centralized in Jerusalem, which
from this time onward remained in the eyes of all
faithful Israelites "the place where men ought to
worship." It is entirely in accordance with what we
know of human nature in general, and not merely of
Jewish nature, that the popular mind failed to rise to
the level of the prophetic teaching, and that the reform
ing zeal of the time should have exhausted itself in
efforts which effected no more than these external
changes. The truth is that the reforming movement
began from above, not from below ; and however earn
est the young king may have been, it is probable that
the mass of his subjects viewed the abolition of the
high-places, and the other sweeping measures, initiated
in obedience to the precepts of the book of the Covenant,
either with apathy and indifference, or with feelings of
sullen hostility. The priesthood of Jerusalem were, of
course, benefited by the abolition of all sanctuaries,
except the one wherein they ministered and received
their dues. The writings of our prophet amply demon
strate that, whatever zeal for lahvah, and whatever
degree of compunction for the past may have animated
the prime movers in the reformation of the eighteenth
of Josiah, no radical improvement was effected in the
ordinary life of the nation. For some twelve years,
indeed, the well-meaning king continued to occupy the
throne; years, it may be presumed, of comparative
peace and prosperity for Judah, although neither the
narrative of Kings and Chronicles nor that of Jeremiah

40 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
gives us any information about them. Doubtless it
was generally supposed that the nation was reaping the
reward of its obedience to the law of lahvah. But at
the end of that period, circ. B.C. 608, an event occurred
which must have shaken this faith to its foundations.
In the thirty-first year of his reign, Josiah fell in the battle
of Megiddo, while vainly opposing the small forces at his
command to the hosts of Egypt. Great indeed must
have been the " searchings of heart " occasioned by
this unlooked-for and overwhelming stroke. Strange
that it should have fallen at a time when, as the people
deemed, the God of Israel was receiving His due at
their hands ; when the injunctions of the book of the
Covenant had been minutely carried out, the false and
irregular worships abolished, and Jerusalem made the
centre of the cultus ; a time when it seemed as if the
Lord had become reconciled to His people Israel, when
years of peace and plenty seemed to give demonstration
of the fact ; and when, as may perhaps be inferred from
Josiah's expedition against Necho, the extension of the
border, contemplated in the book of the Law, was con
sidered as likely to be realised in the near future. The
height to which the national aspirations had soared
only made the fall more disastrous, complete, ruinous.
The hopes of Judah rested upon a worldly founda
tion; and it was necessary that a people whose
blindness was only intensified by prosperity, should
be undeceived by the discipline of overthrow. No hint
is given in the meagre narrative of the reign as to
whether the prophets had lent their countenance or not
to the fatal expedition. Probably they did ; probably
they too had to learn by bitter experience, that no man,
not even a zealous and godfearing monarch, is necessary
to the fulfilment of the Divine counsels. And the

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. ai
agony of this irretrievable disaster, this sudden and
complete extinction of his country's fairest hopes, may
have been the means by which the Holy Spirit led
Jeremiah to an intenser conviction that illicit modes of
worship and coarse idolatries were not the only things
in Judah offensive to lahvah ; that something more
was needed to win back His favour than formal obe
dience, however rigid and exacting, to the letter of a
written code of sacred law ; that the covenant of
lahvah with His people had an inward and eternal, not
an outward and transitory significance; and that not
the letter but the spirit of the law was the thing of
essential moment Thoughts like these must have
been present to the prophet's mind when he wrote
(xxxi. 31 sqq.): "Behold, a time is coming, saith
lahvah, when I will conclude with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah a fresh treaty,
unlike the treaty that I concluded with their fore
fathers, at the time when I took hold of their hand, to
bring them out of the land of Egypt ; when they, on
their part, disannulled my treaty, and I — I disdained *
them, saith lahvah. For this is the treaty that I will
conclude with the house of Israel after those days [i.e.
in due time], saith lahvah : I will put my Torah within
them and upon their heart will I grave it ; and I will
become to them a God, and they— they shall become
to me a people."
It is but a dull eye which cannot see beyond the
metaphor of the covenant or treaty between lahvah
and Israel; and it is a strangely dark understanding

1 Comparing the Hebrew verb with the Arabic Jx; A t_» timuit,
fastidivit. LXX., K&yi> i5/*&i|<ra atrrwv. Cf. Jer. Ui. 14. Gesenius
rendered fastidivit, rtjecit.

ta PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP
that fails to perceive here and elsewhere a translucent
figure of the eternal relations subsisting between God
and man. The error is precisely that against which
the prophets, at the high watermark of their inspiration,
are always protesting — the universal and inveterate
error of narrowing down the requirements of the
Infinitely Holy, Just and Good, to the scrupulous ob
servance of some accepted body of canons, enshrined
in a book and duly interpreted by the laborious
application of recognised legal authorities. It is so
comfortable to be sure of possessing an infallible guide
in so small a compass; to be spared all further con
sideration, so long as we have paid the priestly dues,
and kept the annual feasts, and carefully observed
the laws of ceremonial purity ! From the first, the
attention of priests and people, including the official
prophets, would be attracted by the ritual and cere
monial precepts, rather than by the earnest moral
teaching of Deuteronomy. As soon as first impressions
had had time to subside, the moral and spiritual
element in that noble book would begin to be ignored,
or confounded with the purely external and mundane
prescriptions affecting public worship and social pro
priety ; and the interests of true religion would hardly
be subserved by the formal acceptance of this code as
the law of the state. The unregenerate heart of man
would fancy that it had at last gotten that for which
it is always craving — something final — something to
which it could triumphantly point, when urged by the
religious enthusiast, as tangible evidence that it was
fulfilling the Divine law, that it was at one with
lahvah, and therefore had a right to expect the con
tinuance of His favour and blessing. Spiritual de
velopment would be arrested ; men would become

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. »3
satisfied with having effected certain definite changes
bringing them into external conformity with the written
law, and would incline to rest in things as they were.
Meanwhile, the truth held good that to make a fetish
of a code, a system, a holy book, is not necessarily
identical with the service of God. It is, in fact, the
surest way to forget God ; for it is to invest something
that is not He, but, at best, a far-off echo of His voice,
with His sole attributes of finality and sufficiency.
The effect of the downfall of the good king was
electrical. The nation discovered that the displeasure
of lahvah had not passed away like a morning cloud.
Out of the shock and the dismay of that terrible dis
illusion sprang the conviction that the past was not
atoned for, that the evil of it was irreparable. The
idea is reflected in the words of Jeremiah (xv. i) : "And
lahvah said unto me, If Moses were to stand before
Me (as an intercessor), and Samuel, I should not
incline towards this people : dismiss them from My
presence, and let them go forth ! And when they say
unto thee, Whither are we to go forth ? thou shalt say
unto them, Thus said lahvah, They that are Death's to
death ; and they that are the Sword's to the sword ;
and they that are Famine's to famine; and they that
are Captivity's to captivity. And I will set over them
four families, saith lahvah ; the sword to slay, and the
dogs to draw (2 Sam. xvii. 13), and the birds of the
air, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to
destroy. And I will give them for worry (Deut-
xxviii. 25) to all the realms of earth; because of
(Deut. xv. 10, xviii. 12 ; hhil) Manasseh ben Hezekiah
king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem." In the
next verses we have what seems to be a reference to
the death of Josiah (ver 7). " I fanned them with a

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

fan" — the fan by which the husbandman separates
wheat from chaff in the threshingfloor — "I fanned
them with a fan, in the gates of the land " — at Megiddo;
the point where an enemy marching along the maritime
route might enter the land of Israel ; " I bereaved, I
ruined my people (ver. 9). She that had borne seven,
pined away ; she breathed out her soul ; her sun went
down while it was yet day" The national mourning
over this dire event became proverbial, as we see from
Zech. xii. II : "In that day, great shall be the mourning
in Jerusalem ; like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in
the valley of Megiddo."
The political relations of the period are certainly
obscure, if we confine our attention to the biblical
data. Happily, we are now able to supplement these,
by comparison with the newly recovered monuments
of Assyria. Under Manasseh, the kingdom of Judah
became tributary to Esarhaddon ; and this relation of
dependence, we may be sure, was not interrupted
during the vigorous reign of the mighty Ashurbanipal,
b.c. 668-626. But the first symptoms of declining
power on the side of their oppressors would un
doubtedly be the signal for conspiracy and rebellion in
the distant parts of the loosely amalgamated empire.
Until the death of Ashurbanipal, the last great sovereign
who reigned at Nineveh, it may be assumed that Josiah
stood true to his fealty. It appears from certain notices
in Kings and Chronicles (2 Kings xxiii. 19; 2 Chron.
xxxiv. 6) that he was able to exercise authority even
in the territories of the ruined kingdom of Israel. This
may have been due to the fact that he was allowed tc
do pretty much as he liked, so long as he proved an
obedient vassal; or, as is more likely, the attention
of the Assyrians was diverted from the West by

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. t$
troubles nearer home in connection with the Scythians
or the Medes and Babylonians. At all events, it is
not to be supposed that when Josiah went out to
oppose the Pharaoh at Megiddo, he was facing the
forces of Egypt alone. The thing is intrinsically im
probable. The king of Judah must have headed a
coalition of the petty Syrian states against the common
enemy. It is not necessary to suppose that the Pales
tinian principalities resisted Necho's advance, in the
interests of their nominal suzerain Assyria. From all
we can gather, that empire was now tottering to its
irretrievable fall, under the feeble successors of Ashur
banipal. The ambition of Egypt was doubtless a
terror to the combined peoples. The further results
of Necho's campaign are unknown. For the moment,
Judah experienced a change of masters; but the
Egyptian tyranny was not destined to last. Some
four years after the battle of Megiddo, Pharaoh Necho
made a second expedition to the North, this time
against the Babylonians, who had succeeded to the
empire of Assyria. The Egyptians were utterly de
feated in the battle of Carchemish, circ. B.C. 606-5,
which left Nebuchadrezzar in virtual possession of
the countries west of the Euphrates (Jer. xlvi. 2). It
was the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king
of Judah, when this crisis arose in the affairs of the
Eastern world. The prophet Jeremiah did not miss
the meaning of events. From the first he recognised
in Nebuchadrezzar, or Nabucodrossor, an instrument
in the Divine hand for the chastisement of the peoples;
from the first, he predicted a judgment of God, not
only upon the Jews, but upon all nations, far and near.
The substance of his oracles is preserved to us in
chapters xxv. and xlvi.-xlix. of his book. In the

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF

former passage, which is expressly dated from the
fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the first of Nebuchad
rezzar, the prophet gives a kind of retrospect of his
ministry of three-and-twenty years, affirms that it has
failed of its end, and that Divine retribution is there
fore certain. The "tribes of the north" will come
and desolate the whole country (ver. 9), and " these
nations " — the peoples of Palestine — " shall serve the
king of Babel seventy years" (ver. 11). The judg
ment on the nations is depicted by an impressive
symbolism (ver. 15). "Thus said lahvah, the God of
Israel, unto me, Take this cup of wine, the (Divine)
wrath, from My hand, and cause all the nations, unto
whom I send thee, to drink it. And let them drink,
and reel, and show themselves frenzied, because of
the sword that I am sending amongst them ! " The
strange metaphor recalls our own proverb : Quem Deus
vult perdere, prius dementat. " So I took the cup
from the hand of lahvah, and made all the nations
drink, unto whom lahvah had sent me." Then,
as in some list of the proscribed, the prophet writes
down, one after another, the names of the doomed
cities and peoples. The judgment was set for that age,
and the eternal books were opened, and the names
found in them were these (ver. 18): "Jerusalem, and
the cities of Judah, and her kings, and her princes.
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his
princes, and all his people. And all the hired soldiery,
and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings
of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza,
and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod. Edom, and
Moab, and the bene Ammon. And all the kings of
Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the
island (i.e. Cyprus) that is beyond the sea. Dedan

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. vj
and Tema and Buz and all the tonsured folk. And
all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the hired
soldiery, that dwell in the wilderness. And all the
kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the
kings of Media. And all the kings of the north, the
near and the far, one with another ; and all the
kingdoms of the earth that are upon the surface of
the ground"

When the mourning for Josiah was ended (2 Chron.
xxxv. 24 sqq.), the people put Jehoahaz on his father's
throne. But this arrangement was not suffered to con
tinue, for Necho, having defeated and slain Josiah,
naturally asserted his right to dispose of the crown of
Judah as he thought fit. Accordingly, he put Jehoahaz
in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, whither he
had probably summoned him to swear allegiance to
Egypt, or whither, perhaps, Jehoahaz had dared to go
with an armed force to resist the Egyptian pretensions,
which, however, is an unlikely supposition, as the
battle in which Josiah had fallen must have been a
severe blow to the military resources of Judah. Necho
carried the unfortunate but also unworthy king (2 Kings
xxiii. 32) a prisoner to Egypt, where he died (ibid. 34).
These events are thus alluded to by Jeremiah (xxii.
10-12) : "Weep ye not for one dead (i.e. Josiah), nor
make your moan for him : weep ever for him that is
going away ; for he will not come back again, and see
his native land ! For thus hath lahvah said of Shallum
(i.e. Jehoahaz, I Chron. iii. 15) ben Josiah, king of
Judah, that reigned in the place of Josiah his father,
who is gone forth out of this place (i.e. Jerusalem, or
the palace, ver. 1), He will not come back thither again.

S8 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
For in the place whither they have led him into exile,
there he will die ; and this land he will not see again."
The pathos of this lament for one whose dream of
greatness was broken for ever within three short
months, does not conceal the prophet's condemnation
of Necho's prisoner. Jeremiah does not condole with
the captive king as the victim of mere misfortune. In
this, as in all the gathering calamities of his country,
he sees a retributive meaning. The nine preceding
verses of the chapter demonstrate the fact.
In the place of Jehoahaz, Necho had set up his
elder brother Eliakim, with the title of Jehoiakim
(2 Kings xxiii. 34). This prince also is condemned in
the narrative of Kings (ver. 37), as having done " the
evil thing in the eyes of lahvah, according to all that
his forefathers had done ; " an estimate which is
thoroughly confirmed by what Jeremiah has added to
his lament for the deposed king his brother. The
pride, the grasping covetousness, the high-handed
violence and cruelty of Jehoiakim, and the doom that
will overtake him, in the righteousness of God, are
thus declared : " Woe to him that buildeth his house
by injustice, and his chambers by iniquity 1 that layeth
on his neighbour work without wages, and giveth him
not his hire I That saith, I will build me a lofty house,
with airy chambers ; and he cutteth him out the
windows thereof, pannelling it with cedar, and painting
it with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, that thou art
hotly intent upon cedar ? " (Or, according to the LXX.
Vat., thou viest with Ahaz — LXX Alex., with Ahab ;
perhaps a reference to " the ivory house " mentioned
in 1 Kings xxii. 39). "Thy father, did he not eat and
drink and do judgment and justice ? Then it was well
with him. He judged the cause of the oppressed and

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. V)
the needy : then it was well. Was not this to know
Me? saith lahvah. For thine eyes and thine heart
are set upon nought but thine own lucre [thy plunder],
and upon the blood of the innocent, to shed it, and
upon extortion and oppression to do it. Therefore,
thus hath lahvah said of Jehoiakim ben Josiah, king
of Judah : They shall not lament for him with Ah,
my brother I or Ah, sister 1 They shall not lament
for him with Ah, lord I or Ah, his majesty 1 With the
burial of an ass shall he be buried ; with dragging and
casting forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem 1 "
In the beginning of the reign of this worthless
tyrant, the prophet was impelled to address a very
definite warning to the throng of worshippers in the
court of the temple (xxvi. 4 sqq.). It was to the effect
that if they did not amend their ways, their temple
should become like Shiloh, and their city a curse to all
the nations of the earth. There could be no doubt of
the meaning of this reference to the ruined sanctuary,
long since forsaken of God (Ps. lxxviii. 60). It so
wrought upon that fanatical audience, that priests and
prophets and people rose as one man against the daring
speaker ; and Jeremiah was barely rescued from imme
diate death by the timely intervention of the princes.
The account closes with the relation of the cruel
murder of another prophet of the school of Jeremiah,
by command of Jehoiakim the king; and it is very
evident from these narratives that, screened as he was
by powerful friends, Jeremiah narrowly escaped a
similar fate.
We have reached the point in our prophet's career
when, taking a broad survey of the entire world of his
time, he forecasts the character of the future that
awaits its various political divisions. He has left the

3© PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP
substance of his reflexions in the 25th chapter, and
in those prophecies concerning the foreign peoples,
jwhich the Hebrew text of his works relegates to the
very end of the book, as chapters xlvi.-lL, but which
the Greek recension of the Septuagint inserts imme
diately after chap. xxv. 13. In the decisive battle at
Carchemish, which crippled the power of Egypt, the
only other existing state which could make any pre
tensions to the supremacy of Western Asia, and
contend with the trans-Euphratean empires for the
possession of Syria-Palestine, Jeremiah had recognised
a signal indication of the Divine Will, which he was
not slow to proclaim to all within reach of his inspired
eloquence. In common with all the great prophets
who had preceded him, he entertained a profound con
viction that the race was not necessarily to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong ; that the fortune of war
was not determined simply and solely by chariots and
horsemen and big battalions ; that behind all material
forces lay the spiritual, from whose absolute will they
derived their being and potency, and upon whose
sovereign pleasure depended the issues of victory and
defeat, of hfe and death. As his successor, the second
Isaiah, saw in the polytheist Cyrus, king of Anzan,
a chosen servant of lahvah, whose whole triumphant
career was foreordained in the counsels of heaven ; so
Jeremiah saw in the rise of the Babylonian domination,
and the rapid development of the new empire upon
the ruins of the old, a manifest token of the Divine
purpose, a revelation of a Divine secret. His point
of view is strikingly illustrated by the warning which
he was directed to send a few years later to the kings
who were seeking to draw Judah into the common
alliance against Babylon (chap, xxvii. I sqq.). "In the

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 31
beginning of the reign of Zedekiah * ben Josiah, king
of Judah, fell this word to Jeremiah from lahvah.
Thus said lahvah unto me, Make thee thongs and
poles, and put them upon thy neck ; and send them to
the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to
the king of the bene Ammon, and to the king of Tyre,
and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the mes
sengers that are come to Jerusalem, unto Zedekiah the
king of Judah. And give them a charge unto their
masters, saying, Thus said lahvah Sabaoth, the God
of Israel, Thus shall ye say to your masters : I it
was that made the earth, mankind, and the cattle that
are on the face of the earth, by My great strength,
and by Mine outstretched arm ; and I give it to
whom it seemeth good in My sight And now, I will
verily give all these countries into the hand of Nebu
chadrezzar king of Babel, My servant; and even the
wild creatures of ihe field will I give unto him to serve
him." Nebuchadrezzar was invincible, and the Jewish
prophet clearly perceived the fact. But it must not
be imagined that the Jewish people generally, or the
neighbouring peoples, enjoyed a similar degree of in
sight Had that been so, the battle of Jeremiah's life
would never have been fought out under such cruel,
such hopeless conditions. The prophet saw the truth,
and proclaimed it without ceasing in reluctant ears,
and was met with derision, and incredulity, and in
trigue, and slander, and pitiless persecution. By-and-
by, when his word had come to pass, and all the
principalities of Canaan were crouching abjectly at the
feet of the conqueror, and Jerusalem was a heap of

1 So rightly the Syriac, for Jehoiakim.

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

ruins, the scattered communities of banished Israelites
could remember that Jeremiah had foreseen and fore
told it all. In the light of accomplished facts, the
significance of his prevision began to be realised ; and
when the first dreary hours of dumb and desperate
suffering were over, the exiles gradually learned to
find consolation in the few but precious promises that
had accompanied the menaces which were now so
visibly fulfilled. While they were yet in their own
land, two things had been predicted by this prophet
in the name of their God. The first was now accom
plished; no cavil could throw doubt upon actual
experience. Was there not here some warrant, at
least for reasonable men, some sufficient ground for
trusting the prophet at last, for believing in his Divine
mission, for striving to follow his counsels, and for
looking forward with steadfast hope out of present
affliction, to the gladness of the future which the same
seer had foretold, even with the unwonted precision of
naming a limit of time ? So the exiles were persuaded,
and their belief was fully justified by the event. Never
had they realised the absolute sovereignty of their
God, the universality of lahvah Sabaoth, the shadowy
nature, the blank nothingness of all supposed rivals
of His dominion, as now they did, when at length
years of painful experience had brought home to their
minds the truth that Nebuchadrezzar had demolished
the temple and laid Jerusalem in the dust, not, as he
himself believed, by the favour of Bel-Merodach and
Nebo, but by the sentence of the God of Israel ; and
that the catastrophe, which had swept them out of
political existence, occurred not because lahvah was
weaker than the gods of Babylon, but because He was
irresistibly strong; stronger than all powers of al]

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JERBMIAH. 33
worlds; stronger therefore than Israel, stronger than
Babylon ; stronger than the pride and ambition of
the earthly conqueror, stronger than the selfwill, and
the stubbornness, and the wayward rebellion, and the
fanatical blindness, and the frivolous unbelief, of his
own people. The conception is an easy one for us,
who have inherited the treasures both of Jewish and
of Gentile thought; but the long struggle of the
prophets, and the fierce antagonism of their fellow-
countrymen, and the political extinction of the Davidic
monarchy, and the agonies of the Babylonian exile,
were necessary to the genesis and germination of this
master-conception in the heart of Israel, and so of
humanity. To return from this hasty glance at the remoter
consequences of the prophet's ministry, it was in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the first of Nebu
chadrezzar (xxv. 1) that, in obedience to a Divine
intimation, he collected the various discourses which
he had so far delivered in the name of God. Some
doubt has been raised as to the precise meaning of the
record of this matter (xxxvi.). On the one hand, it is
urged that "An historically accurate reproduction of
the prophecies would not have suited Jeremiah's object,
which was not historical but practical: he desired to
give a salutary shock to the people, by bringing before
them the fatal consequences of their evil deeds :" and
that " the purport of the roll (ver. 29) which the king
burned was [only] that the king of Babylon should
' come and destroy this land,' whereas it is clear that
Jeremiah had uttered many other important declarations
in the course of his already long ministry." And on the
other hand, it is suggested that the roll, of which the
prophet speaks in chap, xxxvi., contained no more than
3

34 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP
the prophecy concerning the Babylonian invasion and
its consequences, which is preserved in chap, xxv., and
dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim.
Considering the unsatisfactory state of the text of
Jeremiah, it is perhaps admissible to suppose, for the
sake of this hypothesis, that the second verse of
chap, xxv., which expressly declares that this prophecy
was spoken by its author " to all the people of Judah,
and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem," is "a loose
inaccurate statement due to a later editor;" although
this inconvenient statement is found in the Greek of
the LXX. as well as in the Massoretic Hebrew text.
But let us examine the alleged objections in the light
of the positive statements of chap, xxxvi. It is there
written thus : " In the fourth year of Jehoiakim ben
Josiah king of Judah, this word fell to Jeremiah from
lahvah. Take thee a book-roll, and write on it all
the words that I have spoken unto thee, ' concerning
Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day
when I (first) spake unto thee, — from the days of
Josiah, — unto this day." This certainly seems plain
enough. The only possible question is whether the
command was to collect within the compass of a single
volume, a sort of author's edition, an indefinite number
of discourses preserved hitherto in separate MSS. and
perhaps to a great extent in the prophet's memory ; or
whether we are to understand by "all the words" the
substance of the various prophecies to which reference
is made. If the object was merely to impress the
people on a particular occasion by placing before them
a sort of historical review of the prophet's warnings
in the past, it is evident that a formal edition of his
utterances, so far as he was able to prepare such a
work, would not be the most natural or ready method

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. $$
of attaining that purpose. Such a review for practical
purposes might well be comprised within the limits of
a single continuous composition, such as we find in
chap, xxv., which opens with a brief retrospect of the
prophet's ministry during twenty-three years (vers. 3-7),
and then denounces the neglect with which his warn
ings have been received, and declares the approaching
subjugation of all the states of Phenicia-Palestine by
the king of Babylon. But the narrative itself gives
not a single hint that such was the sole object in view.
Much rather does it appear from the entire context that,
the crisis having at length arrived, which Jeremiah had
so long foreseen, he was now impelled to gather to
gether, with a view to their preservation, all those
discourses by which he had laboured in vain to over
come the indifference, the callousness, and the bitter
antagonism of his people. These utterances of the
past, collected and revised in the light of successive
events, and illustrated by their substantial agreement
with what had actually taken place, and especially by
the new danger which seemed to threaten the whole
West, the rising power of Babylon, might certainly be
expected to produce a powerful impression by their
coincidence with the national apprehensions ; and the
prophet might even hope that warnings, hitherto dis
regarded, but now visibly justified by events in course
of development, would at last bring "the house of
Judah" to consider seriously the evil that, in God's
Providence, was evidently impending, and "return
every man from his evil way," that even so late the
consequences of their guilt might be turned aside.
This doubtless was the immediate aim, but it does not
exclude others, such as the vindication of the prophet's
own claims, in startling contrast with those of the

3« PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP
false prophets, who had opposed him at every step,
and misled his countrymen so grievously and fatally.
Against these and their delusive promises, the volume
of Jeremiah's past discourses would constitute an
effective protest, and a complete justification of his own
endeavours. We must also remember that, if the
repentance and salvation of his own contemporaries
was naturally the first object of the prophet in all his
undertakings, in the Divine counsels prophecy has
more than a temporary value, and that the writings of
this very prophet were destined to become instrumental
in the conversion of a succeeding generation.
Those twenty-three years of patient thought and
earnest labour, of high converse with God, and of
agonised pleading with a reprobate people, were not to
be without their fruit, though the prophet himself was
not to see it. It is matter of history that the words of
Jeremiah wrought with such power upon the hearts
of the exiles in Babylonia, as to become, in the
hands of God, a principal means in the regeneration
of Israel, and of that restoration which was its
promised and its actual consequence ; and from that
day to this, not one of all the goodly fellowship of the
prophets has enjoyed such credit in the Jewish Church
as he who in his lifetime had to encounter neglect and
ridicule, hatred and persecution, beyond what is re
corded of any other.
" So Jeremiah called Baruch ben Neriah ; and
Baruch wrote, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the
words of lahvah, that He had spoken unto him,
upon a book-roll" (ver. 4). Nothing is said about
time; and there is nothing to indicate that what the
scribe wrote at the prophet's dictation was a single
brief discourse. The work probably occupied a not

THE LIFE AND TIMES OP JEREMIAH. 37
inconsiderable time, as may be inferred from the datum
of the ninth verse (vid. infr.). Jeremiah would know
that haste was incompatible with literary finish; he
would probably feel that it was equally incompatible
with the proper execution of what he had recognised as
a Divine command. The prophet hardly had all his
past utterances lying before him in the form of finished
compositions. "And Jeremiah commanded Baruch,
saying: I am detained (or confined) ; I cannot enter the
house of lahvah ; so enter thou, and read in the roll,
that thou wrotest from my mouth, the words of lahvah,
in the ears of the people, in the house of lahvah, upon
a day of fasting : and also in the ears of all Judah (the
Jews), that come in (to the temple) from their (several)
cities, thou shalt read them. Perchance their suppli
cation will fall before lahvah, and they will return,
every one from his evil way; for great is the anger
and the hot displeasure that lahvah hath spoken
(threatened) unto this people. And Baruch ben Neriah
did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet com
manded him, reading in the book the words of lahvah
in Iahvah's house." This last sentence might be
regarded as a general statement, anticipative of the
detailed account that follows, as is often the case in
Old Testament narratives. But I doubt the application
of this well-known exegetical device in the present
instance. The verse is more likely an interpolation ;
unless we suppose that it refers to divers readings of
which no particulars are given, but which preceded the
memorable one described in the following verses. The
injunction, "And also in the ears of all Judah that
come out of their cities thou shalt read them I " might
imply successive readings, as the people flocked into
Jerusalem from time to time. But the grand occasion,

3»

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

if not the only one, was without doubt that which
stands recorded in the text " And it came to pass in
ihe fifth year of Jehoiakim ben Josiah king of Judah,
in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast before
lahvah, — all the people in Jerusalem and all the
people that were come out of the cities of Judah into
Jerusalem. And Baruch read in the book the words
of Jeremiah, in the house of lahvah, in the cell of
Gemariah ben Shaphan the scribe, in the upper (inner)
court, at the entry of the new gate of Iahvah's house,
in the ears of all the people." The dates have an
important bearing upon the points we are considering.
It was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim that the prophet
was bidden to commit his oracles to writing. If, then,
the task was not accomplished before the ninth month
of ihe fifth year, it is plain that it involved a good deal
more than penning such a discourse as the twenty-
fifth chapter. This datum, in fact, strongly favours
the supposition that it was a record of his principal
utterances hitherto, that Jeremiah thus undertook and
accomplished. It is not at all necessary to assume
that on this or any other occasion Baruch read the
entire contents of the roll to his audience in the temple.
We are told that he " read in the book the words of
Jeremiah," that is, no doubt, some portion of the whole.
And so, in the famous scene before the king, it is not
said that the entire work was read, but the contrary is
expressly related (ver. 23) : " And when Jehudi had
read three columns or four, he (the king) began to cut
it with the scribe's knife, and to cast it into the fire."
Three or four columns of an ordinary roll might have
contained the whole of the twenty-fifth chapter ; and it
must have been an unusually diminutive document, if
the first three or four columns of it contained no more

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 39
than the seven verses of chap. xxv. (3-6), which
declare the sin of Judah, and announce the coming
of the king of Babylon. And, apart from these
objections, there is no ground for the presumption that
"the purport of the roll which the king burnt was
[only] that the king of Babylon should 'come and
destroy this land.'" As the learned critic, from whom I
have quoted these words, further remarks, jvith perfect
truth, "Jeremiah had uttered many other important
declarations in the course of his already long ministry."
That, I grant, is true ; but then there is absolutely
nothing to prove that this roll did not contain them all.
Chap, xxxvi. 29, cited by the objector, is certainly not
such proof. That verse simply gives the angry exclama
tion with which the king interrupted the reading of the
roll, "Why hast thou written upon it, The king of
Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land, and
cause to cease from it man and beast ? "
This may have been no more than Jehoiakim's very
natural inference from some one of the many allusions
to the enemy "from the north," which occur in the
earlier part of the book of Jeremiah. At all events, it
is evident that, whether the king of Babylon was
directly mentioned or not in the portion of the roll
read in his presence, the verse in question assigns, not
the sole import of the entire work, but only the par
ticular point in it, which, at the existing crisis, especially
roused the indignation of Jehoiakim. The 25 th chapter
may of course have been contained in the roll read
before the king.
And this may suffice to show how precarious are the
assertions of the learned critic in the Encyclop. Brit,
upon the subject of Jeremiah's roll. The plain truth
seems to be that, perceiving the imminence of the peril

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

that threatened his country, the prophet was impressed
with the conviction that now was the time to commit
his past utterances to writing; and that towards the
end of the year, after he had formed and carried out
this project, he found occasion to have his discourses
read in the temple, to the crowds of rural folk who sought
refuge in Jerusalem, before the advance of Nebuchadrez
zar. So Josephus understood the matter (Ant., x. 6, 2).
On the approach of the Babylonians, Jehoiakim made
his submission; but only to rebel again, after three
years of tribute and vassalage (2 Kings xxiv. l).
Drought and failure of the crops aggravated the political
troubles of the country; evils in which Jeremiah was
not slow to discern the hand of an offended and alienated ¦
God. " How long," he asks (xii. 4), " shall the country .
mourn, and the herbage of the whole field wither?'
From the wickedness of them that dwell therein the
beasts and the birds perish." And in chap. xiv. we have
a highly poetical description of the sufferings of the time.
"Judah mourneth, and her gates languish;
They sit in black on the ground ;
And the outcry of Jerusalem hath gone up.
And their nobles, they sent their menial folk for water)
They came to the pits, they found no water ;
They returned with their vessels empty ;
They were ashamed and confounded and covered their head.
On account of ye ground that is chapt,
For rain hath not fallen in the land,
The plowmen are ashamed — they cover their head*
For even the hind in the field —
She calveth and forsaketh her young ;
For there is no grass.
And the wild asses, they stand on the scaurs |
They snuff the wind ' like jackals ;
Their eyes fail, for there is no herbage."

1 is. To scent food afar off, like beasts of prey. There was no
occasion to alter AV

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF /ERE MIAH. 41
And then, after this graphic and almost dramatic
portrayal of the sufferings of man and beast, in the
blinding glare of the towns, and in the hot waterless
plains, and on the bare hills, under that burning sky,
whose cloudless splendours seemed to mock their misery,
the prophet prays to the God of Israel.
" If our misdeeds answer against us,
O lahvah, work for Thy name sake I
Verily, our fallings away are many;
Towards thee we are in fault.
Hope of Israel, that savest him in time of trouble I
Why shouldst thou be as a sojourner in the land,
And as a traveller, that turneth aside to pass the night t
' Why shouldst thou be as a man stricken dumb.
As a champion that cannot save ?
Yet Thou art iu our midst, O lahvah,
And Thy name is called over us :
Leave us not 1 "
And again, at the end of the chapter,
" Hast Thou wholly rejected Judah ?
Hath Thy soul loathed Zion ?
Why hast Thou smitten us,
That there is no healing for us ?
We looked for welfare, but bootlessly,
For a time of healing, and behold terror!
We know, lahvah, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers!
Verily, we are in fault toward Thee 1
Be not scornful, for Thy name's sake 1
Dishonour not Thy glorious throne ! [i.e. Jerusalem.]
Remember, break not Thy covenant with us I
Among the Vanities of the nations are there indeed raingiven f
Or the heavens, can they yield showers ?
Art not Thou He (that doeth this), lahvah our God)
And we wait for Thee,
For 'tis Thou that madest all this world."
In these and the like pathetic outpourings, which
meet us in the later portions of the Old Testament, we

4a PRELIMINARY SKETCH rOF
may observe the gradual development of the dialect of
stated prayer ; the beginnings and the growth of that
beantiful and appropriate liturgical language in which
both the synagogue and the church afterwards found
so perfect an instrument for the expression of all
the harmonies of worship. Prayer, both public and
private, was destined to assume an increasing import
ance, and, after the destruction of temple and altar,
and the forcible removal of the people to a heathen
land, to become the principal means of communion with
God. The evils of drought and dearth appear to have been
accompanied by inroads of foreign enemies, who took
advantage of the existing distress to rob and plunder at
will. This serious aggravation of the national troubles
is recorded in chap. xii. 7-17. There it is said, in the
name of God, " I have left My house, I have cast off My
heritage ; I have given the Darling of My soul into the
hands of her enemies." The reason is Judah's fierce
hostility to her Divine Master : " Like a lion in the
forest she hath uttered a cry against Me." The result
of this unnatural rebellion is seen in the ravages of
lawless invaders, probably nomads of the desert, always
watching their opportunity, and greedy of the wealth,
while disdainful of the pursuits of their civilisea
neighbours. It is as if all the wild beasts, that roam
at large in the open country, had concerted a united
attack upon the devoted land; as if many shepherds
with their innumerable flocks had eaten bare and
trodden down the vineyard of the Lord. " Over all
the bald crags in the wilderness freebooters (Obad. 5)
are come ; for a sword of Iahweh's is devouring :
from land's end to land's end no flesh hath security"
(ymr. 12). The rapacious and heathenish hordes of

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 43
the desert, mere human wolves intent on ravage and
slaughter, are a sword of the Lord's, for the chastise
ment of His people ; just as the king of Babylon is His
" servant " for the same purpose.
Only ten verses of the book of Kings are occupied
with the reign of Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiii. 34- xxiv. 6) ;
and when we compare that flying sketch with the
allusions in Jeremiah, we cannot but keenly regret
the loss of that " Book of the chronicles of the kings of
Judah," to which the compiler of Kings refers as his
authority. Had that work survived, many things in the
prophets, which are now obscure and baffling, would
have been clear and obvious. As it is, we are often
obliged to be contented with surmises and probabilities,
where certainty would be right welcome. In the present
instance, the facts alluded to by the prophet appear to
be included in the statement that the Lord sent against
Jehoiakim bands of Chaldeans, and bands of Arameans,
and bands of Moabites, and bands of bene Ammon.
The Hebrew term implies marauding or predatory
bands, rather than regular armies, and it need not be
supposed that they all fell upon the country at th«*
same time or in accordance with any preconcerted
scheme. In the midst of these troubles, Jehoiakim
died in the flower of his age, having reigned no more
than eleven years, and being only thirty-six years old
(2 Kings xxiii. 36). The prophet thus alludes to his
untimely end. " Like the partridge that sitteth on eggs
that she hath not laid, so is he that maketh riches, and
not by right : in the midst of his days they leave him ,
and in his last end he proveth a fool " (xvii. 1 1). We
have already considered the detailed condemnation of
this evil king in the 22nd chapter. The prophet
Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah, seems to

44 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

have had Jehoiakim in his mind's eye, when denouncing
(ii. 9) woe to one that " getteth an evil gain for his
house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may
escape from the hand of evil I " The allusion is to the
forced labour on his new palace, and on the defences
of Jerusalem, as well as to the fines and presents of
money, which this oppressive ruler shamelessly ex
torted from his unhappy subjects. "The stone out
of the wall," says the prophet, "crieth out; and the
beam out of the woodwork answereth it."
The premature death of the tyrant removed a serious
obstacle from the path of Jeremiah. No longer forced
to exercise a wary vigilance in avoiding the vengeance
of a king whose passions determined his conduct, the
prophet could now devote himself heart and soul to the
work of his office. The public danger, imminent from
the north, and the way to avert it, is the subject of the
discourses of this period of his ministry. His unquench
able faith appears in the beautiful prayer appended to
his reflexions upon the death of Jehoiakim (xvii. 12 sqq.).
We cannot mistake the tone of quiet exultation, with
which he expresses his sense of the absolute righteous
ness of the catastrophe. " A throne of glory, a height
higher than the first (?), (or, higher than any before)
is the place of our sanctuary." Never before in the
prophet's experience has the God of Israel so clearly
vindicated that justice which is the inalienable attribute
of His dread tribunal.
For himself, the immediate result of this renewal
of an activity that had been more or less suspended,
was persecution and even violence. The earnestness
with which he besought the people to honestly keep
the law of the Sabbath, an obligation which was recog
nised in theory though disregarded in practice ; and

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 4S
his striking illustration of the true relations between
lahvah and Israel as parallel to those that hold between
the potter and the clay (chap. xvii. 19 sqq.), only
brought down upon him the fierce hostility and
organised opposition of the false prophets, and the
priests, and the credulous and self-willed populace,
as we read in chap, xviii. 18 sqq. "And they said,
Come, and let us contrive plots against Jeremiah. . . .
Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let
us not listen to any of his words. Should evil be
repaid for good, that they have digged a pit for my
Ufe ? " And after his solemn testimony before the
elders in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and before the
people generally, in the court of the Lord's house (chap.
xix.), the prophet was seized by order of Pashchur,
the commandant of the temple, who was himself a
leading false prophet, and cruelly beaten, and set in
the stocks for a day and a night. That the spirit of
the prophet was not broken by this shameful treatment,
is evident from the courage with which he confronted
his oppressor on the morrow, and foretold his certain
punishment. But the apparent failure of his mission,
the hopelessness of his life's labour, indicated by the
deepening hostility of the people, and the readiness
to proceed to extremities against him thus evinced by
their leaders, wrung from Jeremiah that bitter cry of
despair, which has proved such a stumbling-block to
some of his modern apologists.
Soon the prophet's fears were realised, and the
Divine counsel, of which he alone had been cognisant,
was fulfilled. Within three short months of his acces
sion to the throne, the boy-king Jeconiah (or Jehoiachin
or Coniah), with the queen-mother, the grandees of the
court, and the pick of the population of the capital, was

46 PRELIMINARY SKETCH 9F
carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadrezzar (2 Kings
xxiv. 8 sqq. ; Jer. xxiv. 1).
Jeremiah has appended his forecast of the fate of
Jeconiah, and a brief notice of its fulfilment, to his
denunciations of that king's predecessors (xxii. 24 sqq.).
"As I live, saith lahvah, verily, though Coniah ben
Jehoiakim king of Judah be a signet ring upon My
own right hand, verily thence will I pluck thee away 1
And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek
thy life, and into the hand of those of whom thou art
afraid ; and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of
Babel, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will
cast thee forth, and thy mother that bare thee, into the
foreign land, wherein ye were not born ; and there
ye shall die. But unto the land whither they long
to return, thither shall they not return. Is this man
Coniah a despised broken vase, or a vessel devoid of
charm ? Why were he and his offspring cast forth,
and hurled into the land that they knew not ? O land,
land, land, hear thou the word of lahvah. Thus
hath lahvah said, Write ye down this man childless, a
person that shall not prosper in his days : for none of
his offspring shall prosper, sitting on the throne of
David, and ruling again in Judah."
No better success attended the prophet's ministry
under the new king Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadrezzar
had placed on the throne as his vassal and tributary.
So far as we can judge from the accounts left us,
Zedekiah was a wellmeaning but unstable character,
whose weakness and irresolution were too often played
upon by unscrupulous and scheming courtiers, to the
fatal miscarriage of right and justice. Soon the old
intrigues began again, and in the fourth year of the
new reign (xxviii. 1) envoys from the neighbour-states

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 47
arrived at the Jewish court, with the object of drawing
Judah into a coalition against the common suzerain,
the king of Babylon. This suicidal policy of combina
tion with heathenish and treacherous allies, most of
whom were the heirs of immemorial feuds with Judah,
against a sovereign who was at once the most powerful
and the most enlightened of his time, called forth the
prophet's immediate and strenuous opposition. Boldly
affirming that lahvah had conferred universal dominion
upon Nebuchadrezzar, and that consequently all
resistance was futile, he warned Zedekiah himself to
bow his neck to the yoke, and dismiss all thought of
rebellion. It would seem that about this time (circ.
596 B.c.) the empire of Babylon was passing through
a serious crisis, which the subject peoples of the West
hoped and expected would result in its speedy dissolu
tion. Nebuchadrezzar was, in fact, engaged in a life-
and-death struggle with the Medes ; and the knowledge
that the Great King was thus fully occupied elsewhere,
encouraged the petty princes of Phenicia-Palestine in
their projects of revolt. If chaps. 1., li., are genuine,
it was at this juncture that Jeremiah foretold the fall
of Babylon ; for, at the close of the prophecy in ques
tion (li. 59), it is said that he gave a copy of it to one
of the princes who accompanied Zedekiah to Babylon
in the fourth year of his reign, i.e. in 596 B.C. But
the style and thought of these two chapters, and the
general posture of things which they presuppose, are
decisive against the view that they belong to Jeremiah.
At all events the prophet gave the clearest evidence that
he did not himself share in the general delusion that the
fall of Babylon was near at hand. He declared that
all the nations must be content to serve Nebuchadrezzar,
and his son, and his son's son (xxvii. j); and as

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP

chap. xxix. shows, he did his best to counteract the
evil influence of those fanatical visionaries, who were
ever promising a speedy restoration to the exiles who
had been deported to Babylon with Jeconiah. At last,
however, in spite of all Jeremiah's warnings and en
treaties, the vacillating king Zedekiah, was persuaded
to rebel ; and the natural consequence followed — the
Chaldeans appeared before Jerusalem. King and
people had refused salvation, and were now no more
to be saved.
During the siege, the prophet was more than once
anxiously consulted by the king as to the issue of
the crisis. Although kept in ward by Zedekiah's
orders, lest he should weaken the defence by his dis
couraging addresses, Jeremiah showed that he was far
above the feeling of private ill-will, by the answers he
returned to his sovereign's inquiries. It is true that
he did not at all modify the burden of his message ; to
the king as to the people he steadily counselled sur
render. But strongly as he denounced further resist
ance, he did not predict the king's death ; and the tone
of his prophecy concerning Zedekiah is in striking
contrast with that concerning his predecessor Jehoiakim.
It was in the tenth year of Zedekiah and the eighteenth
of Nebuchadrezzar, that is to say, circ. 589 b.c, when
Jeremiah was imprisoned in the court of the royal
guard, within the precincts of the palace (xxxii. I sqq.) ;
when the siege of Jerusalem was being pressed on with
vigour, and when of all the strong cities of Judah, only
two, Lachish and Azekah, were still holding out against
the Chaldean blockade ; that the prophet thus addressed
the king (xxxiv. 2 sqq.) : "Thus hath lahvah said,
Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of
the king of Babel, and he shall burn it with fire. And

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 49
thou wilt not escape out of his hand; for thou wilt
certainly be taken, and into his hand thou wilt be
given. And thine eyes shall see the king of Babel's
eyes, and his mouth shall speak with thy mouth, and
to Babel wilt thou come. But hear thou Iahvah's
word, O Zedekiah king of Judah ! Thus hath lahvah
said upon thee, Thou wilt not die by the sword. In
peace wilt thou die ; and with the burnings of thy
fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so will
men burn (spicery) for thee, and with Ah, Lord 1 will
they wail for thee ; for a promise have / given, saith
lahvah." Zedekiah was to be exempted from the
violent death, which then seemed so probable ; and
was to enjoy the funeral honours of a king, unlike his
less worthy brother Jehoiakim, whose body was cast
out to decay unburied like that of a beast. The failure
of Jeremiah's earnest and consistent endeavours to
bring about the submission of his people to what he
foresaw to be their inevitable destiny, is explained by
the popular confidence in the defences of Jerusalem,
which were enormously strong for the time, and were
considered impregnable (xxi. 13) ; and by the hopes
entertained that Egypt, with whom negotiations had
long been in progress, would raise the siege ere it was
too late. The low state of public morals is vividly
illustrated by an incident which the prophet has
recorded (chap, xxxiv. 7 sqq.). In the terror inspired
by the approach of the Chaldeans, the panic-stricken
populace of the capital bethought them of that law of
tiieir God, which they had so long set at nought ; and
the king and his princes and the entire people bound
themselves by a solemn covenant in the temple, to
release all slaves of Israelitish birth, who had served
six years and upwards, according to the lawt The
4

So PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF

enfranchisement was accomplished with all the sanctions
of law and of religion ; but no sooner had the Chaldeans
retired from before Jerusalem in order to meet the
advancing army of Egypt, than the solemn covenant
was cynically and shamelessly violated, and the un
happy freedmen were recalled to their bondage. After
this, further warning was evidently out of place ; and
nothing was left for Jeremiah but to denounce the
outrage upon the majesty of heaven, and to declare the
speedy return of the besiegers, and the desolation of
Jerusalem. His own liberty had not yet been restricted
(xxxvii. 4) when these events happened ; but a pretext
was soon found for venting upon him the malice of his
enemies. After assuring the king that the respite was
not to be permanent, but that Pharaoh's army would
return to Egypt without accomplishing any deliverance,
and that the Chaldeans would " come again, and fight
against the city, and take it, and burn it with fire"
(xxxvii. 8), Jeremiah availed himself of the temporary
absence of the besieging forces, to attempt to leave his
City of Destruction ; but he was arrested in the gate by
which he was going out, and brought before the princes
on a charge of attempted desertion to the enemy.
Ridiculous as was this accusation, when thus levelled
against one whose whole life was conspicuous for
sufferings entailed by a lofty and unflinching patriotism
and a devotion, at the time almost unique, to the sacred
cause of religion and morality ; it was at once received
and acted upon. Jeremiah was beaten and thrown
into a dungeon, where he languished for a long time
in subterranean darkness and misery, until the king
desired to consult him again. This was the saving of
the prophet's life; for after once more declaring his
unalterable message, Wl^a ^9 _"V£, "Into the king

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 51
of Babel's hind thou wilt be given I " he made indig
nant protest against his cruel wrongs, and obtained
from Zedekiah some mitigation of his sentence. He
was not sent back to the loathsome den under the
house of Jonathan the scribe, in whose dark recesses
he had well nigh perished (xxxvii. 20), but was detained
in the court of the guard, receiving a daily dole of
bread for his maintenance. Here he appears to have
still used such opportunity as he had, in dissuading the
people from continuing the defence. At all events,
four of the princes induced the king to deliver him into
their power, on the ground that he "weakened the
hands of the men of war," and sought not the welfare
but the hurt of the nation (xxxviii. 4). Unwilling for
some reason or other, probably a superstitious one, to
imbrue their hands in the prophet's blood, they let him
down with cords into a miry cistern (-fa) in the court of
the guard, and left him there to die of cold and hunger.
Timely help sanctioned by the king rescued Jeremiah
from this horrible fate ; but not before he had under
gone sufferings of the severest character, as may easily
be understood from his own simple narrative, and from
the indelible impression wrought upon others by the
record of his sufferings, which led the poet of the
Lamentations to refer to this time of deadly peril,
and torture both mental and physical, in the following
terms: "They chased me sore like a bird,
They that were my foes without a cause.
They silenced my life in the pit,
And they cast a stone upon me.
Waters overflowed mine head J
Methought, I am cut off.
I called Thy name, lahvah,
Out of the deepest pit.
My voice Thou heardest (saying\

PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF

* Hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Thou drewest near when I called Thee ;
Thou saidst, ' Fear not ' I
Thou pleadedst, O Lord, my souls pleadings;
Thou ransomedst my life."
After this signal escape, Jeremiah's counsel was
once more sought by the king, in a secret interview,
which was jealously concealed from the princes. But
neither entreaties, nor assurances of safety, could per
suade Zedekiah to surrender the city. Nothing was
now left for the prophet, but to await, in his milder
captivity, the long foreseen catastrophe. The form
now taken by his solitary musings was not anxious
speculation upon the question whether any possible
resources were as yet unexhausted, whether by any
yet untried means king and people might be convinced,
and the end averted. Taking that end for granted,
he looks forth beyond his own captivity, beyond the
scenes of famine and pestilence and bloodshed that
surround him, beyond the strife of factions within the
city, and the lines of the besiegers without it, to a
fair prospect of happy restoration and smiling peace,
reserved for his ruined country in the far-off yet ever-
approaching future (xxxii., xxxiii.).
Strong in this inspired confidence, like the Roman
who purchased at its full market value the ground on
which the army of Hannibal lay encamped, he did not
hesitate to buy, with all due formalities of transfer, a
field in his native place, at this supreme moment, when
the whole country was wasted with fire and sword, and
the artillery of the foe was thundering at the walls of
Jerusalem. And the event proved that he was right
He believed in the depth of his heart that God had not
finally cast off His people. He believed that nothing,
not even human error and revolt, could thwart and

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 53
turn aside the Eternal purposes. He was sure — it was
demonstrated to him by the experience of an eventful
life — that, amid all the vicissitudes of men and things,
one thing stands immutable, and that is the will of
God. He was sure that Abraham's family had not
become a nation, merely in order to be blotted out of
existence by a conqueror who knew not lahvah; that
the torch of a true religion, a spiritual faith, had not
been handed on from prophet to prophet, burning in its
onward course with an ever clearer and intenser flame,
merely to be swallowed up before its final glory was
attained, in utter and eternal darkness. The covenant
with Israel would no more be broken than the covenant
of day and night (xxxiii. 20). The laws of the natural
world are not more stable and secure than those of the
spiritual realm; for both have their reason and their
ground of prevalence in the Will of the One Unchange
able Lord of all. And as the prophet had been right in
his forecast of the destruction of his country, so did he
prove to have been right in his joyful anticipation of
the future renascence of all the best elements in Israel's
life. The coming time fulfilled his word ; a fact which
must always remain unaccountable to all but those who
believe as Jeremiah believed.
After the fall of the city, special care was taken to
ensure the safety of Jeremiah, in accordance with the
express orders of Nebuchadrezzar, who had become
cognisant of the prophet's consistent advocacy of
surrender, probably from the exiles previously deported
to Babylonia, with whom Jeremiah had maintained
communications, advising them to settle down peace
ably, accepting Babylon as their country for the time
being, and praying for its welfare and that of its rulers.
Nebuzaradan, the commander-in-chief, further allowed

54 PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF
the prophet his choice between following him to
Babylon, or remaining with the wreck of the population
in the ruined country. Patriotism, which in his case
was identified with a burning zeal for the moral and
spiritual welfare of his fellow-countrymen, prevailed
over regard for his own worldly interests ; and Jeremiah
chose to remain with the survivors — disastrously for
himself, as the event proved (xxxix. 1 1, xl. i).
An old man, worn out with strife and struggle, and
weighed down by disappointment and the sense of
failure, he might well have decided to avail himself
of the favour extended to him by the conqueror, and
to secure a peaceful end for a life of storm and conflict
But the calamities of his country had not quenched his
prophetic ardour; the sacred fire still burnt within
his aged spirit ; and once more he sacrificed himself
to the work he felt called upon to do, only to experience
again the futility of offering wise counsel to head
strong, proud, and fanatical natures. Against his
earnest protestations, he was forced to accompany the
remnant of his people in their hasty flight into Egypt
(xiii.) ; and, in the last glimpse afforded us, we see
him there among his fellow-exiles making a final, and
alas ! ineffectual protest against their stubborn idolatry
(xliv.). A tradition mentioned by TertuUian and
St. Jerome which may be of earlier and Jewish ori
gin, states that these apostates in their wicked rage
against the prophet stoned him to death (cf. Heb.
xi. 37).
The last chapter of his book brings the course of
events down to about 561 B.c The fact has naturally
suggested a conjecture that the same year witnessed
the close of the prophet's life. In that case, Jeremiah
must have attained to an age of somewhere about

THB LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 5*
ninety years ; which, taking all the circumstances into
consideration, is hardly credible. A celibate life is
said to be unfavourable to longevity ; but however that
may be, the other conditions in this instance make it
extremely unlikely. Jeremiah's career was a vexed
and stormy one ; it was his fate to be divided from his
kindred and his fellow-countrymen by the widest and
deepest differences of belief; like St. Athanasius, he
was called upon to maintain the cause of truth against
an opposing world. "Woe's me, my mother!" he
cries, in one of his characteristic fits of despondency,
which were the natural fruit of a passionate and almost
feminine nature, after a period of noble effort ending
in the shame of utter defeat; "Woe's me, that thou
gavest me birth, a man of strife, and a man of contention
to all the land 1 Neither lender nor borrower have I
been ; yet all are cursing me " (xv. 10). The persecu
tions he endured, the cruelties of his long imprisonment,
the horrors of the protracted siege, upon which he has
not dwelt at length, but which have stamped themselves
indelibly upon his language (xviii. 21, 22, xx. 16),
would certainly not tend to prolong his life. In the
71st Psalm, which seems to be from his pen, and
which wants the usual heading " A Psalm of David,"
he speaks of himself as conscious of failing powers,
and as having already reached the extreme limit of
age. Writing after his narrow escape from death in
the miry cistern of his prison, he prays
" Cast me not off in the time of old age ;
Forsake me not, when my strength failcth,"
And again, 'Yea, even when I am old and grey-headed,
O God forsake me not I "

5« PRELIMINARY SKETCH OP
And, referring to his signal deliverance,
"Thou that shewedst me many and sore troubles,
Thou makest me live again ;
And out of the deeps of the earth again Thou bringest me up.*
The allusion in the 90th Psalm, as well as the case
of BarziUai, who is described as extremely old and
decrepit at fourscore (2 Sam. xix. 33), proves that life
in ancient Palestine did not ordinarily transcend the
limits of seventy to eighty years. Still, after all that
may be urged to the contrary, Jeremiah may have been
an exception to his contemporaries in this, as in most
other respects. Indeed, his protracted labours and
sufferings seem almost to imply that he was endowed
with constitutional vigour and powers of endurance
above the average of men ; and if, as some suppose, he
wrote the book of Job in Egypt, to embody the fruits
of his life's experience and reflexion, as well as arranged
and edited his other writings, it is evident that he
must have sojourned among the exiles in that country
for a considerable time.
The tale is told. In meagre and broken outline I
have laid before you the known facts of a life which
must always possess permanent interest, not only for
the student of religious development, but for all men
who are stirred by human passion, and stimulated by
human thought And fully conscious as I am of failure
in the attempt to reanimate the dry bones of history,
to give form and colour and movement to the shadows
of the past; I shall not have spent my pains for nought,
if I have awakened in a single heart some spark of
living interest in the heroes of old ; some enthusiasm
for the martyrs of faith ; some secret yearning to cast
in their own lot with those who have fought the battle
of truth and righteousneas, and to share with the

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH. 57
saints departed in the victory that overcometh the
world. And even if in this also I have fallen short
of the mark, these desultory and imperfect sketches of
a good man's life and work will not have been wholly
barren of result, if they lead any one of my readers to
renewed study of that truly sacred text which pre
serves to all time the living utterances of this last
of the greater prophets.

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION.
IN the foregoing pages we have considered the
principal events in the life of the prophet Jeremiah,
by way of introduction to the more detailed study
of his writings. Preparation of this kind seemed to be
necessary, if we were to enter upon that study with
something more than the vaguest perception of the real
personality of the prophet. On the other hand, I hope
we shall not fail to find our mental image of the man,
and our conception of the times in which he lived, and
of the conditions under which he laboured as a servant
of God, corrected and perfected by that closer exami
nation of his works to which I now invite you. And
so we shall be better equipped for the attainment of
that which must be the ultimate object of all such
studies ; the deepening and strengthening of the life
of faith in ourselves, by which alone we can hope to
follow in the steps of the saints of old, and like them
to realise the great end of our being, the service of
the All-Perfect
I shall consider the various discourses in what
appears to be their natural order, so far as possible,
taking those chapters together which appear to be con
nected in occasion and subject Chap. i. evidently stands
apart, as a self-complete and independent whole. It

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 59
consists of a chronological superscription (w. 1-3),
assigning the temporal limits of the prophet's activity ;
and secondly, of an inaugural discourse, which sets
before us his first call, and the general scope of the
mission which he was chosen to fulfil. This discourse,
again, in like manner falls into two sections, of which
the former (vv. 4-10) relates how the prophet was ap
pointed and qualified by lahvah to be a spokesman for
Him; while the latter (w. II-19), under the form of
two visions, expresses the assurance that lahvah will
accomplish His word, and pictures the mode of fulfil
ment, closing with a renewed summons to enter upon
the work, and with a promise of effectual support
against all opposition.
It is plain that we have before us the author's intro
duction to the whole book ; and if we would gain an
adequate conception of the meaning of the prophet's
activity both for his own time and for ours, we must
weigh well the force of these prefatory words. The
career of a true prophet, or spokesman for God, un
doubtedly implies a special call or vocation to the office.
In this preface to the summarized account of his life's
work, Jeremiah represents that call as a single and
definite event in his life's history. Must we take this
in its literal sense ? We are not astonished by such
a statement as " the word of the Lord came unto me ; "
it may be understood in more senses than one, and
perhaps we are unconsciously prone to understand
it in what is called a natural sense. Perhaps we
think of a result of pious reflexion pondering the moral
state of the nation and the needs of the time : perhaps
of that inward voice which is nothing strange to any
soul that has attained to the rudiments of spiritual
development. But when we read such an assertion as

So THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
that of ver. 9, "Then the Lord put forth His hand,
and touched my mouth," we cannot but pause and ask
what it was that the writer meant to convey by words
so strange and startling. Thoughtful readers cannot
avoid the question whether such statements are con
sonant with what we otherwise know of the dealings of
God with man ; whether an outward and visible act of
the kind spoken of conforms with that whole concep
tion of the Divine Being, which is, so far as it reflects
reality, the outcome of His own contact with our human
spirits. The obvious answer is that such corporeal
actions are incompatible with all our experience and all
our reasoned conceptions of the Divine Essence, which
fills all things and controls all things, precisely because
it is not limited by a bodily organism, because its
actions are not dependent upon such imperfect and
restricted media as hands and feet. If, then, we are
bound to a literal sense, we can only understand that
the prophet saw a vision, in which a Divine hand
seemed to touch his lips, and a Divine voice to sound
in his ears. But are we bound to a literal sense ? It
is noteworthy that Jeremiah does not say that lahvah
Himself appeared to him. In this respect, he stands
in conspicuous contrast with his predecessor Isaiah,
who writes (vi. 1), " In the year that king Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up ; " and with his successor Ezekiel, who affirms
in his opening verse (i. 1) that on a certain definite
occasion " the heavens opened," and he saw " visions
of God." Nor does Jeremiah use that striking phrase
of the younger prophet's, "The hand of lahvah was
upon me," or " was strong upon me." But when he
says, "lahvah put forth His hand and touched my
mouth," he is evidently thinking of the seraph that

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION.

touched Isaiah's mouth with the live coal from the
heavenly altar (vi. 7). The words are identical (vm
iabv), and might be regarded as a quotation. It is true
that, supposing Jeremiah to be relating the experience
of a trance-like condition or ecstasy, we need not
assume any conscious imitation of his predecessor.
The sights and sounds which affect a man in such a
condition may be partly repetitions of former experi
ence, whether one's own or that of others; and in
part wholly new and strange. In a dream one might
imagine things happening to oneself, which one had
heard or read of in connexion with others. And
Jeremiah's writings generally prove his intimate ac
quaintance with those of Isaiah and the older prophets.
But as a trance or ecstasy is itself an involuntary state,
so the thoughts and feelings of the subject of it must
be independent of the individual will, and as it were
imposed from without. Is then the prophet describing
the experience of such an abnormal state — a state like
that of St. Peter in his momentous vision on the house
top at Joppa, or like that of St. Paul when he was
"caught up to the third heaven," and saw many
wonderful things which he durst not reveal ? The
question has been answered in the negative on two
principal grounds. It is said that the vision of vv. 11,
12, derives its significance not from the visible thing
itself, but from the name of it, which is, of course, not
an object of sight at all ; and consequently, the so-
called vision is really "a well-devised and ingenious
product of cool reflexion." But is this so ? We may
translate the original passage thus : And there fell a
word of lahvah unto me, saying, What seest thou,
Jeremiah ? And I said, A rod of a wake-tree (i.e. an
almond) is what I see. And lahvah said unto me, Thou

6a THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
hast well seen; for wakeful am I over My word, to
do it. Doubtless there is here one of those plays
on words which are so well known a feature of the
prophetic style; but to admit this is by no means
tantamount to an admission that the vision derives its
force and meaning from the " invisible name " rather
than from the visible thing. Surely it is plain that the
significance of the vision depends on the fact which the
name implies ; a fact which would be at once suggested
by the sight of the tree. It is the well known charac
teristic of the almond tree that it wakes, as it were,
from the long sleep of winter before all other trees, and
displays its beautiful garland of blossom, while its com
panions remain leafless and apparently lifeless. This
quality of early wakefulness is expressed by the Hebrew
name of the almond tree ; for shaqed means waking or
wakeful. If this tree, in virtue of its remarkable pecu
liarity, was a proverb of watching and waking, the
sight of it, or of a branch of it, in a prophetic vision
would be sufficient to suggest that idea, independently
of the name. The allusion to the name, therefore, is
only a literary device for expressing with inimitable
force and neatness the significance of the visible symbol
of the " rod of the almond tree," as it was intuitively
apprehended by the prophet in his vision.
Another and more radical ground is discovered in
the substance of the Divine communication. It is said
that the anticipatory statement of the contents and
purpose of the subsequent prophesyings of the seer
(ver. 10), the announcement beforehand of his fortunes
(vv. 8, 1 8, 19), and the warning addressed to the pro
phet personally (ver. 17), are only conceivable as results
of a process of abstraction from real experience, as
prophecies conformed to the event (ex eventu). "The

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 63
call of the prophet," says the writer whose arguments
we are examining, "was the moment when, battling
down the doubts and scruples of the natural man
(w. 7, 8), and full of holy courage, he took the reso
lution (ver. 17) to proclaim God's word. Certainly he
was animated by the hope of Divine assistance (ver. 18),
the promise of which he heard inwardly in the heart.
More than this cannot be affirmed. But in this chapter
(w. 17, 18), the measure and direction of the Divine
help are already clear to the writer ; he is aware that
opposition awaits him (ver. 19) ; he knows the content
of his prophecies (ver. 10). Such knowledge was only
possible for him in the middle or at the end of his
career ; and therefore the composition of this opening
chapter must be referred to such a later period. As,
however, the final catastrophe, after which his language
would have taken a wholly different complexion, is
still hidden from him here ; and as the only edition of
his prophecies prepared by himself, that we know of,
belongs to the fourth year of Jehoiakim (xxxvi. 45);
the section is best referred to that very time, when the
posture of affairs promised well for the fulfilment of
the threatenings of many years (cf. xxv. 9 with
vv. 15, 10; xxv. 13 with vv. 12-17 » xxv- ^ with ver. 16.
And ver. 18 is virtually repeated, chap. xv. 20, which
belongs to the same period)."
The first part of this is an obvious inference from
the narrative itself. The prophet's own statement
makes it abundantly clear that his conviction of a call
was accompanied by doubts and fears, which were
only silenced by that faith which moves mountains.
That lofty confidence in the purpose and strength of
the Unseen, which has enabled weak and trembling
humanity tJ endure martyrdom, might well be sufficient

64 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
to nerve a young man to undertake the task of preach
ing unpopular truths, even at the risk of frequent
persecution and occasional peril. But surely we need
not suppose that, when Jeremiah started on his pro
phetic career, he was as one who takes a leap in the
dark. Surely it is not necessary to suppose him pro
foundly ignorant of the subject-matter of prophecy in
general, of the kind of success he might look for, of
his own shrinking timidity and desponding tempera
ment, of " the measure and direction of the Divine
help." Had the son of Hilkiah been the first of the
prophets of Israel instead of one of the latest; had
there been no prophets before him ; we might recognise
some force in this criticism. As the facts lie, however,
we can hardly avoid an obvious answer. With the
experience of many notable predecessors before his
eyes; with the message of a Hosea, an Amos, a
Micah, an Isaiah, graven upon his heart ; with his
minute knowledge of their history, their struggles and
successes, the fierce antagonisms they roused, the cruel
persecutions they were called upon to face in the dis
charge of their Divine commission ; with his profound
sense that nothing but the good help of their God had
enabled them to endure the strain of a lifelong battle ;
it is not in the least wonderful that Jeremiah should
have foreseen the like experience for himself. The
wonder would have been, if, with such speaking ex
amples before him, he had not anticipated "the measure
and direction of the Divine help"; if he had been
, ignorant " that opposition awaited him " ; if he had not
already possessed a general knowledge of the "con
tents " of his own as of all prophecies. For there is
a substantial unity underlying all the manifold out
pourings of the prophetic spirit Indeed, it would

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 65
seem that it is to the diversity of personal gifts, to
differences of training and temperament, to the rich
variety of character and circumstance, rather than to
any essential contrasts in the substance and purport
of prophecy itself, that the absence of monotony, the
impress of individuality and originality is due, which
characterises the utterances of the principal prophets.
Apart from the unsatisfactory nature of the reasons
alleged, it is very probable that this opening chapter
was penned by Jeremiah as an introduction to the first
collection of his prophecies, which dates from the fourth
year of Jehoiakim, that is, circ. B.C. 606. In that case,
it must not be forgotten that the prophet is relating
events which, as he tells us himself (chap. xxv. 3), had
taken place three and twenty years ago ; and as his
description is probably drawn from memory, something
may be allowed for unconscious transformation of facts
in the light of after experience. Still, the peculiar
events that attended so marked a crisis in his life as
his first consciousness of a Divine call must, in any
case, have constituted, cannot but have left a deep and
abiding impress upon the prophet's memory ; and there
really seems to be no good reason for refusing to
believe that that initial experience took the form of a
twofold vision seen under conditions of trance or
ecstasy. At the same time, bearing in mind the Oriental
passion for metaphor and imagery, we are not perhaps
debarred from seeing in the whole chapter a figurative
description, or rather an attempt to describe through
the medium of figurative language, that which must
always ultimately transcend description — the com
munion of the Divine with the human spirit. Real,
most real of real facts, as that communion was and is,
it can never be directly communicated in words ; it can
5

66 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

only be hinted and suggested through the medium of
symbolic and metaphorical phraseology. Language
itself, being more than half material, breaks down in
the attempt to express things wholly spiritual.
I shall not stop to discuss the importance of the general
superscription or heading of the book, which is given
in the first three verses. But before passing on, I will
ask you to notice that, whereas the Hebrew text opens
with the phrase Dibri Yirmeydhu (WJPT. ^31.), " The
words of Jeremiah," the oldest translation we have,
viz. the Septuagint, reads : " The word of God which
came to Jeremiah " (to prj/ia tov ©eov b iyevero eirl
'Iepe/ilav). It is possible, therefore, that the old Greek
translator had a Hebrew text different from that which
has come down to us, and opening with the same
formula which we find at the beginning of the older
prophets Hosea, Joel, and Micah. In fact, Amos is
the only prophet, besides Jeremiah, whose book begins
with the phrase in question (didu «ul — Aoyoi A/*w?) ;
and although it is more appropriate there than here,
owing to the continuation "And he said," it looks
suspicious even there, when we compare Isaiah i. I,
and observe how much more suitable the term "vision"
(fltq) would be. It is likely that the LXX. has pre
served the original reading of Jeremiah, and that some
editor of the Hebrew text altered it because of the
apparent tautology with the opening of ver. 2 : "To
whom the word of the Lord (LXX. tov ©eov) came in the
days of Josiah."
Such changes were freely made by the scribes in
the days before the settlement of the O. T. canon;
changes which may occasion much perplexity to those,
if any there be, who hold by the unintelligent and
obsolete theory of verbal and even literal inspiration,

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 67
but none at all to such as recognise a Divine hand in
the facts of history,1 and are content to believe that
in holy books, as in holy men, there is a Divine treasure
in earthen vessels. The textual difference in question
may serve to call our attention to the peculiar way in
which the prophets identified their work with the
Divine will, and their words with the Divine thoughts ;
so that the words of an Amos or a Jeremiah were in
all good faith held and believed to be self-attesting
utterances of the Unseen God. The conviction which
wrought in them was, in fact, identical with that which
in after times moved St. Paul to affirm the high calling
and inalienable dignity of the Christian ministry in
those impressive words, " Let a man so account of us
as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mys
teries of God."
Vv. S_T°» which relate how the prophet became aware
that he was in future to receive revelations from above,
constitute in themselves an important revelation. Undei
Divine influence he becomes aware of a special mission.
Ere I began to form (mould, fashion, Ti\ as the potter
moulds the day) thee in the belly, I knew thee; and
ere thou begannest to come forth from the womb* I
had dedicated thee, not "regarded thee as holy,"
Isa. viii. 13 ; nor perhaps " declared thee holy," as Ges. ;
but "hallowed thee," i.e. dedicated thee to God, Judg.
xvii. 3 ; 1 Kings ix. 3 ; especially Lev. xxvii. 14 ; of
money and houses. The pi. of consecrating priests,
Ex. xxviii. 41 ; altar, Ex. xxix. 36, temple, mountain,
etc.) ; perhaps also, " consecrated thee " for the dis
charge of a sacred office. Even soldiers are called
1 Even in the history of the transmission of ancient writings.
• Isa. xliv. 24, 103D "py, xlix. 5, I1? 131& Jt?3D ny»

68 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

consecrated (Oty'jjJO Isa. xiii. 3), as ministers of the
Lord of Hosts, and probably as having been formally
devoted to His service at the outset of a campaign by
special solemnities of lustration and sacrifice; while
guests bidden to a sacrificial feast had to undergo a
preliminary form of consecration (1 Sam. xvi. 5 ; Zeph.
i. 7), to fit them for communion with Deity.
With the certainty of his own Divine calling, it
became clear to the prophet that the choice was not an
arbitrary caprice ; it was the execution of a Divine
purpose, conceived long, long before its realisation in
time and space. The God whose foreknowledge and
will directs the whole course of human history — whose
control of events and direction of human energies is
most signally evident in precisely those instances where
men and nations are most regardless of Him, and
imagine the vain thought that they are independent of
Him (Isa. xxii. II, xxxvii. 26) — this sovereign Being,
in the development of whose eternal purposes he him
self, and every son of man was necessarily a factor,
had from the first " known him," — known the individual
character and capacities which would constitute his fit
ness for the special work of his life ; — and " sanctified "
him ; devoted and consecrated him to the doing of it
when the time of his earthly manifestation should
arrive. Like others who have played a notable part
in the affairs of men, Jeremiah saw with clearest vision
that he was himself the embodiment in flesh and blood
of a Divine idea ; he knew himself to be a deliberately
planned and chosen instrument of the Divine activity.
It was this seeing himself as God saw him, which
constituted his difference from his fellows, who only
knew their individual appetites, pleasures and interests,
and were blinded, by their absorption in these, to the

TBE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 69
perception of any higher reality. It was the coming
to this knowledge of himself, of the meaning and
purpose of his individual unity of powers and aspira
tions in the great universe of being, of his true relation
to God and to man, which constituted the first reve
lation to Jeremiah, and which was the secret of his
personal greatness.
This knowledge, however, might have come to him
in vain. Moments of illumination are not always
accompanied by noble resolves and corresponding
actions. It does not follow that, because a man sees
his calling, he will at once renounce all, and pursue it.
Jeremiah would not have been human, had he not
hesitated a while, when, after the inward light, came
the voice, A spokesman, or Divine interpreter (N*a3),
to the nations appoint I thee. To have passing flashes
of spiritual insight and heavenly inspiration is one
thing; to undertake now, in the actual present, the
course of conduct which they unquestionably indicate
and involve, is quite another. And so, when the hour
of spiritual illumination has passed, the darkness may
and often does become deeper than before.
And I said, Alas ! O Lord lahvah, behold I know
not how to speak; for I am but a youth. The words
express that reluctance to begin which a sense of
unpreparedness, and misgivings about the unknown
future, naturally inspire. To take the first step
demands decision and confidence; but confidence and
decision do not come of contemplating oneself and one's
own unfitness or unpreparedness, but of steadfastly
fixing our regards upon God, who will qualify us for
all that He requires us to do. Jeremiah does not refuse
to obey His call ; the very words " My Lord lahvah "
— 'Adonai, Master, or my Master — imply a recognition

70 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
of the Divine right to his service ; he merely alleges
a natural objection. The cry, "Who is sufficient for
these things?" rises to his lips, when the light and
the glory are obscured for a moment, and the reaction
and despondency natural to human weakness ensue.
And lahvah said unto me, Say not, I am but a youth;
for unto all that I send thee unto, thou shalt go, and all
that I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of them ; for with thee am I to rescue thee, is the utter
ance of lahvah. " Unto all that I send thee unto " ;
for he was to be no local prophet ; his messages were
to be addressed to the surrounding peoples as well as
to Judah ; his outlook as a seer was to comprise the
entire political horizon (ver. IO, xxv. 9, 15, xlvi. sqq.).
Like Moses (Ex. iv. 10), Jeremiah objects that he is
no practised speaker; and this on account of youthful
inexperience. The answer is that his speaking will
depend not so much upon himself as upon God : " All
that I command thee, thou shalt speak." The allega
tion of his youth also covers a feeling of timidity,
which would naturally be excited at the thought of
encountering kings and princes and priests, as well as
the common people, in the discharge of such a com
mission. This implication is met by the Divine
assurance : " Unto all " — of whatever rank — " that I
send thee unto, thou shalt go " ; and by the encourag
ing promise of Divine protection against all opposing
powers : " Be not afraid of them ; for with thee am
I to rescue thee." '
And lahvah put forth His hand and touched my
mouth : and lahvah said unto me, Behold I have put
My words in thy mouth I This word of the Lord,
1 For the words of this promise, cf. ver. 19 infr., xv. 20, xiii. II.

THE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 71
says Hitzig, is represented as a corporeal substance;
in accordance with the Oriental mode of thought and
speech, which invests everything with bodily form.
He refers to a passage in Samuel (2 Sam. xvii. 5) where
Absalom says, " Call now Hushai the Archite, and let
us hear that which is in his mouth also ; " as if what the
old counsellor had to say were something solid in more
senses than one. But we need not press the literal
force of the language. A prophet who could write
(v. 14) : " Behold I am about to make my words in
thy mouth fire and this people logs of wood ; and it
shall devour them;" or again (xv. 16), "Thy words
were found, and I did eat them ; and Thy word became
unto me a joy and my heart's delight," may also have
written, " Behold I have put My words in thy mouth I "
without thereby becoming amenable to a charge of con
fusing fact with figure, metaphor with reality. Nor can
I think the prophet means to say that, although, as a
matter of fact, the Divine word already dwelt in him, it
was now " put in his mouth," in the sense that he was
henceforth to utter it. Stripped of the symbolism of
vision, the verse simply asserts that the spiritual change
which came over Jeremiah at the turning point in his
career was due to the immediate operation of God ; and
that the chief external consequence of this inward change
was that powerful preaching of Divine truth, by which
he was henceforth known. The great Prophet of the
Exile twice uses the phrase, " I have set My words in
thy mouth" (Isa. li. 16, lix. 21) with much the same
meaning as that intended by Jeremiah, but without
the preceding metaphor about the Divine hand.
See I have this day set thee over the nations and
over the kingdoms, to root out and lo pull down, and
to destroy and to overturn; to rebuild and to replant.

72 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

Such, following the Hebrew punctuation, are the terms
of the prophet's commission ; and they are well worth
consideration, as they set forth with all the force of
prophetic idiom his own conception of the nature of
that commission. First, there is the implied assertion
of his own official dignity : the prophet is made a
paqid (Gen. xli. 34, " officers " set by Pharaoh over
Egypt ; 2 Kings xxv. 19 a military prefect) a prefect or
superintendent of the nations of the world. It is the
Hebrew term corresponding to the iirunanros of the New
Testament and the Christian Church (Judg. ix. 28 ;
Neh. xi. 9). And secondly, his powers are of the widest
scope ; he is invested with authority over the destinies
of all peoples. If it be asked in what sense it could be
truly said that the ruin and renascence of nations was
subject to the supervision of the prophets, the answer
is obvious. The word they were authorised to declare
was the word of God. But God's word is not some
thing whose efficacy is exhausted in the human utter
ance of it. God's word is an irreversible command,
fulfilling itself with all the necessity of a law of nature.
The thought is well expressed by a later prophet:
"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth, and maketh it bring forth and spring; and
yieldeth seed to the sower and bread to the eater : so
shall My word become, that goeth forth out of My
mouth ; it shall not return to Me empty (Dpn), but shall
surely do that which I have willed, and shall carry
through that for which I sent it" (or "shall prosper
him whom I have sent," Isa. Iv. 10, 11). All that hap
pens is merely the selfaccomplishment of this Divine
word, which is only the human aspect of the Divine
will. If, therefore, the absolute dependence of the

TBE CALL AND CONSECRATION. 73
prophets upon God for their knowledge of this word
be left out of account, they appear as causes, when
they are in truth but instruments, as agents when they
are only mouthpieces. And so Ezekiel writes, " when I
came to destroy the city " (Ezek. xliii. 3), meaning when
I announced the Divine decree of its destruction. The
truth upon which this peculiar mode of statement
rests — the truth that the will of God must be and
always is done in the world that God has made and is
making — is a rock upon which the faith of His mes
sengers may always repose. What strength, what
staying power may the Christian preacher find in
dwelling upon this almost visible fact of the self-ful
filling will and word of God, though all around him
he hear that will questioned, and that word disowned
and denied 1 He knows — it is his supreme comfort to
know — that, while his own efforts may be thwarted,
that will is invincible ; that though he may fail in the
conflict, that word will go on conquering and to conquer,
until it shall have subdued all things unto itself.

II.
THB TRUST IN THE SHADOW OP EGYPT.
Jeremiah ii. I — iii. 5.
THE first of the prophet's public addresses is, in
fact, a sermon which proceeds from an exposure
of national sin to the menace of coming judgment.
It falls naturally into three sections, of which the first
(ii. I-13) sets forth Iahvah's tender love to His young
bride Israel in the old times of nomadic life, when
faithfulness to Him was rewarded by protection from
all external foes ; and then passes on to denounce the
unprecedented apostasy of a people from their God.
The second (14-28) declares that if Israel has fallen
a prey to her enemies, it is the result of her own
infidelity to her Divine Spouse ; of her early notorious
and inveterate falling away to the false gods, who
are now her only resource, and that a worthless one.
The third section (ii. 29-iii. 5) points to the failure of
Iahvah's chastisements to reclaim a people hardened
in guilt, and in a self-righteousness which refused
warning and despised reproof; affirms the futility of
all human aid amid the national reverses ; and cries
woe on a too late repentance. It is not difficult to fix
the time of this noble and pathetic address. That
which follows it, and is intimately connected with it in

ii. l-iii. 5.] TBE TRUST IN TBE SBADOIV OF EGYPT. 75
substance, was composed "in the days of Josiah the
king " (iii. 6), so that the present one must be placed
a Httle earlier in the same reign ; and, considering its
position in the book, may very probably be assigned to
the thirteenth year of Josiah, i.e. b.c. 629, in which the
prophet received his Divine call. This is the ordinary
opinion ; but one critic (Knobel) refers the discourse to
the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, on account of
the connexion with Egypt which is mentioned in w.
18, 36, and the humiliation suffered at the hands of the
Egyptians which is mentioned in ver. 16 ; while another
(Graf) maintains that chaps, ii.-vi. were composed in
the fourth year of Jehoiakim, as if the prophet had
committed nothing to writing before that date — an
assumption which seems to run counter to the impli
cation conveyed by his own statement, chap, xxxvi. 2.
This latter critic has failed to notice the allusions in
chaps, iv. 14, vi. 8, to an approaching calamity which
may be averted by national reformation, to which the
people are invited ; — an invitation wholly incompatible
with the prophet's attitude at that hopeless period.
The series of prophecies beginning at chap. iv. 3 is
certainly later in time than the discourse we are now
considering ; but as certainly belongs to the immediate
subsequent years.
It does not appear that the first two of Jeremiah's
addresses were called forth by any striking event of
public importance, such as the Scythian invasion. His
new-born consciousness of the Divine call would urge the
young prophet to action ; and in the present discourse
we have the firstfruits of the heavenly impulse. It is
a retrospect of Israel's entire past and an examination
of the state of things growing out of it. The prophet's
attention is not yet confined to Judah ; he deplores the

76 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.

rupture of the ideal relations between lahvah and His
people as a whole (ii. 4; cf. iii. 6). As Hitzig has
remarked, this opening address, in its finished elabora
tion, leaves the impression of a first outpouring of the
heart, which sets forth at once without reserve the long
score of the Divine grievances against Israel At the
same time, in its closing judgment (iii. 5), in its irony
(ii. 28), in its appeals (ii. 21, 31), and its exclamations
(ii. 12), it breathes an indignation stern and deep to
a degree hardly characteristic of the prophet in his
other discourses, but which was natural enough, as
Hitzig observes, in a first essay at moral criticism,
a first outburst of inspired zeal.
In the Hebrew text the chapter begins with the same
formula as chap. i. (ver. 4) : " And there fell a word of
lahvah unto me, saying." But the LXX. reads : " And
he said, Thus saith the Lord," (ko\ elire, raSe Xiyet
Kiiptot) ; a difference which is not immaterial, as it may
be a trace of an older Hebrew recension of the pro
phet's work, in which this second chapter immediately
followed the original superscription of the book, as given
in chap. i. 1, 2, from which it was afterwards separated
by the insertion of the narrative of Jeremiah's call and
visions ("iDN'l : cf. Amos i. 2). Perhaps we may see
another trace of the same thing in the fact that where
as chap. i. sends the prophet to the rulers and people
of Judah, this chapter is in part addressed to collective
Israel (ver. 4); which constitutes a formal disagreement.
If the reference to Israel is not merely retrospective
and rhetorical, — if it implies, as seems to be assumed,
that the prophet really meant his words to affect the
remnant of the northern kingdom as well as Judah, —
we have here a valuable contemporary corroboration
of the much disputed assertion of the author of

u. I-iIL 5 J THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 77
Chronicles, that king Josiah abolished idolatry "in
the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon even
unto Naphtali, to wit, in their ruins round about"
(2 Chron. xxxiv. 6), as well as in Judah and Jerusalem ;
and that Manasseh and Ephraim and "the remnant
of Israel" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 9, cf. 21) contributed to
his restoration of the temple. These statements of
the Chronicler imply that Josiah exercised authority
in the ruined northern kingdom, as well as in the more
fortunate south; and so far as this first discourse of
Jeremiah was actually addressed to Israel as well as
to Judah, those disputed statements find in it an un
designed confirmation. However this may be, as a
part of the first collection of the author's prophecies,
there is little doubt that the chapter was read by
Baruch to the people of Jerusalem in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim (chap, xxxvi. 6).
Go thou and cry in the ears of Jerusalem : Thus
hath lahvah said (or thought: This is the Divine
thought concerning thee !) / have remembered for thee
the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals;
thy following Me (as a bride follows her husband
to his tent) in the wilderness, in a land unsown.
A dedicated thing (KHp : like the high priest, on whose
mitre was graven nin£ Enp) was Israel to lahvah, His
firstfruits of increase ; all who did eat him were held
guilty, ill would come to them, saith lahvah (vers. 2, 3).
— " I have remembered for thee," i.e. in thy favour, to
thy benefit — as when Nehemiah prays, " Remember in
my favour, O my God, for good, all that I have done
upon this people," (Neh. v. 19) — "the kindness" — iDrj
— the warm affection of thy youth, " the love of thine
espousals," or the charm of thy bridal state (Hos. ii. 15,
xi 1); the tend:r attachment of thine early days, of

78 THB PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
thy new born national consciousness, when lahvah had
chosen thee as His bride, and called thee to follow Him
out of Egypt. It is the figure which we find so ela
borately developed in the pages of Hosea. The " bridal
state " is the time from the Exodus to the taking of the
covenant at Sinai (Ezek. xvi. 8), which was, as it were,
the formal instrument of the marriage ; and Israel's
young love is explained as consisting in turning her
back upon " the flesh-pots of Egypt " (Ex. xvi. 3), at the
call of lahvah, and following her Divine Lord into the
barren steppes. This forsaking of all worldly comfort
for the hard life of the desert was proof of the sincerity
of Israel's early love. [The evidently original words
" in the wilderness, a land unsown," are omitted by the
LXX., which renders : " I remembered the mercy of
thy youth, and the love of thy nuptials (TeXeuuo-R, con
summation), so that thou followedst the Holy One of
Israel, saith lahvah."] Iahvah's "remembrance" of
this devotion, that is to say, the return He made for it,
is described in the next verse. Israel became not " holi
ness " but a holy or hallowed thing ; a dedicated object,
belonging wholly and solely to lahvah, a thing which
it was sacrilege to touch ; Iahvah's " firstfruits of
increase" (Heb. nnsnn nwi). This last phrase is
to be explained by reference to the well-known law of
the firstfruits (Ex. xxiii. 19 ; Deut. xviii. 4, xxvi. 10),
according to which the first specimens of all agricul
tural produce were given to God. Israel, like the firstlings
of cattle and the firstfruits of corn and wine and oil,
was mirV enp consecrated to lahweh; and therefore
none might eat of him without offending. " To eat " or
devour is a term naturally used of vexing and destroy
ing a nation (x. 25, 1. 7; Deut vii. 16, "And thou
shalt eat up all the peoples, which Jehovah thy God ia

ii. l-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 79

about to give thee ; " Isa. i. 7 ; Ps. xiv. 4, " Who eat
up My people as they eat bread "). The literal transla
tion is, "All his eaters become guilty (or are treated
as guilty, punished) ; evil cometh to them ; " and the
verbs, being in the imperfect, denote what happened
again and again in Israel's history ; lahvah suffered
no man to do His people wrong with impunity. This,
then, is the first count in the indictment against Israel,
that lahvah had not been unmindful of her early
devotion, but had recognised it by throwing the shield
of sanctity around her, and making her inviolable
against all external enemies (w. 1-3). The prophet's
complaint, as developed in the following section (vv.
4-8), is that, in spite of the goodness of lahvah, Israel
has forsaken Him for idols. "Hear ye the word of
lahvah, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house
of Israel!" All Israel is addressed, and not merely
the surviving kingdom of Judah, because the apostasy
had been universal. A special reference apparently
made in ver. 8 to the prophets of Baal, who flourished
only in the northern kingdom. We may compare the
word of Amos "against the whole clan" which lahvah
"brought up from the land of Egypt" (Amos iii. 1),
spoken at a time when Ephraim was yet in the heyday
of his power.
Thus hath lahvah said. What found your fathers
in Me, that was unjust, (?1B a single act of injustice,
Ps. vii. 4 ; not to be found in lahvah, Deut. xxxii. 4)
that they went far from Me and followed the Folly and
were befooled (or the Delusion and were deluded)
(ver. 5). The phrase is used 2 Kings xvii. 15 in the same
sense ; !?anri " the (mere) breath," " the nothingness " or
" vanity," being a designation of the idols which Israel
wen» after (cf. also chap, xxiii. 16; Ps. lxii. II ; Job

to THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
xxvii. 12); much as St. Paul has written that "an idol ia
nothing in the world " (1 Cor. viii. 4), and that, with
all this boasted culture, the nations of classical antiquity
' became vain," or were befooled " in their imagin
ations" (iriaTauI}8r]o-av='b^m), "and their foolish
heart was darkened" (Rom. i. 21). Both the prophet
and the apostle refer to that judicial blindness which is
a consequence of persistently closing the eyes to truth,
and deliberately putting darkness for light and light for
darkness, bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, in com
pliance with the urgency of the flesh. For ancient
Israel, the result of yielding to the seductions of foreign
worship was, that " They were stultified in their best
endeavours. They became false in thinking and believ
ing, in doing and forbearing, because the fundamental
error pervaded the whole life of the nation and of the
individual. They supposed that they knew and honoured
God, but they were entirely mistaken ; they supposed
they were doing His will, and securing their own
welfare, while they were doing and securing the exact
contrary " (Hitzig). And similar consequences will
always flow from attempts to serve two masters; to
gratify the lower nature, while not breaking wholly
with the higher. Once the soul has accepted a lower
standard than the perfect law of truth, it does not stop
there. The subtle corruption goes on extending its
ravages farther and farther ; while the consciousness
that anything is wrong becomes fainter and fainter as
the deadly mischief increases, until at last the ruined
spirit believes itself in perfect health, when it is, in
truth, in the last stage of mortal disease. Perversion
of the will and the affections leads to the perversion of
the intellect. There is a profound meaning in the old
saying that, Men make their gods in their own likeness.

a I-Iii. S-] TBE TRUST IN TBE SB ADO W OF EGYPT. 81
As a man is, so will God appear to him to be. " With
the loving, Thou wilt shew Thyself loving ; With the
perfect, Thou wilt shew Thyself perfect ; With the pure,
Thou wilt shew Thyself pure ; And with the perverse,
Thou wilt shew Thyself froward" (Ps. xviii. 25 sq.).
Only hearts pure of all worldly taint see God in His
purity. The rest worship some more or less imperfect
semblance of Him, according to the varying degrees of
their selfishness and sin.
And they said not, Where is lahvah, who brought
us up out of the land of Egypt, that guided us in
the wilderness, in a land of wastes and hollows (or
desert and defile), in a land of drought and darkness
(dreariness rt1D?5f), in a land that no man passed through,
and where no mortal dwelt (ver. 6). " They said not,
Where is lahvah, who brought us up out of the land of
Egypt." It is the old complaint of the prophets against
Israel's black ingratitude. So, for instance, Amos (ii. 10)
had written : " Whereas I — I brought you up from the
land of Egypt, and guided you in the wilderness forty
years;" and Micah (vi. 3 sq.) : "My people, what have
I done unto thee, and how have I wearied thee?
Answer against Me. For I brought thee up from the
land of Egypt, and from a house of bondmen redeemed
I thee." In common gratitude, they were bound to be
true to this mighty Saviour ; to enquire after lahvah,
to call upon Him only, to do His will, and to seek His
grace (cf. xxix. 12 sq.). Yet, with characteristic fickle
ness, they soon forgot the fatherly guidance, which had
never deserted them in the period of their nomadic
wanderings in the wilds of Arabia Petraea; a land
which the prophet poetically describes as "a land of
wastes and hollows " — alluding probably to the rocky
defiles through which they had to pass — and " a land
6

8a TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

of drought and darkness;"1 the latter an epithet of the
Grave or Hades (Job x. 21), fittingly applied to that
great lone wilderness of the south, which Isaiah had
called "a fearsome land" (xxi. i), and "a land of
trouble and anguish " (xxx. 6), whither, according to
the poet of Job, "The caravans go up and are lost"
(vL 1 8).
And I brought you into the garden land, to eat its
fruits and its choicest things (itllD Isa. i. 19; Gen. xiv.
18, 20, 23) ; and ye entered and defiled My land, and
My domain ye made a loathsome thing t (ver. 7).
With the wilderness of the wanderings is contrasted
the " land of the carmel," the land of fruitful orchards
and gardens, as in chap. iv. 26. ; Isa. x. 18, xvi. 10,
xxix. 17. This was Canaan, Iahvah's own land, which
He had chosen out of all countries to be His special
dwelling-place and earthly sanctuary ; but which Israel
no sooner possessed, than they began to pollute this
holy land by their sins, like the guilty peoples whom
they had displaced, making it thereby an abomination
to lahvah (Lev. xviii. 24 sq., cf. chap. iii. 2).
The priests they said not, Where is lahvah ? and they
that handle the law, they knew (i.e. regarded, heeded)
Me not; and as for the shepherds (i.e. the king and
princes, ver. 26), they rebelled against Me, and the
prophets, they prophesied by (through) the Baal, and
them that help not (i.e. the false gods) they followed (ver.
8). In the form of a climax, this verse justifies the
accusation contained in the last, by giving particu
lars. The three ruling classes are successively indicted
(cf. ver.26, ch. xviii. 1 8). The priests, part of whose
1 niDpVi so far as the punctuation suggests that the term is a
compound, meaning " shadow of death," is one of the fictions of the
Masorets, hke O^VK?? and D^3?0 and napfl in the Psalms.

ii I-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 83
duty was to " handle the law," i.e. explain the Torah,
to instruct the people in the requirements of lahvah,
by oral tradition and out of the sacred law-books, gave
no sign of spiritual aspiration (cf. ver. 6) ; like the
reprobate sons of Eli, " they knew not" (1 Sam. ii. 12)
" lahvah," that is to say, paid no heed to Him and His
will as revealed in the book of the law ; the secular
authorities, the king and his counsellors (" wise men,"
xviii. 18), not only sinned thus negatively, but positively
revolted against the King of kings, and resisted His
will; while the prophets went further yet in the path of
guilt, apostatizing altogether from the God of Israel,
and seeking inspiration from the Phenician Baal, and
following worthless idols that could give no help.
There seems to be a play on the words Baal and
Belial, as if Baal meant the same as Belial, "profitless,"
"worthless" (cf. 1 Sam. ii. 12 : " Now Eli's sons were
sons of Belial; they knew not lahvah." The phrase
6vr\imi6 " they that help not," or "cannot help," suggests
the term 'J?-?3 Belial ; which, however, may be de
rived from ^3 " not," and b]} " supreme," " God," and
so mean " not-God," " idol," rather than " worthless-
ness," " unprofitableness," as it is usually explained).
The reference may be to the Baal-worship of Samaria,
the northern capital, which was organised by Ahab,
and his Tyrian queen (chap, xxiii. 13).
Therefore — on account of this amazing ingratitude
of your forefathers, — / will again plead (reason, argue
forensically) with you (the present generation in whom
their guilt repeats itself) saith lahvah, and with your
sons' sons (who will inherit your sins) will I plead.
The nation is conceived as a moral unity, the cha
racteristics of which are exemplified in each successive
generation. To all Israel, past, present, and future,

84 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
lahvah will vindicate his own righteousness. For
cross (the sea) to the coasts of the Citieans (the people
of Citium in Cyprus) and see; and to Kedar (the rude
tribes of the Syrian desert) send ye, and mark well, and
see whether there hath arisen a case like this. Hath a
nation changed gods — albeit they are no-gods ? Yet My
people hath changed his (true) glory for that which helpeth
not (or is worthless). Upheave, ye heavens (IDS'
D*DB>, a fine paronomasia), at this, and shudder (and)
be petrified (l'NI? Win Ges., " be sore amazed " = DDE" ;
but Hitzig " be dry "=stiff and motionless, like syn.
Pa* in I Kings xiii. 4), saith lahvah; for two evil things
hath My people done: Me they have forsaken — a
Fountain of living water — lo hew them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that cannot (imperf.= potential) hold
water (Heb. the waters : generic article) (w. 9-13). In
these five verses, the apostasy of Israel from his own
God is held up as a fact unique in history — unexampled
and inexplicable by comparison with the doings of other
nations. Whether you look westward or eastward,
across the sea to Cyprus, or beyond Gilead to the
barbarous tribes of the Cedrei (Ps. cxx. 5), nowhere
will you find a heathen people that has changed its
native worship for another ; and if you did find such, it
would be no precedent or palliation of Israel's behaviour.
The heathen in adopting a new worship simply exchanges
one superstition for another ; the objects of his devotion
are "non-gods" (ver. 11). The heinousness and the
eccentricity of Israel's conduct lies in the fact that he
has bartered truth for falsehood ; he has exchanged
" his Glory " — whom Amos (viii. 7) calls the Pride
(A.V. Excellency) of Jacob — for a useless idol ; an ob
ject which the prophet elsewhere calls " The Shame "
(iii. 24, xi. 13), because it can only bring shame and

II l-iii.S-] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 8j
confusion upon those whose hopes depend upon it
The wonder of the thing might well be supposed to
strike the pure heavens, the silent witnesses of it, with
blank astonishment (cf. a similar appeal in Deut. iv. 26,
xxxL 28, xxxii. I, where the earth is added). For the
evil is not single but twofold. With the rejection of
truth goes the adoption of error ; and both are evils.
Not only has Israel turned his back upon " a fountain
of living waters;" he has also "hewn him out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that cannot hold water." The " broken
cisterns " are, of course, the idols which Israel made to
himself. As a cistern full of cracks and fissures dis
appoints the wayfarer, who has reckoned on finding
water in it ; so the idols, having only the semblance
and not the reality of life, avail their worshippers
nothing (w. 8, II). In Hebrew the waters of a
spring are called "living" (Gen. xxi. 19), because they
are more refreshing and, as it were, life-giving, than
the stagnant waters of pools and tanks fed by the rains.
Hence by a natural metaphor, the mouth of a righteous
man, or the teaching of the wise, and the fear of the
Lord, are called a fountain of life (Prov. x. II, xiii.
14, xiv. 27). "The fountain of life" is with lahvah
(Ps. xxxvi. 10); nay, He is Himself the Fountain of
living waters (Jer. xvii. 13) ; because all life, and all
that sustains or quickens life, especially spiritual life,
proceeds from Him. Now in Ps. xix. 8 it is said that
" The law of the Lord — or, the teaching of lahvah— is
perfect, reviving (or restoring) the soul" (cf. Lam. i. 11 ;
Ruth iv. 15) ; and a comparison of Micah and Isaiah's
statement that "Out of Zion will go forth the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem " (Isa. ii. 3 ;
Mic. iv. 2), with the more figurative language of Joel
(iii. 18) and Zechariah (xiv. 8), who speak of "a

86 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
fountain going forth from the house of the Lord," and
" living waters going forth from Jerusalem," suggests
the inference that " the living waters," of which lahvah
is the perennial fountain, are identical with His law as
revealed through priests and prophets. It is easy to con
firm this suggestion by reference to the river "whose
streams make glad the city of God" (Ps. xlvi. 4);
to Isaiah's poetic description of the Divine teaching,
of which he was himself the exponent, as " the waters
of Shiloah that flow softly " (viii. 6), Shiloah being a
spring that issues from the temple rock ; and to our
Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria, in
which He characterises His own teaching as " living
waters" (St. John iv. 10), and as "a well of waters,
springing up unto eternal Life " (ibid. 14).
Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn serf? Why
hath he become a prey ? Over him did young lions
roar; they uttered their voice; and they made his land
a waste ; his cities, they are burnt up (or thrown down),
so that they are uninhabited. Yea, the sons of Noph
and Tahpan(h)es, they did bruise thee on the crown.
Is not this what (the thing that) thy forsaking lahvah
thy God brought about for thee, at the time He was
guiding thee in the way? (vv. 14-17). As Iahvah's
bride, as a people chosen to be His own, Israel had
every reason to expect a bright and glorious career.
Why was this expectation falsified by events ? But one
answer was possible, in view of the immutable righteous
ness, the eternal faithfulness of God. The ruin of Israel
was Israel's own doing. It is a truth which applies to all
nations, and to all individuals capable of moral agency,
in all periods and places of their existence. Let no
man lay his failure in this world or in the world to
come at the door of the Almighty. Let none venture

ii. l-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 87
to repeat the thoughtless blasphemy which charges the
All-Merciful with sending frail human beings to expiate
their offences in an everlasting hell 1 Let none dare to
say or think, God might have made it otherwise, but
He would not ! Oh, no ; it is all a monstrous miscon
ception of the true relations of things. You and I are
free to make our choice now, whatever may be the case
hereafter. We may choose to obey God, or to disobey ;
we may seek His will, or our own. The one is the way
of life; the other, of death, and nothing can alter the
facts ; they are part of the laws of the universe. Our
destiny is in our own hands, to make or to mar. If we
qualify ourselves for nothing better than a hell — if our
daily progress leads us farther and farther from God
and nearer and nearer to the devil — then hell will be
our eternal home. For God is love, and purity, and
truth, and glad obedience to righteous laws ; and these
things, realized and rejoiced in, are heaven. And the
man that lives without these as the sovereign aims
of his existence — the man whose heart's worship is
centred upon something else than God — stands already
on the verge of hell, which is " the place of him that
knows not (and cares not for) God." And unless we
are prepared to find fault with that natural arrangement
whereby like things are aggregated to like, and all
physical elements gravitate towards their own kind ; I
do not see how we can disparage the same law in the
spiritual sphere, in virtue of which all spiritual beings
are drawn to their own place, the heavenly-minded
rising to the heights above, and the contrary sort sinking
to the depths beneath.
The precise bearing of the question (ver. 14), "Is
Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave?" is hardly
self-evident. One commentator supposes that the

88 THE PROPHECIES OF JhREMIAH.
implied answer is an affirmative. Israel is a " servant,"
the servant, that is, the worshipper of the true God.
Nay, he is more than a mere bondservant ; he occupies
the favoured position of a slave born in his lord's house
(cf. Abram's three hundred and eighteen young men,
Gen. xiv. 14), and therefore, according to the custom
of antiquity, standing on a different footing from a slave
acquired by purchase. The " home " or house is taken
to mean the land of Canaan, which the prophet Hosea
had designated as Iahvah's "house" (Hosea ix. 15,
cf. 3) ; and the " Israel " intended is supposed to be the
existing generation born in the holy land. The double
question of the prophet then amounts to this : If Israel
be, as is generally admitted, the favourite bondservant
of lahvah, how comes it that his lord has not protected
him against the spoiler ? But, although this interpre
tation is not without force, it is rendered doubtful by
the order of the words in the Hebrew, where the stress
lies on the terms for "bondman" and "homeborn
slave"; and by its bold divergence from the sense
conveyed by the same form of question in other pas
sages of the prophet, e.g. ver. 3.1 infr., where the answer
expected is a negative one (cf. also chap. viii. 4, 5,
xiv. 19, xlix. 1. The formula is evidently characteris
tic). The point of the question seems to lie in the
fact of the helplessness of persons of servile condition
against occasional acts of fraud and oppression, from
which neither the purchased nor the homebred slave
could at all times be secure. The rights of such
persons, however humane the laws affecting their
ordinary status, might at times be cynically disregarded
both by their masters and by others (see a notable
instance, Jer. xxxiv. 8 sqq.). Moreover, there may be
a reference to the fact that slaves were always reckoned

a. l-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 89
in those times as a valuable portion of the booty of
conquest ; and the meaning may be that Israel's lot as
a captive is as bad as if he had never known the
blessings of freedom, and had simply exchanged one
servitude for another by the fortune of war. The
allusion is chiefly to the fallen kingdom of Ephraim.
We must remember that Jeremiah is reviewing the
whole past, from the outset of Iahvah's special dealings
with Israel. The national sins of the northern and
more powerful branch had issued in utter ruin. The
"young lions," the foreign invaders, had "roared
against" Israel properly so called, and made havoc of
the whole country (cf. iv. 7). The land was dispeopled,
and became an actual haunt of lions (2 Kings xvii. 25),
until Esarhaddon colonised it with a motley gathering
of foreigners (Ezra iv. 2). Judah too had suffered
greatly from the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah's time,
although the last calamity had then been mercifully
averted (Sanherib boasts that he stormed and destroyed
forty-six strong cities, and carried off 200,000 captives,
and an innumerable booty). The implication is that
the evil fate of Ephraim threatens to overtake Judah ;
for the same moral causes are operative, and the same
Divine will, which worked in the past, is working in the
present, and will continue to work in the future. The
lesson of the past was plain for those who had eyes
to read and hearts to understand it. Apart from this
prophetic doctrine of a Providence which shapes the
destinies of nations, in accordance with their moral
deserts, history has no value except for the gratification
of mere intellectual curiosity.
Aye, and the children of Noph and Tahpanhes they
bruise (? used to bruise; are bruising: the Heb. im» may
mean either) thee on the crown (ver. 16). This obviously

THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

refers to injuries inflicted by Egypt, the two royal
cities of Noph or Memphis, and Tahpanhes or Daphnae,
being mentioned in place of the country itself. Judah
must be the sufferer, as no Egyptian attack on Ephraim
is anywhere recorded ; while we do read of Shishak's
invasion of the southern kingdom in the reign of
Rehoboam, both in the Bible (i Kings xiv. 25), and
in Shishak's own inscriptions on the walls of the
temple of Amen at Karnak. But the form of the
Hebrew verb seems to indicate rather some contem
porary trouble ; perhaps plundering raids by an Egyp
tian army, which about this time was besieging the
Philistine stronghold of Ashdod (Herod., ii. 157). "The
Egyptians are bruising (or crushing) thee " seems to b<
the sense ; and so it is given by the Jewish commen
tator Rashi (l¥XT diffringunt). Our English marginal
rendering (" fed on ") follows the traditional pronuncia
tion of the Hebrew term (WK), which is also the case
with the Targum and the Syriac versions ; but this can
hardly be right, unless we suppose that the Egyptians
infesting the frontier are scornfully compared to
vermin (read -lin] with J. D. Mich.) of a sort which,
as Herodotus tells us, the Egyptians particularly dis
liked (but cf. Mic. v. 5 ; Ges., depascunt, " eating
down.") The A.V. of ver. 17 presents a curious mistake,
which the Revisers have omitted to correct. The words
should run, as I have rendered them, "Is not this"-
thy present ill fortune — " the thing that thy forsaking
of lahvah thy God did for thee — at the time when He
was guiding thee in the way?" The Hebrew verb
does not admit of the rendering in the perf. tense, for
it is an impf., nor is it a 2nd pers. fem. (ntyjm not OTn)
but a 3rd. The LXX. has it rightly (ov)(i Tavra

ii. I-iii. S-] THE TRUST IN THE SBADOW OF EGYPT. 9«
iirolrjai o~oi to tcaTdXnrelv <re ijii ;), but leaves out the
next clause which specifies the time. The words,
however, are probably original; for they insist, as
w. S and 31 insist, on the groundlessness of Israel'?.
apostasy. lahvah had given no cause for it ; He was
fulfilling His part of the covenant by " guiding them in
the way." Guidance or leading is ascribed to lahvah
as the true " Shepherd of Israel " (chap. xxxi. 9 ; Ps.
lxxx. 1). It denotes not only the spiritual guidance
which was given through the priests and prophets ; but
also that external prosperity, those epochs of estab
lished power and peace and plenty, which were pre
cisely the times chosen by infatuated Israel for defection
from the Divine Giver of her good things. As the
prophet Hosea expresses it, ii. 8 sq., " She knew not
that it was I who gave her the corn and the new wine
and the oil ; and silver I multiplied unto her, and gold,
which they made into the BaaL Therefore will I take
back My corn in the time of it, and My new wine in its
season, and will snatch away My wool and My flax,
which were to cover her nakedness." And (chap. xiii. 6)
the same prophet gives this plain account of his people's
thankless revolt from their God: "When I fed them,
they were sated ; sated were they, and their heart was
lifted up : therefore they forgot Me." It is the thought
so forcibly expressed by the minstrel of the Book of the
Law (Deut. xxxii. 15), first published in the early days
of Jeremiah : " And Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked ;
Thou waxedst fat, and gross and fleshy 1 And he for
sook the God that made him, And made light of his pro
tecting Rock." And, lastly,*the Chronicler has pointed
the same moral of human fickleness and frailty in the
case of an individual, Uzziah or Azariah, the powerful
king of Judah, whose prosperity seduced him into pre-

93 TBE PROPHECIES OF fEREMIAB.
sumption and profanity (2 Chron. xxvi. 1 6): "When
he grew strong, his heart rose high, until he dealt
corruptly, and was unfaithful to lahvah his God." I
need not enlarge on the perils of prosperity ; they are
known by bitter experience to every Christian man.
Not without good reason do we pray to be delivered
from evil " In all time of our wealth ; " nor was that
poet least conversant with human nature who wrote
that " Sweet are the uses of adversity."
And now — a common formula in drawing an infer
ence and concluding an argument — what hast thou
to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of
Shihor (the Black River, the Nile) ; and what hast
thou to do with the way to Assyria, to drink the
waters of the River? (par excellence, i.e., the Euphrates).
Thy wickedness correcteth thee, and thy revolts it is
that chastise thee. Know then, and see that evil and
bitter is thy forsaking lahvah thy God, and thine having
no dread of Me, saith the Lord lahvah Sabaoth (vv.
1 8, 19). And now — as the cause of all thy misfor
tunes lies in thyself — what is the use of seeking a cure
for them abroad ? Egypt will prove as powerless to
help thee now, as Assyria proved in the days of Ahaz
(ver. 36 sq.). The Jewish people, anticipating the
views of certain modern historians, made a wrong
diagnosis of their own evil case. They traced all that
they had suffered, and were yet to suffer, to the ill will
of the two great Powers of their time ; and supposed
that their only salvation lay in conciliating the one or
the other. And as Isaiah found it necessary to cry
woe on the rebellious children, " that walk to go down
into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth; to
strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and
to trust in the shadow of Egypt 1 " (Isa. xxx. 1 sq.), so

ii.l-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 93
now, after so much experience of the futility and posi
tive harmfulness of these unequal alliances, Jeremiah
has to lift his voice against the same national folly.
The " young lions " of ver. 1 5 must denote the Assy
rians, as Egypt is expressly named in ver. 16. The
figure is very appropriate, for not only was the lion a
favourite subject of Assyrian sculpture; not only do
the Assyrian kings boast of their prowess as lion-
hunters, while they even tamed these fierce creatures,
and trained them to the chase ; but the great strength
and predatory habits of the king of beasts made him a
fitting symbol of that great empire whose irresistible
power was founded upon and sustained by wrong and
robbery. This reference makes it clear that the pro
phet is contemplating the past ; for Assyria was at this
time already tottering to its fall, and the Israel of
his day, i.e. the surviving kingdom of Judah, had no
longer any temptation to court the countenance of that
decaying if not already ruined empire. The sin of
Israel is an old one; both it and its consequences
belong to the past (ver. 20 compared with ver. 14) ; and
the national attempts to find a remedy must be referred
to the same period. Ver. 36 makes it evident that
the prophet's contemporaries concerned themselves
only about an Egyptian alliance.
It is an interesting detail that for "the waters of
Shihor," the LXX. gives " waters of Gihon " (rvS>v),
which it will be remembered is the name of one of the
four rivers of Paradise, and which appears to have
been the old Hebrew name of the Nile (Ecclus. xxiv. 27 ;
Jos., Ant., i. 1, 3). Shihor may be an explanatory
substitute. For the rest, it is plain that the two rivers
symbolize the two empires (cf. Isa. viii. 7; chap. xlvL 7) ;
and the expression " to drink the waters " of them must

94 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
imply the receiving and, as it were, absorption of
whatever advantage might be supposed to accrue from
friendly relations with their respective countries. At
the same time, a contrast seems to be intended between
these earthly waters, which could only disappoint those
who sought refreshment in them, and that "fountain
of living waters" (ver. 13) which Israel had forsaken.
The nation sought in Egypt its deliverance from self-
caused evil, much as Saul had sought guidance from
witches when he knew himself deserted by the God
whom by disobedience he had driven away. In seeking
thus to escape the consequences of sin by cementing
alliances with heathen powers, Israel added sin to sin.
Hence (in ver. 19) the prophet reiterates with increased
emphasis what he has already suggested by a question
(ver. 17): "Thy wickedness correcteth thee, and thy
revolts it is that chastise thee. Know then, and see
that evil and bitter is thy forsaking of lahweh thy
God, and thine having no dread of Me ! " Learn from
these its bitter fruits that the thing itself is bad (Read
£& ,J?7"? as a 2nd Pers- instead of ?ri^riQ. Job xxi. 33,
quoted by Hitzig, is not a real parallel ; nor can the
sentence, as it stands, be rendered, " Und dass die
Scheu vor mir nicht an dich kam ") ; and renounce that
which its consequences declare to be an evil course,
instead of aggravating the evil of it by a new act of
unfaithfulness. For long ago didst thou break thy yoke, didst thou
burst thy bonds, and saidst, I will not serve : for upon
every high hill, and under each evergreen tree thou wert
crouching in fornication (vv. 20-24). Such seems to
be the best way of taking a verse which is far from
clear as it stands in the Masoretic text The prophet
labours tc bring home to his hearers a sense of the

S.l-iii.5.1 TBE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 95
reality of the national sin ; and he affirms once more
(vv. 5, 7) that Israel's apostasy originated long ago,
in the early period of its history, and implies that
the taint thus contracted is a fact which can neither
be denied nor obliterated. (The punctuators of the
Hebrew text, having pointed the first two verbs as
in the ist pers. instead of the 2nd feminine, were
obliged, further, to suggest the reading "itatw K?, " I
will not transgress," for the original phrase T\2VH ttb " I
will not serve ; " a variant which is found in the Targum,
and many MSS. and editions. " Serving " and " bear
ing the yoke " are equivalent expressions (xxvii. 1 1, 12) ;
so that, if the first two verbs were really in the ist
pers., the sentence ought to be continued with, "And
/ said, Thou shalt net serve." But the purport of this
verse is to justify the assertion of the last, as is evident
from the introductory particle " for," ^ The Syriac
supports liaifx; and the LXX. and Vulg. have the
two leading verbs in the 2nd pers., iv. 19.) The
meaning is that Israel, like a stubborn ox, has broken
the yoke imposed on him by lahvah; a statement
which is repeated in v. 5 : " But these have altogether
broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds " (cf. ver. 3 1,
infr. ; Hos. iv. 16 ; Acts xxvi. 14).
Yet I — / planted thee with (or, as) noble vines, all
of them genuine shoots; and how hast thou turned
Me thyself into the wild offshoots of a foreign vine ?
(ver. 21). The thought seems to be borrowed from
Isaiah's Song of the Beloved's Vineyard (Isa. v. 1 sqq.).
The nation is addressed as a person, endowed with a
continuity of moral existence from the earliest period.
" The days of the life of a man may be numbered ;
but the days of Israel are innumerable " (Ecclus. xxxvii.
25). It was with the trun seed of Abraham, the real

THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

Israel, that lahvah had entered into covenant (Ex.
xviii. 19; Rom. ix. 7); and this genuine offspring of
the patriarch had its representatives in every succeed
ing generation, even in the worst of times (1 Kings
xix. 18). But the prophet's argument seems to imply
that the good plants had reverted to a wild state, and
that the entire nation had become hopelessly degenerate ;
which was not far from the actual condition of things
at the close of his career. The culmination of Israel's
degeneracy, however, was seen in the rejection of
Him to whom "gave all the prophets witness." The
Passion of Christ sounded a deeper depth of sacred
sorrow than the passion of any of His forerunners.
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem 1 Thou that killest the pro
phets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee I "
"Then on My head a crown of thorns I wear J
For these are all the grapes Sion doth bear,
Though I My vine planted and watered there I
Was ever grief like Mine ? "
For if thou wash with natron, and take thee much
soap, spotted (crimsoned; Targ. Isa i. 18: or written,
recorded) is thy guilt before Me, saith My Lord lahvah.
Comparison with Isa. i. 18, "Though thy sins be
as scarlet . . . though they be red like crimson," sug
gests that the former rendering of the doubtful word
(DTO?) is correct ; and this idea is plainly better suited
to the context than a reference to the Books of Heaven,
and the Recording Angel ; for the object of washing
is to get rid of spots and stains.
How canst thou say, I have not defiled myself;
after the Baals I have not gone: See thy way in the
valley, know what thou hast done, O swift she-camel,
running hither and thither (literally intertwining or

it l-hlsO TBE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 97
crossing her ways) (ver. 23). The prophet anticipates
a possible attempt at self-justification ; just as in ver. 35
he complains of Israel's self-righteousness. Both here
and there he is dealing with his own contemporaries in
Judah ; whereas the idolatry described in ver. 20 sqq.
is chiefly that of the ruined kingdom of Ephraim (ch.
iii. 24 ; 2 Kings xvii. 10). It appears that the worship
of Baal proper only existed in Judah for a brief period
in the reign of Ahaziah's usurping queen Athaliah, side
by side with the worship of lahvah (2 Chron. xxiii. 17) ;
while on the high-places and at the local sanctuaries
the God of Israel was honoured (2 Kings xviii. 22).
So far as the prophet's complaints refer to old times,
Judah could certainly boast of a relatively higher purity
than the northern kingdom ; and the manifold heathenism
of Manasseh's reign had been abolished a whole year
before this address was delivered (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3
sqq.). " The valley " spoken of as the scene of Judah's
misdoings is that of Ben-Hinnom, south of Jerusalem,
where, as the prophet elsewhere relates (vii. 31, xxxiL
35 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 10), the people sacrificed children
by fire to the god Molech, whom he expressly designates
as a Baal (xix. 5, xxxii. 35), using the term in its
wider significance, which includes all the aspects of
the Canaanite sun-god. And because Judah betook
herself now to lahvah, and now to Molech, varying,
as it were, her capricious course from right to left and
from left to right, and halting evermore between two
opinions (1 Kings xviii. 21), the prophet calls her "a
swift young she-camel," — swift, that is, for evil —
"intertwining, or crossing her ways." The hot zeal
with which the people wantonly plunged into a sensual
idolatry is aptly set forth in the figure of the next
verse. A wild ass, used to the wilderness (Job xxiv. 5),
7

98 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
in the craving of her soul she snuffelh up (xiv. 6) the wind
(not "lasst sie kaum Athem genug finden, indem sie
denselben vorweg vergeudet," as Hitzig ; but, as a wild
beast scenting prey, cf. xiv. 6, or food afar off, she
scents companions at a distance); her greedy lust,
who can turn it back ? None that seek her need weary
themselves; in her month they find her. While passion
rages, animal instinct is too strong to be diverted from
its purpose; it is idle to argue with blind appetite;
it goes straight to its mark, like an arrow from a bow.
Oniy when it has had its way, and the reaction of
nature follows, does the influence of reason become
possible. Such was Israel's passion for the false gods.
They had no need to seek her (Hos. ii. 7 ; Ezek. xvi.
34) ; in the hour of her infatuation, she fell an easy
victim to their passive allurements. (The " month " is
the season when the sexual instinct is strong.) Warn
ings fell on deaf ears. Keep back thy foot from bare
ness, and thy throat from thirst t This cry of the
prophets availed nothing : Thou saidst, It is vain I (sc.
that thou urgest me.) No, for I love the strangers
and after them will I got The meaning of the admoni
tion is not very clear. Some (e.g. Rosenmiiller) have
understood a reference to the shameless doings, and
the insatiable cravings of lust. Others (as Gesenius)
explain the words thus : " Do not pursue thy lovers
in such hot haste, a3 to wear thy feet bare in the
wild race ! " Others, again, take the prohibition liter
ally, and connect the barefootedness and the thirst
with the orgies of Baal-worship (Hitz.), in which the
priests leaped or rather limped with bare feet (what
proof?) on the blazing altar, as an act of religious
mortification, shrieking the while till their throats were
parched and dry (Ps. Ixix. 4, *41"»| "I0J), in frenzied appeal

ii. l-iij.5,] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 99
to their lifeless god (cf. Ex. iii. 5 ; 2 Sam. xv. 30 ;
I . Kings xviii 26). In this case, the command is,
Cease this self-torturing and bootless worship I But
the former sense seems to agree better with the
context Like the shame of a thief, when he is delected, so are
the house of Israel ashamed — they, their kings, their
princes, and their priests , and their prophets; in that
they say (are ever saying) to the wood (iii. 9 in Heb.
masc), Thou art my father I (iii. 4) and to the stone (in
Heb. fern.), Thou didst bring me forth ! For they
(xxxii. 33) have turned towards Me the back and not
the face; but in the time of their trouble they say (begin
to say), O rise and save us ! But where are thy gods
that thou madest for thyself? Let them arise., if they
can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for numerous as
thy cities are thy gods become, O Judah ! (vv. 26-28).
" The Shame " (naan) is the well-known title of
opprobrium which the prophets apply to Baal. Even
in the histories, which largely depend on prophetic
sources, we find such substitutions as Ishbosheth for
Eshbaal, the "Man of Shame" for "Baal's Man."
Accordingly, the point of ver. 26 sqq. is, that as Israel
has served the Shame, the idol-gods, instead of lahvah,
shame has been and will be her reward : in the hour
of bitter need, when she implores help from the One
true God, she is put to shame by being referred back
to her senseless idols. The " Israel " intended is the
entire nation, as in ver. 3, and not merely the fallen
kingdom of Ephraim. In ver. 28 the prophet specially
addresses Judah, the surviving representative of the
whole people. In the book of Judges (x. 10-14) the same
idea of the attitude of lahvah towards His faithless
people finds historical illustration. Oppressed by the

loo THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
Ammonites they "cried unto the Lord, saying, We have
sinned against Thee, in that we have both forsaken our
own God, and have served the Baals ; " but lahvah,
after reminding them of past deliverances followed by
fresh apostasies, replies : " Go, and cry unto the gods
which ye have chosen ; let them save you in the time of
your distress 1 " Here also we hear the echoes of a pro
phetic voice. The object of such ironical utterances was
by no means to deride the self-caused miseries in which
Israel was involved ; but, as is evident from the sequel
of the narrative in Judges, to deepen penitence and
contrition, by making the people realize the full flag-
rancy of their sin, and the suicidal folly of their desertions
of the God whom, in times of national distress, they
recognised as the only possible Saviour. In the same
way and with the same end in view, the prophetic
psalmist of Deut. xxxii. represents the God of Israel
as asking (ver. 37) " Where are their gods ; the Rock in
which they sought refuge ? That used to eat the flesh
of their sacrifices, that drank the wine of their libation ?
Let them arise and help you ; let them be over you a
shelter ! " The purpose is to bring home to them a
conviction of the utter vanity of idol-worship; for the
poet continues : " See now that I even I am He " — the
one God — " and there is no God beside Me " (with Me,
sharing My sole attributes) ; " 'Tis I that kill and save
alive; I have crushed, and / heal." The folly of Israel
is made conspicuous, first by the expression " Saying
to the wood, Thou art my father, and to the stone,
Thou didst bring me forth;" and secondly, by the
statement, " Numerous as thy cities are thy gods be
come, O Judah I " In the former, we have a most
interesting glimpse of the point of view of the heathen
worshipper of the seventh century b.c, from which it

Ui. i-iii.5.] TBE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OP EGYPT. 101
appears that by a god he meant the original, i.e., the
real author of his own existence. Much has been
written in recent years to prove that man's elementary
notions of deity are of an altogether lower kind than
those which find expression in the worship of a Father
in heaven ; but when we see that such an idea could
subsist even in connexion with the most impure nature-
worships, as in Canaan, and when we observe that it
was a familiar conception in the religion of Egypt
several thousand years previously, we may well doubt
whether this idea of an Unseen Father of our race is
not as old as humanity itself.
The sarcastic reference to the number of Judah's
idols may remind us of what is recorded of classic
Athens, in whose streets it was said to be easier to
find a god than a man. The irony of the prophet's
remark depends on the consideration that there is, or
ought to be, safety in numbers. The impotence of the
false gods could hardly be put in a stronger light in
words as few as the prophet has used. In chap. xi. 13
he repeats the statement in an amplified form: "For
numerous as thy cities have thy gods become, O Judah ;
and numerous as the streets of Jerusalem have ye
made altars for The Shame, altars for sacrificing to the
Baal." From this passage, apparently, the LXX. de
rived the words which it adds here : " And according to
the number of the streets of Jerusalem did they sacrifice
to the (image of) Baal " (eBvov tj? Bda\).
Why contend ye with Me? All of you have
rebelled against Me, saith lahvah. (LXX. rjaefiijo-aTe,
Kal irdvT&i i/iets tjvo/j.r;o-aTe eis efik. "Ebenfalls
authentisch" says Hitzig). In vain have I smitten
your sons; correction they (i.e., the people; but LXX.
IZk^aaQe may be correct), received not! your own

10a THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
sword hath eaten up your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Generation that ye are ! See the word of lahvah ! Is
it a wilderness that I have been to Israel, or a land of
deepest gloom ? Why have My people said, We are
free; we will come no more unto Thee ? Doth a virgin
forget her ornaments, a bride her bands (or garlands,
Rashi) ? yet My people hath forgotten Me days with
out number (w. 29-32). The question, "Why
contend, or dispute ye (nnn), or, as the LXX. has
it, talk ye (rain) towards or about Me (^n)?" im
plies that the people murmured at the reproaches and
menaces of the prophet (ver. 26 sqq.). He answers
them by denying their right to complain. Their re
bellion has been universal; no chastisement has reformed
them ; lahvah has done nothing which can be alleged
in excuse of their unfaithfulness ; their sin is, therefore,
a portentous anomaly, for which it is impossible to
find a parallel in ordinary human conduct. In vain
had " their sons," the young men of military age,
fallen in battle (Amos iv. 10); the nation had stub
bornly refused to see in such disasters a sign of
Iahvah's displeasure, a token of Divine chastisement ;
or rather, while recognising the wrath of heaven, they
had obstinately persisted m believing in false explana
tions of its motive, and refused to admit that the purpose
of it was their religious and moral amendment And
not only had the nation refused warning, and despised
instruction, and defeated the purposes of the Divine
discipline. They had slain their spiritual monitors,
the prophets, with the sword ; the prophets who had
founded upon the national disasters their rebukes 01
national sin, and their earnest calls to penitence and
reform(i Kings xix. 10; Neh. ix. 26; St. Matt, xxiii. 37).
And so when at last the long deferred judgment arrived,

ii.l-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN TBE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 103
it found a political system ready to go to pieces
through the feebleness and corruption of the ruling
classes ; a religious system, of which the spirit had long
since evaporated, and which simply survived in the
interests of a venal priesthood, and its intimate allies,
who made a trade of prophecy; and a kingdom and
people ripe for destruction.
At the thought of this crowning outrage, the prophet
cannot restrain his indignation. " Generation that ye
are ! " he exclaims, " behold the word of the Lord.
Is it a wilderness that I have been to Israel, or a land
of deepest gloom ? " Have I been a thankless, barren
soil, returning nothing for your culture ? The question
is more pointed in Hebrew than in English; for the
same term (lis 'abad) means both to till the ground,
and to serve and worship God. We have thus an
emphatic repetition of the remonstrance with which
the address opens : lahweh has not been unmindful of
Israel's service ; Israel has been persistently ungrateful
for Iahvah's gracious love. The cry " We are free 1 "
(tiTi) implies that they had broken away from a
painful yoke and a burdensome service (cf. ver. 20) ;
the yoke being that of the Moral Law, and the service
that perfect freedom which consists in subjection to
Divine Reason. Thus sin always triumphs in casting
away man's noblest prerogative ; in trampling under
foot that loyalty to the higher ideal which is the bridal
adornment and the peculiar glory of the soul.
Why hurriest thou to seek thy love ? (Lit. why dost
thou make good thy way? somewhat as we say, "to
make good way with a thing") (ver. 33). The key
to the meaning here is supplied by ver. 36 : Why art
thou in such haste to change thy way ? In (Of) Egvpl
also thou shall be disappointed, as thou wert in Assyria.

104 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

The "way" is that which leads to Egypt; and the
" love " is that apostasy from lahvah which invari
ably accompanies an alliance with foreign peoples
(ver. 1 8). If you go to Assyria, you "drink the
waters of the Euphrates," i.e., you are exposed to all
the malign influences of the heathen land. Elsewhere,
also (iv. 30), Jeremiah speaks of the foreign peoples,
whose connexion Israel so anxiously courted, as her
" lovers " ; and the metaphor is a common one in the
prophets. The words which follow are obscure. Therefore
the evil things also hast thou taught thy ways. What
" evil things " ? Elsewhere the term denotes misfor
tunes, calamities (Lam. iii. 38) ; and so probably here
(cf. iii. S). The sense seems to be : Thou hast done
evil, and in so doing hast taught Evil to dog thy steps !
The term evil obviously suggests the two meanings of
sin and the punishment of sin ; as we say, " Be sure
your sin will find you out ! " Ver. 34 explains what
was the special sin that followed and clung to Israel :
Also, in thy skirts — the borders of thy garments —
are they (the evil things) found, viz., the life-blood
of innocent helpless ones; not that thou didst find
them house-breaking, and so hadst excuse for slaying
them (Exod. xxii. 2) ; but for all these warnings or,
because of all these apostasies and dallyings with
the heathen, which they denounced (cf. iii. 7), thou
slewest them. The murder of the prophets (ver. 30)
was the unatoned guilt which clung to the skirts of
Israel. And thou saidst, Certainly I am absolved! Surely
His wrath is turned away from me I Behold I wilt
reason with thee, because thou sayest, I sinned not/
(ver. 35). This is what the people said when they

ti.l-iii.5.] TBE TRUST IN TBE SBADOW OF EGYPT, loj
murdered the prophets. They, and doubtless theii
false guides, regarded the national disasters as so much
atonement for their sins. They believed that Iahvah's
wrath had exhausted itself in the infliction of what they
had already endured, and that they were now absolved
from their offences. The prophets looked at the matter
differently. To them, national disasters were warnings
of worse to follow, unless the people would take them
in that sense, and turn from their evil ways. The
people preferred to think that their account with
lahvah had been balanced and settled by their mis
fortunes in war (ver. 30). Hence they slew those who
never wearied of affirming the contrary, and threatening
further woe, as false prophets (Deut. xviii. 20). The
saying, " I sinned not ! " refers to these cruel acts ;
they declared themselves guiltless in the matter of
slaying the prophets, as if their blood was on their own
heads. The only practical issue of the national troubles
was that instead of reforming, they sought to enter
into fresh alliances with the heathen, thus, from the
point of view of the prophets, adding sin to sin. Why
art thou in such haste to change thy way? (i.e. thy
course of action, thy foreign policy). Through Egypt
also shalt thou be shamed, as thou hast been shamea
through Assyria. Out of this affair also (or, from
him, as the country is perhaps personified as a lover
of Judah ;) shall thou go forth with thine hands upon
thine head (in token of distress, 2 Sam. xiii. 19 :
Tamar); for lahvah hath rejected the objects of thy
trust, so that thou canst not be successful regarding
them (w. 36, 37). The Egyptian alliance, like the
former one with Assyria, was destined to bring nothing
but shame and confusion to the Jewish people. The
prophet urges past experience of similar undertakings,

io6 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
in the hope of deterring the politicians of the day from
their foolish enterprise. But all that they had learnt
from the failure and loss entailed by their intrigues
with one foreign power was, that it was expedient to
try another. So they made haste to " change their
way," to alter the direction of their policy from Assyria
to Egypt. King Hezekiah had renounced his vassalage
to Assyria, in reliance, as it would seem, on the support
of Taharka, king of Egypt and Ethiopia (2 Kings
xviii. 7 ; cf. Isa. xxx. 1-5) ; and now again the nation
was coquetting with the same power. As has been
stated, an Egyptian force lay at this time on the con
fines of Judah, and the prophet may be referring to
friendly advances of the Jewish princes towards its
leaders. In the Hebrew, ch. iii. opens with the word "saying"
(ibN?). No real parallel to this can be found else
where, and the Sept. and Syriac omit the term.
Whether we follow these ancient authorities, and do
the same, or whether we prefer to suppose that
the prophet originally wrote, as usually, "And the
Word of lahvah came unto me, saying," will not
make much difference. One thing is clear; the
division of the chapters is in this instance erroneous,
for the short section, iii. 1-5, obviously belongs to
and completes the argument of ch. ii. The state
ment of ver. 37, that Israel will not prosper in the
negotiations with Egypt, is justified in iii. 1 by the
consideration that prosperity is an outcome of the
Divine favour, which Israel has forfeited. The rejec
tion of Israel's " confidences " implies the rejection of
the people themselves (vii. 29). If a man divorce his
wife and she go away from him (WND de chez lut), and
become another man's, doth he (her former husband)

ii. l-iii.5.] THE TRUST IN TBE SHADOW OF EGYPT. 107
return unto her again ? Would not that land be
utterly polluted? It is the case contemplated in the
Book of the Law (Deut. xxiv. 1-4), the supposition
being that the second husband may divorce the woman,
01 that the bond between them may be dissolved by
bis death. In either contingency, the law forbade
reunion with the former husband, as "abomination
before lahvah ; " and David's treatment of his ten
wives, who had been publicly wedded by his rebel son
Absalom, proves the antiquity of the usage in this
respect (2 Sam. xx. 3). The relation of Israel to
lahvah is the relation to her former husband of the
divorced wife who has married another. If anything
it is worse. And thou, thou hast played the harlot
with many paramours ; and shalt thou return unto Me?
saith lahvah. The very idea of it is rejected with
indignation. The Author of the law will not so
flagrantly break the law. (With the Heb. form of the
question, cf. the Latin use of the infin. " Mene incepto
desistere victam ? ") The details of the unfaithfulness
of Israel — the proofs that she belongs to others and
not to lahvah — are glaringly obvious ; contradiction
is impossible. Lift up thine eyes upon the bare fells,
and see! cries the prophet ; where hast thou not been
forced ? By the roadsides thou safest for them like a
Bedawi in the wilderness, and thou pollutedst the land
with thy whoredom and with thine evil (Hos. vi. 13). On
every hill-top the evidence of Judah's sinful dalliance
with idols was visible; in her eagerness to consort
with the false gods, the objects of her infatuation,
she was like a courtesan looking out for paramours
by the wayside (Gen. xxxviii. 14), or an Arab lying
in wait for the unwary traveller in the desert
(There may be a reference to the artificial bamoth

ro8 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
or " high places " erected at the top of the streets, on
which the wretched women, consecrated to the shameful
rites of the Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth, were wont to
sit plying their trade of temptation : 2 Kings xxiii. 8 ;
Ezek. xvi. 25). We must never forget that, repulsive
and farfetched as these comparisons of an apostate
people to a sinful woman may seem to us, the ideas
and customs of the time made them perfectly apposite.
The worship of the gods of Canaan involved the prac
tice of the foulest impurities ; and by her revolt from
lahvah, her lord and husband, according to the
common Semitic conception of the relation between a
people and their god, Israel became a harlot in fact as
well as in figure. The land was polluted with her
"whoredoms," i.e., her worship of the false gods, and
her practice of their vile rites ; and with her " evil," as
instanced above (ii. 30, 35) in the murder of thost
who protested against these things (Num. xxxv.
33; Ps. cvi. 38). As a punishment for these grav(
offences, the showers were withholden, and the spring
rains fell not; but the merciful purpose of this Divini;
chastisement was not fulfilled ; the people were not
stirred to penitence, but rather hardened in their sins :
but thou hadst a harlot's forehead; thou refusedst to
to be made ashamed ! And now the day of grace is
past, and repentance comes too late. Hast thou not
but now called unto Me, My Father ! Friend of my
vouth wert Thou? Will He retain His wrath for ever?
or keep it without end? (w. 3, 5). The reference ap
pears to be to the external reforms accomplished by
the young king Josiah in his twelfth year — the year
previous to the utterance of this prophecy; when,
as we read in 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3, " He began to purge
Judab and Jerusalem from the high places, and the

B.i-iu.5.] THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT, log
Asherim, and the carven images, and the molten
images." To all appearance, it was a return of the
nation to its old allegiance ; the return of the rebellious
child to its father, of the erring wife to the husband of
her youth. By those two sacred names which in her
inexcusable fickleness and ingratitude she had lavished
upon stocks and stones, Israel now seemed to be in
voking the relenting compassion of her alienated God
(ii. 27, ii. 2). But apart from the doubt attaching
to the reality of reformations to order, carried out in
obedience to a royal decree ; apart from the question
whether outward changes so easily and rapidly accom
plished, in accordance with the will of an absolute
monarch, were accompanied by any tokens of a genuine
national repentance ; the sin of Isi ael had gone too far,
and been persisted in too long, for its terrible con
sequences to be averted. Behold — it is the closing
sentence of the address ; a sentence fraught with
despair, and the certainty of coming ruin ; — Behold,
thou hast planned and accomplished the evil (ii. 33);
and thou hast prevailed! The approaches of the people
are met by the assurance that their own plans and
doings, rather than Iahvah's wrath, are the direct
cause of past and prospective adversity ; ill doing is
the mother of ill fortune. Israel inferred from her
troubles that God was angry with her; and she is
informed by His prophet that, had she been bent on
bringing those troubles about, she could not have
chosen any other line of conduct than that which she
had actually pursued. The term "evils" again sug
gests both the false and impure worships, and their
calamitous moral consequences. Against the will of
lahvah, His people had wrought for its own ruin, and
had prevailed.

no THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.

And now let us take a farewell look at the discourse
in its entirety. Beginning at the beginning, the dawn
of his people's life as a nation, the young prophet
declares that in her early days, in the old times of
simple piety and the uncorrupted life of the desert,
Israel had been true to her God ; and her devotion to
her Divine spouse had been rewarded by guidance and
protection. " Israel was a thing consecrated to lahvah;
whoever eat of it was held guilty, and evil came upon
them" (ii. 1-3). This happy state of mutual love and
trust between the Lord and His people began to change
with the great change in outward circumstances involved
in their conquest of Canaan and settlement among the
aboriginal inhabitants as the ruling race. With the
lands and cities of the conquered, the conquerors soon
learned to adopt also their customs of worship, and the
licentious merriment of their sacrifices and festivals.
Gradually they lost all sense of any radical distinction
between the God of Israel and the local deities at whose
ancient sanctuaries they now worshipped Him. Soon
they forgot their debt to lahvah; His gracious and long-
continued guidance in the Arabian steppes, and the
loving care which had established them in the goodly
land of orchards and vineyards and cornfields. The
priests ceased to care about ascertaining and declaring
His will ; the princes openly broke His laws ; and the
popular prophets spoke in the name of the popular
Baals (vv. 4-8). There was something peculiarly
strange and startling in this general desertion of the
national God and Deliverer ; it was unparalleled among
the surrounding heathen races. They were faithful to
gods that were no gods ; Israel actually exchanged her
Glory, the living source of all her strength and well-
being, for a useless, helpless idol. Her behaviour was

ii.l-iii.5.] TBE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT, in
as crazy as if she had preferred a cistern, all cracks and
fissures, that could not possibly hold water, to a never-
failing fountain of sweet spring water (vv. 9-13). The
consequences were only too plain to such as had eyes
to see. Israel, the servant, the favoured slave of
lahvah, was robbed and spoiled. The "lions," the
fierce and rapacious warriors of Assyria had ravaged
his land, and ruined his cities; while Egypt was
proving but a treacherous friend, pilfering and plun
dering on the borders ot Judah. It was all Israel's
own doing; forsaking his God, he had forfeited the
Divine protection. It was his own apostasy, his own
frequent and flagrant revolts which were punishing
him thus. Vain, therefore, utterly vain were his en
deavours to find deliverance from trouble in an alliance
with the great heathen powers of South or North
(w. 14-19). Rebellion was no new feature in the
national history. No ; for of old the people had broken
the yoke of lahvah, and burst the bonds of His ordi
nances, and said, I will not serve ! and on every high
hill, and under every evergreen tree, Israel had bowed
down to the Baalim of Canaan, in spiritual adultery from
her Divine Lord and Husband. The change was a
portent; the noble vine-shoot had degenerated into a
worthless wilding (vv. 20-21). The sin of Israel was
inveterate and ingrained ; nothing could wash out the
stain of it. Denial of her guilt was futile ; the dreadful
rites in the valley of Hinnom witnessed against her.
Her passion for the foreign worships was as insatiable
and headstrong as the fierce lust of the camel or the
wild ass. To protests and warnings her sole reply
was: "It is in vain! I love the strangers, and them
will I follow 1 " The outcome of all this wilful apostasy
was the shame of defeat and disaster, the humiliation

ua THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH
of disappointment, when the helplessness of the stocks
and stones, which had supplanted her Heavenly Father,
was demonstrated by the course of events. Then she
bethought her of the God she had so lightly forsaken,
only to hear in His silence a bitterly ironical reference
to the multitude of her helpers, the gods of her own
creation. The national reverses failed of the effect
intended in the counsels of Providence. Her sons had
fallen in battle ; but instead of repenting of her evil
ways, she slew the faithful prophets who warned her of
the consequences of her misdeeds (w. 20-30). It was
the crowning sin; the cup of her iniquity was full
to overflowing. Indignant at the memory of it, the
prophet once more insists that the national crimes are
what has put misfortune on the track of the nation;
and chiefly, this heinous one of killing the messengers
of God like housebreakers caught in the act ; and then
aggravating their guilt by self-justification, and by
resorting to Egypt for that help, which they despaired
of obtaining from an outraged God. All such negotia
tions, past or present, were doomed to failure before
hand ; the Divine sentence had gone forth, and it was
idle to contend against it (vv. 31-37). Idle also it was
to indulge in hopes of the restoration of Divine favour.
Just as it was not open to a discarded wife to return to
her husband after living with another; so might not
Israel be received back into her former position of the
Bride of Heaven, after she had " played the harlot with
many lovers." Doubtless of late she had given tokens
of remembering her forgotten Lord, calling upon the
Father who had been the guide of her youth, and
deprecating the continuance of His wrath. But the
time was long since past, when it was possible to avert
the evil consequences of her misdoings. She had, as

li. 1-iu.s.] THE TRUST IN THB SHADOW OF EGYPT. 113
it were, steadily purposed and wrought out her own
evils; both her sins and her sufferings past and to
come : the iron sequence could not be broken ; the ruin
she had courted lay before her in the near future : she
had "prevailed." All efforts such as she was now
making to stave it off were like a deathbed repentance ;
in the nature of things, they could not annihilate the
past, nor undo what had been done, nor substitute the
fruit of holiness for the fruit of sin, the reward of faith
fulness and purity for the wages of worldliness, sensu
ality, and forgetfulness of God.
Thus the discourse starts with impeachment, and
ends with irreversible doom. Its tone is comminatory
throughout ; nowhere do we hear, as in other prophecies,
the promise of pardon in return for penitence. Such
preaching was necessary, if the nation was to be
brought to a due sense of its evil ; and the reformation
of the eighteenth of Josiah, which was undoubtedly
accompanied by a considerable amount of genuine
repentance among the governing classes, was in all
likelihood furthered by this and similar prophetic
orations.1

1 Perhaps, too, the immediate object of the prophet was attained,
which was, as Ewald thinks, to dissuade the people from alliance
with Psammitichus, the vigorous monarch who was then reviving
the power and ambition of Egypt. Jeremiah dreaded the effects of
Egyptian influence upon the religion and morals of Judah. Ewald
notes the significant absence of all reference to the enemy from the
north, who appears in all the la>.er pieces,

III.
ISRAEL AND JUDAH; A CONTRAST.
Jeremiah iii. 6-iv. 2,
THE first address of our prophet was throughout of
a sombre cast, and the darkness of its close was
not relieved by a single ray of hope. It was essentially
a comminatory discourse, the purpose of it being to
rouse a sinful nation to the sense of its peril, by a
faithful picture of its actual condition, which was so
different from what it was popularly supposed to be.
The veil is torn aside ; the real relations between Israel
and his God are exposed to view ; and it is seen that
the inevitable goal of persistence in the course. which
has brought partial disasters in the past, is certain
destruction in the imminent future. It is implied, but
not said, that the only thing that can save the nation
is a complete reversal of policies hitherto pursued, in
Church and State and private life ; and it is apparently
taken for granted that the thing implied is no longer
possible. The last word of the discourse was : " Thou
hast purposed and performed the evils, and thou hast
conquered" (iii. 5). The address before us forms a
striking contrast to this dark picture. It opens a door
of hope for the penitent. The heart of the prophet
cannot rest in the thought of the utter rejection of his
people; the harsh and dreary announcement that his

iii. 6-iv 2.] ISRAEL AND JUDAS i A CONTRAST. 115
people's woes are self-caused cannot be his last word.
" His anger was only love provoked to distraction ;
here it has come to itself again," and holds out an
offer of grace first to that part of the whole nation
which needs it most, the fallen kingdom of Ephraim,
and then to the entire people. The all Israel of the
former discourse is here divided into its two sections,
which are contrasted with each other, and then again
considered as a united nation. This feature distin
guishes the piece from that which begins chap. iv. 3,
and which is addressed to "Judah and Jerusalem"
rather than to Israel and Judah, like the one before us.
An outline of the discourse may be given thus. It is
shown that Judah has not taken warning by Iahvah's
rejection of the sister kingdom (6-10); and that
Ephraim may be pronounced less guilty than Judah,
seeing that she had witnessed no such signal example
of the Divine vengeance on hardened apostasy. She
is, therefore, invited to repent and return to her
alienated God, which will involve a return from exile
to her own land; and the promise is given of the
reunion of the two peoples in a restored Theocracy,
having its centre in Mount Zion (11- 19). All Israel
has rebelled against God; but the prophet hears the
cry of universal penitence and supplication ascending to
heaven ; and Iahvah's gracious answer of acceptance
(iii. 20-iv. 2).
The opening section depicts the sin which had
brought ruin on Israel, and Judah's readiness in fol
lowing her example, and refusal to take warning by
her fate. This twofold sin is aggravated by an in
sincere repentance. And lahvah said unto me, in the
days of fosiah the king, Sawest thou what the Turncoat
or Recreant Israel did? she would go up every high

n6 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
hill, and under every evergreen tree, and play the
harlot there. And melhought that after doing all this
she would return to Me; but she returned not; and the
Traitress, her sister Judah saw it. And I1 saw that
when for the very reason that she, the Turncoat Israel,
had committed adultery, I had put her away, and given
her her bill of divorce, the Traitress Judah, her sister,
was not afraid, but she too went off and played the harlot.
And so, through the cry (cf. Gen. iv. IO, xviii. 20 sq.)
of her harlotry (or read 3"i for hp, script, defect, through
her manifold or abounding harlotry) she polluted the
land (flP.OJJl ver. 2), in that she committed adultery
with the Stone' and with the Stock. And yet though
she was involved in all this guilt (lit. and even in all
this. Perhaps the sin and the penalties of it are
identified ; and the meaning is : And yet for all this
liability: cf. Isa. v. 25), the Traitress Judah returned
not unto Me with all her heart (with a whole or un
divided heart, with entire sincerity 2) but in falsehood
saith lahvah. The example of the northern kingdom
is represented as a powerful influence for evil upon
Judah. This was only natural ; for although from the
point of view of religious development Judah is incom
parably the more important of the sister kingdoms;
the exact contrary is the case as regards political power
and predominance. Under strong kings like Omri and
Ahab, or again, Jeroboam II., Ephraim was able to
assert itself as a first-rate power among the surround-

1 Sht saw : Pesh. This may be right. And the Traitress, her
sister Judah, saw it: yea, saw that even because the Turncoat Israel had
committed adultery, I put her away .... And yet the Traitress Judah,
her sister, was not afraid, etc.
1 I Kings il 4, nD^3=Dn2>-^a

a. 6-iv. 2.] ISRAEL AND fUDAB: A CONTRAST. 117
ing principalities ; and in the case of Athaliah, we have
a conspicuous instance of the manner in which Canaanite
idolatry might be propagated from Israel to Judah.
The prophet declares that the sin of Judah was aggra
vated by the fact that she had witnessed the ruin of
Israel, and yet persisted in the same evil courses of
which that ruin was the result. She sinned against
light. The fall of Ephraim had verified the predictions
of her prophets ; yet " she was not afraid," but went
on adding to the score of her own offences, and polluting
the land with her unfaithfulness to her Divine Spouse.
The idea that the very soil of her country was defiled
by Judah's idolatry may be illustrated by reference to
the well-known words of Ps. cvi. 38 : " They shed
innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their
daughters whom they sacrificed unto the idols of
Canaan ; and the land was defiled with the bloodshed."
We may also remember Elohim's word to Cain : " The
voice of thy brother's blood is crying unto Me from the
ground!" (Gen. iv. 10). As Iahvah's special dwelling-
place, moreover, the land of Israel was holy; and
foreign rites desecrated and profaned it, and made it
offensive in His sight. The pollution of it cried to
heaven for vengeance on those who had caused it. To
such a state had Judah brought her own land, and the
very city of the sanctuary; "and yet in all this" —
amid this accumulation of sins and liabilities — she
turned not to her Lord with her whole heart. The
reforms set on foot in the twelfth year of Josiah were
but superficial and half-hearted; the people merely
acquiesced in them, at the dictation of the court, and
gave no sign of any inward change or deep-wrought
repentance. The semblance without the reality of
Borrow for sin is but a mockery of heaven, and a heinous

Ii8 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
aggravation of guilt. Hence the sin of Judah was of a
deeper dye than that which had destroyed Israel. And
lahvah said unto me, The Turncoat or Recreant Israel
hath proven herself more righteous than the Traitress Judah.
Who could doubt it, considering that almost all the
prophets had borne their witness in Judah ; and that,
in imitating her sister's idolatry, she had resolutely
closed her eyes to the light of truth and reason ? On
this ground, that Israel has sinned less, and suffered
more, the prophet is bidden to hold out to her the hope
of Divine mercy. The greatness of her ruin, as well
as the lapse of years since the fatal catastrophe, might
tend to diminish in the prophet's mind the impression
of her guilt ; and his patriotic yearning for the restora
tion of the banished Ten Tribes, who, after all, were the
near kindred of Judah, as well as the thought that they
had borne their punishment, and thus atoned for their
sin (Isa. xl. 2), might cooperate with the desire ot
kindling in his own countrymen a noble rivalry of
repentance, in moving the prophet to obey the impulse
which urged him to address himself to Israel. Go
thou, and ay these words northward (toward the deso
late land of Ephraim), and say: Return, Turncoat or
Recreant Israel, saith lahvah; I will not let My counten
ance fall at the sight of you (lit. against you, cf. Gen
lv- 5) J for I am loving, saith lahvah, I keep not
anger for ever. Only recognise thy guilt, that thou
hast rebelled against lahvah thy God, and hast scattered
(or lavished: Ps. cxii. 9) thy ways to the strangers
(hast gone now in this direction, now in that, wor
shipping first one idol and then another; cf. ii. 23;
and so, as it were, dividing up and dispersing thy
devotion) under every evergreen tree; but My voice
ye have not obeyed, saith lahvah. The invitation,

Ui.6-iv.2.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 119
"Return Apostate Israel ! " — V ms>» rait?1 — contains a
play on words, which seems to suggest that the exile
of the Ten Tribes was voluntary, or self-imposed ; as if,
when they turned their backs upon their true God,
they had deliberately made choice of the inevitable
consequence of that rebellion, and made up their minds
to abandon their native land. So close is the connexion,
in the prophet's view, between the misfortunes of his
people and their sins.
Return, ye apostate children (again there is a play on
words — DUniB' D^3 131B> — Turn back, ye back-turning
sons, or ye sons that turn the back to Me) saith
lahvah; for it was I that wedded you (ver. 14), and
am, therefore, your proper lord. The expression is
not stranger than that which the great prophet of the
Return addresses to Zion : " Thy sons shall marry
thee." But perhaps we should rather compare another
passage of the book of Isaiah, where it is said :
" lahvah, our God ! other lords beside Thee have had
dominion over us" (131^3 Isa. xxvi. 13), and render:
For it is I that will be your lord; or perhaps, For
it is I that have mastered you, and put down your
rebellion by chastisements ; and I will lake you, one of
a city and two of a clan, and will bring you to Zion.
As a " city " is elsewhere spoken of as a " thousand "
(Mic. v. 1), and. a "thousand" (ej!?s) is synonymous
with a " clan " (nnsa'o), as providing a thousand warriors
in the national militia ; it is clear that the promise is
that one or two representatives of each township in
Israel shall be restored from exile to the land of their
fathers. In other words, we have here Isaiah's doc-

1 As if "Turn back, back-turning Israeli" i.«. Thou that turnedst
thy back upon lahvah, and, therefore, upon His pleasant land.

TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

trine of the remnant, which he calls a " tenth " (Isa. vi.
13), and of which he declared that "the survivors of
the house of Judah that remain, shall again take root
downwards, and bear fruit upwards" (Isa. xxxvii. 31).
And as Zion is the goal of the returning exiles, we
may see, as doubtless the prophets saw, a kind of
anticipation and foreshadowing of the future in the
few scattered members of the northern tribes of Asher,
Manasseh and Zebulun, who "humbled themselves,"
and accepted Hezekiah's invitation to the passover
(2 Chron. xxx. 11, 18); and, again, in the authority
which Josiah is said to have exercised in the land of the
Ten Tribes (2 Chron. xxxiv. 6 ; cf. 9). We must bear
in mind that the prophets do not contemplate the
restoration of every individual of the entire nation ; but
rather the return of a chosen few, a kind of " firstfruits "
of Israel, who are to be a "holy seed" (Isa. vi. 13),
from which the power of the Supreme will again build
up the entire people according to its ancient divisions.
So the holy Apostle in the Revelation hears that twelve
thousand of each tribe are sealed as servants of God
(Rev. vii.).
The happy time of restoration will also be a time of
reunion. The estranged tribes will return to their old
allegiance. This is implied by the promise, " I will
bring you to Zion," and by that of the next verse :
And I will give you shepherds after My own heart;
and they shall shepherd you with knowledge and wis
dom. Obviously, kings of the house of David are
meant ; the good shepherds of the future are contrasted
with the " rebellious " ones of the past (ii. 8). It is
the promise of Isaiah (i. 26) : " And I will restore thy
judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the
beginning." In this connexion, we may recall the fact

Hi, 6-iv. 3.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 121
that the original schism in Israel was brought about
by the folly of evil shepherds. The coming King
will resemble not Rehoboam but David. Nor is this
all ; for // shall come to pass, when ye multiply and
become fruitful in the land, in those days, saith lahvah,
men shall not say any more, The ark of the covenant
of lahvah, (or, as LXX., of the Holy One of Israel;
nor shall it (the ark) come to mind; nor shall men
remember it, nor miss it; nor shall it be made any
more (pointing rtE>i£ although the verb may be im
personal. I do not understand why Hitzig asserts
"Man wird keine andere machen (Movers) oder; sie
wird nicht wieder gemacht (Ew., Graf) als ware nicht
von der geschichtlichen Lade die Rede, sondern von
ihr begrifflich, konnen die Worte nicht bedeuten." But
cf. Exod. xxv. 10; Gen. vi. 14; where the same verb na»i>
is used. Perhaps, however, the rendering of C. B.
Michaelis, which he prefers, is more in accordance with
what precedes : nor shall all that be done any more,
Gen. xxix. 26, xli. 34. But np3 does not mean nach-
forschen: cf. 1 Sam. xx. 6, xxv. 15). In that time
men will call Jerusalem the throne of lahvah; and all
the nations will gather into it (Gen. i. 9), for the name
of lahvah [at Jerusalem : LXX. om. ] ; and they (the
heathen) will no longer follow the stubbornness of their
evil heart (vii. 24 ; Deut. xxix. 19).
In the new Theocracy, the true kingdom of God, the
ancient symbol of the Divine presence will be forgotten
in the realization of that presence. The institution of
the New Covenant will be characterized by an immediate
and personal knowledge of lahvah in the hearts of all
His people (xxxi. 3 1 sq.). The small object in which
past generations had loved to recognise the earthly
throne of the God of Israel, will be replaced by Jerusalem

THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

itself, the Holy City, not merely of Judah, nor of Judah
and Israel, but of the world. Thither will all the nations
resort " to the name of lahvah ; " ceasing henceforth
" to follow the hardness (or callousness) of their own
evil heart." That the more degraded kinds of heathen
ism have a hardening effect upon the heart ; and that
the cruel and impure worships of Canaan especially
tended to blunt the finer sensibilities, to enfeeble the
natural instincts of humanity and justice, and to confuse
the sense of right and wrong, is beyond question. Only
a heart rendered callous by custom, and stubbornly
deaf to the pleadings of natural pity, could find genuine
pleasure in the merciless rites of the Molech- worship;
and they who ceased to follow these inhuman supersti
tions, and sought light and guidance from the God of
Israel, might well be said to have ceased " to walk after
the hardness of their own evil heart."1 The more
repulsive features of heathenism chime in too well with
the worst and most savage impulses of our nature ; they
exhibit too close a conformity with the suggestions and
demands of selfish appetite ; they humour and encourage
the darkest passions far too directly and decidedly, to
allow us to regard as plausible any theory of their
origin and permanence which does not recognise in
them at once a cause and an effect of human depravity
(cf. Rom. i.).
The repulsiveness of much that was associated with
the heathenism with which they were best acquainted,
did not hinder the prophets of Israel from taking a
deep spiritual interest in those who practised and were
enslaved by it Indeed, what has been called the
universalism of the Hebrew seers — their emancipation
1 Cf. also the Arabic *,jipravus, *£ pravitas, with the Hebrew
term. fr ^

iii 6-iv 2.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 123
in this respect from all local and national limits and
prejudices — is one of the clearest proofs of their divine
mission. Jeremiah only reiterates what Micah and
Isaiah had preached before him ; that " in the latter
days the mountain of Iahvah's House shall be estab
lished as the chief of mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills ; and all the nations will flow unto it "
(Isa. ii. 2). In ch. xvi. 19 sq. our prophet thus expresses
himself upon the same topic. " lahvah, my strength
and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of dis
tress ! unto Thee shall nations come from the ends of
the earth, and shall say : Our forefathers inherited
nought but a lie, vanity, and things among which is no
helper. Shall a man make him gods, when they are no
gods ? " How largely this particular aspiration of the
prophets of the seventh and eighth centuries B.C. has
since been fulfilled in the course of the ages is a matter
of history. The religion which was theirs has, in the
new shape given it by our Lord and His Apostles,
become the religion of one heathen people after another,
until at this day it is the faith professed, not only in
the land of its origin, but by the leading nations of the
world. So mighty a fulfilment of hopes, which at the
time of their first conception and utterance could only
be regarded as the dreams of enthusiastic visionaries,
justifies those who behold and realize it in the joyful
belief that the progress of true religion has not been
maintained for six and twenty centuries to be arrested
now ; and that these old-world aspirations are destined
to receive a fulness of illustration in the triumphs of
the future, in the light of which the brightest glories of
the past will pale and fade away.
The prophet does not say, with a prophet of the New
Covenant, that all Israel shall be saved (Rom. xi. 26).

1*4 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
We may, however, fairly interpret the latter of the true
Israel, the remnant according to the election of grace,
rather than of Israel according lo Ihe flesh, and so both
will be at one, and both at variance with the unspiritual
doctrine of the Talmud, that All Israel, irrespective of
moral qualifications, will have a portion in the world to
come, on account of the surpassing merits of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, and even of Abraham alone (cf. St.
Matt. iii. 9; St. John viii. 33).
The reference to the ark of the covenant in the
sixteenth verse is remarkable upon several grounds.
This sacred symbol is not mentioned among the spoils
which Nebuzaradan (Nabti-zir-iddin) took from the
temple (Iii. 17 sqq.); nor is it specified among the trea
sures appropriated by Nebuchadrezzar at the surrender
of Jehoiachin. The words of Jeremiah prove that it
cannot be included among " the vessels of gold " which
the Babylonian conqueror "cut in pieces" (2 Kings
xxiv. 13). We learn two facts about the ark from the
present passage : (1) that it no longer existed in the
days of the prophet ; (2) that people remembered it
with regret, though they did not venture to replace the
lost original by a new substitute. It may well have
been destroyed by Manasseh, the king who did his
utmost to abolish the religion of lahvah. However
that may be, the point of the prophet's allusion consists
in the thought that in the glorious times of Messianic
rule the idea of holiness will cease to be attached to
things, for it will be realized in persons ; the symbol
will become obsolete, and its name and memory will
disappear from the minds and affections of men, because
the fact symbolized will be universally felt and per
ceived to be a present and self-evident truth. In that
great epoch of Israel's reconciliation, all nations will

Iii. 6-iv. 2.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 12 j
recognise in Jerusalem tlie throne of lahvah, the centre
of light and source of spiritual truth ; the Holy City of
the world. Is it the earthly or the heavenly Jerusalem
that is meant ? It would seem, the former only was
present to the consciousness of the prophet, for he
concludes his beautiful interlude of promise with the
words : In those days will the house of Judah walk beside
the house of Israel; and they will come together from the
land of the North [and from all the lands : LXX add.
cf. xvi. 15] unto the land that I caused your fathers to
possess.. Like Isaiah (xi. 12 sqq.) and other prophets
his predecessors, Jeremiah forecasts for the whole
repentant and united nation a reinstatement in their
ancient temporal rights, in the pleasant land from
which they had been so cruelly banished for so many
weary years.
"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." If,
when we look at the whole course of subsequent events,
when we review the history of the Return and of the
narrow religious commonwealth which was at last,
after many bitter struggles, established on mount Sion ;
when we consider the form which the religion of lahvah
assumed in the hands of the priestly caste, and the
half-religious, half-political sects, whose intrigues and
conflicts for power constitute almost all we know of
their period; when we reflect upon the character of
the entire post-exilic age down to the time of the birth
of Christ, with its worldly ideals, its fierce fanati
cisms, its superstitious trust in rites and ceremonies;
if, when we look at all this, we hesitate to claim that
the prophetic visions of a great restoration found
fulfilment in the erection of this petty state, this paltry
edifice, upon the ruins of David's capital ; shall we lay
ourselves open to the accusation that we recognise no

126 THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
element of truth in the glorious aspirations of the
prophets ? I think not.
After all, it is clear from the entire context that
these hopes of a golden time to come are not inde
pendent of the attitude of the people towards lahvah.
They will only be realized, if the nation shall truly
repent of the past, and turn to Him with the whole
heart. The expressions "at that time," "in those
days" (vv. 17, 18), are only conditionally deter
minate ; they mean the happy time of Israel's repentance,
if such a lime should ever come. From this glimpse of
glorious possibilities, the prophet turns abruptly to the
dark page of Israel's actual history. He has, so to
speak, portrayed in characters of light the development
as it might have been ; he now depicts the course it
actually followed. He restates Iahvah's original claim
upon Israel's grateful devotion (ii. 2), putting these
words into the mouth of the Divine Speaker : And I
indeed thought, How will I set thee among the sons (of the
Divine household), and give thee a lovely land, a heritage
the fairest among the nations ! And melhought, thou
wouldst call Me ' My Father,' and wouldst not turn back
from following Me. lahvah had at the outset adopted
Israel, and called him from the status of a groaning
bondsman to the dignity of a son and heir. When Israel
was a child, He had loved him, and called His son out
of Egypt (Hos. xi. 1), to give him a place and a heritage
among nations. It was lahvah, indeed, who originally
assigned their holdings to all the nations, and separated
the various tribes of mankind, fixing the territories of
peoples, according to the number of the sons of God (Deut.
xxxii. 8 Sept.). If He had brought up Israel from
Egypt, He had also brought up the Philistines from
Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir (Amos ix. 7).

iii. 6-iv. 2.] ISRAEL AND JUDAS: A CONTRAST. XV]

But He had adopted Israel in a more special sense,
which may be expressed in St. Paul's words, who
makes it the chief advantage of Israel above the
nations that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
(Rom. iii. 2). What nobler distinction could have been
conferred upon any race of men than that they should
have been thus chosen, as Israel actually was chosen,
not merely in the aspirations of prophets, but as a
matter of fact in the divinely-directed evolution of
human history, to become the heralds of a higher
truth, the hierophants of spiritual knowledge, the
universally recognised interpreters of God ? Such a
calling might have been expected to elicit a response
of the warmest gratitude, the most enthusiastic loyalty
and unswerving devotion. But Israel as a nation did
not rise to the level of these lofty prophetic views of
its vocation ; it knew itself to be the people of lahvah,
but it failed to realize the moral significance of that
privilege, and the moral and spiritual responsibilities
which it involved. It failed to adore lahvah as the
Father, in the only proper and acceptable sense of that
honourable name, the sense which restricts its appli
cation to one sole Being. Heathenism is blind and
irrational as well as profane and sinful ; and so it does
not scruple to confer such absolutely individual titles
as " God " and " Father " upon a multitude of imaginary
powers. Methought thou wouldst call Me 'My Father,' and
wouldst not turn back from following Me. J5«/(Zeph. iii.
7) a woman is false to her fere; so were ye false to Me,
O house of Israel, saith lahvah. The Divine intention
toward Israel, God's gracious design for her everlasting
good, God's expectation of a return for His favour, and
bow that design was thwarted so far as man could

128 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
thwart it, and that expectation disappointed hitherto;
such is the import of the last two verses (19, 20).
Speaking in the name of God, Jeremiah represents
Israel's past as it appears to God. He now proceeds
to shew dramatically, or as in a picture, how the
expectation may yet be fulfilled, and the design
realized. Having exposed the national guilt, he
supposes his remonstrance to have done its work, and
he overhears the penitent people pouring out its heart
before God. Then a kind of dialogue ensues between
the Deity and His suppliants. Hark! upon the bare
hills is heard the weeping of the supplications of the
sons of Israel, that they perverted their way, forgot
lahvah their God. The treeless hill-tops had been the
scene of heathen orgies miscalled worship. There the
rites of Canaan performed by Israelites had insulted
the God of heaven (vv. 2 and 6). Now the very
places which witnessed the sin, witness the national
remorse and confession. (The ' high-places ' are not
condemned even by Jeremiah as places of worship,
but only as places of heathen and illicit worships.
The solitude and quiet and purer air of the hill-tops,
their unobstructed view of heaven and suggestive
nearness thereto, have always made them natural
sanctuaries both for public rites and private prayer and
meditation : cf. 2 Sam. xv. 32 ; and especially St. Luke
vi. 12.
In this closing section of the piece (iii. 19 — iv. 2)
' Israel ' means not the entire people, but the northern
kingdom only, which is spoken of separately also in iii.
6-18, with the object of throwing into higher relief the
heinousness of Judah's guilt. Israel — the northern
kingdom — was less guilty than Judah, for she had no
warning example, no beacon-light upon her path, such

IIi.6-iv.a.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 129
as her own fall afforded to the southern kingdom ; and
therefore the Divine compassion is more likely to be
extended to her, even after a century of ruin and
banishment, than to her callous, impenitent sister.
Whether at the time Jeremiah was in communication
with survivors of the northern Exile, who were faithful
to the God of their fathers, and looked wistfully toward
Jerusalem as the centre of the best traditions and the
sole hope of Israelite nationality, cannot now be deter
mined. The thing is not unlikely, considering the
interest which the prophet afterwards took in the
Judean exiles who were taken to Babylon with Jehoiachin
(chap, xxix.) and his active correspondence with their
leaders. We may also remember that " divers of
Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves "
and came to keep passover with king Hezekiah at
Jerusalem. It cannot, certainly, be supposed, with any
show of reason, that the Assyrians either carried away
the entire population of the northern kingdom, or
exterminated all whom they did not carry away. The
words of the Chronicler who speaks of " a remnant . . .
escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria," are
themselves perfectly agreeable to reason and the nature
of the case, apart from the consideration that he had
special historical sources at his command (2 Chron.
xxx. 6, 11). We know that in the Maccabean and
Roman wars the rocky fastnesses of the country were
a refuge to numbers of the people, and the history of
David shews that this had been the case from time
immemorial (cf. Judg. vi. 2). Doubtless in this way
not a few survived the Assyrian invasions and the
destruction of Samaria (b.c. 721). But to return to
the text. After the confession of the nation that they
have perverted their way (that is, their mode of worship,
0

130 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
by adoring visible symbols of lahvah, and associating
with Him as His compeers a multitude of imaginary
gods, especially the local Baalim, ii. 23, and Ashtaroth),
the prophet hears another voice, a voice of Divine
invitation and gracious promise, responsive to peni
tence and prayer: Return, ye apostate sons, let Me
heal your apostasies ! or If ye return, ye apostate sons, 1
will heal your apostasies ! It is an echo of the ten
derness of an older prophet (Hos. xiv. 1, 4). And
the answer of the penitents quickly follows : Behold
us, we are come unto Thee, for Thou art lahvah our
God. The voice that now calls us, we know by its
tender tones of entreaty, compassion and love to be the
voice of lahvah our own God ; not the voice of sensual
Chemosh, tempting to guilty pleasures and foul im
purities, not the harsh cry of a cruel Molech, calling
for savage rites of pitiless bloodshed. Thou, lahvah —
not these nor their fellows — art our true and only God.
Surely, in vain (for nought, bootlessly, 1 Sam. xxv. 21;
chap. v. 2, xvi. 19) on the hills did we raise a din (lit.
'hath one raised'; reading niinp and D^D); surely,
in lahvah our God is the safely of Israel 1 The Hebrew
cannot be original as it now stands in the Masoretic
text, for it is ungrammatical. The changes I have
made will be seen to be very slight, and the sense
obtained is much the same as Ewald's Surely in vain
from the hills is ihe noise, from the mountains (where
every reader must feel that from the mountains is a
forcible-feeble addition which adds nothing to the sense).
We might also perhaps detach the mem from the term
for ' hills,' and connect it with the preceding word, thus
getting the meaning : Surely, for Lies are ihe hills, the
uproar of the mountains 1 (cnn ;iori . . . Dnjji$>) ; that
is to say, the high-places are devoted to delusive non«

iii. 6-iv. 2.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 131
entities, who can do nothing in return for the wild
orgiastic worship bestowed on them ; a thought which
contrasts very well with the second half of the verse :
Surely, in lahvah our God is the safety of Israel!
The confession continues : And as for the Shame —
the shameful idol, the Baal whose worship involved
shameful rites (chap. xi. 13; Hos. ix. 10), and who put
his worshippers to shame, by disappointing them of
help in the hour of their need (ii. 8, 26, 27) — as for the
Shame — in contrast with lahvah, the Safety of Israel,
who gives all, and requires little or nothing of this kind
in return — it devoured the labour of our fathers from our
youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their
daughters. The allusion is to the insatiable greed of
the idol-priests, and the lavish expense of perpetually
recurring feasts and sacrifices, which constituted a
sesuous drain upon the resources of a pastoral and
agricultural community ; and to the bloody rites which,
not content with animal offerings, demanded human
victims for the altars of an appalling superstition. Let
us lie down in our shame, and let our infamy cover us !
for toward lahvah our God we trespassed, we and our
fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and obeyed
not the voice of lahvah our God. A more complete
acknowledgment of sin could hardly be conceived ; no
palliating circumstances are alleged, no excuses devised,
of the kind with which men usually seek to soothe
a disturbed conscience. The strong seductions of
Canaanite worship, the temptation to join in the joyful
merriment of idol-festivals, the invitation of friends
and neighbours, the contagion of example, — all these
extenuating facts must have been at least as well known
to the prophet as to modern critics, but he is expres
sively silent on the point of mitigating circumstances in

133 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH
the case of a nation to whom such light and guidance
had come, as came to Israel. No, he could discern no
ground of hope for his people except in a full and
unreserved admission of guilt, an agony of shame and
contrition before God, a heartfelt recognition of the
truth that from the outset of their national existence
to the passing day they had continually sinned against
lahvah their God and resisted His holy Will.
Finally, to this cry of penitents humbled in the dust,
and owning that they have no refuge from the conse
quences of their sin but in the Divine Mercy, comes
the firm yet loving answer : If thou wilt return, 0 Israel,
saith lahvah, unto Me wilt return, and if thou wilt put
away thine Abominations [out of thy mouth and, LXX.]
out of My Presence, and sway not to and fro (i Kings
xiv. 15), but wilt swear 'By the Life of lahvah I' in
good faith, justice, and righteousness ; then shall the
nations bless themselves by Him, and in Him shall they
glory (iv. I, 2). Such is the close of this ideal dia
logue between God and man. It is promised that if
the nation's repentance be sincere — not half-hearted
like that of Judah (iii. IO ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33) — and if
the fact be demonstrated by a resolute and unwavering
rejection of idol-worship, evinced by the disuse of their
names in oaths, and the expulsion of their symbols
from the Presence, that is, out of the sanctuaries and
domain of lahvah, and by adhering to the Name of
the God of Israel in oaths and compacts of all kinds,
•and by a scrupulous loyalty to such engagements
(Ps. xv. 4; Deut x. 20; Isa. xlviii. 1); then the
ancient oracle of blessing will be fulfilled, and Israel
will become a proverb of felicity, the pride and boast
of mankind, the glorious ideal of perfect virtue and
perfect happiness (Gen. xii. 3; Isa. Ixv. 16). Then,

lit 6-iv. a.] ISRAEL AND JUDAH: A CONTRAST. 133
all the nations will gather together unto Jerusalem for the
Name of lahvah (iii. 17) ; they will recognise in the
religion of lahvah the answer to their highest longings
and spiritual necessities, and will take Israel for what
lahvah intended him to be, their example and priest
and prophet
Jeremiah could hardly have chosen a more extreme
instance for pointing the lesson he had to teach than
the long-since ruined and depopulated kingdom of the
Ten Tribes. Hopeless as their actual condition must
have seemed at the time, he assures his own country
men in Judah and Jerusalem that even yet, if only the
moral requirements of the case were fulfilled, and the
heart of the poor remnant and of the survivors in
banishment aroused to a genuine and permanent repent
ance, the Divine promises would be accomplished in a
people whose sun had apparently set in darkness for
ever. And so he passes on to address his own people
directly in tones of warning, reproof, and menace of
approaching wrath (iv. 3-vi. 30.)

IV.
TBE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD.
Jeremiah iv. 3-vi. 30.
IF we would understand what is written here and
elsewhere in the pages of prophecy, two things
would seem to be requisite. We must prepare ourselves
with some knowledge of the circumstances of the time,
and we must form some general conception of the ideas
and aims of the inspired writer, both in themselves, and
in their relation to passing events. Of the former, a
partial and fragmentary knowledge may suffice, pro
vided it be true so far as it goes ; minuteness of detail is
not necessary to general accuracy. Of the latter, a very
full and complete conception may be gathered from a
careful study of the prophetic discourses.
The chapters before us were obviously composed in
the presence of a grave national danger; and what
that danger was is not left uncertain, as the discourse
proceeds. An invasion of the country appeared to be
imminent ; the rumour of approaching war had already
made itself heard in the capital ; and all classes were
terror-stricken at the tidings.
As usual in such times of peril, the country people
were already abandoning the unwalled towns and
villages, to seek refuge in the strong places of the land,
and, above all, in Jerusalem, which was at once the

iv. 3-vi. 30.] SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 135
capital and the principal fortress of the kingdom. The
evil news had spread far and near ; the trumpet-signal
of alarm was heard everywhere; the cry was, Assemble
yourselves, and let us go into the fenced cities I (iv. 5).
The ground of this universal terror is thus declared :
The lion is gone up from his thicket, and the destroyer
of nations is on his way, is gone forth from his place;
to make thy land a desolation, that thy cities be laid
waste, without inhabitant (ver. 7). A hot blast over
the bare hills in the wilderness, on the road to the
daughter of my people, not for winnowing, nor for cleans
ing; a full blast from (hose hills cometh at My beck
(ver. 11). Lo, like clouds he cometh up, and, like
the whirlwind, his chariots; swifter than vultures are
his horses. Woe unto us! We are verily destroyed
(ver. 13). Besiegers (lit. watchmen, Isa. i. 8) are
coming from the remotest land, and they utter their
ery against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a
field become they against her on every side (vv.
16-17). At the same time, the invasion is still only
a matter of report; the blow has not yet fallen upon
the trembling people. Behold, I am about to bring
upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith
lahvah; an inexhaustible nation it is, a nation of old
time it is, a nation whose tongue thou knowest not,
nor understandest (lit. hearest) what il speaketh. Its
quiver is like an opened grave; they all are heroes.
And it will eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which
thy sons and thy daughters should eat; it will eat up
thy flock and thine herd; it will eat up thy vine and
thy figtree; it will shatter thine embattled cities, wherein
thou art trusting, with the sword (v. 15-17). Thus hath
lahvah said: Lo, a people cometh from a northern land,
and a great nation is awaking from the uttermost parts of

136 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
earth. Bow and lance they hold; savage it is, and
titiless; the sound of them is like the sea, when it
roareth; and on horses they ride; he is arrayed as a man
for battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion. We have
heard the report of him; our hands droop; anguish
hath taken hold of us, throes, like hers that travaileth
(vi. 22 sq). With the graphic force of a keen observer,
who is also a poet, the priest of Anathoth has thus
depicted for all time the collapse of terror which befel
his contemporaries, on the rumoured approach of the
Scythians in the reign of Josiah. And his lyric fervour
carries him beyond this ; it enables him to see with the
utmost distinctness the havoc wrought by these hordes
of savages ; the surprise of cities, the looting of houses,
the flight of citizens to the woods and the hills at the
approach of the enemy ; the desertion of the country
towns, the devastation of fields and vineyards, confusion
and desolation everywhere, as though primeval chaos
had returned ; and he tells it all with the passion and
intensity of one who is relating an actual personal
experience. In my vitals, my vitals, I quake, in the
walls of my heart! My heart is murmuring to me;
I cannot hold my peace; for my soul is listening to the
trumpet-blast, the alarm of war! Ruin on ruin is
cried, for all the land is ravaged; suddenly are my tents
ravaged, my pavilions in a moment! How long must
I see the standards, must I listen to the trumpet-blast?
(iv. 19-21). / look at the earth, aud lo, 'tis chaos:
at the heavens, and their light is no more. I look
at the mountains, and lo, they rock, and all the hills
sway to and fro. I look, and lo, man is no more, and
the birds of the air are gone. I look, and lo, the fruit
ful soil is wilderness, and all the cities of it are over
thrown (iv. 23-26). At the noise of horseman and

iv.3-vi.30.] SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 137
archer all the city is in flight ! They are gone into the
thickets, and up the rocks they have clomb: all the
city is deserted (ver. 29). His eye follows the course
of devastation until it reaches Jerusalem : Jerusalem,
the proud, luxurious capital, now isolated on her hills,
bereft of all her daughter cities, abandoned, even
betrayed, by her foreign allies. And thou, that art
doomed to destruction, what canst thou do? Though
thou clothe thee in scarlet, though thou deck thee with
decking of gold, though thou broaden thine eyes with
henna, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; the lovers
have scorned thee, thy life are tliey seeking} The
"lovers" — the false foreigners — have turned against
her in the time of her need ; and the strange gods,
with whom she dallied in the days of prosperity, can
bring her no help. And now, while she witnesses, but
cannot avert, the slaughter of her children, her shrieks
ring in the prophet's ear : A cry, as of one in travail,
do I hear; pangs as of her that beareth her firstborn ;
the cry of the daughter of Zion, that panlelh, that
spreadeth out her hands : Woe's me ! my soul swooneth
for the slayers ! (w. 30, 31).
Even the strong walls of Jerusalem are no sure
defence ; there is no safety but in flight. Remove your
goods, ye sons of Benjamin, from within Jerusalem !
And in Tekoah (as if Blaston or Blowick or Trumping-
ton) blow a trumpet-blast, and upon Beth-hakke'rem
raise a signal (or beacon) ! for evil hath looked forth
1 The modern singer has well caught the echo of this ancient strain.
" Wilt thou cover thine hair with gold, and with silver thy feet ?
Hast thou taken the purple to fold thee, and made thy mouth sweet?
Behold, when thy face is made bare, he that loved thee shall hate :
Thy lace shall be no more fair at the fall of thy fate."
Atalanla im Cafydm*.

138 THE PROPHECIES OF fEREMIAH.
from the north, and mighty ruin (vi. 1, 2). The two
towns mark the route of the fugitives, making for the
wilderness of the south ; and the trumpet-call, and the
beacon-light, muster the scattered companies at these
rallying points or haltingplaces. The beautiful and
the pampered one will I destroy — the daughter of Sion.
(Perhaps : The beautiful and the pampered woman art
thou like, O daughter of Sion I 3rd fern. sing, in -»'.)
To her come the shepherds and their flocks ; they pitch
the tents upon her round about; they graze each at
his own side (i.e. on the ground nearest him). The
figure changes, with lyric abruptness, from the fair
woman, enervated by luxury (ver. 2) to the fair
pasture-land, on which the nomad shepherds encamp,
whose flocks soon eat the herbage down, and leave
the soil stripped bare (ver. 3); and then, again, to
an army beleaguering the fated city, whose cries oi
mutual cheer, and of impatience at all delay, the
poet-prophet hears and rehearses. Hallow ye war
against her! Arise ye, let us go up (to the assault)
at noontide! Unhappy we! the day hath turned; the
shadows of eventide begin to lengthen I Arise ye, ana
let us go up in the night, lo destroy her palaces I
(w. 4, 5)-
As a fine example of poetical expression, the dis
course obviously has its own intrinsic value. The
author's power to sketch with a few bold strokes the
magical effect of a disquieting rumour ; the vivid force
with which he realizes the possibilities of ravage and
ruin which are wrapped up in those vague, uncertain
tidings ; the pathos and passion of his lament over his
stricken country, stricken as yet to his perception only;
the tenderness of feeling; the subtle sweetness of
language ; the variety of metaphor ; the light of imagi-

iv.3-vi.30-] SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 139
nation illuminating the whole with its indefinable
charm ; all these characteristics indicate the presence
and power of a master-singer. But with Jeremiah, as
with his predecessors, the poetic expression of feeling
is far from being an end in itself. He writes with a
purpose to which all the endowments of his gifted
nature are freely and resolutely subordinated. He
values his powers as a poet and orator solely as instru
ments which conduce to an efficient utterance of the
will of lahvah. He is hardly conscious of these gifts
as such. He exists to " declare in the house of Jacob
and to publish in Judah " the word of the Lord.
It is in this capacity that he now comes forward, and
addresses his terrified countrymen, in terms not calcul
ated to allay their fears with soothing suggestions of
comfort and reassurance, but rather deliberately chosen
with a view to heightening those fears, and deepening
them to a sense of approaching judgment. For, after all,
it is not the rumoured coming of the Scythian hordes
that impels him to break silence. It is his consuming
sense of the moral degeneracy, the spiritual degradation
of his countrymen, which flames forth into burning
utterance. Whom shall I address and adjure, that they
may hear ? Lo, their ear is uncircumcised, and they
cannot hearken ; lo, the word of lahvah hath become to
them a reproach; they delight not therein. And of the
fury of lahvah I am full; I am weary of holding it in.
Then the other voice in his heart answers : Pour
thou it forth upon the child in the street, and upon the
company of young men together! (vi. 10, 11). It is
the righteous indignation of an offended God that
wells up from his heart, and overflows at his lips,
and cries woe, irremediable woe, upon the land he
loves better than his own life.

140 THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
He begins with encouragement and persuasion, but
his tone soon changes to denunciation and despair
(iv. 3 sq.). Thus hath lahvah said to the men of Judah
and to Jerusalem, Break you up the fallows, and sow
not into thorns ! Circumcise yourselves to lahvah, and
remove the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah,
and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem! lest My fury come
forth like fire, and burn with none lo quench it, because
of the evil of your doings. Clothed with the Spirit,
as Semitic speech might express it, his whole soul
enveloped in a garment of heavenly light — a magical
garment whose virtues impart new force as well as
new light — the prophet sees straight to the heart of
things, and estimates with God-given certainty the real
state of his people, and the moral worth of their seeming
repentance. The first measures of Josiah's reforming
zeal have been inaugurated ; at least within the limits
of the capital, idolatry in its coarser and more repellent
forms has been suppressed ; there is a shew of return
to the God of Israel. But the popular heart is still
wedded to the old sanctuaries, and the old sensuous
rites of Canaan ; and, worse than this, the priests and
prophets, whose centre of influence was the one great
sanctuary of the Book of the Law, the temple at
Jerusalem, have simply taken advantage of the religious
reformation for their own purposes of selfish aggran
disement. From the youngest to the oldest of them, they
all ply the trade of greed; and from prophet to priest,
they all practice lying. And they have repaired the
ruin of [the daughter] of my people in light fashion,
saying, It is well, it is well 1 though it be not well (vi.
13, 14). The doctrine of the one legitimate sanc
tuary, taught with disinterested earnestness by the
disciples of Isaiah, and enforced by that logic of events

hr.3-vi.30J SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. I41
which had demonstrated the feebleness of the local
holy places before the Assyrian destroyers, had now
come to be recognised as a convenient buttress of the
private gains of the Jerusalem priesthood and the venal
prophets who supported their authority. The strong
current of national reform had been utilized for the
driving of their private machinery ; and the sole out
come of the self-denying efforts and sufferings of the
past appeared to be the enrichment of these grasping
and unscrupulous worldlings who sat, like an incubus,
upon the heart of the national church. So long as
money flowed steadily into their coffers, they were
eager enough to reassure the doubting, and to dispel
all misgivings by their deceitful oracle that all was
well. So long as the sacrifices, the principal source of
the priestly revenue, abounded, and the festivals ran
their yearly round, they affirmed that lahweh was
satisfied, and that no harm could befal the people of
His care. This trading in things Divine, to the utter
neglect of the higher obligations of the moral law,
was simply appalling to the sensitive conscience of the
true prophet of that degenerate age. A strange ana
a startling thing it is, that is come lo pass in the land.
The prophets, they have prophesied in the Lie, and the
priests, they tyrannise under their direction; and My
people, they love it thus; and what will ye do for the
issue thereof? (v. 30, 31.) For such facts must
have an issue; and the present moral and spiritual
ruin of the nation points with certainty to impending
ruin in the material and political sphere. The two
things go together ; you cannot have a decline of faith.
a decay of true religion, and permanent outward pros
perity ; that issue is incompatible with the eternal
laws which regulate the life and progress of humanity.

143 The prophecies of Jeremias.
One sits in the heavens, over all things from the
beginning, to whom all stated worship is a hideous
offence when accompanied by hypocrisy and impurity
and fraud and violence in the ordinary relations of life.
What good to me is incense that cometh from Sheba,
and the choice calamus from a far country ? your burnt
offerings (holocausts) are not acceptable, and your
sacrifices are not sweet unto Me. Instead of purchas
ing safety, they will ensure perdition : Therefore thus
hath lahvah said : Lo, I am about to lay for this people
stumblingblocks, and they shall stumble upon them, fathers
and sons together, a neighbour and his friend; and they
shall perish (vi. 20 sq.).
In the early days of reform, indeed, Jeremiah himself
appears to have shared in the sanguine views associated
with a revival of suspended orthodoxy. The tidings
of imminent danger were a surprise to him, as to the
zealous worshippers who thronged the courts of the
temple. So then, after all, "the burning anger of
lahvah was not turned away " by the outward tokens
of penitence, by the lavish gifts of devotion ; this unex
pected and terrifying rumour was a call for the resump
tion of the garb of mourning and for the renewal of
those public fasts which had marked the initial stages
of reformation (iv. 8). The astonishment and the dis
appointment of the man assert themselves against
the inspiration of the prophet, when, contemplating the
helpless bewilderment of kings and princes, and the
stupefaction of priests and prophets in face of the
national calamities, he breaks out into remonstrance
with God. And I said, Alas, O Lord lahvah ! of a
truth, Thou hast utterly beguiled this people and Jeru
salem, saying, It shall be well with you; whereas the
sword will reach to the life. The allusion is to the

iv. 3-vi. 30.] SCYTBIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 143
promises contained in the Book of the Law, the read
ing of which had so powerfully conduced to the move
ment for reform. That book had been the text of
the prophet-preachers, who were most active in that
work ; and the influence of its ideas and language upon
Jeremiah himself is apparent in all his early discourses.
The prophet's faith, however, was too deeply rooted
to be more than momentarily shaken ; and it soon told
him that the evil tidings were evidence not of unfaith
fulness or caprice in lahvah, but of the hypocrisy and
corruption of Israel. With this conviction upon him,
he implores the populace of the capital to substitute an
inward and real for an outward and delusive purifica
tion. Break up the fallows! Do not dream that any
adequate reformation can be superinduced upon the
mere surface of life : Sow not among thorns I Do
not for one moment believe that the word of God can
take root and bear fruit in the hard soil of a heart that
desires only to be secured in the possession of present
enjoyments, in immunity for self-indulgence, covetous
ness, and oppression of the poor. Wash thine heart
from wickedness, O Jerusalem! that thou mayst be
saved. How long shall tlie schemings of thy folly
lodge within thee? For hark! one declareth from
Dan, and proclaimeth folly from the hills of Ephraim
(iv. 14 sq.). The " folly " Qawen) is the foolish han
kering after the gods which are nothing in the world
but a reflexion of the diseased fancy of their wor
shippers; for it is always true that man makes his
god in his own image, when he does make him, and
does not receive the knowledge of him by revelation.
It was a folly inveterate and, as it would seem, here
ditary in Israel, going back to the times of the Judges,
and recalling the story of Micah the Ephraimite and the

144 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
Danites who stole his images. That ancient sin still
cried to heaven for vengeance ; for the apostatizing
tendency, which it exemplified, was still active in the
heart of Israel.1 The nation had "rebelled against" the
Lord, for it was foolish and had never really known
Him ; the people were silly children, and lacked insight ;
skilled only in doing wrong, and ignorant of the way
to do right (iv. 22). Like the things they worshipped,
they had eyes, but saw not ; they had ears, but heard
not. Enslaved to the empty terrors of their own imag
inations, they, who cowered before dumb idols, stood
untrembling in the awful presence of Him whose laws
restrained the ocean within due limits, and upon whose
sovereign will the fall of the rain and increase of the
field depended (v. 21-24). The popular blindness to
the claims of the true religion, to the inalienable rights
of the God of Israel, involved a corresponding and
ever-increasing blindness to the claims of universal
morality, to the rights of man. Competent observers
have often called attention to the remarkable influence
exercised by the lower forms of heathenism in blunting
the moral sense ; and this influence was fully illustrated
in the case of Jeremiah's contemporaries. So complete,
so universal was the national decline that it seemed
impossible to find one good man within the bounds
of the capital. Every aim in life found illustration in
those gay, crowded streets, in the bazaars, in the
palaces, in the places by the gate where law was
administered, except the aim of just and righteous and
1 The second 'awen, however, probably means "trouble," "calamity,"
as in Hab. iii. 7. The Sept. renders irdvog, and this agrees with the
mention of Dan in viii. 16. As Ewald puts it, "from the north of
Palestine the misery that is coming from the further north is already
being proclaimed to all the nations in the south (vi. 18). "

iv. 3-vi. 30.] SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 145
merciful dealing with one's neighbour. God was ignored
or misconceived of, and therefore man was wronged
and oppressed. Perjury, even in the Name of the God
of Israel, whose eyes regard faithfulness and sincerity,
and whose favour is not to be won by professions and
presents ; a self-hardening against both Divine chas
tisement and prophetic admonition ; a fatal inclination
to the seductions of Canaanite worship and the viola
tions of the moral law, which that worship permitted
and even encouraged as pleasing to the gods; these
vices characterized the entire population of Jerusalem
in that dark period. Run ye to and fro in the streets
of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek ye in
the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if indeed
there be one that doeth justice, that seeketh sincerity;
that I may pardon her. And if they say, By the life
of lahvah! even so they swear falsely. lahvah, are not
thine eyes toward sincerity ? Thou smolest them, and they
trembled not; Thou consumedst them, they refused to receive
instruction ; they made their faces harder than a rock,
they refused to repent. And for me, I said (methought),
These are but poor folk; they behave foolishly, because
they know not the way of lahvah, the justice (ver. 1) of
their God: let me betake myself to the great, and speak
with them ; for they at least know the way of lahvah, the
justice of their God: but these with one consent had broken
the yoke, had burst the bonds in sunder (v. 1-5),
Then, as now, the debasement of the standard of
life among the ruling classes was a far more threatening
symptom of danger to the commonwealth than laxity
of principle among the masses, who had never enjoyed
the higher knowledge and more thorough training which
wealth and rank, as a matter of course, confer. If the
crew turn drunken and mutinous, the ship is in un-
10

146 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
questionable peril ; but if they who have the guidance
of the vessel in their hands, follow the vices of those
whom they should command and control, wreck and
ruin are assured.
The profligacy allowed by heathenism, against which
the prophets cried in vain, is forcibly depicted in the
words : Why should I pardon thee ? Thy sons have
forsaken Me, and have sworn by them that are no
gods : though I had bound them (to Me) by oalh,1
they committed (spiritual) adultery, and into the house
of the Fornicatress (the idol's temple, where the harlot
priestess sat for hire) they would flock. Stallions
roaming at large were they; neighing each to his
neighbour's wife. Shall I not punish such offences,
saith lahvah; and shall not My soul avenge herself
on such a nation as this? The cynical contempt of
justice, the fraud and violence of those who were in
haste to become rich, are set forth in the following:
Among My people are found godless men; one watcheth,
as birdcalchers lurk; they have set ihe trap, they catch
men. Like a cage filled with birds, so are their houses
filled with fraud : therefore they are become great, ana
have amassed wealth. They are become fat, they are
sleek; also they pass over (Isa. xl. 27) cases (Ex. xxii. 9,
xxiv. 14 ; cf. also 1 Sam. x. 2) of wickedness — neglect
to judge heinous crimes; the cause they judge not, the
cause of ihe fatherless, to make it succeed; and the right
of the needy they vindicate not (v. 26-28).
She is the city doomed to be punished! she is ah
oppression within. As a spring pourelh forth its waters,
so she pourelh forth her wickedness; violence ana
oppression resound in her; before Me continually is
' With a different point : " When I had fed them to the full " (cf
Hos. xiii 6).

iv. 3-vi. 30.] SCYTHIANS. AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD. 147
sickness and wounds (vi. 6, 7). There would seem tc
be no hope for such a people and such a city. The
prophet, indeed, cannot forget the claims of kindred,
the thousand ties of blood and feeling that bind him
to this perverse and sinful nation. Thrice, even in
this dark forecast of destruction, he mitigates severity
with the promise, yet will I not make a full end. The
door is still left open, on the chance that some at
least may be won to penitence. But the chance was
small. The difficulty was, and the prophet's yearn
ing tenderness towards his people could not blind
him to the fact, that all the lessons of God's providence
were lost upon this reprobate race : They have belied
the Lord, and said, it is not He; neither shall evil
come upon us; neither shall we see sword and famine.
The prophets, they insisted, were wrong both in the
significance which they attributed to occasional calami
ties, and in the disasters, which they announced as
imminent: The prophets will become wind, and the
Word of God is not in them ; so will it turn out with
them. It was, therefore, wholly futile to appeal to
their better judgment against themselves : Thus said
lahvah, Slop on the ways, and consider, and ask after
the eternal paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein, and find rest for your soul: and they said, We
will not walk therein. And I will set over you watch
men (the prophets); hearken ye to the call of the
trumpet ! (the warning note of prophecy) and they said
We will not hearken. From such wilful hardness
and impenitence, disdaining correction and despising
reproof, God appeals to the heathen themselves, and
to the dumb earth, to attest the justice of His sentence
of destruction against this people : Therefore, hear,
O ye nations, and know, and testify what is among

148 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

them ! Hear, 0 earth ! Lo, I am about to bring evil
Upon this people, the fruit of their own devisings,
for unto My words they have not hearkened, and as
for Mine instruction, they have rejected it. Their doom
was inevitable, for it was the natural and necessary
consequence of their own doings : Thine own way and
thine Own deeds have brought about these evils for thee;
this is thine own evil; verily, it is bitter, verily, il reachelh
unto thine heart. The discourse ends with a despairing
glance at the moral reprobation of Israel. An assayer
did I make thee among My people, a refiner (reading
mecnrcf, Mai. iii. 2, 3), that thou mightest know and
assay their kind (lit. way). Jeremiah's call had been to
" sit as a refiner and purifier of silver " in the name
of his God : in other words, to separate the good
elements from the bad in Israel, and to gather around
himself the nucleus of a people " prepared for lahvah."
But his work had been vain. In vain had the prophetic
fire burnt within him ; in vain had the vehemency of
the spirit fanned the flame; the Divine word — that
solvent of hearts — had been expended in vain ; no good
metal could come of an ore so utterly base. They are all
the worst (1 Ki. xx. 43) of rebels (or, deserters to the rebels),
going about with slander; they are brass and iron;
they all deal corruptly.1 The bellows blow; the lead
(used for fining the ore) is consumed by the fire; in vain
do they go on refining (or, does the refiner refine *) ; and
the wicked are not separated. Refuse silver are they
called, for lahvah hath refused them.
1 This term — mashclilthim — is certainly not the plur. of the mash-
chXth, " pitfall " or " trap," of v. 26. The meaning is the same as in
Isa. i. 4. The original force of the root shachath is seen in the
Assyrian shachatu, " to fall down."
* The form — cdrof— is Uke bachon, " assayer," in ver. 27.

V.
POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION.
Jeremiah vii.-x., xxvl
IN the four chapters which we are now to considea
we have what is plainly a finished whole. The
only possible exception (x. 1-16) shall be considered in
its place. The historical occasion of the introductory
prophecy (vii. 1-15), and the immediate effect of its
delivery, are recorded at length in the twenty-sixth
chapter of the book, so that in this instance we are
happily not left to the uncertainties of conjecture. We
are there told that it was in the beginning of the reign
of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, that Jeremiah
received the command to stand in the fore-court of
Iahvah's house, and to declare to all the cities of Judah that
were come to worship there, that unless they repented and
gave ear to Iahvah's servants the prophets, He would
make the temple like Shiloh, and Jerusalem itself a
curse to all the nations of the earth. The substance of
the oracle is there given in briefer form than here, as
was natural, where the writer's object was principally
to relate the issue of it as it affected himself. In
neither case is it probable that we have a verbatim
report of what was actually said, though the leading
thoughts of his address are, no doubt, faithfully
recorded by the prophet in the more elaborate com-

IS" THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
position (chap. vii.). Trifling variations between the
two accounts must not, therefore, be pressed.
Internal evidence suggests that this oracle was
delivered at a time of grave public anxiety, such as
marked the troubled period after the death of Josiah,
and the early years of Jehoiakim. All Judah, or all the
cities of Judah (xxvi. 2), that is to say, the people of
the country towns as well as the citizens of Jerusalem,
were crowding into the temple to supplicate their God
(vii. 2). This indicates an extraordinary occasion, a
national emergency affecting all alike. Probably a
public fast and humiliation had been ordered by the
authorities, on the reception of some threatening news
of invasion. " The opening paragraphs of the address
are marked by a tone of controlled earnestness, by
an unadorned plainness of statement, without passion,
without exclamation, apostrophe, or rhetorical device
of any kind ; which betokens the presence of a danger
which spoke too audibly to the general ear to require
artificial heightening in the statement of it. The
position of affairs spoke for itself" (Hitzig). The very
words with which the prophet opens his message,
Thus said lahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, Make
good your ways and your doings, that I may cause you to
dwell (permanently) in this place ! (ver. 3, cf. ver. 7) prove
that the anxiety which agitated the popular heart and
drove it to seek consolation in religious observances,
was an anxiety about their political stability, about
the permanence of their possession of the fair land of
promise. The use of the expression lahvah Sabaoth
"lahvah (the God) of Hosts" is also significant, as
indicating that war was what the nation feared ; while
the prophet reminds them thus that all earthly powers,
even the armies of heathen invaders, are controlled and

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. f|l
directed by the God of Israel for His own sovereign
purposes. A particular crisis is further suggested by
the warning : Trust ye not to ihe lying words, ' The
Temple of lahvah, the Temple of lahvah, the Temple of
lahvah, is this!' The fanatical confidence in the
inviolability of the temple, which Jeremiah thus
deprecates, implies a time of public danger. A hun
dred years before this time the temple and the city
had really come through a period of the gravest peril,
justifying in the most palpable and unexpected manner
the assurances of the prophet Isaiah. This was
remembered now, when another crisis seemed immi
nent, another trial of strength between the God of
Israel and the gods of the heathen. Only part of the
prophetic teachings of Isaiah had rooted itself in the
popular mind — the part most agreeable to it. The
sacrosanct inviolability of the temple, and of Jerusalem
for its sake, was an idea readily appropriated and
eagerly cherished. It was forgotten that all depended
on the will and purposes of lahvah himself; that the
heathen might be the instruments with which He
executed his designs, and that an invasion of Judah
might mean, not an approaching trial of strength
between His omnipotence and the impotency of the
false gods, but the judicial outpouring of His righteous
wrath upon His own rebellious people.
Jeremiah, therefore, affirms that the popular confi
dence is ill-founded ; that his countrymen are lulled in
a false security ; and he enforces his point, by a plain
exposure of the flagrant offences, which render their
worship a mockery of God.
Again, it may be supposed that the startling word,
Add your burnt-offerings to your (ordinary) offerings,
and eat the flesh (of them) (vii. 21), implies * time of

tS3 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
unusual activity in the matter of honouring the God
of Israel with the more costly offerings of which the
worshippers did not partake, but which were wholly
consumed on the altar ; which fact also might point to
a season of special danger.
And, lastly, the references to taking refuge behind
the walls of 'defenced cities' (viii. 14; x. 17), as we
know that the Rechabites and doubtless most of the
rural populace took refuge in Jerusalem on the approach
of the third and last Chaldean expedition, seem to
prove that the occasion of the prophecy was the first
Chaldean invasion, which ended in the submission of
Jehoiakim to the yoke of Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. 1).
Already the northern frontier had experienced the
destructive onslaught of the invaders, and rumour
announced that they might soon be expected to arrive
before the walls of Jerusalem (viii. 16, 17).
The only other historical occasion which can be
suggested with any plausibility is the Scythian invasion
of Syria-Palestine, to which the previous discourse was
assigned. This would fix the date of the prophecy at
some point between the thirteenth and the eighteenth
years of Josiah (b.c. 629 — 624). But the arguments for
this view do not seem to be very strong in themselves,
and they certainly do not explain the essential identity
of the oracle summarized in chap. xxvi. 1-6, with that
of vii. 1-15. The " undisguised references to the
prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem itself (vii. 17; cf.
30, 31), and the unwillingness of the people to listen
to the prophet's teaching, (vii. 27)," are quite as well
accounted for by supposing a religious or rather an
irreligious reaction under Jehoiakim — which is every
way probable considering the bad character of that
king (2 Kings xxiii. 37; Jer. xxii. 13 sqq.), and the

viL-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 153
serious blow inflicted upon the reforming party by the
death of Josiah ; as by assuming that the prophecy
belongs to the years before the extirpation of idolatry
in the eighteenth year of the latter sovereign.
And now let us take a rapid glance at the salient
points of this remarkable utterance. The people are
standing in the outer court, with their faces turned
toward the court of the priests, in which stood the
holy house itself (Ps. v. 7). The prophetic speaker
stands facing them, " in the gate of the Lord's house,"
the entry of the upper or inner court, the place whence
Baruch was afterwards to read another of his oracles
to the people (xxxvi. 10). Standing here, as it were
between his audience and the throne of lahvah,
Jeremiah acts as visible mediator between them and
their God. His message to the worshippers who
throng the courts of Iahvah's sanctuary is not one of
approval. He does not congratulate them upon their
manifest devotion, upon the munificence of their offer
ings, upon their ungrudging and unstinted readiness
to meet an unceasing drain upon their means. His
message is a surprise, a shock to their self-satisfaction,
an alarm to their slumbering consciences, a menace of
wrath and destruction upon them and their holy place.
His very first word is calculated to startle their self-
righteousness, their misplaced faith in the merit of
their worship and service. Amend your ways and your
doings ! Where was the need of amendment ? they
might ask. Were they not at that moment engaged
in a function most grateful to lahvah ? Were they
not keeping the law of the sacrifices, and were not the
Levitical priesthood ministering in their order, and
receiving their due share of the offerings which poured
into the temple day by day ? Was not all th;.s honour

154 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
enough to satisfy the most exacting of deities ? Per
haps it was, had the deity in question been merely as one
of the gods of Canaan. So much lip-service, so many
sacrifices and festivals, so much joyous revelling in the
sanctuary, might be supposed to have sufficiently
appeased one of the common Baals, those half-womanish
phantoms of deity whose delight was imagined to be
in feasting and debauchery. Nay, so much zeal might
have propitiated the savage heart of a Molech. But
the God of Israel was not as these, nor one of these ;
though His ancient people were too apt to conceive
thus of Him, and certain modern critics have uncon
sciously followed in their wake.
Let us see what it was that called so loudly for
amendment, and then we may become more fully aware
of the gulf that divided the God of Israel from the
idols of Canaan, and His service from all other service.
It is important to keep this radical difference steadily
before our minds, and to deepen the impression of it,
in days when the effort is made by every means to
confuse lahvah with the gods of heathendom, and to
rank the religion of Israel with the lower surrounding
sy items. Jeremiah accuses his countrymen of flagrant trans
gression of the universal laws of morality. Theft,
murder, adultery, perjury, fraud and covetousness,
slander and lying and treachery (vii. 9, ix. 3-8), are
charged upon these zealous worshippers by a man who
lived amongst them, and knew them well, and could be
contradicted at once if his charges were false.
He tells them plainly that, in virtue of their fre
quenting it, the temple is become a den of robbers.
And this trampling upon the common rights of man
has its counterpart and its climax in treason against

vii.-a.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 15s
God, in burning incense to the Baal, and walking after
other gods whom they know not (vii. 9) ; in an open and
shameless attempt to combine the worship of the God
who had from the outset revealed Himself to their
prophets as a "jealous," i.e., an exclusive God, with
the worship of shadows who had not revealed them
selves at all, and could not be "known," because
devoid of all character and real existence. They thus
ignored the ancient covenant which had constituted
them a nation (vii. 23).
In the cities of Judah, in the streets of the very
capital, the cultus of Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven,
the voluptuous Canaanite goddess of love and dalliance,
was busily practised by whole families together, in
deadly provocation of the God of Israel. The first
and great commandment said, Thou shalt love lahvah
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And they
loved and served and followed and sought after and
worshipped the sun and the moon and the host of
heaven, the objects adored by the nation that was so
soon to enslave them (viii. 2). Not only did a worldly,
covetous and sensual priesthood connive in the restora
tion of the old superstitions which associated other gods
with lahvah, and set up idol symbols and altars within
the precincts of His temple, as Manasseh had done
(2 Kings xxi. 4-5) ; they went further than this in their
" syncretism," or rather in their perversity, their spiritual
blindness, their wilful misconception of the God revealed
to their fathers. They actually confounded Him — the
Lord who exercised loving kindness, justice, and righteous
ness, and delighted in the exhibition of these qualities by
His worshippers (ix. 24) — with the dark and cruel sun-
god of the Ammonites. They rebuilt the high-places of the
Tophet, in the valley of ben Hinnom, on the north side

156 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
of Jerusalem, to burn their sons and their daughters in the
fire; if by means so revolting to natural affection they
might win back the favour of heaven — means which
lahvah commanded not, neither came they into His mind
(vii. 31). Such fearful and desperate expedients were
doubtless first suggested by the false prophets and
priests in the times of national adversity under king
Manasseh. They harmonized only too well with the
despair of a people, who saw in a long succession of
political disasters the token of Iahvah's unforgiving
wrath. That these dreadful rites were not a "sur
vival " in Israel, seems to follow from the horror which
they excited in the allied armies of the two kingdoms,
when the king of Moab, in the extremity of the siege,
offered his eldest son as a burnt-offering on the wall
of his capital before the eyes of the besiegers. So
appalled were the Israelite forces by this spectacle of a
father's despair, that they at once raised the blockade,
and retreated homeward (2 Kings iii. 27). It is prob
able, then, that the darker and bloodier aspects of
heathen worship were of only recent appearance among
the Hebrews, and that the rites of Molech had not been
at all frequent or familiar, until the long and harassing
conflict with Assyria broke the national spirit and
inclined the people, in their trouble, to welcome the
suggestion that costlier sacrifices were demanded, if
lahvah was to be propitiated and His wrath appeased.
Such things were not done, apparently, in Jeremiah's
time ; he mentions them as the crown of the nation's
past offences; as sins that still cried to heaven for
vengeance, and would surely entail it, because the
same spirit of idolatry which had culminated in these
excesses, still lived and was active in the popular heart.
It is the persistence in sins of the same character which

viL-x,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 157
involves our drinking to the dregs the cup of punish
ment for the guilty past. The dark catalogue of for
gotten offences witnesses against us before the Unseen
Judge, and is only obliterated by the tears of a true
repentance, and by the new evidence of a change of heart
and life. Then, as in some palimpsest, the new record
covers and conceals the old ; and it is only if we fatally
relapse, that the erased writing of our misdeeds becomes
visible again before the eye of Heaven. Perhaps also
the prophet mentions these abominations because at
the time he saw around him unequivocal tendencies to
the renewal of them. Under the patronage or with the
connivance of the wicked king Jehoiakim, the reaction
ary party may have begun to set up again the altars
thrown down by Josiah, while their religious leaders
advocated both by speech and writing a return to the
abolished cultus. At all events, this supposition gives
special point to the emphatic assertion of Jeremiah,
that lahvah had not commanded nor even thought of
such hideous rites. The reference to the false labours
of the scribes (chap. viii. S) lends colour to this view.
It may be that some of the interpreters of the sacred
law actually anticipated certain writers of our own
day, in putting this terrible gloss upon the precept,
The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me (Ex.
xxii. 29).
The people of Judah were misled, but they were
willingly misled. When Jeremiah declares to them,
Lo, ye are trusting, for your part, upon the words of
delusion, so that ye gain no good! (vii. 8) it is perhaps
not so much the smooth prophecies of the false prophets
as the fatal attitude of the popular mind, out of which
those misleading oracles grew, and which in turn they
aggravated, that the speaker deprecates. He warns

158 THE PROTHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
them that an absolute trust in the prcesentia Numinis is
delusive ; a trust, cherished like theirs independently
of the condition of its justification, viz., a walk pleasing
to God. What ! will ye break all My laws, and then
come and stand with polluted hands before Me in this
house (Isa. i. 15), which is named after Me 'Iahvah's
House, (Isa. iv. 1), and reassure yourselves with the
thought, We are absolved from the consequences of all
these abominations ? (vv. 9-10. Lit. We are saved,
rescued, secured, with regard to having done all these
abominations : cf. ii. 35. But perhaps, with Ewald, we
should point the Hebrew term differently, and read,
" Save us ! " to do all these abominations, as if that were
the express object of their petition, which would really
ensue, if their prayer were granted : a fine irony. For
the form of the verb, cf. Ezek. xiv. 14.) They thought
their formal devotions were more than enough to
counterbalance any breaches of the decalogue; they
laid that flattering unction to their souls. They could
make it up with God for setting His moral law at nought.
It was merely a question of compensation. They did
not see that the moral law is as immutable as laws
physical ; and that the consequences of violating or
keeping it are as inseparable from it as pain from a
blow, or death from poison. They did not see that the
moral law is simply the law of man's health and wealth,
and that the transgression of it is sorrow and suffering
and death.
" If men like you," argues the prophet, " dare to tread
these courts, it must be because you believe it a proper
thing to do. But that belief implies that you hold the
temple to be something other than what it really is ; that
you see no incongruity in making the House of lahvah
a meeting-place of murderers (spelunca latronum : Matt

vil-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 159
xxi. 13). That you have yourselves made it, in the
full view of lahvah, whose seeing does not rest there,
but involves results, such as the present crisis of public
affairs ; the national danger is proof that He has seen
your heinous misdoings." For Iahvah's seeing brings a
vindication of right, and vengeance upon evil (2 Chron.
xxiv. 22 ; Ex. iii. 7). He is the watchman that never
slumbers nor sleeps ; the eternal Judge, Who ever
upholds the law of righteousness in the affairs of man,
nor suffers the slightest infringement of that law to
go unpunished. And this unceasing watchfulness, this
perpetual dispensation of justice, is really a mani
festation of Divine mercy ; for the purpose of it is to
save the human race from self-destruction, and to raise
it ever higher in the scale of true well-being, which
essentially consists in the knowledge of God and obedi
ence to His laws.
Jeremiah gives his audience further ground for con
viction. He points to a striking instance in which
conduct like theirs had involved results such as his
warning holds before them. He establishes the proba
bility of chastisement by an historical parallel. He
offers them, so to speak, ocular demonstration of his
doctrine. / also, lo, I have seen, saith lahvah ! Your
eyes are fixed on the temple ; so are Mine, but in a
different way. You see a national palladium ; / see a
desecrated sanctuary, a shrine polluted and profa'-cd.
This distinction between God's view and yours is
certain : for, go ye now to My place which was at Shiloh,
where I caused My Name to abide at the outset (of your
settlement in Canaan) ; and see the thing that I have
done lo it, because of the wickedness of My people Israet
(the northern kingdom). There is the proof that
lahvah seeth not as man seeth ; there, in that dis-

i6o THE PROPHECIES OF fEREMIAH.
mantled ruin, in that historic sanctuary of the more
powerful kingdom of Ephraim, once visited by thousands
of worshippers like Jerusalem to-day, now deserted and
desolate, a monument of Divine wrath.
The reference is not to the tabernacle, the sacred
Tent of the Wanderings, which was first set up at Nob
(i Sam. xxi. 22) and then removed to Gibeon (2 Chron.
i. 3), but obviously to a building more or less like the
temple, though less magnificent. The place and its
sanctuary had doubtless been ruined in the great
catastrophe, when the kingdom of Samaria fell before
the power of Assyria (721 B.C.).
In the following words (vv. 13-15) the example is
applied. And now — stating the conclusion — because of
your having done all these deeds (saith lahvah, LXX.
omits), and because I spoke unto you (early and late,
LXX. omits), and ye hearkened not, and I called you
and ye answered not (Prov. i. 24) : / will do unto the
house upon which My Name is called, wherein ye are
trusting, and unto the place which I gave lo you and lo
your fathers — as I did unto Shiloh.
Some might think that if the city fell, the holy
house would escape, as was thought by many like-
minded fanatics when Jerusalem was beleaguered by
the Roman armies seven centuries later : but Jeremiah
declares that the blow will fall upon both alike ; and
to give greater force to his words, he makes the judg
ment begin at the house of God. (The Hebrew
reader will note the dramatic effect of the disposition
of the accents. The principal pause is placed upon the
word " fathers," and the reader is to halt in momentary
suspense upon that word, before he utters the awful
three which close the verse : as I — did to — Shiloh.
The Massorets were masters of this kind of emphasis.)

vii.-x., xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 161
And I will cast you away from My Presence, as I cast
(all: LXX. omits1) your kinsfolk, all the posterity of
Ephraim (2 Kings xvii. 20). Away from My Presence :
far beyond the bounds of that holy land where I have
revealed Myself to priests and prophets, and where
My sanctuary stands ; into a land where heathenism
reigns, and the knowledge of God is not; into the
dark places of the earth, that lie under the blighting
shadow of superstition, and are enveloped in the moral
midnight of idolatry. Projiciam vos a facie mea. The
knowledge and love of God — heart and mind ruled
by the sense of purity and tenderness and truth and
right united in an Ineffable Person, and enthroned
upon the summit of the universe — these are light
and life for man ; where these are, there is His Pre
sence. They who are so endowed behold the face of
God, in Whom is no darkness at all. Where these
spiritual endowments are non-existent; where mere
power, or superhuman force, is the highest thought of
God to which man has attained ; where there is no clear
sense of the essential holiness and love of the Divine
Nature ; there the world of man lies in darkness that
may be felt; there bloody rites prevail; there harsh
oppression and shameless vices reign : for the dark
places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
And thou, pray thou not for this people (xviii. 20),
1 The omissions of the Septuagint are not always intelligent.
The repetition of the " all " here intensifies the idea of the totality ol
the ruin of the northern kingdom. The two clauses balance each
other : all your brethren — all the seed of Ephraim. The objection that
Edom was also a "brother" of Israel (Deut. xxiii. 8; Amos i. Il)
ihews a want of rhetorical sense.
In vii. 4 the Septuagint tastelessly omits the third "The Temple of
lahvah 1 " upon which the rhetorical effect largely depends : cf. chap.
iiii. 29 ; Isa. vi. 3.
II

162 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
and lift not up for them outcry nor prayer, and urge
not Me, for I hear thee not. Seest thou not what they
do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem ?
The children gather slicks, and the fathers light the
fire, and the women knead dough, lo make sacred buns
(xliv. 19) for the Queen of Heaven, and to pour libations
to other gods, in order lo grieve Me (Deut. xxxii. 16,
21). Is il Me thai they grieve? saith lahvah; is
it not themselves (rather), in regard lo the shame of
their own faces (16-19).
From one point of view, all human conduct may be
said to be indifferent to God ; He is aiiTa-p/ciis, self-
sufficing, and needs not our praises, our love, our
obedience, any more than He needed the temple ritual
and the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Man can neither
benefit nor injure God ; he can only affect his own
fortunes in this world and the next, by rebellion against
the laws upon which his welfare depends, or by a
careful observance of them. In this sense, it is true
that wilful idolatry, that treason against God, does not
"provoke" or "grieve" the Immutable One. Men do
such things to their own sole hurt, to the shame of
their own faces : that is, the punishment will be the
painful realization of the utter groundlessness of their
confidence, of the folly of their false trust ; the morti
fication of disillusion, when it is too late. That
Jeremiah should have expressed himself thus is sufficient
answer to those who pretend that the habitual anthro
pomorphism of the prophetic discourses is anything
more than a mere accident of language and an accom
modation to ordinary style.
In another sense, of course, it is profoundly true to
say that human sin provokes and grieves the Lord.
God is Love ; and love may be pained to its depths by

vu.-x. xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 163
 'lit  ' 
the fault of the beloved, and stirred to holy indignation
at the disclosure of utter unworthiness and ingratitude.
Something corresponding to these emotions of man
may be ascribed, with all reverence, to the Inscrutable
Being who creates man " in His own image," that is,
endowed with faculties capable of aspiring towards Him,
and receiving the knowledge of His being and character.
Pray not thou for this people . . . for I hear thee not !
Jeremiah was wont to intercede for his people (xi. 14,
xviii. 20, xv. 1 ; cf. 1 Sam. xii. 23). The deep pathos
which marks his style, the minor key in which almost
all his public utterances are pitched, proves that the
fate which he saw impending over his country, grieved
him to the heart. "Our sweetest songs are those
which tell of saddest thought ; " and this is eminently
true of Jeremiah. A profound melancholy had fallen
like a cloud upon his soul ; he had seen the future,
fraught as it was with suffering and sorrow, despair
and overthrow, slaughter and bitter servitude ; a picture
in which images of terror crowded one upon another,
under a darkened sky, from which no ray of blessed
hope shot forth, but only the lightnings of wrath and
extermination. Doubtless his prayers were frequent,
alive with feeling, urgent, imploring, full of the convul
sive energy of expiring hope. But in the midst of his
strong crying and tears, there arose from the depths
of his consciousness the conviction that all was in vain.
Pray not thou for this people, for I will not hear thee.
The thought stood before him, sharp and clear as a
command ; the unuttered sound of it rang in his ears,
like the voice of a destroying angel, a messenger of
doom, calm as despair, sure as fate. He knew it
was the voice of God.
In the history of nations as in the lives of individuals

164 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
there are times when repentance, even if possible,
would be too late to avert the evils which long periods
of misdoing have called from the abyss to do their
penal and retributive work. Once the dike is under
mined, no power on earth can hold back the flood of
waters from the defenceless lands beneath. And when
a nation's sins have penetrated and poisoned all social
and political relations, and corrupted the very fountains
of life, you cannot avert the flood of ruin that must
come, to sweep away the tainted mass of spoiled
humanity ; you cannot avert the storm that must break
to purify the air, and make it fit for men to breathe again.
Therefore — because of the national unfaithfulness —
thus said the Lord lahvah, Lo, Mine anger and My
fury are being poured out toward this place — upon the
men, and upon the cattle, and upon the trees of the field,
and upon the fruit of ihe ground; and it will burn, and
not be quenched ! (vii. 20). The havoc wrought by war,
the harrying and slaying of man and beast, the felling
of fruit trees and firing of the vineyards, are intended ;
but not so as to exclude the ravages of pestilence and
droughts (chap, xiv.) and famine. All these evils are
manifestations of the wrath of lahvah. Cattle and
trees and " the fruit of the ground," i.e. of the cornlands
and vineyards, are to share in the general destruction
(cf. Hos. iv. 3), not, of course, as partakers of man's
guilt, but only by way of aggravating his punishment.
The final phrase is worthy of consideration, because of
its bearing upon other passages. // will burn and not
be quenched, or it will burn unquenchably. The meaning
is not that the Divine wrath once kindled will go on
burning for ever ; but that once kindled, no human or
other power will be able to extinguish it, until it has
accomplished its appointed work of destruction.

vil.-x., xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 165
Thus said lahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Your
holocausts add ye to your common sacrifices, and eat ye
flesh ! that is, Eat flesh in abundance, eat your fill of
it ! Stint not yourselves by devoting any portion of
your offerings wholly to Me. I am as indifferent to
your " burnt-offerings," your more costly and splen
did gifts, as to the ordinary sacrifices, over which you
feast and make merry with your friends (1 Sam. i.
4, 13). The holocausts which you are now burning
on the altar before Me will not avail to alter My settled
purpose. For I spake not with your fathers, nor com
manded them, in the day that I brought them forth out
of the land of Egypt, concerning matters of holocaust and
sacrifice, but this matter commanded I them, " Hearken
ye unto My voice, so become I God lo you, and you — ye
shall become lo Me a people ; and walk ye in all the way
that I shall command you, thai it may go well with you ! "
(22-23) cf. Deut. vi. 3. Those who believe that the
entire priestly legislation as we now have it in the
Pentateuch is the work of Moses, may be content to
find in this passage of Jeremiah no more than an
extreme antithetical expression of the truth that to
obey is better than sacrifice. There can be no question
that from the outset of its history, Israel, in common
with all the Semitic nations, gave outward expression
to its religious ideas in the form of animal sacrifice.
Moses cannot have originated the institution, he found
it already in vogue, though he may have regulated
the details of it. Even in the Pentateuch, the term
"sacrifice" is nowhere explained; the general under
standing of the meaning of it is taken for granted
(see Ex. xii. 27, xxiii. 18). Religious customs are
of immemorial use, and it is impossible in most cases
to specify the period of their origin. But while it is

i66 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
certain that the institution of sacrifice was of extreme
antiquity in Israel as in other ancient peoples, it is
equally certain, from the plain evidence of their extant
writings, that the prophets before the Exile attached
no independent value either to it or to any other part
of the ritual of the temple. We have already seen
how Jeremiah could speak of the most venerable of
all the symbols of the popular faith (iii. 16). Now he
affirms that the traditional rules for the burnt-offerings
and other sacrifices were not matters of special Divine
institution, as was popularly supposed at the time. The
reference to the Exodus may imply that already in his
day there were written narratives which asserted the
contrary ; that the first care of the Divine Saviour after
He had led His people through the sea was to provide
them with an elaborate system of ritual and sacrifice,
identical with that which prevailed in Jeremiah's day.
The important verse already quoted (viii. 8) seems to
glance at such pious fictions of the popular religious
teachers: How say ye, We are wise, and the instruction
(A. V. "law") of lahvah is with us? But behold for
lies hath it wrought — the lying pen of the scribes I
It is, indeed, difficult to see how Jeremiah or any of
his predecessors could have done otherwise than take
for granted the established modes of public worship,
and the traditional holy places. The prophets do not
seek to alter or abolish the externals of religion as
such ; they are not so unreasonable as to demand that
stated rites and traditional sanctuaries should be dis
regarded, and that men should worship in the spirit
only, without the aid of outward symbolism of any sort,
however innocent and appropriate to its object it might
seem. They knew very well that rites and ceremonies
were necessary to public worship ; what they protested

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 167
against was the fatal tendency of their time to make
these the whole of religion, to suppose that Iahvah's
claims could be satisfied by a due performance of these,
without regard to those higher moral requirements of
His law which the ritual worship might fitly have
symbolized but could not rightly supersede. It was
not a question with Hosea, Amos, Micah, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, whether or not lahvah could be better
honoured with or without temples and priests and
sacrifices. The question was whether these traditional
institutions actually served as an outward expression
of that devotion to Him and His holy law, of that
righteousness and holiness of life, which is the only
true worship, or whether they were looked upon as in
themselves comprising the whole of necessary religion.
Since the people took this latter view, Jeremiah declares
that their system of public worship is futile.
Hearken unto My voice: not as giving regulations
about the ritual, but as inculcating moral duty by the
prophets, as is explained immediately (ver. 25), and as
•s clear also from the statement that they walked in the
schemes of their own evil heart [omit : in the stubbornness,
with LXX., and read moacdth stat. constr.], and fell to
the rear and not the front. As they did not advance in
the knowledge and love of the spiritual God, who was
seeking to lead them by His prophets, from Moses
downwards (Deut. xviii. 1 5), they steadily retrograded
and declined in moral worth, until they had become
hopelessly corrupt and past correction. (Lit. and they
became back and not face, which may mean, they turned
their backs upon lahvah and His instruction.) This
steady progress in evil is indicated by the words, and
they hardened their neck, they did worse than their fathers
(ver. 26). It is implied that this was the case with

168 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
each successive generation, and the view of Israel's
history thus expressed is in perfect harmony with
common experience. Progress, one way or the other, is
the law of character ; if we do not advance in goodness,
we go back, or, what is the same thing, we advance in
evil. Finally, the prophet is warned that his mission also
must fail, like that of his predecessors, unless indeed
the second clause of ver. 27, which is omitted by the
Septuagiiit, be really an interpolation. At all events,
the failure is implied if not expressed, for he is to
pronounce a sentence of reprobation upon his people.
And thou shalt speak all these words unto them [and they
will not hearken unto thee, and thou shalt call unto them,
and they will not answer thee: LXX. omits]. Andthoushalt
say unto them, This is the nation that hearkened not unto
the voice of lahvah its God, and received not correction :
Good faith is perished and cut off from their mouth
(cf. ix. 3 sq.). The charge is remarkable. It is one
which Jeremiah reiterates : see ver. 9, vi. 13, viii. 5,
ix. 3 sqq., xii. 1. His fellow-countrymen are at once
deceivers and deceived. They have no regard for truth
and honour in their mutual dealings ; grasping greed
and lies and trickery stamp their everyday intercourse
with each other; and covetousness and fraud equally
characterise the behaviour of their religious leaders.
Where truth is not prized for its own sake, there
debased ideas of God and lax conceptions of morality
creep in and spread. Only he who loves truth comes
to the light; and only he who does God's will sees
that truth is divine. False belief and false living in
turn beget each other ; and as a matter of experience
it is often impossible to say which was antecedent
to the other.

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 169
In the closing section of this first part of his long
address (vv. 29-viii. 3), Jeremiah apostrophizes the
country, bidding her bewail her imminent ruin. Shear
thy tresses (coronal of long hair) and cast them away,
and lift upon the bare hills a lamentation ! — sing a
dirge over thy departed glory and thy slain children,
upon those unhallowed mountain-tops which were the
scene of thine apostasies (iii. 21); for lahvah hath
rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. The
hopeless tone of this exclamation (cf. also w. 15, 16,
20) seems to agree better with the times of Jehoiakim,
when it had become evident to the prophet that amend
ment was beyond hope, than with the years prior to
Josiah's reformation. His own contemporaries are 'the
generation of Iahvah's wrath,' i.e. upon which His
wrath is destined to be poured out, for the day of grace
is past and gone ; and this, because of the desecration
of the temple itself by such kings as Ahaz and
Manasseh, but especially because of the horrors of the
child-sacrifices in the valley of ben Hinnom (2 Kings
xvi. 3, xxi. 3-6), which those kings had been the first
to introduce in Judah. Therefore behold days are
coming, saith lahvah, and it shall no more be called ihe
Tophet (an obscure term, probably meaning something
like Pyre or Burningplace : cf. the Persian tab-idan "to
burn," and the Greek Qairrm, TaQ-etv "to bury," strictly
" to burn " a corpse ; also Tixpco, " to smoke," Sanskrit
dhup : to suppose a reproachful name like " Spitting "
- " Object of loathing," is clearly against the context :
the honourable name is to be exchanged for one of dis
honour), and the Valley of ben Hinnom, but the Valley
of Slaughter, and people shall bury in [the] Tophet for
want of room (elsewhere) ! A great battle is contem
plated, as is evident also from Deut xxviii. 25, 26, the

•70 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
latter verse being immediately quoted by the prophet
(ver. 33). The Tophet will be defiled for ever by
being made a burial place ; but many of the fallen will
be left unburied, a prey to the vulture and the jackal.
In that fearful time, all sounds of joyous life will
cease in the cities of Judah and in the capital itself,
for the land will become a desolation. And the scornful
enemy will not be satisfied with wreaking his vengeance
upon the living ; he will insult the dead, by breaking
into the sepulchres of the kings and grandees, the priests
and prophets and people, and haling their corpses forth
to lie rotting in face of the sun, moon and stars,
which they had so sedulously worshipped in their life
time, but which will be powerless to protect their dead
bodies from this shameful indignity. And as for the
survivors, death will be preferred lo life in the case of all
the remnant that remain of this evil tribe, in all the places
whither I shall have driven them, saith lahvah Sabaoth
(omit the second that remain, with LXX. as an
accidental repetition from the preceding line, and as
breaking the construction). The prophet has reached
the conviction that Judah will be driven into banish
ment; but the details of the destruction which he
contemplates are obviously of an imaginative and rhe
torical character. It is, therefore, superfluous to ask
whether a great battle was actually fought afterwards
in the valley of ben Hinnom, and whether the slain
apostates of Judah were buried there in heaps, and
whether the conquerors violated the tombs. Had the
Chaldeans or any of their allies done this last, in
search of treasure for instance, we should expect to find
some notice of it in the historical chapters of Jeremiah.
But it was probably known well enough to the sur
rounding peoples that the Jews were not in the habit of

vii.-x,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 171
burying treasure in their tombs. The prophet's threat
however, curiously corresponds to what Josiah is related
to have done at Bethel and elsewhere, by way of irre
parably polluting the high places (2 Kings xxiii. 16 sqq.) ;
and it is probable that his recollection of that event,
which he may himself have witnessed, determined the
form of Jeremiah's language here.
In the second part of this great discourse (viii. 4-23)
we have a fine development of thoughts which have
already been advanced in the opening piece, after the
usual manner of Jeremiah. The first half (or strophe)
is mainly concerned with the sins of the nation (vv.
4-13), the second with a despairing lament over the
punishment (i4-23=ix. 1). And thou shall say unto
them: Thus said lahvah, Do men fall and not rise
again ? Doth a man turn back, and not return ? Why
doth Jerusalem make this people lo turn back with an
eternal (or perfect, utter, absolute) turning back ? Why
clutch they deceit, refuse to return ? (The LXX. omits
" Jerusalem," which is perhaps only a marginal gloss.
We should then have to read 331^ shobab for nrgta*
shobebah, as "this people" is masc. The He has
been written twice by inadvertence. The verb, how
ever, is transitive in 1. 19 ; Isa. xlvii. 10, etc. ; and I
find no certain instance of the intrans. form besides
Ezek. xxxviii. 8, participle.) / listened and heard;
they speak not aright (Ex. x. 29 ; Isa. xvi. 6) ; not a
man repenteih over his evil, saying (or thinking), " What
have I done ? " They all (lit. all of him, i.e. the
Note on vii. 25. — The word answering to " daily " in the Heb. simply
means "day," and ought to be omitted, as an accidental repetition
either from the previous line, or of the last two letters of the preced
ing word "prophets." Cf. ver. 13, where a similar phrase, "rising
early and speaking," occurs in a similar context, but without "daily,"

173 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
people) turn back into their courses (plur. Heb. text;
sing. Heb. marg.), like the rushing horse into the battle.
There is something unnatural in this obstinate per
sistence in evil. If a man happens to fall he does not
remain on the ground, but quickly rises to his feet
again ; and if he turn back on his way for some reason
or other, he will usually return to that way again.
There is a play on the word ' turn back ' or ' return,'
like that in iii. 12, 14. The term is first used in the
sense of turning back or away from lahvah, and then
in that of returning to Him, according to its metaphori
cal meaning " to repent." Thus the import of the
question is : Is it natural to apostatize and never to
repent of it ? (Perhaps we should rather read, after
the analogy of iii. 1, " Doth a man go away ($SX) on
a journey, and not return ? ")
Others interpret : Doth a man return, and not return ?
That is, if he return, he does it, and does not stop mid
way ; whereas Judah only pretends to repent, and does
not really do so. This, however, does not agree with
the parallel member, nor with the following similar
questions. It is very noticeable how thoroughly the prophets,
who, after all, were the greatest of practical moralists,
identify religion with right aims and right conduct.
The beginning of evil courses is turning away from
lahvah; the beginning of reform is turning back to
lahvah. For Iahvah's character as revealed to the
prophets is the ideal and standard of ethical perfection ;
He does and delights in love, justice and equity (ix. 23).
If a man look away from that ideal, if he be content
with a lower standard than the Will and Law of the
All-Perfect, then and thereby he inevitably sinks in the
scale of morality. The prophets are not troubled by

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 173
the idle question of medieval schoolmen and sceptical
moderns. It never occurred to them to ask the
question whether God is good because God wills it,
or whether God wills good because it is good. The
dilemma is, in truth, no better than a verbal puzzle, if
we allow the existence of a personal Deity. For the
idea of God is the idea of a Being who is absolutely
good, the only Being who is such ; perfect goodness is
understood to be realized nowhere else but in God.
It is part of His essence and conception ; it is the
aspect under which the human mind apprehends Him.
To suppose goodness existing apart from Him, as an
independent object which He may choose or refuse,
is to deal in empty abstractions. We might as well
ask whether convex can exist apart from concave in
nature, or motion apart from a certain rate of speed.
The human spirit can apprehend God in His moral
perfections, because it is, at however vast a distance,
akin to Him — a divinoz particula auras; and it can
strive towards those perfections by help of the same
grace which reveals them. The prophets know of
no other origin or measure of moral endeavour than
that which lahvah makes known to them. In the
present instance, the charge which Jeremiah makes
against his contemporaries is a radical falsehood, in
sincerity, faithlessness: they clutch or cling to deceit,
they speak what is not right or honest, straightforward
(Gen. xiii. II, 19). Their treason to God and their
treachery to their fellows are opposite sides of the same
fact. Had they been true to lahvah, that is, to His
teachings through the higher prophets and their own
consciences, they would have been true to one another.
The forbearing love of God, His tender solicitude to
hear and save, are illustrated by the words : / listened

174 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
and heard . . . not a man repented over his evil, saying,
What have I done ? (The feeling of the stricken con
science could hardly be more aptly expressed than by
this brief question.) But in vain does the Heavenly
Father wait for the accents of penitence and contrition :
they all return — go back again and again (Ps. xxiii. 6) —
into their own race or courses, like a horse rushing (lit
pouring forth : of rushing waters, Ps. lxxviii. 20) into
the battle. The eagerness with which they follow their
own wicked desires, the recklessness with which they
"give their sensual race the rein," in set defiance of
God, and wilful oblivion of consequences, is finely
expressed by the simile of the warhorse rushing in
headlong eargerness into the fray (Job xxxix. 25).
Also (or even) the stork in the heavens knoweth her
appointed times, and turtledove, swift and crane observe
the season of their coming ; but My people know not the
ordinance of lahvah — what He has willed and declared
to be right for man (His Law ; jus divinum, relligio
divina). The dullest of wits can hardly fail to appre
ciate the force of this beautiful contrast between the
regularity of instinct and the aberrations of reason.
All living creatures are subject to laws upon obedience
to which their well-being depends. The life of man is
no exception ; it too is subject to a law — a law which
is as much higher than that which regulates mere
animal existence, as reason and conscience and spiri
tual aspiration are higher than instinct aad sexual
impulse. But whereas the lower forms of life are
obedient to the laws of their being, man rebels against
them, and dares to disobey what he knows to be for
his good ; nay, he suffers himself to be so "blinded by
lust and passion and pride and self-will that at last he
does not even recognise the Law— the ordinance of the

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR 2ND TRUE RELIGION. 175
Eternal — for what it really is, the organic law of hia
true being, the condition at once of his excellence and
his happiness.
The prophet next meets an objection. He has just
alleged a profound moral ignorance — a culpable ignor
ance — against the people. He supposes them to deny
the accusation, as doubtless they often did in answer
to his remonstrances (cf. xvii. 15, xx. 7 sq.) How can ye
say, " We are wise" — morally wise — " and Ihe teaching
of lahvah is with us!" [but behold: LXX. omits : either
term would be sufficient by itself] for the Lie hath the
lying pen of the scribes made it I The reference clearly
is to what Jeremiah's opponents call " the teaching (or
law : torah) of lahvah " ; and it is also clear that the
prophet charges the " scribes " of the opposite party
with falsifying or tampering with the teaching of
lahvah in some way or other. Is it meant that they
misrepresented the terms of a written document, such
as the Book of the Covenant, or Deuteronomy ? But
they could hardly do this without detection, in the case
of a work which was not in their exclusive possession.
Or does Jeremiah accuse them of misinterpreting the
sacred law, by putting false glosses upon its precepts,
as might be done in a legal document wherever there
seemed room for a difference of opinion, or wherever
conflicting traditional interpretations existed side by
side ? (Cf. my remarks on vii. 31.) The Hebrew may
indicate this, for we may translate : But lo, into the lie
the lying pen of the scribes hath made it I which recalls
St. Paul's description of the heathen as changing the
truth of God into a lie (Rom. i. 26). The construction
is the same as in Gen. xii. 2 ; Isa. xliv. 17. Or, finally,
does he boldly charge these abettors of the false pro
phets with forging supposititious law-books, in the

176 TBE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
interest of their own faction, and in support of the
claims and doctrines of the worldly priests and prophets ?
This last view is quite admissible, so far as the Hebrew
goes, which, however, is not free from ambiguity. It
might be rendered, But behold, in vain, or boollessly
(iii. 23) hath the lying pen of the scribes laboured; taking
the verb in an absolute sense, which is not a common
use (Ruth ii. 19). Or we might transpose the terms
for " pen " and " lying," and render, But behold, in vain
hath the pen of the scribes fabricated falsehood. In any
case, the general sense is the same : Jeremiah charges
not only the speakers, but the writers, of the popular
party with uttering their own inventions in the name
of lahvah. These scribes were the spiritual ancestors
of those of our Saviour's time, who " made the word of
God of none effect for the sake of their traditions"
(Matt. xv. 6). For the Lie means, to maintain the
popular misbelief. (It might also be rendered, for
falsehood, falsely, as in the phrase to swear falsely, i.e.,
for deceit; Lev. v. 24.) It thus appears that conflicting
and competing versions of the law were current in that
age. Has the Pentateuch preserved elements of both
kinds, or is it homogeneous throughout ? Of the scribes
of the period we, alas ! know little beyond what this
passage tells us. But Ezra must have had predecessors,
and we may remember that Baruch, the friend and
amanuensis of Jeremiah, was also a scribe (xxxvi. 26).
The "wise" will blush, they will be dismayed and
caught! Lo, the word of lahvah they rejected, and
wisdom of what sort have they ? (vi. 10). The whole
body of Jeremiah's opponents, the populace as well
as the priests and pi ^phets, are intended by the wise,
that is, the wise in their own conceits (ver. S) ; there
is an ironical reference to their own assumption of the

vii.-x,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. itf
title. These self-styled wise ones, who preferred their
own wisdom to the guidance of the prophet, will be
punished by the mortification of discovering their folly
when it is too late. Their folly will be the instrument
of their ruin, for " He taketh the wise in their own
craftiness " as in a snare (Prov. v. 22).
They who reject Iahvah's word, in whatever form
it comes to them, have no other light to walk by ; they
must needs walk in darkness, and stumble at noonday.
For Iahvah's word is the only true wisdom, the only
true guide of man's footsteps. And this is the kind
of wisdom which the Holy Scriptures offer us ; not a
merely speculative wisdom, not what is commonly
understood by the terms science and art, but the price
less knowledge of God and of His will concerning us ;
a kind of knowledge which is beyond all comparison
the most important for our well-being here and here
after. If this Divine wisdom, which relates to the
proper conduct of life and the right education of the
highest faculties of our being, seem a small matter to
any man, the fact argues spiritual blindness on his
part ; it cannot diminish the glory of heavenly wisdom.
Some well-meaning but mistaken people are fond of
maintaining what they call " the scientific accuracy
of the Bible," meaning thereby an essential harmony
with the latest discoveries, or even the newest hypo
theses, of physical science. But even to raise such
a preposterous question, whether as advocate or as
assailant, is to be guilty of a crude anachronism, and
to betray an incredible ignorance of the real value of
the Scriptures. That value I believe to be inestimable.
But to discuss " the scientific accuracy of the Bible "
appears to me to be as irrelevant to any profitable
issue, as it would be to discuss the meteorological 12

i7«. THB PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
precision of the Mahabharata, or the marvellous
chemistry of the Zendavesta, or the physiological reve
lations of the Koran, or the enlightened anthropology
of the Nibelungenlied.
A man may reject the word of lahvah, he may reject
Christ's word, because he supposes that it is not
sufficiently attested. He may urge that the proof that
it is of GOD breaks down, and he may flatter himself
that he is a person of superior discernment, because
he perceives a fact to which the multitude of believers
are apparently blind. But what kind of proof would
he have ? Does he demand more than the case admits
of? Some portent in earth or sky or sea, which in
reality would be quite foreign to the matter in hand,
and could have none but an accidental connexion with
it, and would, in fact, be no proof at all, but itself a
mystery requiring to be explained by the ordinary laws
of physical causation ? To demand a kind of proof
which is irrelevant to the subject is a mark not of
superior caution and judgment, but of ignorance and
confusion of thought. The plain truth is, and the
fact is abundantly illustrated by the teachings of the
prophets and, above all, of our Divine Lord, that moral
and spiritual truths are self-attesting to minds able
to realize them ; and they no more need supplementary
corroboration than does the ultimate testimony of the
senses of a sane person.
Now the Bible as a whole is an unique repertory of
such truths ; this is the secret of its age-long influence
in the world. If a man does not care for the Bible,
if he has not learned to appreciate this aspect of it, if
he does not love it precisely on this account, I, in turn,
care very little for his opinion about the Bible. There
may be much in the Bible which is otherwise valuable,

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND VRUE RELIGION. 179
which is precious as history, as tradition, as bearing
upon questions of interest to the ethnologist, the anti
quarian, the man of letters. But these things are the
shell, that is the kernel ; these are the accidents, that
is the substance ; these are the bodily vesture, that is
the immortal spirit. A man who has not felt this, has
yet to learn what the Bible is.
In his text as we now have it, Jeremiah proceeds
to denounce punishment on the priests and prophets,
whose fraudulent oracles and false interpretations of
the Law ministered to their own greedy covetousness,
and who smoothed over the alarming state of things
by false assurances that all was well (vv. 10-12). The
Septuagint, however, omits the whole passage after the
words, Therefore I will give their wives to others, their
fields to conquerors ! and as these words are obviously
an abridgment of the threat, vi. 12 (cf. Deut. xxviii.
30), while the rest of the passage agrees verbatim
with vi. 13-15, it may be supposed that a later editor
inserted if in the margin here, as generally apposite
(cf. vi. 10 with ver. 9), whence it has crept into the
text. It is true that Jeremiah himself is fond of
repetition, but not so as to interrupt the context, as
the "therefore" of ver. 10 seems to do. Besides, the
" wise " of ver. 8 are the self-confident people ; but if
this passage be in place here, " the wise " of ver. 9
will have to be understood of their false guides, the
prophets and priests. Whereas, if the passage be
omitted, there is manifest continuity between the ninth
verse and the thirteenth: "/ will sweep, sweep them
away," saith lahvah; no grapes on the vine, and no figs
on the fig tree, and the foliage is withered, and I have
given them destruction (or blasting).
The opening threat is apparently quoted from the

ito TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
contemporary prophet Zephaniah (i. 2, 3). The point
of the rest of the verse is not quite clear, owing to
the fact that the last clause of the Hebrew text is
undoubtedly corrupt. We might suppose that the term
"laws" (D'i?n) had fallen out, and render, and I gave
them laws which they transgress (cf. v. 22, xxxi. 35).
The Vulgate has an almost literal translation, which
gives the same sense : " et dedi eis quae praetergressa
sunt."1 The Septuagint omits the clause, probably on
the ground of its difficulty. It may be that bad crops
and scarcity are threatened (cf. chap, xiv., v. 24, 25).
In that case, we may correct the text in the manner
suggested above &-\yp) or JBTO xvii. 18, for D-n?^;
or jis'ntj' Amos iv. 9, for the onnyi of other MSS.).
Others understand tne verse in a metaphorical sense.
The language seems to be coloured by a reminiscence
of Micah vii. I, 2 ; and the "grapes '' and "figs" and
"foliage" may be the fruits of righteousness, ind
the nation is like Isaiah's unfruitful vineyard (Isa. v.)
or our Lord's barren fig tree (Matt. xxi. 19), fit only
for destruction (cf. also vi. 9 and ver. 20). Another
passage which resembles the present is Hab. iii. 17:
" For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be

1 Wa'etlen lahem can only mean "and I gave (in prophetic idiom
'and I will give ') unto them," and this, of course, requires an object.
" I will give them to those who shall pass over them " is the rendering
proposed by several scholars. But lahem does not mean " to those,"
and the thought does not harmonize with what precedes, and this
use of ^317 is doubtful, and the verb "to give" absolutely requires
an object The Vulgate rendering is really more in accordance with
Hebrew syntax, as the masc. suffix of the verb might be used in
less accurate writing. Targum : " because I gave them My law
from Sinai, and they transgressed against it; " Peshito: "and I gave
unto them, and they transgressed them." So also the Syro-Hexaplar
of Milan (participle : "were transgressing ") between asterisks.

*ii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 181
no yield on the vines ; the produce of the olive will
disappoint, and the fields will produce no food." It
was natural that tillage should be neglected upon the
rumour of invasion. The country-folk would crowd
into the strong places, and leave their vineyards,
orchards and cornfields to their fate (ver. 14). This
would, of course, lead to scarcity and want, and
aggravate the horrors of war with those of dearth and
famine. I think the passage of Habakkuk is a precise
parallel to the one before us. Both contemplate a
Chaldean invasion, and both anticipate its disastrous
effects upon husbandry.
It is possible that the original text ran : And I
have given (will give) unto them their own work (i.e.,
the fruit of it, Drn'3J? : used of field-work, Ex. i. 14 ;
of the earnings of labour, Isa. xxxii. 17). This, which
is a frequent thought in Jeremiah, forms a very suitable
close to the verse. The objection is that the prophet
does not use this particular term for " work " elsewhere.
But the fact of its only once occurring might have
caused its corruption. (Another term, which would
closely resemble the actual reading, and give much the
same sense as this last, is D"iUB "their produce." This,
too, as a very rare expression, only known from Josh. v.
II, 12, might have been misunderstood and altered by
an editor or copyist. It is akin to the Aramaic "May,
and there are other Aramaisms in our prophet.) One
thing is certain ; Jeremiah cannot have written what
now appears in the Masoretic text.
It is now made clear what the threatened evil is,
in a fine closing strophe, several expressions of which
recall the prophet's magnificent alarm upon the coming
of the Scythians (cf. iv. 5 with viii. 14; iv. 15 with
viii. 16; iv. 19 with viii. 18). Here, however, the

182 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
colouring is darker, and the prevailing gloom of the
picture unrelieved by any ray of hope. The former
piece belongs to the reign of Josiah, this to that of the
worthless Jehoiakim. In the interval between the two,
moral decline and social and political disintegration had
advanced with fearfully accelerated speed, and Jeremiah
knew that the end could not be far off.
The fatal news of invasion has come, and he
sounds the alarm to his countrymen. Why are we
sitting still (in silent stupefaction) ? assemble your
selves, that we may go into the defenced cities, and be
silent (or amazed, stupefied, with terror) there ! for
lahvah our God hath silenced us (with speechless
terror) aud given us water of gall to drink; for we
trespassed toward lahvah. We looked for peace (or,
weal, prosperity), and there is no good; for a time of
healing, and behold panic fear! So the prophet
represents the effect of the evil tidings upon the rural
population. At first they are taken by surprise ; then
they rouse themselves from their stupor to take refuge
in the walled cities. They recognise in the trouble a
sign of Iahvah's anger. Their fond hopes of returning
prosperity are nipped in the bud ; the wounds of the
past are not to be healed; the country has hardly
recovered from one shock, before another and more
deadly blow falls upon it. The next verse describes
more particularly the nature of the bad news; the
enemy, it would seem, had actually entered the land,
and given no uncertain indication of what the Judeans
might expect, by his ravages on the northern frontier.
From Dan was heard the snorting of his horses; at ihe
sound of the neighings of his chargers all the land did
quake : and they came in (into the country) and eat up
the land and the fulness thereof, a city and them that dwell

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 183
therein. This was what the invaders did to city after
city, once they had crossed the border ; ravaging its
domain, and sacking the place itself. Perhaps, how
ever, it is better to take the perfects as prophetic, and
to render : " From Dan shall be heard . . . shall quake :
and they shall come and eat up the land," etc. This
makes the connexion easier with the next verse, which
certainly has a future reference : For behold I am about
to send (or simply, / send) against you serpents, basilisks
(Isa. xi. 8, the cif'oni was a small but very poisonous
snake; Aquila ^ao-tXt'o-«o?, Vulg. regulus), for whom there
is no charm, and they will bite you ! saith lahvah. If the
tenses be supposed to describe what has already hap
pened, then the connexion of thought may be expressed
thus : all this evil that you have heard of has happened,
not by mere ill fortune, but by the Divine will : lahvah
Himself has done it, and the evil will not stop there,
for He purposes to send these destroying serpents into
your very midst (cf. Num. xxi. 6).
The eighteenth verse begins in the Hebrew with a
highly anomalous word, which is generally supposed
to mean " my source of comfort " (wa^ao). But both
the strangeness of the form itself, which can hardly be
paralleled in the language, and the indifferent sense which
it yields, and the uncertainty of the Hebrew MSS., and
the variations of the old versions, indicate that we have
here another corruption of the text Some Hebrew
copies divide the word, and this is supported by the
Septuagint and the Syro-Hexaplar version, which treat
the verse as the conclusion of ver. 17, and render "and
they shall bite you incurably, with pain of your perplexed
heart" (Syro-Hex. "without cure"). But if the first
part of the word is " without " (^>3D » for lack of" . . .),
what is the second ? No such root as the existing

«84 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
letters imply is found in Hebrew or the cognate lan
guages. The Targum does not help us : Because they
were scoffing (pwba) against the prophets who prophesied
unto them, sorrow and sighing will I bring ('JTK) upon
them on account of their sins : upon them, saith the prophet,
my heart is faint. It is evident that this is no better
than a kind of punning upon the words of the Masoretic
text.1 I incline to read " How shall I cheer myself?
Upon me is sorrow ; upon me my heart is sick." (The
prophet would write ?y not vJ! for " against," without
a suffix. Read fu; bv nr^x no Job ix. 27, x. 20 ;
Ps. xxxix. 14.) The passage is much like iv. 19.
Another possible emendation is : " lahvah causeth
sorrow to flash forth upon me " (m.T r!?3D ; after the
archetype of Amos v. 9) ; but I prefer the former.
Jeremiah closes the section with an outpouring of
his own overwhelming sorrow at the heart-rending
spectacle of the national calamities. No reader endued
with any degree of feeling can doubt the sincerity of
the prophet's patriotism, or the willingness with which
he would have given his own life for the salvation of
his country. This one passage alone says enough to
exonerate its author from the charge of indifference,
much more of treachery to his fatherland. He imagines
himself to hear the cry of the captive people, who have
been carried away by the victorious invader into a
distant land : Hark ! the sound of the imploring cry of
the daughter of my people from a land far away I " Is
lahvah not in Sion ? or is not her King in her ? " (cf.
Mic. iv. 9). Such will be the despairing utterance of
1 It seems to take the bv each time as "bv — \\T\bv and to read
VPN O'yiho for WJ'^D : thus getting " Scoffers I I will bring
upon them sorrow ; upon them my heart is faint"

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. tS|
the exiles of Judah and Jerusalem ; and the prophet
hastens to answer it with another question, which
accounts for their ruin by their disloyalty to that
heavenly King ; O why did they vex Me with their graven
images, with alien vanities ? Compare a similar question
and answer in an earlier discourse (v. 19). It may be
doubted whether the pathetic words which follow — The
harvest is past, the fruit-gathering is finished, but as for
us, we are not delivered! — are to be taken as a further
complaint of the captives, or as a reference by the
prophet himself to hopes of deliverance which had been
cherished in vain, month after month, until the season
of campaigns was over. In Palestine, the grain crops
are harvested in April and May, the ingathering of the
fruit falls in August. During all the summer months,
Jehoiakim, as a vassal of Egypt, may have been eagerly
hoping for some decisive interference from that quarter.
That he was on friendly terms with that power at the
time appears from the fact that he was allowed to fetch
back refugees from its territory (xxvi. 22 sq.). A pro
vision for the extradition of offenders is found in the
far more ancient treaty between Ramses II. and the
king of the Syrian Chetta (fourteenth cent. b.c). But
perhaps the prophet is alluding to one of those frequent
failures of the crops, which inflicted so much misery
upon his people (cf. vers. 13, iii. 3, v. 24, 25), and
which were a natural incident of times of political
unsettlement and danger. In that case, he says, the
harvest has come and gone, and left us unhelped and
disappointed. I prefer the political reference, though
our knowledge of the history of the period is so scanty,
that the particulars cannot be determined.
It is clear enough from the lyrical utterance which
follows (vv. 21-23), that heavy disasters had already be-

1 86 THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.

fallen Judah : For the shattering of the daughter of my
people am I shattered; I am a mourner; astonishment
hath seized me ! This can hardly be pure anticipation.
The next two verses may be a fragment of one of the
prophet's elegies (qinoth). At all events, they recall
the metre of Lam. iv. and v :
Doth balm in Gilead failt
Fails ihe healer there f
Why is not bound up
My people's deadly wound t
O that my head were springs,
Mine eye a fount of tears !
To weep both day and night
Over my people's slain.
It is not impossible that these two quatrains are
cited from the prophet's elegy upon the last battle of
Megiddo and the death of Josiah. Similar fragments
seem to occur below (ix. 17, 18, 20) in the instructions
to the mourning-women, the professional singers of
dirges over the dead.
The beauty of the entire strophe, as an outpouring
of inexpressible grief, is too obvious to require much
comment. The striking question " Is there no balm in
Gilead, is there no physician there ? " has passed into
the common dialect of religious aphorism ; and the
same may be said of the despairing cry, " The harvest
is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved !"
The wounds of the state are past healing ; but how,
it is asked, can this be? Does nature yield a balm
which is sovereign for bodily hurts, and is there no
where a remedy for those of the social organism ?
Surely that were something anomalous, strange and
unnatural (cf. viii. 7). Is there no balm in Gilead?
Yes. it is found nowhere else (cf. Plin., Hist. Nat., xii.

viUx.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 187

25 admit. "Sed omnibus odoribus praefertur balsamum,
uni terrarum Judcece concessum "). Then has lahvah
mocked us, by providing a remedy for the lesser evil,
and leaving us a hopeless prey to the greater ? The
question goes deep down to the roots of faith. Not
only is there an analogy between the two realms of
nature and spirit ; in a sense, the whole physical world
is an adumbration of things unseen, a manifestation of
the spiritual. Is it conceivable that order should reign
everywhere in the lower sphere, and chaos be the
normal state of the higher ? If our baser wants are
met by provisions adapted in the most wonderful way
to their satisfaction, can we suppose that the nobler
— those cravings by which we are distinguished from
irrational creatures — have not also their satisfactions
included in the scheme of the world ? To suppose it
is evidence either of capricious unreason, or of a
criminal want of confidence in the Author of our being.
Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no healer there ?
There is a panacea for Israel's woes — the "law" or
teaching of lahvah ; there is a Healer in Israel, lahvah
Himself (iii. 22, xvii. 14), who has declared of Himself,
/ wound and I heal (Deut. xxxii. 39; chap. xxx. 17,
xxxiii. 6). Why then is no bandage applied to the
daughter of my people ? This is like the cry of the
captives, Is lahvah not in Sion, is not her King in her ?
(ver. 19). The answer there is, Yes ! it is not that
lahvah is wanting; it is that the national guilt is working
out its own retribution. He leaves this to be understood
here • having framed his question so as to compel people,
if it might be, to the right inference and answer.
The precious balsam is the distinctive glory of the
mountain land of Gilead, and the knowledge of lahvah
is the distinctive glory of His people Israel. Will no

i88 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
one, then, apply the true remedy to the hurt of the
state ? No, for priests and prophets and people know
not — they have refused to know lahvah (ver. 5). The
nation will not look to the Healer and live. It is their
misfortunes that they hate, not their sins. There is
nothing left for Jeremiah but to sing the funeral song
of his fatherland.
While weeping over their inevitable doom, the prophet
abhors with his whole soul his people's wickedness,
and longs to fly from the dreary scene of treachery
and deceit. O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-
place of wayfaring men^-sorae lonely khan on a caravan
track, whose bare, tinfurnished walls, and blank almost
oppressive stillness, would be a grateful exchange for
the luxury and the noisy riot of Judah's capital — that I
might leave my people and go away from among them !
The same feeling finds expression in the sigh of the
psalmist, who is perhaps Jeremiah himself : O for the
wings of a dove! (Ps. Iv. 6 sqq.) The same feeling has
often issued in actual withdrawal from the world. And
under certain circumstances, in certain states of religion
and society, the solitary life has its peculiar advantages.
The life of towns is doubtless busy, practical, intensely
real; but its business is not always of the ennobling
sort, its practice in the strain and struggle of selfish
competition is often distinctly hostile to the growth
and play of the best instincts of human nature; its
intensity is often the mere result of confining the
manifold energies of the mind to one narrow channel,
of concentrating the whole complex of human powers
and forces upon the single aim of self-advancement and
self-glorification ; and its reality is consequently an
illusion, phenomenal and transitory as the unsubstantial
prizes which absorb all its interest, engross its entire

vii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 189
devotion, and exhaust its whole activity. It is not
upon the broad sea, nor in the lone wilderness, that
men learn to question the goodness, the justice, the
very being of their Maker. Atheism is born in the
populous wastes of cities, where human beings crowd
together, not to bless but to prey upon each other ;
where rich and poor dwell side by side, but are
separated by the gulf of cynical indifference and social
disdain ; where selfishness in its ugliest forms is
rampant, and is the rule of life with multitudes : — the
selfishness which grasps at personal advantage and is
deaf to the cries of human pain ; the selfishness which
calls all manner of fraud and trickery lawful means for
the achievement of its sordid ends ; and the selfishness
of flagrant vice, whose activity is not only earthly and
sensual but also devilish, as directly involving the
degradation and ruin of human souls. No wonder
that they whose eyes have been blinded by the god of
this world, fail to see evidence of any other God ; no
wonder that they in whose hearts a coarse or a subtle
6elf-worship has dried the springs of pity and love
can scoff at the very idea of a compassionate God ; no
wonder that a soul, shaken to its depths by the con
templation of this bewildering medley of heartlessness
and misery, should be tempted to doubt whether there
is indeed a Judge of all the earth, who doeth right.
There is no truth, no honour in their dealings with one
another ; falsehood is the dominant note of their social
existence : They are all adulterers, a throng of traitors !
The charge of adultery is no metaphor (chap. v. 7, 8).
Where the sense of religious sanctions is weakened or
wanting, the marriage tie is no longer respected ; and
that which perhaps lust began, is ended by lust, and

190 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
man and woman are faithless to each other, because
they are faithless to God.
And they bend their tongue, their bow, falsely^ The
tongue is as a bow of which words are the arrows.
Evildoers "stretch their arrow, the bitter word, to
shoot in ambush at the blameless man " (Ps. lxiv.
4; cf. Ps. xi. 2). The metaphor is common in the
language of poetry; we have an instance in Long
fellow's " I shot an arrow into the air," and Homer's
familiar eirea irTepoevra, " winged words," is a kindred
expression. (Others render, and they bend their tongue
as their bow of falsehood, as though the term sheqer,
mendacium, were an epithet qualifying the term for
"bow." I have taken it adverbially, a use justified
by Pss. xxxviii. 20, Ixix. 5, cxix. 78, 86.) In colloquial
English a man who exaggerates a story is said to
"draw the long bow."
Their tongue is a bow with which they shoot lies
at their neighbours,, and it is not by truth — faithfulness,
honour, integrity — that they wax mighty in the land;
their riches and power are the fruit of craft and fraud
and overreaching. As was said in a former diseourse,
"their houses are full of deceit, therefore they become
great, and amass wealth " (v. 27). By truth, or more
literally unto truth, according to the rule or standard
of truth (cf. Isa. xxxii. 1, " according to right ; " Gen.
i. 11, "according to its kind"). With the idea of the
verb, we may compare Ps. cxii. 2 : " Mighty in the

1 The irregular Hiphil form of the verb— cf. I Sam. xiv. 22 ; Job
xix. 4— may be justified by Job xxviii. 8; we are not, therefore,
bound to render the Masoretic text : and they make their tongue bend
their lying bow. Probably, however, Qal is right, the Hiphil being due
to a misunderstanding, like that of the Targum, " And they taught
their tongue words of lying."

vil-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 19!

land shall his seed become" (cf. also Gen. vii. 18, 19).
The passage chap. v. 2, 3, is essentially similar to the
present, and is the only one besides where we find
the term " by truth " (h^dk!? le'emunah). The idiom
seems certain, and the parallel passages, especially
v. 27, appear to establish the translation above given ;
otherwise one might be tempted to render : they stretch
their tongue, their bow, for\ lying (ipvh, v. 2), and
it is not for truth that they are strong in the land.
" Noblesse oblige " is no maxim of theirs ; they use
their rank and riches for unworthy ends.
For out of evil unto evil they go forth — they go from
one wickedness to another, adding sin to sin. Appar
ently, a military metaphor. What they have and are is
evil, and they go forth to secure fresh conquests of the
same kind. Neither good nor evil is stationary ; pro
gress is the law of each — and Me they know not, saith
lahvah — they know not that I am truth itself, and there
fore irreconcilably opposed to all this fraud and falsehood.
Beware ye, every one of his companion, and in no
brother confide ye ; for every brother will surely play the
facob, — and every companion will go about slandering.
And they deceive each his neighbour, and truth they speak
hot: they have trained their tongue lo speak falsehood,
to pervert (their way, iii. 21) they toil (chap. xx. 9; cf.
Gen. xix. II). Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit;
through deceit they ^refuse lo know Me, saith lahvah
(3-S).1 As Micah had complained before him (Mic.
' Ewald prefers the reading of the LXX., which divides the words
differently. If we suppose their version correct, they must have
road: "They have trained their tongue to speak falsehood, to distort
They are weary of returning. Oppression in oppression, deceit in
deceit 1 They refuse to know Me, saith lahvah." But I do not think
this an improvement on the present Masoretic text.

193 THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
vii. 5), and as bitter experience had taught our prophet
(xi. 18 sqq., »ii. 6), neither friend nor brother was to
be trusted ; and that this was not merely the melan
choly characteristic of a degenerate age, is suggested by
the reference to the unbrotherly intrigues of the far-off
ancestor of the Jewish people, in the traditional portrait
of whom the best and the worst features of the national
character are reflected with wonderful truth and live
liness.1 Every brother will not fail lo play the Jacob
(Gen. xxv. 29 sqq., xxvii. 36; Hos. xii. 4), to outwit,
defraud, supplant ; cunning and trickery will subserve
acquisitiveness. But though an inordinate love of
acquisition may still seem to be specially characteristic
of the Jewish race, as in ancient times it distinguished
the Canaanite and Semitic nations in general, the
tendency to cozen and overreach one's neighbour is
so far from being confined to it, that some modern
ethical speculators have not hesitated to assume this
tendency to be an original and natural instinct of
humanity. The fact, however, for which those who
would account for human nature upon purely " natural "
grounds are bound to supply some rational explanation,
is not so much that aspect of it which has been well-
known to resemble the instincts of the lower animals
ever since observation began, but the aspect of revolt
and protest against those lower impulses which we
find reflected so powerfully in the documents of the
higher religion, and which makes thousands of lives a
perpetual warfare.
Jeremiah presents his picture of the universal deceit
and dissimulation of his own time as something
* Ir Jeremiah wrote Ps. Iv, as Hitzig supposes, he may be alluding
to the treachery of a particular friend ; cf. Ps. Iv. 13, 14.

vii.-x.,sacvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 193
peculiarly shocking and startling to the common sense
of right, and unspeakably revolting in the sight of God,
the Judge of all. And yet the difficulty to the modern
reader is to detect any essential difference between
human nature then and human nature now — between
those times and these. It is still true that avarice
and lust destroy natural affection ; that the ties of
blood and friendship are no protection against a godless
¦love of self. The work of slander and misrepresenta
tion is not left to avowed enemies ; your own acquain
tance will gratify their envy, spite, or mere illwill in
this unworthy way. A simple child may tell the truth ;
but tongues have to be trained to expertness in lying,
whether in commerce or in diplomacy, in politics or
in the newspaper press, in the art of the salesman or
in that of the agitator and the demagogue. Men still
make a toil of perverting their way, and spend as much
pains in becoming accomplished villains as honest
folk take to excel in virtue. Deceit is still the social
atmosphere and environment, and through deceit men
refuse to know lahvah. The knowledge, the recognition,
the steady recollection of what lahvah is, and what
His law requires, does not suit the man of lies ; his
objects oblige him to shut his eyes to the truth. Men
do not will and will not, to know the moral impediments
that lie in the way of self-seeking and self-pleasing.
Sinning is always a matter of choice, not of nature,
nor of circumstances alone. To desire to be delivered
from moral evil is, so far, a desire to know God.
Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit: who that
ever lifts an eye above the things of time, has not at
times felt thus ? " This is a Christian country."
Why ? Because the majority are as bent on self-
pleasing, as careless of God, as heartlessly and system-
13

194 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

atically forgetful of the rights and claims of others,
as they would have been had Christ never been heard
of? A Christian country? Why? Is it because we
can boast of some two hundred forms or fashions of
supposed Christian belief, differentiated from each other
by heaven knows what obscure shibboleths, which in the
lapse of time have become meaningless and obsolete ;
while the old ill-will survives, and the old dividing lines
remain, and Christians stand apart from Christians in a
state of dissension and disunion that does despite and
dishonour to Christ, and must be very dear to the devil ?
Some people are bold enough to defend this horrible
condition of things by raising a cry of Free Trade in
Religion. But religion is not a trade, not a thing
to make a profit of, except with Simon Magus and his
numerous followers both inside and outside of the
Church. A Christian country 1 But the rage of avarice, the
worship of Mammon, is not less rampant in London
than in old Jerusalem. If the more violent forms of
oppression and extortion are restrained among us by
the more complete organization of public justice, the
fact has only developed new and more insidious modes
of attack upon the weak and the unwary. Deceit and
fraud have been put upon their mettle by the challenge
of the law, and thousands of people are robbed and
plundered by devices which the law can hardly reach
or restrain. Look where the human spider sits, weav
ing his web of guile, that he may catch and devour
men ! Look at the wonderful baits which the company-
monger throws out day by day to human weakness
and cupidity ! Do you call him shrewd and clever and
enterprising ? It is a sorry part to play in life, that of
Satan's decoy, tempting one's fellow-creatures to their

«il.-x. xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 195
ruin. Look at the lying advertisements, which meet
your eyes wherever you turn, and make the streets of
this great city almost as hideous from the point of view
of taste as from that of morality ! What a degrading
resource I To get on by the industrious dissemination
of lies, by false pretences, which one knows to be false 1
And to trade upon human misery — to raise hopes that
can never be fulfilled— to add to the pangs of disease
the smart of disappointment and the woe of a deeper
despair, as countless quacks in this Christian country
dot A Christian country : where God is denied on the
platform and through the press ; where a novel is
certain of widespread popularity, if its aim be to under
mine the foundations of the Christian faith ; where
atheism is mistaken for intelligence, and an inconsistent
Agnosticism for the loftiest outcome of logic and reason ;
where flagrant lust walks the streets unrebuked, un
abashed ; where every other person you meet is a
gambler in one form or another, and shopmen and
labourers and loafers and errand boys are all eager
about the result of races, and all agog to know the
forecasts of some wily tipster, some wiseacre of the
halfpenny press !
A Christian country : where the rich and noble have
no better use for profuse wealth than horse-training,
and no more elevating mode of recreation than hunting
and shooting down innumerable birds and beasts ;
where some must rot in fever-dens, clothed in rags,
pining for food, stifling for lack of air and room ; while
others spend thousands of pounds upon a whim, a
banquet, a party, a toy for a fair woman. I am not a
Socialist ; I do not deny a man's right to do what he
will with his own, and I believe that state interference

196 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
would be in the last degree disastrous to the country
But I affirm the responsibility before God of the rich
and great ; and I denv that they who live and spend for
themselves alone are worthy of the name of Christian.
A Christian country : where human beings die, year
after year, in the unspeakable, unimaginable agonies of
canine madness, and dogs are kept by the thousand in
crowded cities, that the sacrifice to the fiend of selfish
ness and the mocking devil of vanity may never lack
its victims ! There is a more than Egyptian worship
of Anubis, in the silly infatuation which lavishes tender
ness upon an unclean brute, and credulously invests
instinct with the highest attributes of reason ; and there
is a worse than heathenish besottedness in the heart
that can pamper a dog, and be utterly indifferent to
the helplessness and the sufferings of the children of
the poor. And people will go to church, and hear what
the preacher has to say, and " think he said what he
ought to have said," or not, as the case may be, and
return to their own settled habits of worldly living, as a
matter of course. Oh yes ! it is a Christian country —
the name of Christ has been named in it for fifteen
centuries past ; and for that reason Christ will judge it.
Therefore, thus said lahvah Sabaoth : Lo, I am about
to melt them and put them to proof (]ob xii. 1 1 ; Judg. xvii.
4; ch. vi. 25.) ; for how am I to deal in face of [the
wickedness of, LXX : the term lias fallen out of the
Heb. text: cf. iv. 4, vii. 12] the daughter of My people?
This is the meaning of the disasters that have fallen
and are even now falling upon the country. lahvah
will melt and assay this rough, intractable human ore,
in the fiery furnace of affliction ; the strain of insincerity
that runs through it, the base earthy nature, can only

»ii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 197
thus be separated and purged away (Isa. xlviii. 10).
A deadly arrow [LXX. a wounding one, »'.«., one which
does not miss, but hits and kills] is their tongue: deceit
it spake : with his mouth peace with his companion he
speaketh, and inwardly he layeth his ambush (Ps. Iv. 22).
The verse again specifies the wickedness complained
of, and justifies our restoration of that word in the
previous verse.
Perhaps, with the Peshito Syriac and the Targum,
we ought rather to render : a sharp arrow is their tongue.
There is an Arabic saying quoted by Lane, "Thou
didst sharpen thy tongue against us," which seems to
present a kindred root l (cf. Ps. Iii. 3, Ivii. 4 ; Prov.
xxv. 18). The Septuagint may be right, with its
probable reading : deceit are ihe words of his mouth.
This certainly improves the symmetry of the verse.
For such things (emphatic) shall I not — or should
I not, with an implied ought — shall I not punish them,
saith lahvah, or an such a nation shall not My soul
avenge herself? (v. 9, 29, after which the LXX. omits
them here.) These questions, like the previous one,
How am I to deal — or, how could I act — in face of the
wickedness of the daughter of My people ? imply the
moral necessity of the threatened evils. If lahweh be
what He has taught man's conscience that He is,
national sin must involve national suffering, and national
persistence in sin must involve national ruin. There
fore Pie will melt and try this people, both for their
punishment and their reformation, if it may be so.
For punishment is properly retributive, whatever may
be alleged to the contrary. Conscience tells us that we

1 Shahadhta lisanaka 'alaina. In this case, we should follow the
Heb. margin or Q're.

198 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
deserve to suffer for ill-doing, and conscience is a better
guide than ethical or sociological speculators who have
lost faith in God. But God's chastisements as known
to our experience, that is to say, in the present life, are
reformatory as well as retributive ; they compel us to
recollect, they bring us, like the Prodigal, back to
ourselves, out of the distractions of a sinful career,
they humble us with the discovery that we have a
Master, that there is a Power above ourselves and our
apparently unlimited capacity to choose evil and to do
it : and so by Divine grace we may become contrite and
be healed and restored.
The prophet thus, perhaps, discerns a faint glimmer
of hope, but his sky darkens again immediately. The
land is already to a great extent desolate, through the
ravages of the invaders, or through severe droughts
(cf. iv. 25, viii. 20(?), xii. 4). Upon the mountains
will I lift up weeping and wailing, and upon the pastures
of ihe prairie a lamentation, for they have been burnt up
(ii. 1 S ; 2 Kings xxii. 1 3), so that no man passeth over
them, and they have not heard the cry of the cattle : from
the birds of Ihe air to the beasts, they are fled, are gone
(iv. 25). The perfects may be prophetic and announce
what is certain to happen hereafter. The next verse,
at all events, is unambiguous in this respect : And I
will make Jerusalem into heaps, a haunt of jackals; and
the cities of Judah will I make a desolation without in
habitant. Not only the country districts, but the
fortified towns, and Jerusalem itself, the heart and
centre of the nation, will be desolated. Sennacherib
boasts that he took forty-six strong cities, and " little
towns without number," and carried off 200, t$o male
and female captives, and an immense booty in cattle,
before proceeding to invest Jerusalem itself; a state-

vii-x,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 199
which shews how severe the sufferings of Judah might
be, before the enemy struck at its vitals.
In the words / will make Jerusalem heaps, there is
not necessarily a change of subject Jeremiah was
authorized to " root up and pull down and destroy " in
the name of lahvah.
He now challenges the popular wise men (viii. 8, 9)
to account for what, on their principles, must appear
an inexplicable phenomenon. Who is the (true) wise
man, so that he understands this (Hos. xiv. 9), and who
is he to whom the mouth of lahvah hath spoken, so that
he can explain it [unto you? LXX.]. Why is the land
undone, burnt up like the prairie, without a passer by?
Both to Jeremiah and to his adversaries the land was
Iahvah's land ; what befel it must have happened by
His will, or at least with His consent. Why had He
suffered the repeated ravages of foreign invaders to
desolate His own portion, where, if anywhere on earth,
He must display His power and the proof of His deity ?
Not for lack of sacrifices, for these were not neglected.
Only one answer was possible, to those who recognised
the validity of the Book of the Law, and the binding
character of the covenant which it embodied. The
people and their wise men cannot account for the
national calamities ; Jeremiah himself can only do so,
because he is inwardly taught by lahvah himself^ver.
12) : And lahvah said. It may be supposed that ver.
11 states the popular dilemma, the anxious question
which they put to the official prophets, whose guidance
they accepted. The prophets could give no reasonable
or satisfying answer, because their teaching hitherto
had been that Ialivah could be appeased "with thou
sands ol rams, and ten thousand torrents of oil " (Mic.
vi. 7). On such conditions they had promised peace,

THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

and their teaching had been falsified by events. There
fore Jeremiah gives the true answer for lahvah. But
why did not the people cease to believe those whose
word was thus falsified ? Perhaps the false prophets
would reply to objectors, as the refugees in Egypt
answered Jeremiah's reproof of their renewed worship
of the Queen of Heaven : " It was in the years that
followed the abolition of this worship that our national
disasters began" (xliv. 18). It is never difficult to
delude those whose evil and corrupt hearts make them
desire nothing so much as to be deluded.
And lahvah said: Because they forsook (lit. upon=
on account of their forsaking) "My Law which I sel
before them" (Deut. iv. 1 8), and they hearkened not unto
My voice (Deut. xxviii. 15), and walked not therein (in
My Law ; LXX. omits the clause) ; and walked after the
obstinacy of their own (evil: LXX.) heart, and after the
Baals (Deut. iv. 3) which their fathers taught them —
instead of teaching them the laws of lahvah (Deut. xi.
19). Such were, and had always been, the terms of the
answer of Iahvah's true prophets. Do you ask upon
what ground Qal mali) misfortune has overtaken you?
Upon the ground of your having forsaken Iahvah's
" law " or instruction, His doctrine concerning Himself
and your consequent obligations towards Him. They
had this teaching in the Book of the Law, and had
solemnly undertaken to observe it, in that great national
assembly of the eighteenth year of Josiah. And they
had had it from the first in the living utterances of
the prophets.
This, then, is the reason why the land is waste and
deserted. And therefore — because past and present
experience is an index of the future, for Iahvah's
character and purpose are constant — therefore the deso-

»ii-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 301
lation of the cities of Judah and of Jerusalem itself, will
ere long be accomplished. Therefore thus said lahvah
Sabaoth, the God of Armies and the God of Israel; Lo,
I am about to feed them — or, / continue to feed them — to
wit, this people (an epexegetical gloss omitted by the
LXX.) with wormwood, and I will give them to drink waters
of gall (Deut. xxix. 17. An Israelite inclining to foreign
gods is " a root bearing wormwood and gall " — bearing a
bitter harvest of defeat, a cup of deadly disaster for his
people ; cf. Am. vi. 12), and I will " scatter them among
the nations," " whom they and their fathers knew not "
(Deut. xxviii. 36, 64). The last phrase is remarkable
as evidence of the isolation of Israel, whose country lay
off the beaten track between the Trans-Euphratean
empires and Egypt, which ran along the sea-coast.
They knew not Assyria, until Tiglath Pileser's interven
tion (circ. 734), nor Babylon till the times of the New
Empire. In Hezekiah's day, Babylon is still " a far
country" (2 Kings xx. 14). Israel was in fact an
agricultural people, trading directly with Phenicia and
Egypt, but not with the lands beyond the Great River.
The prophets heighten the horror of exile by the
strangeness of the land whither Israel is to be banished.
And I will send after them the sword, until I have con
sumed them. The survivors are to be cut off (cf. viii.
3); there is no reserve, as in iv. 27, v. 10, 18; a
" full end " is announced ; which, again, corresponds to
the aggravation of social and private evils in the time
of Jehoiakim, and the prophet's despair of reform.
The judgment of Judah is the ruin of her cities, the
dispersion of her people in foreign lands, and exter
mination by the sword. Nothing is left for this doomed
nation but to sing its funeral song; to send for the
professional wailing women, that they may come and

803 THB PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
chant their dirges, not over the dead but over the living
who are condemned to die : Thus said lahvah Sabaoth
(here as in ver. 6, LXX. omits the expressive Sabaoth),
Mark ye well the present crisis, and what it implies (cf.
ii. IO; LXX. wrongly omits this emphatic term), and sum
mon the women that sing dirges, that they come, and unto
the skilful women send ye, that they come [LXX. omits],
and hasten [LXX. and speak and] to lift up the death-wail
over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our
eyelids pour down waters. The " singing women " of
2 Chron. xxxv. 25, or the "minstrels" of St. Matt. ix. 23,
are intended. The reason assigned for thus inviting
them assumes that the prophet's forecast is already
fulfilled. Already, as in viii. 19, Jeremiah hears the
loud wailing of the captives as they are driven away
from their ruined homes : For the sound of the death-wail
is heard from Sion, " How are we undone ! We are sore
ashamed" — of our false confidence and foolish security
and deceitful hopes — "for, after all, we have left the land,
for our dwellings have cast (us) out!" The last two
lines appear to be parallels, which is against the ren
dering, For men have cast down our dwellings. Cf.
Lev. xviii. 25 ; chap. xxii. 28. From the wailing
women, the address now seems to turn to the Judean
women generally; but perhaps the former are still
intended, as their peculiar calling was probably here
ditary and passed on from mother to daughter: For
hear, ye women, the word of lahvah, and let your ear take
in the word of His mouth ! and teach ye your daughters
the death-wail, and each her companion the lamentation; for
"Death scales our lattices,
Enters our palaces,
To cut off boy without,
The young men from the streets"

vn.-x,xxvi.J POPULAR AND 7'RUE RELIGION. 303
And the corpses of men will fall — the tense certifies the
future relercnce of the others — like dung (viii. 2) on
the face of the field (2 Kings ix. 37, of Jezebel's corpse) —
left without burial rites to rot and fatten the soil — and
like the corn-swath behind the reaper, and none shall
gather (them). The quatrain (ver. 20) isN possibly
quoted from some familiar elegy ; and the allusion
seems to be to a mysterious visitation like the plague,
which used to be known in Europe as "the Black
Death" (cf. xv. 2, xviii. 21, xliii. 11). In this time ot'
closed gates and barred doors, death is represented as
entering the house, not by the door, but " climbing up
some other way" like a thief (Joel ii. 9; St. John x. 1).
Bars and bolts will be futile against such an invader.
The figure is not continued in the second half of the
stanza.1 The point of the closing comparison seems
to be that whereas the corn-swaths are gathered up in
sheaves and taken home, the bodies will lie where the
reaper Death cuts them down.
Thus said lahvah : Let not a wise man glory in his
wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might !
Let not a rich man glory in his riches, but in this let him
glory that glorieth, in being prudent and knowing Me
(LXX. omits pronoun, cf. Gen. i. 4), that I, lahvah, do
lovingkindness (and: LXX. and Orientals), justice and
righteousness upon the earth ; for in these I delight, saith
lahvah. It is not easy, at first sight, to see the connexion
of this, one of the finest and deepest of Jeremiah's
oracles, with the sentence of destruction which pre
cedes it It is not satisfactory to regard it as stating
1 Speak thou, Thus saith lahweh, is undoubtedly a spurious addition,
and does not appear in the LXX. Jeremiah never says Koh ne'um
lahvah, and never uses tbe imperative dabber I

t©4 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
" the only means of escape and the reason why it is
not used" (the latter being set forth in w. 24, 25);
for the leading idea of the whole composition, from
vii. 13 to ix. 22, is that retribution is coming, and
no escape, not even that of a remnant, is contemplated.
The passage looks like an appendix to the previous
pieces, such as the prophet might have added at a later
period when the crisis was over, and the country had
begun to breathe again, after the shock of invasion had
rolled away. And this impression is confirmed by its
contents. We have no details about the first interfer
ence of the new Chaldean power in Judah ; we only
read that in Jehoiakim's days Nebuchadrezzar the king
of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant
three years: then he turned and rebelled against him (2
Kings xxiv. 1). But before this, for some two or three
years, Jehoiakim was the vassal of the king of Egypt
to whom he owed his crown, and Nebuchadrezzar had
to reduce Necho before he could attend to Jehoiakim.
It may be, therefore, that the worst apprehensions of
the time not having been realized, in the year or two
of lull which followed, the politicians of Judah began to
boast of their foresight and the caution and sagacity of
their measures for the public safety, instead of ascribing
the respite to God ; the warrior class might vaunt the
bravery which it had exhibited or intended to exhibit
in the service of the country; and the rich nobles
might exult in the apparent security of their treasures
and the new lease of enjoyment accorded to themselves.
To these various classes, who would not be slow to
ridicule his dark forebodings as those of a moody and
unpatriotic pessimist (xx. 7, xxvi. 11, xxix. 26,
xxxvii. 13), Jeremiah now speaks, to remind them that
if the danger is over for the present, it is the loving-

»ii.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 205
kindness and the righteous government of lahvah
which has removed it, and to declare that it is only
suspended and postponed, not abolished for ever :
Behold, days are coming, saith lahvah, when I will visit
(his guilt) upon every one that is circumcised in foreskin
(only, and not in heart also): upon Egypt and upon
Judah, and upon Edom and upon the bene Ammon and
upon Moab, and upon all the tonsured folk that dwell in
the wilderness: For all the nations are uncircumcised,
and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
Egypt is mentioned first, as the leading nation, to
which at the time the petty" states of the west looked
for help in their struggle against Babylon (cf. xxvii.
3). The prophet numbers Judah with the rest, not
only as a member of the same political group, but as
standing upon the same level of unspiritual life. Like
Israel, Egypt also practised circumcision, and both the
context here requires and their kinship with the
Hebrews makes it probable that the other peoples
mentioned observed the same custom (Herod., ii. 36,
104), which is actually portrayed in a wall-painting at
Karnak. The "tonsured folk" or " cropt-heads " of
the wilderness are north Arabian nomads like the
Kedarenes (xlix. 28, 32), and the tribes of Dedan,
Tema and Buz (xxv. 23), whose ancestor was the
circumcised Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 13 sqq., xvii. 23).
Herodotus records their custom of shaving the temples
all round, and leaving a tuft of hair on the top of the
head (Herod., iii. 8), which practice, like circumcision,
had a religious significance, and was forbidden to the
Israelites (Lev. xix. 27, xxi. 5).
Now why does Jeremiah mention circumcision at
all ? The case is, I think, parallel to his mention of
another external distinction of the popular religion, the

206 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

Ark of the Covenant (iii. 15). Just as in that place
God promises shepherds according to Mine heart which
shall shepherd the restored Israel with knowledge and
prudence, and then directly adds that, in the light and
truth of those days, the ark will be forgotten (iii.
IS, 16); so here, he bids the ruling classes, the actual
shepherds of the nation, not to trust in their own
wisdom or valour or wealth (cf. xvii. 5 s?<7-)> Dut m
being prudent and knowing lahvah, and then adds that
the outward sign of circumcision, upon which the
people prided themselves as the mark of their dedica
tion to lahvah, was in itself of no value, apart from
a " circumcised heart," i.e., a heart purified of selfish
aims and devoted to the will and glory of God (iv. 4).
So far as lahvah is concerned, all Judah's heathen
neighbours are uncircumcised, in spite of their ob
servance of the outward rite. The Jews themselves
would hardly admit the validity of heathen circumcision,
because the manner of it was different, just as at this
day the Muhammadan method differs from the Jewish.
But Jeremiah puts " all the house of Israel," who were
circumcised in the orthodox manner, on a level with
the imperfectly circumcised heathen peoples around
them. All alike are uncircumcised before God ; those
who have the orthodox rite, and those who have but
an inferior semblance of it ; and all alike will in
the day of judgment be visited for their sins (cf.
Amos L).
With the increasing carelessness of moral obliga
tions, an increasing importance would be attached to
the observance of such a rite as circumcision, which
was popularly supposed to devote a man to lahvah
in such sense that the tie was indissoluble. Jeremiah
says plainly that this is a mistaken view. The outward

vii-x.,xxvL] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 307
sign must have an inward and spiritual grace corre
sponding thereto ; else the Judeans are no better than
those whose circumcision they despise as defective.
His meaning is that of the Apostle, "Circumcision
verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be
a breaker of law, thy circumcision hath become uncir
cumcision " (Rom. ii. 25). " Circumcision is nothing,
and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the
commandments of God" scil. is everything (1 Cor.
vii. 19). It is "faith working by love," it is the "new
creature " that is essential in spiritual religion (Gal.
v. 6, vi. 15).
Hcec dicit Dominus : Non glorielur sapiens in sapientia
sua. Glancing back over the whole passage, we dis
cern an inward relation between these verses and the
preceding discourse. It is not the outward props of
state-craft, and strong battalions, and inexhaustible
wealth, that really and permanently uphold a nation ;
not these, but the knowledge of lahvah, a just insight
into the true nature of God, and a national life regu
lated in all its departments by that insight. At the
outset of this third section of his discourse (ix. 3-6),
Jeremiah declared that corrupt Israel knew not and
refused to know its God. At the beginning of the
entire piece (vii. 3 sq.), he urged his countrymen to
amend their ways and their doings, and not go on
trusting in lying words and doing the opposite of loving
kindness and justice and righteousness, which alone are
pleasing to lahvah (Mic. vi. 8), Who delighteth in
lovingkindness and not sacrifice, and in the knowledge
of God more than in burnt-offerings (Hos. vi. 6). And
just as in the opening section the sacrificial worship
was disparaged, taken as an " opus operatum," so here
at the close circumcision is declared to have no inde-

3o8 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
pendent value as a means of securing Divine favour
(ix. 25). Thus the entire discourse is rounded off by
the return of the end to the beginning ; and the main
thought of the whole, which Jeremiah has developed
and enforced with so much variety of feeling and
oratorical and poetical ornament, is the eternally true
thought that a service of God which is purely
external is no service at all, and that rites without
a loving obedience are an insult to the Majesty of
Heaven. x. 17-25. The latter part of chap. x. resumes the
subject suspended at ix. 22. It evidently contemplates
the speedy departure of the people into banishment.
Away out of the land with thy pack (or thy goods ; LXX.
viroaTaais, " property," Targ. " merchandise," the Heb.
term, which is related to " Canaan," occurs here only),
O thoU that sillest in distress ! (or abidest in the siege :
Iii. 5 ; 2 Kings xxiv. 10). Sion is addressed, and bidden
to prepare her scanty bundle of bare necessaries for
the march into exile. So Egypt is bidden to " make
for herself vessels of exile," xlvi. 19. Some think that
Sion is warned to withdraw her goods from the open
country to the protection of her strong walls, before
the siege begins, as in viii. 14; but we have passed
that stage in the development of the piece, and the
next verse seems to shew the meaning : For thus hath
lahvah said, Lo, I am about to sling forth the inhabit
ants of the land this time — as opposed to former occa
sions, when the enemy retired unsuccessful (2 Kings
xvi. S, xix. 36), or went off satisfied with plunder
or an indemnity, like the Scythians (see also 2 Kings
xiv. 14) — and I will distress them that they may find
out the truth, which now they refuse to see. The
aposiopesis that they may find out I is very striking.

vii.-x., xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 309
The Vulgate renders the verb in the passive : " Tribu-
labo eos ita ut inveniantur." This, however, does not
give so good a sense as the Masoretic pointing, and
Ewald's reference of the term to the goods of the
panic-stricken fugitives seems flat and tasteless (" the
inhabitants of the land will this time .... not be
able to hide their goods from the enemy ! "). The best
comment on the phrase is supplied by a later oracle :
Lo, I am about lo make them know this time — I will
make them know My hand and My might; that they may
know that My name is lahvah (xvi. 2i)_ Cf. also
xvii. 9; Eccles. viii. 17.
The last verse (17) resembles a poetical quotation;
and this one looks like the explication of it. There
the population is personified as a woman; here we
have instead the plain prose expression, "inhabitants
of the land." The figurative, " I will sling them forth "
or "-cast them out," explains the bidding of Sion to
pack up her bundle or belongings — there seems to be
a touch of contempt in this isolated word, as much as
to signify that the people must go forth into exile with
no more of their possessions than they can carry like
a beggar in a bundle. The expression, " I will distress
them," seems to shew that " thou that sittest in the
distress " is proleptic, or to be rendered " thou that art
to sit in distress," which comes to the same thing.
And now the prophet imagines the distress and the
remorse of this forlorn mother, as it will manifest
itself when her house is ruined and her children are
gone and she realizes the folly of the past (cf.
iv. 31):— " Woe's me for my wound t
Fatal is my stroke I
»4

210 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH
(perhaps quoted from a familiar elegy). And yet I —
/ thought (chap. xxii. 21 ; Ps. xxx. 7), Only this — no
more than this — is my sickness: I can bear it ! (m "|K
mya ibn ', LXX. a-ov, Vulg. mea). The people had
never fully realized the threatenings of the prophets,
until they began to be accomplished. When they
heard them, they had said, half-incredulously, half-
mockingly, Is that all? Their false guides, too, had
treated apparent danger as a thing of little moment,
assuring them that their half reforms, and zealous
outward worship, were sufficient to turn away the
Divine displeasure (vi. 14). And so they said to
themselves, as sinners are still in the habit of saying,
"If the worst come to the worst, I can bear it. Be
sides, God is merciful, and things may turn out better
for frail humanity than your preachers of wrath and
woe predict. Meanwhile — I shall do as I please, and
take my chance of the issue."
The lament of the mourning mother continues : My
tent is laid waste and all my cords are broken ; My sons
went forth of me (to battle) and are not; There is none
to spread my tent any more, And to set up my curtains
(cf. Amos ix. 11). Overhearing, as it were, this
sorrowful lamentation (qinali), the prophet interposes
with the reason of the calamity : For the shepherds
became brutish or behaved foolishly, stulte egerunt (Vulg.)
— the leaders of the nation shewed themselves as in
sensate and silly as cattle — and lahvah they sought not
(ii. 8) ; Therefore — as they had no regard for Divine
counsel — they dealt not wisely (iii. 15, ix. 23, xx. II),
and all their flock was scattered abroad.
Once more, and for the last time, the prophet sounds
the alarm : Hark I a rumour I lo, it cometh ! and a
great uproar from the land of the north ; to make the

vii.-x.,xxvL] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 3ii
cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt of jackals I It is
not likely that the verse is to be regarded as spoken
by the mourning country ; she contemplates the evil
as already done, whereas here it is only imminent
(cf. iv. 6, vi. 22, i. 15). The piece concludes with a
prayer (w. 23-25), which may be considered either as
an intercession by the prophet on behalf of the nation
(cf. xviii. 20), or as a form of supplication which he
suggests as suitable to the existing crisis. / know,
lahvah, that man's way is not his own; That it pertaineth
not to a man to walk and direct his own steps : Correct
me, lahvah, but with justice; Not in Thine anger, lest
Thou make me small! (Partly quoted, Ps. vi. I,
xxxviii. I.) Pour out Thv fury upon the nations that
know Thee not, And upon tribes that have not called upon
Thy name; For they have devoured Jacob [and will
devour him], [and consumed him], and his pasture they
have desolated I (Ps. lxxix. 6, 7, quoted from this place.
In Jer. the LXX. omits "and will devour him;"
while the psalm omits both of the bracketed ex
pressions.) The Vulgate renders ver. 23 : " Scio, Domine, quia
non est hominis via ejus ; nee viri est ut ambulet, et
dirigat gressus suos." I think this indicates the correct
reading of the Hebrew text (P3n\ "pn ; cf. ix. 23, where
two infinitives absolute are used in a similar way). The
Septuagint also must have had the same text, for it
translates, "nor will (=can) a man walk and direct his
own walking." The Masoretic punctuation is certainly
incorrect; and the best that can be made of it is
Hitzig's version, which, however, disregards the accents,
although their authority is the same as that of the vowel
points : / know lahvah that not to man belongeth his
way, not lo a perishing (lit. "going," "departing") man

THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

— and to direct his steps. Any reader of Hebrew may
see at once that this is a very unusual form of ex
pression. (For the thought, cf. Prov. xvi. 9, xix. 21 ;
Ps. xxxvii. 23.)
The words express humble submission to the im
pending chastisement. The penitent people does not
deprecate the penalty of its sins, but only prays that
the measure of it may be determined by right rather
than by wrath (cf. xlvi. 27, 28). The very idea of
right and justice implies a limit, whereas wrath, like all
passions, is without limit, blind and insatiable. " In
the Old Testament, justice is opposed, not to mercy,
but to high-handed violence and oppression, which
recognise no law but subjective appetite and desire.
The just man owns the claims of an objective law
of right."
Non est hominis via ejus. Neither individuals nor
nations are masters of their own fortunes in this world.
Man has not his fate in his own hands ; it is controlled
and directed by a higher Power. By sincere submis
sion, by a glad, unswerving loyalty, which honours
himself as well as its Object, man may co-operate with
that Power, to the furtherance of ends which are of all
possible ends the wisest, the loftiest, the most bene
ficial to his kind. Self-will may oppose those ends, it
cannot thwart them ; at the most it can but momentarily
retard their accomplishment, and exclude itself from a
share in the universal blessing.
Israel now confesses, by the mouth of his best and
truest representative, that he has hitherto loved to
choose his own path, and to walk in his own strength,
without reference to the will and way of God. Now,
the overwhelming shock of irresistible calamity has
brought him to his senses, has revealed to him his

vu.-x.,xxvi.] POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION. 313
powerlessness in the hands of the Unseen Arbiter of
events, has made him see, as he never saw, that mortal
man can determine neither the vicissitudes nor the goal
of his journey. Now he sees the folly of the mighty
man glorying in his might, and the rich man glorying
in his riches ; now he sees that the how and the whither
of his earthly course are not matters within his own
control ; that all human resources are nothing against
God, and are only helpful when used for and with God.
Now he sees that the path of life is not one which we
enter upon and traverse of our own motion, but a path
along which we are led ; and so, resigning his former
pride of independent choice, he humbly prays, "Lead
Thou me on ! " Lead me whither Thou wilt, in the
way of trouble and disaster and chastisement for my
sins ; but remember my human frailty and weakness,
and let not Thy wrath destroy me ! Finally, the
suppliant ventures to remind God that others are
guilty as well as he, and that the ruthless destroyers
of Israel are themselves fitted to be objects as well
as instruments of Divine justice. They are such (i)
because they have not " known " nor " called upon "
lahvah ; and (ii) because they have " devoured Jacob "
who was a thing consecrated to lahvah (ii. 3), and
therefore are guilty of sacrilege (cf. 1. 28, 29).
It has never been our lot to see our own land over
run by a barbarous invader, our villages burnt, our
peasantry slaughtered, our towns taken and sacked
with all the horrors permitted or enjoined by a non-
Christian religion. We read of but hardly realize the
atrocities of ancient warfare. If we did realize them,
we might even think a saint justified in praying for
vengeance upon the merciless destroyers of his country.
But apart from this, I see a deeper meaning in this

214 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
prayer. The justice of this terrible visitation upon
Judah is admitted by the prophet Yet in Judah many
righteous were involved in the general calamity. On
the other hand, Jeremiah knew something of the vices
of the Babylonians, against which his contemporary
Habakkuk inveighs so bitterly. They " knew not " nor
" called upon " lahvah ; but a base polytheism reflected
and sanctioned the corruption of their lives. A kind
of moral dilemma, therefore, is proposed here. If
the purpose of this outpouring of Divine wrath be to
bring Israel to "find out" (ver. 1 8) and to acknow
ledge the truth of God and his own guiltiness, can
wrath persist, when that result is attained ? Does
not justice demand that the torrent of destruction be
diverted upon the proud oppressor ? So prayer, the
forlorn hope of poor humanity, strives to overcome
and compel and prevail with God, and to wrest a
blessing even from the hand of Eternal Justice.

VI.
THE IDOLS OF THE HEATHEN AND THE GOD
OF ISRAEL.
JEREMIAH X. I-l6.
THIS fine piece is altogether isolated from the
surrounding context, which it interrupts in a
very surprising manner. Neither the style nor the
subject, neither the idioms nor the thoughts expressed
in them, agree with what we easily recognise as Jere
miah's work. A stronger contrast can hardly be
imagined than that which exists between the leading
motive of this oracle as it stands, and that of the long
discourse in which it is embedded with as little regard
for continuity as an aerolite exhibits when it buries
itself in a plain. In what precedes, the prophet's
fellow-countrymen have been accused of- flagrant and
defiant idolatry (vii. 17 sqq., 30 sqq.); the opening
words of this piece imply a totally different situation.
To the way of the nations become not accustomed, and of
the signs of heaven be not afraid; for the nations are
afraid of them} Jeremiah would not be likely to warn
inveterate apostates not to " accustom themselves " to
idolatry. The words presuppose, not a nation whose
idolatry was notorious, and had just been the subject
1 LXX. "lor they are afraid before them," i DmsV TOil WIT '3.

216 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
of unsparing rebuke and threats of imminent destruc
tion ; they presuppose a nation free from idolatry, but
exposed to temptation from surrounding heathenism.
The entire piece contains no syllable of reference to
past or present unfaithfulness on the part of Israel.
Here at the outset, and throughout, Israel is implicitly
contrasted with " the nations " (ra edvrj) as the servant
of lahvah with the foolish worshippers of lifeless gods.
There is a tone of contempt in the use of the term
goyim — "To the way of the goyim accustom not your
selves ... for the goyim are afraid of them " (of the
signs of heaven); or as the Septuagint puts it yet
more strongly, " for they (the besotted goyim) are afraid
(i.e., worship) before them ;" as though that alone — the
sense of Israel's superiority — should be sufficient to
deter Israelites from any bowings in the house of
Rimmon.1 Neither this contemptuous use of the term
goyim, " Gentiles," nor the scathing ridicule of the false
gods and their devotees, is in the manner of Jeremiah.
Both are characteristic of a later period. The biting
scorn of image-worship, the intensely vivid perception
of the utter incommensurableness of lahvah, the Creator
of all things, with the handiwork of the carpenter and
the silversmith, are well-known and distinctive features
of the great prophets of the Exile (see especially
I'sa. xl.-lxvi.). There are plenty of allusions to idolatry
in Jeremiah ; but they are expressed in a tone of fervid
indignation, not of ridicule. It was the initial offence,
which issued in a hopeless degradation of public and
private morality, and would have for its certain conse
quence the rejection and ruin of the nation (ii. 5-13,
20-28, iii. 1-9, 23 sqq.). All the disasters, past and
1 This is the most natural interpretation of the passage according to
tbe Hebrew punctuation. Another is given below.

x.t-16.] BEATBEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 217
present, which had befallen the country, were due to
it (vii. 9, 17 sqq., 30 sqq., viii. 2 etc.). The people are
urged to repent and return to lahvah with their whole
heart (iii. 12 sqq., iv. 3 sqq., v. 21 sqq., vi. 8), as the only
means of escape from deadly peril. The Baals are
things that cannot help or save (ii. 8, II); but the
prophet does not say, as here (x. 5), " Fear them not ;
they cannot harm you ! " The piece before us breathes
not one word about Israel's apostasy, the urgent need
of repentance, the impending ruin. Taken as a whole,
it neither harmonizes with Jeremiah's usual method of
argument, nor does it suit the juncture of affairs implied
by the language which precedes and follows (vii. I-
ix. 26, x. 17-25). For let us suppose that this
oracle occupies its proper place here, and was actually
written by Jeremiah at the crisis which called forth the
preceding and following utterances. Then the warning
cry, " Be not afraid of the signs of heaven ! " can only
mean " Be not afraid of the Powers under whose
auspices the Chaldeans are invading your country;
lahvah, the true and living God, will protect you ! "
But consolation of this kind would be diametrically
opposed to the doctrine which Jeremiah shares with all
his predecessors ; the doctrine that lahvah Himself is
the prime cause of the coming trouble, and that the
heathen invaders are His instruments of wrath (v. 9 sq.,
vi. 6) ; it would imply assent to that fallacious confi
dence in lahvah, which the prophet has already done
his utmost to dissipate (vi. 14, vii. 4 sq.).
The details of the idolatry satirized in the piece
before us point to Chaldea rather than to Canaan. We
have here a zealous worship of wooden images over
laid and otherwise adorned with silver and gold, and
robed in rich garments of violet and purple (cf. Josh.

218 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
vii. 21). This does not agree with what we know of
Judean practice in Jeremiah's time, when, besides the
worship of the Queen of Heaven, the people adored
" stocks and stones ; " probably the wooden symbols
of the goddess Asherah and rude sun-pillars, but hardly
works of the costly kind described in the text, which
indicate a wealthy people whose religion reflected an
advanced condition of the arts and commerce. The
designation of the objects of heathen worship as " the
signs of heaven," and the gibe at the custom of carrying
the idol-statues in procession (Isa. xlvi. I, 7), also point
us to Babylon, " the land of graven images " (1. 38),
and the home of star-worship and astrological super
stition (Isa. xlvii. 13).
From all these considerations, it would appear that
not Israel in Canaan but Israel in Chaldea is addressed
in this piece by some unknown prophet, whose leaflet
has been inserted among the works of Jeremiah. In
that case, the much disputed eleventh verse, written in
Aramaic, and as such unique in the volume of the pro
phets proper, may really have belonged to the original
piece. Aramaic was the common language of inter
course between East and West both before arid during
the captivity (cf. 2 Kings xviii. 26) ; and the suggestion
that the tempted exiles should answer in this dialect
the heathen who pressed them to join in their worship,
seems suitable enough. The verse becomes very sus
picious, if we suppose that the whole piece is really
part and parcel of Jeremiah's discourse, and as such
addressed to the Judeans in the reign of Jehoiakim.
Ewald, who maintains this view upon grounds that
cannot be called convincing, thinks the Aramaic verse
was originally a marginal annotation on verse 1 5, and
suggests that it is a quotation from some early book

x.l-l6.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAELS GOD. 219
similar to the book of Daniel. At all events, it is
improbable that the verse proceeded from the pen of
Jeremiah, who writes Aramaic nowhere else, not even
in the letter to the exiles of the first Judean captivity
(chap. xxix.).
But might not the piece be an address which Jeremiah
sent to the exiles of the Ten Tribes, who were settled
in Assyria, and with whom it is otherwise probable
that he cultivated some intercourse? The expression
"House of Israel" (ver. 1) has been supposed to
indicate this. That expression, however, occurs in
the immediately preceding context (ix. 26), as does
also that of " the nations " ; facts which may partially
explain why the passage we are discussing occupies
its present position. The unknown author of the
Apocryphal Letter of Jeremiah and the Chaldee Tar-
gumist appear to have held the opinion that Jeremiah
wrote the piece for the benefit of the exiles carried
away with Jehoiachin in the first Judean captivity.
The Targum introduces the eleventh verse thus : " This
is a copy of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet
sent to the remnant of the elders of the captivity which
was in Babylon. And if the peoples among whom ye
are shall say unto you, Fear the Errors, O house of
Israel ! thus shall ye answer and thus shall ye say
unto them : The Errors whom ye fear are (but) errors,
in which there is no profit: they from the heavens
are not able to bring down rain, and from the earth
they cannot make fruits to spring : they and those who
fear them will perish from the earth, and will be brought
to an end from under these heavens. And thus shall
ye say unto them : We fear Him that maketh the earth
by His power," etc. (ver. 12). The phrase " the remnant
of the elders of the captivity which was (or who were)

220 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
in Babylon" is derived from Jer. xxix. I. But how
utterly different are the tone and substance of that
message from those of the one before us ! Far from
warning his captive countrymen against the state-
worship of Babylon, far from satirizing its absurdity,
Jeremiah bids the exiles be contented in their new
home, and to pray for the peace of the city. The false
prophets who appear at Babylon prophesy in Iahvah's
name (vv. 15, 21), and in denouncing them Jeremiah
says not a word about idolatry. It is evident from
the whole context that he did not fear it in the case
of the exiles of Jehoiachin's captivity. (See also the
simile of the Good and Bad Figs, chap, xxiv., which
further illustrates the prophet's estimation of the earlier
body cf exiles.)
The Greek Epistle of Jeremiah, which in MSS. is
sometimes appended to Baruch, and which Fritzsche
refers to the Maccabean times, appear to be partially
based upon the passage we are considering. Its
heading is : " Copy of a letter which Jeremiah sent
unto those who were about to be carried away captives
to Babylon, by the king of the Babylonians ; to announce
to them as was enjoined him by God." It then begins
thus : " On account of your sins which ye have sinned
before God ye will be carried away to Babylon as
1 captives by Nabuchodonosor king of the Babylonians.
Having come, then, into Babylon, ye will be there
many years, and a long time, until seven generations ;
but after this I will bring you forth from thence in
peace. But now ye will see in Babylon gods, silvern
and golden and wooden, borne upon shoulders, shewing
fear (an object of fear) to the nations. Beware then,
lest ye also become like unto the nations, and fear
take you at them, when ye see a multitude before and

x.1-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 221
behind them worshipping them. But say ye in the
mind : Thee it behoveth us to worship, 0 Lord ! For
Mine angel is with you, and He is requiring your lives."
The whole epistle is well worth reading as a kind of
paraphrase of our passage. " For their tongue is carven
(or polished) by a carpenter, and themselves are over
laid with gold and silver, but lies they are and they
cannot speak." " They being cast about with purple
apparel have their face wiped on account of the dust
from the house, which is plentiful upon them" (13).
" But he holds a dagger with right hand and an axe,
but himself from war and robbers he will not (= cannot)
deliver" (15), cf. Jer. x. 15. " He is like oneof the house-
beams" (20, cf. Jer. x. 8, and perhaps 5). "Upon
their body and upon their head alight bats, swallows,
and the birds, likewise also the cats ; whence ye will
know that they are not gods ; therefore fear them
not" (cf. Jer. x. 5). "At all cost are they purchased,
in which there is no spirit" (25; cf. Jer. x. 9, 14).
"Footless, upon shoulders they are carried, displaying
their own dishonour to men " (26). " Neither if they
suffer evil from any one, nor if good, will they be able
to recompense " (34 ; cf. ver. 5). " But they that
serve them will be ashamed " (39 ; cf. ver. 14). " By
carpenters and goldsmiths are they prepared ; they
become nothing but what the craftsmen wish them to
become. And the very men that prepare them can
not last long; how then are the things prepared by
them likely to do so ? for they left lies and a reproach
to them that come after. For whenever war and evils
come upon them, the priests consult together where
to hide with them. How then is it possible not to
perceive that they are not gods, who neither save
themselves from war nor from evils ? For being of

222 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
wood and overlaid with gold and silver they will be
known hereafter, that they are lies. To all the nations
and to the kings it will be manifest that they are not
gods but works of men's hands, and no work of God
is in them" (45-51; cf. Jer. x. 14-15). "A wooden
pillar in a palace is more useful than the false gods"
(59). "Signs among nations they will not shew in
heaven, nor yet will they shine like the sun, nor give
light as the moon" (67). "For as a scarecrow in a
cucumber-bed guarding nothing, so their gods are wooden
and overlaid with gold and with silver" (70; cf. Jer.
x. 5). The mention of the sun, moon and stars, the
lightning, the wind, the clouds, and fire "sent forth
from above," as totally unlike the idols in "forms and
powers," seems to shew that the author had verses
12, 13 before him.
When we turn to the Septuagint, we are immediately
struck by its remarkable omissions. The four verses
6-8 and 10 do not appear at all in this oldest of the
versions ; while the ninth is inserted between the first
clause and the remainder of the fifth verse. Now, on
the one hand, it is juft the verses which the LXX.
translates, which both in style and matter contrast
so strongly with Jeremiah's authentic work, and are
plainly incongruous with the context and occasion;
while, on the other hand, the omitted versus contain
nothing which points positively to another author than
Jeremiah, and, taken by themselves, harmonise very
well with what may be supposed to have been the
prophet's feeling at the actual juncture of affairs.
" There is none at all like Thee, O lahvah 1
Great art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might !
Who should not fear Thee, O King of the nations ? for 'tis Thy
due

x.i-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 223
For among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdom
there is none at all like Thee.
And in one thing they are brute-like and dull ;
In the doctrine of Vanities, which are wood I
But lahvah Elohim is truth;
He is a living God, and an eternal King :
At His wrath the earth quaketh,
And nations abide not His indignation."
As Hitzig has observed, it is natural that now, as
the terrible decision approaches, the prophet should
seek and find comfort in the thought of the all-over
shadowing greatness of the God of Israel. If, however,
we suppose these verses to be Jeremiah's, we can
hardly extend the same assumption to verses 12-16,
in spite of one or two expressions of his which occur
in them ; and, upon the whole, the linguistic argument
seems to weigh decisively against Jeremiah's authorship
of this piece (see Naegelsbach).
It may be true enough that " the basis and possibility
of the true prosperity and the hope of the genuine
community are unfolded in these strophes '' (Ewald) ;
but that does not prove that they belong to Jeremiah.
Nor can I see much force in the remark that " didactic
language is of another kind than that of pure pro
phecy." But when the same critic affirms that " the
description of the folly of idolatry ... is also quite
new, and clearly serves as a model for the much more
elaborate ones, Isa. xl. 19-24 (20), xli. 7, xliv. 8-
20, xlvi. 5-7;" he is really giving up the point in
dispute. Verses 12-16 are repeated in the prophecy
against Babylon (li. 15-19); but this hardly proves
that " the later prophet, chap. 1. li., found all these words
in our piece ; " it is only evidence, so far as it gots,
for those verses themselves.
The internal connexion which Ewald assumes, is

<24 THE PR6PHEC/ES OF JEREMIAH.

not self-evident. There is no proof that " the thought
that the gods of the heathen might again rule " occurred
for one moment to Jeremiah on this occasion ; nor the
thought that " the maintenance of the ancient true
religion in conflict with the heathen must produce the
regeneration of Israel." There is no reference through
out the disputed passage to the spiritual condition of
the people, which is, in fact, presupposed to be good ;
and the return in verses 17-25 "to the main subject
of the discourse" is inexplicable on Ewald's theory
that the whole chapter, omitting verse 1 1, is one homo
geneous structure.
Hear ye the word that lahvah spake upon you, O house
of Israel! Thus said lahvah. The terms imply a
particular crisis in the history of Israel, when a Divine
pronouncement was necessary to the guidance of the
people. lahvah speaks indeed in all existence and in
all events, but His voice becomes audible, is recognised
as His, only when human need asserts itself in some
particular juncture of affairs. Then, in view of the
actual emergency, the mind of lahweh declares itself
by the mouth of His proper spokesmen ; and the
prophetic Thus said lahvah contrasts the higher point
of view with the lower, the heavenly and spiritual with
the earthly and the carnal ; it sets forth the aspect of
things as they appear to God, in the sharpest antithesis
to the aspect of things as they appear to the natural
unilluminated man. Thus said lahvah : This is the
thought of the Eternal, this is His judgment upon
present conditions and passing events, whatever your
thought and your judgment may happen or incline to
be I Such, I think, is the essential import of this vox
solennis, this customary formula of the dialect of
prophecy.

x.i-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. iz<.
On the present occasion, the crisis in view of which
a prophet declares the mind of lahvah is not a political
emergency but a religious temptation. The day for
the former has long since passed away, and the depressed
and scattered communities of exiled Israelites are
exposed among other trials to the constant temptation
to sacrifice to present expediency the only treasure
which they have saved from the wreck of their country,
the faith of their fathers, the religion of the prophets.
The uncompromising tone of this isolated oracle, the
abruptness with which the writer at once enters in
medias res, the solemn emphasis of his opening impera
tives, proves that this danger pressed at the time
with peculiar intensity. Thus said lahvah : Unto the
way of Ihe nations use not yourselves, And of the signs
of heaven stand not in awe, for that the nations stand in
awe of them 1 (cf. Lev. xviii. 3; Ezek. xx. 18). The
" way " of the nations is their religion, the mode and
manner of their worship (v. 4, 5) ; and the exiles are
warned not to suffer themselves to be led astray by
example, as they had been in the land of Canaan;
they are not to adore the signs of heaven, simply
because they see their conquerors adoring them. The
"signs of heaven" would seem to be the sun, moon
and stars, which were the objects of Babylonian
worship; although the passage is unhappily not free
from ambiguity. Some expositors have preferred to
think of celestial phenomena such as eclipses and
particular conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, whicH
in those days were looked upon as portents, fore
shadowing the course of national and individual fortunes.
That there is really a reference to the astrological
observation of the stars, is a view which finds con
siderable support in the words addressed to Babylon

•26 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
on the eve of her fall, by a prophet, who, if not identical
was at least contemporary with him whose message we
are discussing. In the forty-seventh chapter of the
book of Isaiah, it is said to Babylon : " Let now them
that parcel out the heavens, that gaze at the stars,
arise and save thee, prognosticating month by month
the things that will come upon thee" (Isa. xlvii. 13).
The signs of heaven are, in this case, the supposed
indications of coming events furnished by the varying
appearances of the heavenly bodies; and one might
even suppose that- the immediate occasion of our
prophecy was some eclipse of the sun or moon, or
some remarkable conjunction of the planets which at
the time was exciting general anxiety among the motley
populations of Babylonia. The prophecy then becomes
a remarkable instance of the manner in which an
elevated spiritual faith, free from all the contaminating
and blinding influences of selfish motives and desires,
may rise superior to universal superstition, and boldly
contradict the suggestions of what is accounted the
highest wisdom of the time, anticipating the results
though not the methods nor the evidence of science, at
an epoch when science is as yet in the mythological
stage. And the prophet might well exclaim in a tone
of triumph, Among all the wise of the nations none at all
is like unto thee, O Lord, as a source of true wisdom and
understanding for the guidance of life (ver. 7).
The inclusion of eclipses and comets among the
signs of heaven here spoken of has been thought to be
barred by the considerations that these are sometimes
alleged by the prophets themselves as signs of coming
judgment exhibited by the God of Israel; that, as
a matter of fact, they were as mysterious and awful
to the Jews as to their heathen neighbours ; and that

x.l-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 227
what is here contemplated is not the terror inspired by
rare occasional phenomena of this kind, but an habitual
superstition in relation to some ever-present causes.
It is certain that in another prophecy against Babylon,
preserved in the book of Isaiah, it is declared that, as
a token of the impending destruction, "the stars of
heaven and the Orions thereof shall not give their light :
the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the
moon shall not cause his light to shine" (Isa. xiii. 10);
and the similar language of the prophet Joel is well
known (Joel ii. 2, 10, 30, 31, iii. 15). But these
objections are not conclusive, for what our author is
denouncing is the heathen association of " the signs of
the heavens," whatever may be intended by that expres
sion, with a false system of religious belief. It is a
special kind of idolatry that he contemplates, as is clear
from the immediate context. Not only does the parallel
clause " Unto' the way of the nations use not your
selves " imply a gradual conformity to a heathen religion ;
not only is it the fact that the Hebrew phrase rendered
in our versions " Be not dismayed I " may imply
religious awe or worship (Mai. ii. 5), as indeed terms
denoting fear or dread are used by the Semitic languages
in general ; but the prophet at once proceeds to an ex
posure of the absurdity of image-worship : For the
ordinances (established modes of worship ; 2 Kings xvii.
8 ; here, established objects of worship) of the peoples
are a mere breath (i.e., nought) \for it (the idol) is a tree,
which out of the forest one felled (so the accents) ; the
handiwork of the carpenter with the bill. With silver and
with gold one adorneth it (or, maketh it bright) ; with
nails and with hammers they make them fast, that one
sway not (or, that there be no shaking). Like the scare
crow of a garden of gourds are they, and they cannot

93* THE PROPHECIES OF fEREMIAR.
speak; they are carried and carried, for they cannot take
a step (or, march) : be not afraid of them, for they cannot
hurt, neither is it in their power to benefit ! " Be not
afraid of them ! " returns to the opening charge : " Of
the signs of heaven stand not in awe ! " (cf. Gen.
xxxi. 42, 53 ; Isa. viii. 12, 13). Clearly, then, the
signa cceli are the idols against whose worship the
prophet warns his people ; and they denote " the sun,
the moon, the constellations (of the Zodiac), and all
the host of heaven " (2 Kings xxiii. 5). We know thai
the kings of Judah, from Ahaz onwards, derived this
worship from Assyria, and that its original home was
Babylon, where in every temple the exiles would see
images of the deities presiding over the heavenly
bodies, such as Samas (the sun) and his consort Aa
(the moon) at Sippara, Merodach (Jupiter) and his son
Nebo (Mercurius) at Babylon and Borsippa, Nergal
(Mars) at Cutha, daily served with a splendid and
attractive ritual, and honoured with festivals and pro
cessions on the most costly and magnificent scale.
The prophet looks through all this outward display to
the void within, he draws no subtle distinction between
the symbol and the thing symbolized ; he accepts the
popular confusion of the god with his image, and
identifies all the deities of the heathen with the materials
out of which their statues are made by the hands of
men. And he is justified in doing this, because there
can be but one god in his sense of the word ; a multitude
oi gods is a contradiction in terms. From this point of
view, he exposes the absurdity of the splendid idolatry
which his captive countrymen see all around them.
Behold that thing, he cries, which they call a god, and
before which they tremble with religious fear! It is
othing but a tree trunk hewn in the forest, and trimmed

x.l-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 329
into shape by the carpenter, and plated with silver and
gold, and fixed on its pedestal with hammer and nails,
for fear it should fall I Its terrors are empty terrors,
like those of the palm-trunk, rough-hewn into human
shape, and set up among the melons to frighten the
birds away.
" Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,
Maluit esse deum. Deus inde ego, furum ariumque
Maxima formido." (Hor., Sat. i. 8, I, sqq.)
Though the idol has the outward semblance of a
man, it lacks his distinguishing faculty of speech;
it is as dumb as the scarecrow, and as powerless to
move from its place ; so it has to be borne about on
men's shoulders (a mocking allusion to the grand pro
cessions of the gods, which distinguished the Babylonian
festivals). Will you then be afraid of things that can
do neither good nor harm ? asks the prophet ; in terms
that recall the challenge of another, or perchance of
himself, to the idols of Babylon : Do good or do evil,
that we may look al each other and see it together (Isa.
xli. 23).
In utter contrast with the impotence, the nothing
ness of all the gods of the nations, whether Israel's
neighbours or his invaders, stands for ever the God of
Israel. There is none at all like Thee, 0 lahweh ! great
art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might ! With
different vowel points, we might render, Whence
(cometh) Thy like, O lahvah ? This has been sup
ported by reference to chap. xxx. 7 : Alas ! for great
is thai day. Whence (is one) like it ? (me'ayin ?) ; but
there too, as here, we may equally well translate, there
is none like it. The interrogative, in fact, presupposes
a negative answer; and the Hebrew particle usually

230 THE PROPBEICES OE JFREMIAH.
rendered there is not, are not ('ayin, 'en) has been
explained as originally identical with the interrogative
where ? ('ayin, implied in me'ayin, " from where ? "
"whence?" cf. Job. xiv. 10: where is he?=he is not).
The idiom of the text expresses a more emphatic
negation than the ordinary form would do ; and though
rare, is by no means altogether unparalleled (see Isa.
xl. 17, xli. 24; and other references in Gesenius).
Great art Thou and great is Thy Name in might; that
is to say, Thou art great in Thyself, and great in repute
or manifestation among men, in respect of might, virile
strength or prowess (Ps. xxi. 14). Unlike the do-
nothing idols, lahvah reveals His strength in deeds
of strength (cf. Exod. xv. 3 sqq.). Who should not fear
Thee, Thou King of the nations ? (cf. v. 22) for Thee
it beseemeih (=it is Thy due, and Thine only) : for
among all the wise of the nations and in all their realm,
there is none at all (as in ver. 6) like Thee. Religious
fear is instinctive in man ; but, whereas the various
nations lavish reverence upon innumerable objects
utterly unworthy of the name of deity, rational religion
sees clearly that there can be but One God, working
His supreme will in heaven and earth; and that this
Almighty being is the true " King of the nations," and
disposes their destinies as well as that of His people
Israel, although they know Him not, but call other
imaginary beings their kings (a common Semitic desig
nation of a national god : Ps. xx. 9 ; Isa. vi. 5, viii.
21). He, then, is the proper object of the instinct of
religious awe ; all the peoples of the earth owe Him
adoration, even though they be ignorant of their
obligation ; worship is His unshared prerogative.
Among all the wise of the nations and in all their realm,
not one is like Thee I Who are the wise thus contrasted

x. i-i6.] bEatben idols and Israels god. 231
with the Supreme God ? Are the false gods the re
puted wise ones, giving pretended counsel to their
deluded worshippers through the priestly oracle ? The
term " kingdom " seems to indicate this^ view, if we
take " their kingdom " to mean the kingdom of the
wise ones of the nations, that is, the countries whose
" kings " they are, where they are worshipped as such.
The heathen in general, and the Babylonians in par
ticular, ascribed wisdom to their gods. But there is
no impropriety from an Old Testament point of view
in comparing Iahvah's wisdom with the wisdom of
man. The meaning of the prophet may be simply
this, that no earthly wisdom, craft or political sagacity,
not even in the most powerful empires such as Babylon,
can be a match for lahvah the All-wise, or avail to
thwart His purposes (Isa. xxxi. 1, 2). " Wise " and
" sagacious " are titles which the kings of Babylon
continually assert for themselves in their extant in
scriptions; and the wisdom and learning of the
Chaldeans was famous in the ancient world. Either
view will agree with what follows : But in one thing
they — the nations, or their wise men — will turn out
brutish and besotted: (in) the teaching of Vanities which
are wood. The verse is difficult; but the expression
" the teaching (or doctrine) of Vanities " may perhaps be
regarded as equivalent to the idols taught of; and then
the second half of the verse is constructed like the
first member of ver. 3 : The ordinances of the peoples
are Vanity, and may be rendered, ihe idols taught of are
mere wood (cf. ver. 3 b, ii. 27, iii. 9). It is possible
also that the right reading is " foundation " (musad)
not " doctrine " (mftsar) : ihe foundation (basis, substra
tum, substance) of idols is wood. (The term " Vanities "
—habalim — is used for "idols," viii. 19, xiv. 22 j

133 THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.

Ps. xxxi. 7). And, lastly, I think, the clause might be
rendered : a doctrine of Vanities, of mere wood, it— their
religion— « / * This supreme folly is the " one thing "
that discredits all the boasted wisdom of the Chaldeans ;
and their folly will hereafter be demonstrated by events
(ver. 14).
The body of the idol is wood, and outwardly it is
decorated with silver and gold and costly apparel ; but
the whole and every part of it is the work of man.
Silver plate (lit. beaten out) from Tarshish— horn far
away Tartessus in Spain — is brought, and gold from
Uphaz (Dan. x. 5), ihe work of the smith, and of the
hands of the founder — who have beaten out the silver
and smelted the gold : blue and purple is their clothing
(Ex. xxvi. 31, xxviii. 8): the work of the wise — of
skilled artists (Isa. xl. 20) — is every part of them.
Possibly the verse might better be translated : Silver
to be beaten out — argentum malleo diducendum — which
is brought from Tarshish, and gold which is brought
from Uphaz, are the work of the smith and of the hands
of the smelter; the blue and purple which are their
clothing, are the work of the wise all of them. At all
events, the point of the verse seems to be that, whether
you look at the inside or the outside of the idol, his
heart of wood or his casing of gold and silver and his
gorgeous robes, the whole and every bit of him as he
stands before you is a manufactured article, the work
of men's hands. The supernatural comes in nowhere.
In sharpest contrast with this lifeless fetish, lahvah is
a God that is truth, i.e., a true God (cf. Prov. xxii. 21),
or lahvah is God in truth — is really God — He is a
1 It is against usage to divide the clause as Nacgelsbach does, "Vain
instruction 1 It is wood 1 " or to render with Ewald " Simply vain
doctrine is the wood 1 " which would require the article (ha'ec).

4.1-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 233
living God, and an eternal King ; the sovereign whose
rule is independent of the vicissitudes of time, and the
caprices of temporal creatures : at His wrath the earth
quaketh, and nations cannot abide His indignation : the
world of nature and the world of man are alike
dependent upon His Will, and He exhibits His power
and his righteous anger in the disturbances of the one
and the disasters of the other.
According to the Hebrew punctuation, we should
rather translate : But lahvah Elohim (the designa
tion of God in the second account of creation, Gen.
ii. 4-iii. 24) is truth, i.e., reality ; as opposed to the
falsity and nothingness of the idols; or permanence,
laslingness (Ps. xix. 10), as opposed to their transitori-
ness (vv. 11-15).
The statement of the tenth verse respecting the
eternal power and godhead of lahvah is confirmed
in the twelfth and thirteenth by instances of His
creative energy and continual activity as exhibited in
the world of nature. The Maker oj the earth by His
power, Establishing the habitable world by His wisdom,
And by His insight He did stretch out the heavens : At
the sound of His giving voice (Ps. lxxvii. 18; i.e.,
thundering) there is an uproar of waters in ihe heavens,
And He causeth the vapours lo rise from the end of the
earth; Lightnings for the rain He maketh, And causeth
the wind to go forth out of His treasuries. There is
no break in the sense between these sentences and
the tenth verse. The construction resembles that of
Amos v. 8, ix. 5, 6, and is interrupted by the eleventh
verse, which in all probability was, to begin with, a
marginal annotation.
The solid earth is itself a natural symbol of strength
and stability. The original creation of this mighty

234 THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
and enduring structure argues the omnipotence of the
Creator; while the "establishing" or "founding"
of it upon the waters of the great deep is a proof of
supreme wisdom (Ps. xxiv. 2 ; cxxxvi. 6), and the
" spreading out " of the visible heavens or atmosphere
like a vast canopy or tent over the earth (Ps. civ. 2 ;
Isa. xl. 22), is evidence of a perfect insight into the
conditions essential to the existence and wellbeing
of man.
It is, oi course, clear enough that physical facts
and phenomena are here described in popular language
as they appear to the eye, and by no means with
the severe precision of a scientific treatise. It is not
to be supposed that this prophet knew more about the
actual constitution of the physical universe than the
wise men of his time could impart. But such know
ledge was not necessary to the enforcement of the
spiritual truths which it was his mission to proclaim ;
and the fact that his brief oracle presents those truths
in a garb which we can only regard as poetical, and
which it would argue a want of judgment to treat as
scientific prose, does not affect their eternal validity,
nor at all impair their universal importance. The
passage refers us to God as the ultimate source of
the world of nature. It teaches us that the stability
of things is a reflexion of His eternal being ; that
the persistence of matter is an embodiment of His
strength ; that the indestructibility which science
ascribes to the materials of the physical universe is the
seal which authenticates their Divine original. Per
sistence, permanence, indestructibleness, are properly
sole attributes of the eternal Creator, which He com
municates to His creation. Things are indestructible as
regards man, not as regards the Author of their being.

.1-16.] BEATBEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 233
Thus the wisdom enshrined in the laws of the
visible world, all its strength and all its stability, is
a manifestation of the Unseen God. Invisible in
themselves, the eternal power and godhead of lahvah
become visible in His creation. And, as the Hebrew
mode of expression indicates, His activity is never
suspended, nor His presence withdrawn. The conflict
of the elements, the roar of the thunder, the flash of
the lightning, the downpour of waters, the rush of
the stormwind, are His work ; and not less His work,
because we have found out the " natural " causes, that
is, the established conditions of their occurrence ; not
less His work, because we have, in the exercise of
faculties really though remotely akin to the Divine
Nature, discovered how to imitate, or rather mimic,
even the more awful of these marvellous phenomena.
Mimicry it cannot but appear, when we compare the
overwhelming forces that rage in a tropical storm
with our electric toys. The lightnings in their glory
and terror are still God's arrows, and man cannot rob
His quiver.
Nowadays more is known about the machinery of
the world, but hardly more of the Intelligence that
contrived it, and keeps it continually in working order,
nay, lends it its very existence. More is known about
means and methods, but hardly more about aims and
purposes. The reflexion, how few are the master-
conceptions which modern speculation has added to
the treasury of thought, should suggest humility to the
vainest and most self-confident of physical inquirers.
In the very dnwn of philosophy the human mind
appears to have anticipated as it were by sudden
flashes of insight some of the boldest hypotheses of
modern science, including that of Evolution itself.

236' THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
The unchangeable or invariable laws of nature,
that is to say, the uniformity of sequence which we
observe in physical phenomena, is not to be regarded
as a thing that explains itself. It is only intelligible
as the expression of the unchanging will of God.
The prophet's word is still true. It is God who
" causes the vapours to rise from the end of the earth,"
drawing them up into the air from oceans and lakes by
the simple yet beautiful and efficient action of the solar
heat ; it is God who " makes lightnings for the rain,"
charging the clouds with the electric fluid, to burst
forth in blinding flashes when the opposing currents
meet. It is God who " brings the wind out of His
treasuries." In the prophet's time the winds were
as great a mystery as the thunder and lightning ;
it was not known whence they came nor whither they
went. But the knowledge that they are but currents
of air due to variations of temperature does not really
deprive them of their wonder. Not only is it im
possible, in the last resort, to comprehend what heat
is, what motion is, what the thing moved is. A
far greater marvel remains, which cries aloud of God's
wisdom and presence and sovereignty over all; and
that is the wonderful consilience of all the various
powers and forces of the natural world in making
a home for man, and enabling so apparently feeble •
a creature as he to live and thrive amidst the perpetual
interaction and collision of the manifold and mighty
elements of the universe.
The true author of all this magnificent system of
objects and forces, to the wonder and the glory of
which only custom can blind us, is the God of the
prophet. This sublime, this just conception of God
was possible, for it was actually realized, altogether -

«.l-i6.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 237
apart from the influence of Hellenic philosophy and
modern European science. But it was by no means as
common to the Semetic peoples. In Babylon, which
was at the time the focus of all earthly wisdom and
power, in Babylon the ancient mother of sciences and
arts, a crude polytheism stultified all the wisdom of the
wise, and lent its sanction to a profound moral corrup
tion. Rapid and universal conquests, enormous wealth
accruing from the spoils and tributes of all nations,
only subserved the luxury and riotous living which
issued in a general effeminacy and social enervation ;
until the great fabric of empire, which Nabopalassar
and Nebuchadrezzar had reared by their military and
political genius, sank under the weight of its own vices.
Looking round upon this spectacle of superstitious
folly, the prophet declares that all men are become too
brute-like for knowledge; too degraded to appreciate the
truth, the simplicity of a higher faith; too besotted with
the worship of a hundred vain idols, which were the
outward reflexion of their own diseased imaginations,
to receive the wisdom of the true religion, and to per
ceive especially the truth just enunciated, that it is
lahvah who gives the rain and upon whom all atmos
pheric changes depend (cf. xiv. 22) : and thus, in the
hour of need, every founder blushes for the image, because
his molten figure is a lie, and there is no breath in them ;
because the lifeless idol, the work of his hands, can
lend no help. Perhaps both clauses of the verse rather
express a prophecy : All men will be proven brutish,
destitute of knowledge ; every founder will blush for the
graven image. Wise and strong as the Babylonians
supposed themselves to be, the logic of events would
undeceive them. They were doomed to a rude awaken
ing ; to discover in the hour of defeat and surrender

238 Tbe prophecies of JeremiaB.

that the molten idol was a delusion, that the work of
their hands was an embodied lie, void of life, powerless
to save. Vanity — a mere breath, nought — are they, a
work of knaveries (a term recurring only in li. 1 8 ; the
root seems to mean "to stammer," "to imitate"); in
the time of their visitation they will perish ! or simply
they perish ! — in the burning temples, in the crash of
falling shrines.
It has happened so. At this day the temples of
cedar and marble, with their woodwork overlaid with
bronze and silver and gold, of whose glories the Baby
lonian sovereigns so proudly boast in their still existing
records, as " shining like the sun, and like the stars of
heaven," are shapeless heaps or rather mountains of
rubbish, where Arabs dig for building materials and
treasure trove, and European explorers for the relics
of a civilisation and a superstition which have passed
away for ever. " Vana sunt, et opus risu dignum." In
the revolutions of time, which are the outward measures
of the eternally self-unfolding purposes of God, the
word of the Judean prophets has been amply fulfilled
Babylon and her idols are no more.
All other idols, too, must perish in like manner.
Thus shall ye say of them : The gods who the heavens
and earth did not make, perish from the earth and from
under the heavens shall these ! The assertion that the
idols of Babylon were doomed to destruction, was not
the whole of the prophetic message. It is connected
with and founded upon the antithetic assertion of the
eternity of lahvah. They will perish, but He endures.
The one eternal is El Elyon, the Most High God, the
Maker of heaven and earth. But heaven and earth
and whatever partakes only of their material nature-
are also doomed to pass away. And in that day of the

Z.I-1&] EEATBEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 339
Lord, when the elements melt with fervent heat, and
the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt
up (2 Pet. iii. 10), not only will the idols of the heathen
world, and the tawdry dolls which a degenerate church
suffers to be adored as a kind of magical embodiment
of the Mother of God, but all other idols which the
sensebound heart of man makes to itself, vanish into
nothingness before that overwhelming revelation of the
supremacy of God.
There is something amazing in the folly of worship
ping man, whether in the abstract form of the cultus of
" Humanity," or in any of the various forms of what is
called " Hero-worship," or in the vulgar form of self-
worship, which is the religion of the selfish and the
worldly. To ascribe infallibility to any mortal, whether
Pope or politician, is to sin in the spirit of idolatry.
The Maker of heaven and earth, and He alone, is
worthy of worship. "Where wast thou when I laid
the foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast
understanding" (Job xxxviii. 4). No human wisdom
nor power presided there ; and to produce the smallest
of asteroids is still a task which lies infinitely beyond
the combined resources of modern science. Man and
all that man has created is nought in the scale of
God's creation. He and all the mighty works with
which he amazes, overshadows, enslaves his little world,
will perish and pass away ; only that will survive
which he builds of materials which are imperishable,
fabrics of spiritual worth and excellence and glory
(1 Cor. iii. 13). A Nineveh, a Babylon, a London, a
Paris, may disappear ; but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever (1 John ii. 17). Not like these (cf. verse
1 1 ad fin.) is Jacob's Portion, but the Maker and Moulder
of the All — He is his heritage ; lahvah Sabaoth is His

240 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
name ! (Both here and at li. I9=xxviii. 19 the LXX.
omits : and Israel is the tribe, which seems to have
been derived from Deut. xxxii. 9. Israel is elsewhere
called Iahvah's heritage, Ps. xxxiii. 12, and portion, Deut.
xxxii. 9 ; but that thought hardly suits the connexion
here.) Not like these : for He is the Divine Potter who
moulded all things, including the signs of heaven,
and the idols of wood and metal, and their foolish
worshippers. And he is Jacob's portion ; for the know
ledge and worship of Him was, in the Divine counsels,
originally assigned to Israel (cf. Deut. iv. 19 ; and
xxxii. 8, according to the true reading, preserved in the
LXX.); and therefore Israel alone knows Him and His
glorious attributes. lahvah Sabaoth is His name : the
Eternal, the Maker and Master of the hosts of heaven
and earth, is the aspect under which He has revealed
Himself to the true representatives of Israel, His
servants the prophets.
The portion of Israel is his God — his abiding por
tion; of which neither the changes of time nor the
misconceptions of man can avail to rob him. When all
that is accidental and transitory is taken away, this
distinction remains : Israel's portion is his God.
lahvah was indeed the national God of the Jews,
argue some of our modern wise ones ; and therefore He
cannot be identified with the universal Deity. He has
been developed, expanded, into this vast conception ;
but originally He was but the private god of a petty
tribe, the Lar of a wandering household. Now herein
is a marvellous thing. How was it that this particular
household god thus grew to infinite proportions, like
the genius emerging from the unsealed jar of Arab
fable, until, from His prime foothold on the tent-flooi

x.l-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 241
of a nomad family, He towered above the stars and His
form overshadowed the universe ? How did it come to
pass that His prophet could ask in a tone of indisputable
truth, recognised alike by friend and foe, "Do not I
fill heaven and earth, saith lahvah " ? (Jer. xxiii. 24).
How, that this immense, this immeasurable expansion
took place in this instance, and not in that of any one
of the thousand rival deities of surrounding and more
powerful tribes and nations ? How comes it that we
to-day are met to adore lahvah, and not rather one of
the forgotten gods of Canaan or Egypt or Babylon ?
Merodach and Nebo have vanished, but lahvah is the
Father .of our Lord Jesus Christ. It certainly looks
very much as if the Hebrew prophets were right ; as if
lahvah were really the God of the creation as well as
the Portion of Jacob.
The portion of Jacob. Is His relation to that one
people a stumbling-block ? Can we see no eternal
truth in the statement of the Psalmist that the Lord's
portion is His people? Who can find fault with the
enthusiastic faith of holy men thus exulting in the
knowledge and love of God ? It is a characteristic
of all genuine religion, this sweet, this elevating con
sciousness that God is our God ; this profound sense
that He has revealed Himself to us in a special and
peculiar and individual manner. But the actual his
torical results, as well as the sacred books, prove that
the sense of possessing God and being possessed by
Him was purer, stronger, deeper, more effectual, more
abiding, in Israel than in any other race of the ancient
world. One must tread warily upon slippery ground ; but 1
cannot help thinking that many of the arguments alleged
against the probability of God revealing Himself to man
16

242 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
at all or to a single nation in particular, are sufficiently
met by the simple consideration that He has actually
done so. Any event whatever may be very improbable
until it has happened ; and assuming that God has not
revealed Himself, it may perhaps be shewn to be highly
improbable that He would reveal Himself. But, mean
while, all religions and all faith and the phenomena of
conscience and the highest intuitions of reason pre
suppose this improbable event as the fact apart from
which they are insoluble riddles. This is not to say
that the precise manner of revelation — the contact of
the Infinite with the Finite Spirit — is definable. There
are many less lofty experiences of man which also are
indefinable and mysterious, but none the less actual
and certain. Facts are not explained by denial, which
is about the most barren and feeble attitude a man can
take up in the presence of a baffling mystery. Nor is it
for man to prescribe conditions to God. He who made
us and knows us far better than we know ourselves,
knows also how best to reveal Himself to His
creatures. The special illumination of Israel, however, does not
imply that no light was vouchsafed elsewhere. The
religious systems of other nations furnish abundant
evidence to the contrary. God " left not Himself with
out witness," the silent witness of that beneficent order
Of the natural world, which makes it possible for man
to live, and to live happily. St. Paul did not scruple
to compliment even the degenerate Athenians of his
own day on the ground of their attention to religious
matters, and he could cite a Greek poet in support of
his doctrine that -man is the offspring of the one God
and Father of all.
We may see in the fact a sufficient indication of

x.I-16.] HEATBEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 243
what St Paul would have said, had the nobler non-
Christian systems fallen under his cognisance ; had
heathenism become known to him not in the hetero
geneous polytheism of Hellas, which in his time had
long since lost what little moral influence it had ever
possessed, nor in the wild orgiastic nature worships of
the Lesser Asia, which in their thoroughly sensuous
basis did dishonour alike to God and to man ; but in
the sublime tenets of Zarathustra, with their noble
morality and deep reverence for the One God, the Spirit
of all goodness and truth, or in the reformed Brahman-
ism of Gautama the Buddha, with its grand principle
of self-renunciation and universal charity.
The peculiar glories of Bible religion are not dimmed
in presence of these other lights. Allowing for whatever
is valuable in these systems of belief, we may still allege
that Bible religion comprises all that is good in them,
and has, besides, many precious features peculiar to
itself; we may still maintain that their excellences are
rather testimonies to the truth of the biblical teachings
about God, than difficulties in the way of a rational
faith ; that it would be far more difficult to a thoughtful
mind to accept the revelation of God conveyed in the
Bible, if it were the fact that no rays of Divine light
had cheered the darkness of the millions of struggling
mortals beyond the pale of Judaism, than it is under
the actual circumstances of the case : in short, that the
truths implicated in imperfect religions, isolated from
all contact with Hebrew or Christian belief, are a
witness to and a foreshadowing of the truths of the
gospel. Our prophet declares that Jacob's portion — the God
of Israel — is not like the gods of contemporary peoples.
How, then, does he conceive of Him ? Not as a meta-

244 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
physical entity — a naked, perhaps empty abstraction of
the understanding. Not as the Absolute and Infinite
Being, who is out of all relation to space and time.
His language — the language of the Old Testament —
possesses no adjectives like "Infinite," "Absolute,"
"Eternal," "Omniscient," "Omnipresent," nor even
"Almighty," although that word so often appears in
our venerable Authorized Version. It is difficult for
us, who are the heirs of ages of thought and intellectual
toil, and whose thinking is almost wholly carried on
by means of abstract ideas, to realize a state of mind
and a habit of thought so largely different from our
own as that of the Hebrew people and even of the
Hebrew prophets. Yet unless we make an effort to
realize it, however inadequately, unless we exert our
selves, and strive manfully to enter through the gate
of an instructed imagination into that far-off stage of
life and thought which presents so many problems to
the historical student, and hides in its obscurity so
many precious truths ; we must inevitably fail to appre
ciate the full significance, and consequently fail of
appropriating the full blessing of those wonderful
prophecies of ancient Israel, which are not for an age
but for all time.
Let us, then, try to apprehend the actual point of
view from which the inspired Israelite regarded his
God. In the first place, that point of view was emi
nently practical. As a recent writer has forcibly
remarked, " The primitive mind does not occupy itself
with things of no practical importance, and it is only,
in the later stages of society that we meet with tradi
tional beliefs nominally accepted by every one but
practically regarded by none; or with theological
speculations which have an interest for the curious,

x.l-16.] HEATHEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 345
but are not felt to have a direct bearing on the concerns
of life."
The pious Israelite could not indulge a morbidly
acute and restlessly speculative intellect with philoso
phical or scientific theories about the Deity, His nature
in Himself, His essential and accidental attributes, His
relation to the visible world. Neither did such theories
then exist ready made to his hand, nor did his inward
impulses and the natural course of thought urge him
to pry into such abstruse matters, and with cold irre
verence to subject his idea of God to critical analysis.
Could he have been made to understand the attitude
and the demands of some modern disputants, he would
have been apt to exclaim, "Canst thou by searching
find out God? Canst thou find^out Shaddai unto per
fection ? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do ?
deeper than hell, what canst thou know ? " To find
out and to know God as the understanding finds out
and knows, how can that ever become possible to man ?
Such knowledge depends entirely upon processes of
comparison ; upon the perception of similarity between
the object investigated and other known objects ; upon
accurate naming and classification. But who can
dream of successfully referring the Deity to a class?
" To what will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye
compare unto Him ? " In the brief prophecy before
us, as in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, with which it
presents so many points of contact, we have a splendid
protest against all attempts at bringing the Most High
within the limitations of human cognition, and reducing
God to the category of things known and understood.
Directed in the first instance against idolatry — against
vain efforts to find a-n adequate likeness of the Supreme
in some one of the numberless creations of His hand,

246 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

and so to compare and gauge and comprehend Himself,
— that protest is still applicable, and with even greater
force, against the idolatrous tendencies of the present
age : when one school of devotees loudly declares,
" Thou, Nature, art our goddess ; to thy law
Our services are bound : wherefore should we
Stand in the plague of custom ? "
and another is equally loud in asserting that it has
found the true god in man himself; and another pro
claims the divinity of brute force, and feels no shame in
advocating the sovereignty of those gross instincts and
passions which man shares with the beasts that perish.
It is an unworthy and an inadequate conception of God,
which identifies Him with Nature; it is a deplorably
impoverished idea, the mere outcome of philosophic
despair, which identifies him with Humanity; but what
language can describe the grovelling baseness of that
habit of thought which knows of nothing higher than
the sensual appetite, and seeks nothing better than its
continual indulgence; which sees the native impress
of sovereignty on the brow of passing pleasure, and
recognises the image and likeness of God in a tem
porary association of depraved instincts ?
It is to this last form of idolatry, this utter heathenism
in the moral life, that all other forms really converge,
as St. Paul has shewn in the introduction of his Epistle
to the Romans, where, in view of the unutterable
iniquities which were familiar occurrences in the world
of his contemporaries, he affirms that moral decadence
of the most appalling character is ultimately traceable
to a voluntary indulgence of those idolatrous tendencies
which ignore God's revelation of Himself to the heart
and reason, and prefer to find their deity in something

x.l-i6.] HEATBEN IDOLS AND ISRAEL'S GOD. 34»
less awful in purity and holiness, less averse to the
defilements of sin, less conversant with the secrets of
the soul ; and so, not liking to retain the true and only
God in knowledge, change His truth into a lie, and
worship and serve the creature more than the Creator :
changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like unto corruptible man, or even to birds
and fourfooted beasts and creeping things.

VIL
TBE BROKEN COVENANT.
Jeremiah xl, xii.
THERE is no visible break between these two
chapters. They seem to summarize the history
of a particular episode in the prophet's career. At the
same time, the style is so peculiar, that it is not so
easy, as it might appear at a first glance, to determine
exactly what it is that the section has to tell us. When
we come to take a closer look at it, we find a thoroughly
characteristic mixture of direct narrative and soliloquy,
of statement of facts and reflexion upon those facts,
of aspiration and prayer and prophecy, of self-com
muning and communing with God. Careful analysis
may perhaps furnish us with a clue to the disentangle
ment of the general sense and drift of this characteristic
medley. We may thus hope to get a clearer insight
into the bearing of this old-world oracle upon our own
needs and perplexities, our sins and the fruit of our
sins, what we have done and what we may expect as
the consequence of our doings. For the Word of God
is " quick and powerful." Its outward form and vesture
may change with the passing of time ; but its substance
never changes. The old interpreters die, but the Word
lives, and its life is a life of power. By that Word
men live in their successive generations ; it is at once

xt,xii.] THB BROKEN COVENANT. 349
creative and regulative ; it is the seed of life in man,
and it is the law of that life. Apart from the Divine
Word, man would be no more than a brute gifted with
understanding, but denied all answer to the higher
cravings of soul and spirit ; a being whose conscious
life was a mere mockery ; a self-tormentor, tantalized
with vain surmises, tortured with ever-recurring pro
blems; longing for light, and beset with never-lifting
clouds of impenetrable darkness ; the one sole instance,
among the myriads of sentient beings, of a creature
whose wants Nature refuses to satisfy, and whose
lot it is to consume for ever in the fires of hopeless
desire. The sovran Lord, who is the Eternal Wisdom, has
not made such a mistake. He provides satisfaction
for all His creatures, according to the varying degrees
of their capacity, according to their rank in the scale
of being, so that all may rejoice in the fulness and
the freedom of a happy life for their allotted time.
Man is no exception to the universal rule. His whole
constitution as God has fashioned it is such that he
can find his perfect satisfaction in the Word of the
Lord. And the depth of his dissatisfaction, the poig
nancy and the bitterness of his disappointment and
disgust at himself and at the world in which he finds
himself, are the strongest evidence that he has sought
satisfaction in things that cannot satisfy; that he has
foolishly endeavoured to feed his soul upon ashes, to
still the cravings of his spirit with something other than
that Word of God which is the Bread of Life.
You will observe that the discourse we are to con
sider, is headed : The word that fell to Jeremiah from
lahvah (lit. from with, that is, from the presence of the
Eternal), saying." I think that expression "saying"

*S0 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
covers all that follows, to the end of the discourse.
The prophet's preaching the Law, and the consequences
of that preaching as regarded himself ; his experience
of the stubbornness and treachery of the people ; the
varying moods of his own mind under that bitter
experience ; his reflexions upon the condition of Judah,
and the condition of Judah's ill-minded neighbours;
his forecasts of the after-course of events as determined
by the unchanging will of a righteous God ; all these
things seem to be included in the scope of that " Word
from the presence of lahvah," which the prophet is
about to put on record. You will see that it is not
a single utterance of a precise and definite message,
which he might have delivered in a few moments of
time before a single audience of his countrymen. The
Word of the Lord is progressively revealed ; it begins
with a thought in the prophet's mind, but its entire
content is unfolded gradually, as he proceeds to act
upon that thought or Divine impulse ; it is, as it were,
evolved as the result of collision between the prophet
and his hearers ; it emerges into clear light out of the
darkness of storm and conflict ; a conflict both internal
and external; a conflict within, between his own
contending emotions and impulses and sympathies ;
and a conflict without, between an unpopular teacher,
and a wayward and corrupt and incorrigible people.
From with lahvah. There may be strife and tumult
and the darkness of ignorance and passion upon earth ;
but the star of truth shines in the firmament of heaven,
and the eye of the inspired man sees it This is his
difference from his fellows.
Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak ye unto
the men of Judah, and upon the dwellers in Jerusalem I
And say thou unto them, Thus saith lahvah, the God

«i.,xii.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. %%\
of Israel, Accursed are the men that hear not the
words of this covenant, which I lay on your fathers,
in the day that I brought them forth from the land
of Egypt, from the furnace of iron, saying, Hearken
unto My voice, and do these things, according lo all
that I shall charge you : that ye may become for Me a
people, and that I Myself may become for you a God.
That I may make good (D'pn^ vid. infr.) the oath
which I sivare lo your forefathers, that I would give
them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it now
is (or simply, to-day). And I answered and said,
Amen, lahvah! (xi. 1-5). "Hear ye . . . speak ye
unto the men of Judah 1 " The occasion referred to
is that memorable crisis in the eighteenth year of king
Josiah, when Hilkiah the high priest had " found the
book of the law in the house of the Lord " (2 Kings
xxii. 8 sqq.), and the pious king had read in the hear
ing of the assembled people those fervid exhortations
to obedience, those promises fraught with all manner of
blessing, those terrible denunciations of wrath and ruin
reserved for rebellion and apostasy, which we may still
read in the closing chapters of the book of Deuteronomy
(Deut xxvii. sq.). Jeremiah is recalling the events of
his own ministry, and passes in rapid review from the
time of his preaching upon the Book of the Law, to the
Chaldean invasion in the reign of Jehoiachin (xiii. 18
sqq.). He recalls the solemn occasion when king and
people bound themselves by oath to observe the law of
their God ; when " the king stood upon the platform,
and made the covenant before lahvah, that he would
follow lahvah, and keep his commandments, and his
laws and his statutes, with whole heart and with whole
bouI ; to make good (D*pr6) the words of this covenant,
that were written upon this roll; and all the people

252 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

stood to the covenant" (2 Kings xxiii. 3). At or soon
after this great meeting, the prophet gives, in the name
of lahvah, an emphatic approval to the public under
taking ; and bids the leaders in the movement not to
rest contented with this good beginning, but to impress
the obligation more deeply upon the community at
large, by sending a mission of properly qualified persons,
including himself, which should at once enforce the
reforms necessitated by the covenant of strict obedience
to the Law, and reconcile the people both of the capital
and of the rural towns and hamlets to the sudden and
sweeping changes demanded of them, by shewing their
entire consonance with the Divine precepts. " Hear
ye " — princes and priests — " the words of this covenant ;
and speak ye unto the men of Judah ! " Then follows,
in brief, the prophet's own commission, which is to
reiterate, with all the force of his impassioned rhetoric,
the awful menaces of the Sacred Book : Cursed be
the men that hear not the words of this covenant!
Now again, in these last years of their national exist
ence, the chosen people are to hear an authoritative
proclamation of that Divine Law upon which all their
weal depends ; the Law given them at the outset of
their history, when the memory of the great deliver
ance was yet fresh in their minds ; the Law which was
the condition of their peculiar relation to the Universal
God. At Sinai they had solemnly undertaken to
observe that Law ; and lahweh had fulfilled His promise
to their "fathers" — to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob —
and had given them a goodly land, in which they had
now been established for at least six hundred years.
The Divine truth and righteousness were manifest upon
a retrospect of this long period of eventful history;
and Jeremiah could not withhold his inward assent, in

xi,xil.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 253
the formula prescribed by the Book of the Law (Deut
xxvii. 1 5 sqq.), to the perfect justice of the sentence :
" Cursed be the men that hear not the words of this
covenant" And I answered and said, Amen, lahvah ! l
So to this true Israelite, thus deeply communing
with his own spirit, two things had become clear as
day. The one was the absolute righteousness of God's
entire dealing with Israel, from first to last ; the righte
ousness of disaster and overthrow as well as of victory
and prosperity : the other was his own present duty
to bring this truth home to the hearts and consciences
of his fellow-countrymen. This is how he states the
fact : And lahvah said unto me, Proclaim thou all
these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant
and do them. For I earnestly adjured your fathers,
when I brought them up from the land of Egypt (and
I have done so continually) even unto this very day,
saying, Obey ye My voice ! And they obeyed not, nor
inclined their ear; and they walked, each and all, in
the hardness of their wicked heart. So I brought upon
them all the threats (lit. words) of this covenant, which
I had charged them to keep, and they kept it not.
(xi. 6-8). God is always self-consistent; man is
often inconsistent with himself ; God is eternally true,
man is ever giving fresh proofs of his natural faithless
ness. God is not only just in keeping His promises ;
He is also merciful, in labouring ever to induce man to
be self-consistent, and true to moral obligations. And
Divine mercy is revealed alike ih the pleadings of the

1 But perhaps it is rather the prophet's love for his people, which
fervently prays that the oath of blessing may be observed, and Judah
maintained in the goodly land.

254 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
Holy Spirit by the mouth of prophets, by the voice of
conscience, and in the retribution that overtakes per
sistence in evil. The Divine Law is life and health to
them that keep it; it is death to them that break it.
"Thou, Lord, art merciful; for thou rewardest every
man according to his works."
The relation of the One God to this one people
was neither accidental nor arbitrary. It is sometimes
spoken of as a thing glaringly unjust to the other
nations of the ancient world, that the Father of all
should have chosen Israel only to be the recipient of
His special favours. Sometimes it is demanded, as an
unanswerable dilemma, How could the Universal God
be the God of the Jews, in the restricted sense implied
by the Old Testament histories ? But difficulties of
this kind rest upon misunderstanding, due to a slavishly
literal interpretation of certain passages, and inability
to take a comprehensive view of the general drift and
tenor of the Old Testament writings as they bear upon
this subject. God's choice of Israel was proof of His
love for mankind. He did not select one people, be
cause He was indifferent or hostile to all other peoples ;
but because He wished to bring all the nations of the
earth to the knowledge of Himself, and the observance
of His law. The words of our prophet shew that
he was profoundly convinced that the favour of
lahvah had from the outset depended upon the obe
dience of Israel : Hearken unto My voice, and do these
things .... that ye may become for Me a people,
and that I Myself may become for you a God. How
strangely must such words ha-ve sounded in the ears
of people who believed, as the masses both in town
and country appear for the most part to have done,
that lahvah as the ancestral god was bound by an

xi.,xiij THE BROKEN COVENANT. 2$$
indissoluble tie to Israel, and that He could not suffer
the nation to perish without incurring irreparable loss,
if not extinction, for Himself I It is as if the prophet
had said : You call yourselves the people of God ; but
it is not so much that you are His people, as that you
may become such by doing His will. You suppose
that lahvah, the Eternal, the Creator, is to you what
Chemosh is to Moah, or Molech to Ammon, or Baal to
Tyre ; but that is just what He is not. If you enter
tain such ideas of lahvah, you are worshipping a
figment of your own carnal imaginations ; your god
is not the Universal God but a gross unspiritual idol.
It is only upon your fulfilment of His conditions, only
upon your yielding an inward assent to His law, a
hearty acceptance to His rule of life, that He Himself
— the One only God — can truly become your God. In
accepting His law, you accept Him, and in rejecting
His law, you reject Him ; for His law is a reflexion
of Himself; a revelation, so far as such can be made
to a creature like man, of His essential being and
character. Therefore think not that you can worship
Him by mere external rites ; for the true worship is
" righteousness, and holiness of life."
The progress of the reforming movement, which was
doubtless powerfully stimulated by the preaching of
Jeremiah, is briefly sketched in the chapter of the book
of Kings, to which I have already referred (2 Kings
xxiii.). That summary of the good deeds of king Josiah
records apparently a very complete extirpation of the
various forms of idolatry, and even a slaughter of the
idol-priests upon their own altars. Heathenism, it
would seem, could hardly have been practised again,
at least openly, during the twelve remaining years of
Josiah. But although a zealous king mightenforce

256 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
outward conformity to the Law, and although the
earnest preaching of prophets like Zephaniah and Jere
miah might have considerable effect with ,the better
part of the people, the fact remained that those whose
hearts were really open to the word of the Lord were
still, as always, a small minority; and the tendency
to apostasy, though checked, was far from being rooted
up. Here and there the forbidden rites were secretly
observed ; and the harsh measures which had accom
panied their public suppression may very probably
have intensified the attachment of many to the local
forms of worship. Sincere conversions are not effected
by violence ; and the martyrdom of devotees may give
new life even to degraded and utterly immoral super
stitions. The transient nature of Josiah's reformation,
radical as it may have appeared at the time to the
principal agents engaged in it, is evident from the
testimony of Jeremiah himself. And lahvah said
unto me, There exists a conspiracy among the men of
Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They
have returned lo the old sins of their fathers, who
refused to hear My words; and they loo have gone
away after other gods, lo serve them: the house of
Israel and the house of Judah have broken My cove
nant, which I made with their forefathers. Therefore
thus saith lahvah, Behold I am about to bring unto
them an evil from which they cannot get forth; and
they will cry unto Me, and I will not listen unto th m.
And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jeru
salem will go and cry unto the gods to whom they burn
incense (i.e., now; ptcp.),- and they will yield them no
help at all in the time of their evil. For many as thy
cities are thy gods become, O Judah ! and many as the
streets of Jerusalem have ye appointed altars to the

si, xii.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 257
Shame, altars for burning incense to the Baal. And
as for thee, intercede thou not for this people, nor
lift up for them outcry (i.e., mourning) and interces
sion; for I intend not to hearken, in the time when
they call unto Me, in the time of their evil (so read :
cf. vers. 12, nin instead of IM) (vv. 9-14). All
this appears to indicate the course of the prophet's
reflexion, after it had become clear to him that the
reformation was illusory, and that his own labours had
failed of their purpose. He calls the relapse of the
people a plot or conspiracy ; thereby suggesting, per
haps, the secresy with which the prohibited worships
were at first revived, and the intrigues of the unfaithful
nobles and priests and prophets, in order to bring
about a reversal of the policy of reform, and a return
to the old system ; and certainly suggesting that the
heart of the nation, as a whole, was disloyal to its
Heavenly King, and that its renewed apostasy was
a wicked disavowal of lawful allegiance, and an act of
unpardonable treason against God.
But the word further signifies that a bond has been
entered into, a bond which is the exact antithesis of the
covenant with lahvah ; and it implies that this bond
has about it a fatal strength and permanence, involving
as its necessary consequence the ruin of the nation.
Breaking covenant with lahvah meant making a cove
nant with other gods ; it was impossible to do the one
thing without the other. And that is as true now,
under totally different conditions, as it was in the land
of Judah, twenty-four centuries ago. If you have broken
faith with God in Christ, it is because you have entered
into an agreement with another; it is because you
have foolishly taken the tempter at his word, and
accepted his conditions, and surrendered to his pro-
»7

258 THE PROPHECIES OF fEREMIAB.
posals, and preferred his promises to the promises of
God. It is because, against all reason, against con
science, against the Holy Spirit, against the witness
of God's Word, against the witness of His Saints and
Confessors in all ages, you have believed that a Being
less than the Eternal God could ensure your weal and
make you happy. And now your heart is no longer
at unity in itself, and your allegiance is no longer
single and undivided. Many as thy cities are thy
gods become, O Judah 1 The soul that is not unified
and harmonized by the fear of the One God, is torn
and distracted by a thousand contending passions :
and vainly seeks peace and deliverance by worship at
a thousand unholy shrines. But Mammon and Belial
and Ashtaroth and the whole rout of unclean spirits,
whose seductions have lured you astray, will fail you
at last ; and in the hour of bitter need, you will learn
too late that there is no god but God, and no peace nor
safety nor joy but in Him.
It is futile to pray for those who have deliberately
cast off the covenant of lahvah, and made a covenant
with His adversary. Intercede not for this people, nor
lift up outcry and intercession for them I Prayer cannot
save, nothing can save, the impenitent ; and there
is a state of mind, in which one's own prayer is
turned into sin ; the state of mind in which a man
prays, merely to appease God, and escape the fire, but
without a thought of forsaking sin, without the faintest
aspiration after holiness. There is a degree of guilt
upon which sentence is already passed, which is "unto
death," and for which intercession is interdicted alike
by the Apostle of the New as to the prophet of the
Old Covenant
What availeth it My beloved, that she fulfilleth her

xi.,xii.] TBE BROKEN COVENANT. 259
intent in Mine house ? Can vows and hallowed flesh
make thine evil to pass from thee ? Then mightest thou
indeed rejoice1 (ver. 15). Such appears to be the true
sense of this verse, the only difficult one in the chapter.
The prophet had evidently the same thought in his
mind as in ver. it: I will bring unto them an evil,
from which they cannot get forth; and they will cry
nnto Me, and I will not hearken unto them. The
words also recall those of Isaiah (Isa. i. 11 sqq.) : " For
what to Me are your many sacrifices, saith lahvah ?
When ye enter in to see My face, who hath sought
this at your hand, to trample My courts ? Bring no
more a vain oblation ; loathly incense it is to Me 1 "
The term which I have rendered " intent," usually
denotes an evil intention ; so that, like Isaiah, our
prophet implies that the popular worship is not only
futile but sinful. So true it is that " He that turneth
away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is
an abomination " (Prov. xxviii. 9) ; or, as the Psalmist
1 Hitzig supposed that the " vows " and " hallowed flesh " were
thank-offerings for the departure of the Scythians. " It is plain that
the people are really present in the temple; they bring, presumably
after the retreat of the Scythians, the offerings vowed at that time."
But, considering the context, the reference appears to be more general.
I have partly followed the LXX. in emending an obviously corrupt
verse ; the only one in the chap, which presents any textual difficulty.
Read: -nay: wip i&2) D'T^n nnptpn nniba W33 i-\nb no
: (t bttr\ TN Onm vbllO. The article with a noun with suffix, and
* l-:r t -a-t t - ;- y
the peculiar form of the 2 pers. pron. f., are found elsewhere in Jer.
But I incline to correct further thus: "What avail to My beloved
is her dealing (or sacrificing: pity]; 2 Kings xvii. 32) in My house?
lMKnplSGl D'Snil ninatpn. "Can the many altars (ver. 13) and
hallowed flesh cause thine evil to pass away from thee (or pass thee
by) ? " This seems very apposite to what precedes. The Hebrew,
as it stands, cannot possibly mean what we read both in the A. V.
and R. V., nor indeed anything else,

*6o TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
puts the same truth, '.'If I incline unto wickedness with
my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
A flourishing olive, fair with shapely fruit, did
lahvah call thy name. To the sound of a great uproar
will He set her on fire; and his hanging boughs will
crackle (in the flames). And lahvah Sabaoth, that
planted thee, Himself hath pronounced evil upon thee;
because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of
Judah, which they have done to themselves (iv. 18, vii. 19)
in provoking Me, in burning incense lo ihe Baal"
(vers. 16-17). The figure of the olive seems a very
natural one (cf. Rom. xi. 17), when we remember the
beauty and the utility for which that tree is famous
in Eastern lands. lahvah called thy name; that is,
called thee into determinate being ; endowed thee at
thine origin with certain characteristic qualities. Thine
original constitution, as thou didst leave thy Maker's
hand, was fair and good. Israel among the nations
was as beautiful to the eye as tlie olive among trees ;
and his " fruit," his doings, were a glory to God and
a blessing to men, like that precious oil, for " which
God and man honour " the olive (Judg. ix. 9). (Zech.
iv. 3 ; Hos. xiv. 7 ; Ps. Iii. 10.) But now the noble
stock had degenerated ; the " green olive tree," planted
in the very court of Iahvah's house, had become no
better than a barren wilding, fit only for the fire.
The thought is essentially similar to that of an earlier
discourse : " I planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right
seed ; how then hast thou turned into the degenerate
plant of a strange vine unto Me ? " (ii. 21). Here, there
is an abrupt transition, which forcibly expresses the
suddenness of the destruction that must devour this
degenerate people : To the sound of a great uproar
— the din of invading armies — he will set her (the-

ti.xli.] TBE BROKEN COVENANT. 261
beloved, symbolized by the tree) on fire; and his (the
olive's) hanging boughs will crackle in the flames. And
this fierce work of a barbarous soldiery is no chance
calamity ; it is the execution of a Divine judgment :
lahvah Sabaoth . . . Himself hath pronounced evil
upon thee. And yet further, it is the nation's own
doing; the two houses of Israel have persistently
laboured for their own ruin ; they have brought it upon
themselves. Man is himself the author of his own weal
and woe ; and they who are not " working out their
own salvation," are working out their own destruction
And it was lahvah that gave Me knowledge, so
that I well knew; at that time, Thou didst shew me
their doings. But, for myself, like a favourite (lit. tame,
friendly, gentle : iii. 4) lamb that is led to the slaughter,
I wist not that against me they had laid a plot. 'Let
us fell the tree in its prime,1 and let us cut him off out
of the land of the living, that his name be remembered
no more.' ' Yea, but lahvah s Sabaoth judgelh right
eously, trielh reins and heart. I shall see Thy ven
geance on them; for unto Thee have I laid bare my
cause.' Therefore thus said lahvah; Upon the men of
Anathoth that were seeking thy life, saying, Thou shalt
not prophesy in the name of lahvah, that thou die not
by our hand: — therefore thus said lahvah Sabaoth,
Behold I am about to visit il upon them : the young
men will die by the sword; their sons and their daughters
will die by the famine. And a remnant they shall not
have : for I will bring an evil unto ihe men of Anathoth,
the year of their visitation (vv. 18-23).
1 Reading \T\>^ with Hitzig, instead of il3ry3, which is meaningless.
Deut xxxiv. 7 ; Ezek. xxi. 3. Perhaps it would be better to keep all the
letters, and point 1Dn?3, understanding Y% as collective, " the trees."
* Not a vocative : xx. 12, xvii. 10.

262 The prophecies of jErEmiaB.
The prophet, it would seem, had made the round
of the country places, and come to Anathoth, on his
return journey to Jerusalem. Here, in his native town,
he proclaimed to his own people that same solemn
message which he had delivered to the country at
large. It is very probable that the preceding versps
(9-17) contain the substance of his address to his
kinsfolk and acquaintance ; an address which stirred
them, not to repentance towards God but to murderous
wrath against His prophet. A plot was laid for Jere
miah's life by his own neighbours and even his own
family (xii. 6) ; and he owed his escape to some provi
dential circumstance, some "lucky accident," as men
might say, which revealed to him their unsuspected
perfidy. What the event was which thus suddenly
disclosed the hidden danger, is not recorded ; and the
whole episode is rather alluded to than described. But
it is clear that the prophet knew nothing about the
plot, until it was ripe for execution. He was as
wholly unconscious of the death prepared for him, as
a petted lamb on the way to the altar. "Then " — when
his fate seemed sure — then it was that something
happened by which " lahvah gave him knowledge,"
and "shewed him their doings." The thought or saying
attributed to his enemies, " Let us fell the tree(s) in
the prime thereof!" may contain a sarcastic allusion
really made to the prophet's own warning (ver. 16) :
"A flourishing olive, fair with shapely fruit, did
lahvah call thy name : to the noise of a great uproar
will He set it on fire, and the branches thereof shall
crackle in the flames." The words that follow (ver. 20),
" yea, but (or, and yet) lahvah Sabaoth judgeth right
eously ; trieth reins and heart" (cf. xx. 12), is the
prophet's reply, in the form of an unexpressed thought,

i£,xii.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 263
or a hurried ejaculation upon discovering their deadly
malice. The timely warning which he had received,
was fresh proof to him of the truth that human designs
are, after all that their authors can do, dependent on
the will of an Unseen Arbiter of events ; and the Divine
justice, thus manifested towards himself, inspired a con
viction that those hardened and bloodthirsty sinners
would, sooner or later, experience in their own destruc
tion that display of the same Divine attribute which
was necessary to its complete manifestation. It was
this conviction, rather than personal resentment, how
ever excusable under the circumstances that feeling
would have been, which led Jeremiah to exclaim : " I
shall see Thy vengeance on them, for unto Thee have
I laid bare my cause."
He had appealed to the Judge of all the earth,
that doeth right ; and he knew the innocency of his
own heart in the quarrel. He was certain, therefore,
that his cause would one day be vindicated, when that
ruin overtook his enemies, of which he had warned
them in vain. Looked at in this light, his words are a
confident assertion of the Divine justice, not a cry for
yengeance. They reveal what we may perhaps call
the human basis of the formal prophecy which follows ;
they shew by what steps the prophet's mind was led on
to the utterance of a sentence of destruction upon the
men of Anathoth. That Jeremiah's invectives and
tlrjeatenings of wrath and ruin should provoke hatred
and opposition was perhaps not wonderful. Men in
general are slow to recognise their own moral short
comings, to believe evil of themselves ; and they are
apt to prefer advisers, whose optimism, though ill-
founded and misleading, is pleasant and reassuring and
confirmatory of their own prejudices. But it does

264 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
seem strange that it should have been reserved for the
men of his own birthplace, his own " brethren and his
father's house," to carry opposition to the point of
meditated murder. Once more Jeremiah stands before
us, a visible type of Him whose Divine wisdom declared
that a prophet finds no honour in his own country,
and whose life was attempted on that Sabbath day at
Nazareth (St. Luke iv. 24 sqq.).
The sentence was pronounced, but the cloud of
dejection was not at once lifted from the soul of the
seer. He knew that justice must in the end overtake
the guilty ; but, in the meantime, " his enemies lived
and were mighty," and their criminal designs against
himself remained unnoticed and unpunished. The
more he brooded over it, the more difficult it seemed
to reconcile their prosperous immunity with the justice
of God. He has given us the course of his reflections
upon this painful question, ever suggested anew by the
facts of life, never sufficiently answered by toiling
reason. Too righteous art Thou, lahvah, for me to
contend with Thee: I will but lay arguments before
Thee (i.e., argue the case forensically). Wherefore doth
the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are they
undisturbed, all that deal very treacherously? Thou
plantest them, yea, they take root; they grow ever,
yea, they bear fruit : Thou art nigh in their mouth, and
far from their reins. And Thou, lahvah, knowest me;
Thou seest me, and triest mine heart in Thy mind.
Separate them like sheep for the slaughter, and conse
crate them for the day of killing! How long shall tlie
land mourn, and the herbage of all the country wither?
From the evil of the dwellers therein, beasts and birds
perish : for they have said (or, thought), He cannot see
our end (xii 1-4). It is not merely that his would-

xl,xii.] TBE BROKEN COVENANT. 265
be murderers thrive ; it is that they take the holy
Name upon their unclean lips; it is that they are
hypocrites combining a pretended respect for God, with
an inward and thorough indifference to God. He is
nigh in their mouth and far from their reins. They
" honour Him with their lips, but have removed their
heart far from Him ; and their worship of Him is a
mere human commandment, learned by rote" (Isa. xxix.
13). They swear by His Name, when they are bent
on deception (ch. v. 2). It is all this which especially
rouses the prophet's indignation ; and contrasting there
with his own conscious integrity and faithfulness to
the Divine law, he calls upon Divine Justice to judge
between himself and them : Pull them out like sheep
for slaughter, and consecrate them (set them apart —
from the rest of the flock) for the day of killing I It
has been said that Jeremiah throughout this whole
paragraph speaks not as a prophet but as a private
individual ; and that in this verse especially he " gives
way to the natural man, and asks the life of his
enemies" (1 Kings iii. 11; Job xxxi. 30). This is
perhaps a tenable opinion. We have to bear in mind
the difference of standpoint between the writers of the
Old Covenant and those of the New. Not much is
said by the former about the forgiveness of injuries,
about withholding the hand from vengeance. The
most ancient law, indeed, contained a noble precept,
which pointed in this direction : " If thou meet thine
enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely
bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him
that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest
forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him "
(Ex. xxiii. 4, 5). And in the book of Proverbs we read:
"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, And let not

266 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
thine heart be glad when he is overthrown." But
the impression of magnanimity thus produced is some
what diminished by the reason which is added
immediately : " Lest the Lord see it and it displease
Him, And He turn away His wrath from him : " a
motive of which the best that can be said is that it
is characteristic of the imperfect morality of the time
(Prov. xxiv. 17 sq.). The same objection may be
taken to that other famous passage of the same book :
" If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat ;
And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink : For
thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, And the
Lord shall reward thee" (Prov. xxv. 21 sq.). The
reflexion that the relief of his necessities will mortify
and humiliate an enemy to the utmost, which is what
seems to have been originally meant by "heaping
coals of fire upon his head," however practically use
ful in checking the wild impulses of a hot-blooded
and vindictive race, such as the Hebrews were, and
such as their kindred the Bedawi Arabs have remained
to this day under a system of faith which has not
said, " Love your enemies " ; and however capable
of a new application in the more enlightened spirit
of Christianity (Rom. xii. 19 sqq.) ; is undoubtedly a
motive marked by the limitations of Old Testament
ethical thought. And edifying as they may prove to
be, when understood in that purely spiritual and
universal sense, to which the Church has lent her
authority, how many of the psalms were, in their
primary intention, agonizing cries for vengeance;
prayers that the human victim of oppression and wrong
might " see his desire upon his enemies " ? AH this
must be borne in mind ; but there are other considera
tions also which must not be omitted, if we would

xl., xii.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 267
get at the exact sense of our prophet in the passage
before us.
We must remember that he is laying a case before
God. He has admitted at the outset that God is
absolutely just, in spite of and in view of the fact that
his murderous enemies are prosperous and unpunished.
When he pleads his own sincerity and purity of heart,
in contrast with the lip-service of his adversaries,
it is perhaps that God may grant, not so much their
perdition, as the salvation of the country from the
evils they have brought and are bringing upon it
Ascribing the troubles already present and those which
are yet to come, the desolations which he sees and
those which he foresees, to their steady persistence in
wickedness, he asks, How long must this continue?
Would it not be better, would it not be more con
sonant with Divine wisdom and righteousness to purify
the land of its fatal taint by the sudden destruction
of those heinous and hardened offenders, who scoff
at the very idea of a true forecast of their "end"
(ver. 4) ? But this is not all. There would be more
apparent force in the allegation we are discussing
if it were. The cry to heaven for an immediate act
of retributive justice is not the last thing recorded of
the prophet's experience on this occasion. He goes
on to relate, for our satisfaction, the Divine answer
to his questionings, which seems to have satisfied
his own troubled mind. If thou hast run but with
footracers, and they have wearied thee, how then
wilt thou compete with the coursers ? And if thy
confidence be in a land of peace (or, a quiet land),
how then wilt thou do in ihe thickets (jungles) of
Jordan ? l For even thine own brethren and thy
1 That "the swelling" or "the pride of Jordan" should rather be

268 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
father's house, even they will deal treacherously with
thee ; even they will cry aloud after thee : trust thou not
in them, though they speak thee fair! (xii. 5, 6). The
metaphors convey a rebuke of impatience and pre
mature discouragement. Hitzig aptly quotes Demos
thenes : " If they cannot face the candle, what will
they do when they see the sun ? " (Plut. de vilioso
pudore, c. 5.) It is " the voice of the prophet's better
feeling, and of victorious self-possession," adds the
critic ; and we, who earnestly believe that, of the two
voices which plead against each other in the heart
of man, the voice that whispers good is the voice of
God, find it not hard to accept his statement in that
sense. The prophet is giving us the upshot of his
reflexion upon the terrible danger from which he
had been mercifully preserved ; and we see that his
thoughts were guided to the conclusion that, having
once accepted the Divine Call, it would be unworthy
to abdicate his mission on the first signal of danger.
Great as that danger had been, he now, in his calmer
hour, perceives that, if he is to fulfil his high vocation,
he must be prepared to face even worse things. With
serious irony he asks himself, if a runner who is over
come in a footrace can hope to outstrip horses ? or
how a man, who is only bold where no danger is, will
face the perils that lurk in the jungles of the Jordan ?
He remembers that he has to fight a more arduous
battle and on a greater scene. Jerusalem is more than
Anathoth ; and " the kings of Judah and the princes
thereof" are mightier adversaries than the conspirators
read "the wilds" or "jungles of Jordan," is clear from xlix. 19;
Zech. xi. 3; quoted by Hitzig. J1KJ means "growth," " overgrowth,"
among other things ; and the Heb. phrase coincides with the 'IdpiSij*
lov/tif of Josephus (Bell. Jud., vii. 6, 5).

xL,xlL] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 269
of a country town. And his present escape is an
earnest of deliverance on the wider field : They
shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail
against thee: for I am with thee, said lahvah, to
deliver thee (see i. 17-19). But to a deeply affection
ate and sensitive nature like Jeremiah's, the thought
of being forsaken by his own kindred might well
appear as a trial worse than death. This is the
" contending with horses," the struggle that is almost
beyond the powers of man to endure; this is the
deadly peril, like that of venturing into the lion-
haunted thickets of Jordan, which he clearly foresees
as awaiting him : For even thine own brethren and
thy father's house, even they will deal treacherously with
thee} It would seem that the prophet, with whose
" timidity " some critics have not hesitated to find
fault, had to renounce all that man holds dear, as
a condition of faithfulness to his call. Again we
are reminded of One, of whom it is recorded that
" Neither did His brethren believe in Him " (St.
John vii. 5), and that " His friends went out to lay
hold on Him, for they said, He is beside Himself"
(St. Mark iii. 21). The closeness of the parallel be
tween type and antitype, between the sorrowful pro
phet and the Man of Sorrows, is seen yet further in
the words, " Even they will cry aloud after thee " (lit.
with full cry). The meaning may be : They will join
in the hue and cry of thy pursuers, the mad shouts of
1 The form of the Heb. verbs implies the certainty of the event
Hitiig supposes that ver. 6 simply explains the expression "land
of peace " in ver. 5. At Anathoth the prophet was at home ; if he
"ran away" (reading mi3 "flcest" for nDU "art confident")
there, what would he do, when he had gone forth as a " sheep among
wolves " (St Luke x. 3) ? But I think it is much better to regard ver. 6
as explaining the whole of ver. 5 in the manner suggested abov?,

270 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
"Stop him!" or "Strike him down!" such as may
perhaps have rung in the prophet's ears as he fled
from Anathoth. But we may also understand a meta
phorical description of the efforts of his family to recall
him from the unpopular path on which he had entered ;
and this perhaps agrees better with the warning:
"Trust them not, though they speak thee fair." And
understood in this sense, the words coincide with
what is told us in the Gospel of the attempt of our
Lord's nearest kin to arrest the progress of His Divine
mission, when His mother and His brethren " standing
without, sent unto Him, calling Him" (St. Mark iii.
30- The lesson for ourselves is plain. The man who
listens to the Divine call, and makes God his portion,
must be prepared to surrender everything else. He
must be prepared, not only to renounce much which
the world accounts good ; he must be prepared for all
kinds of opposition, passive and active, tacit and
avowed; he may even find, like Jeremiah, that his
foes are the members of his own household (St. Matt.
x. 36). And, like the prophet, his acceptance of the
Divine call binds him to close his ears against en
treaties and flatteries, against mockery and menace;
and to act upon his Master's word : " If any man would
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me. For whosoever would save his
life shall lose it ; and whosoever shall lose his life for
My sake and the gospel's shall save it" (St. Mark viii.
34 sq.). " If any man come unto Me, and hate not
his father and mother and wife and children and
brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he can
not be My disciple " (St. Luke xiv. 26). A great prize
is worth a great risk; and eternal life is a prize

xl,xii.] TBE BROKEN COVENANT. 271
infinitely great. It is therefore worth the hazard and
the sacrifice of all (St. Luke xviii. 29 sq.).
The section which follows (vv. 7-17) has been
supposed to belong to the time of Jehoiakim, and con
sequently to be out of place here, having been transposed
from its original context, because the peculiar Hebrew
term which is rendered " dearly beloved " (ver. 7), is
akin to the term rendered " My beloved," chap. xi. 15.
But this supposition depends on the assumption that
the "historical basis of the section" is to be found
in the passage 2 Kings xxiv. 2, which relates. briefly
that in Jehoiakim's time plundering bands of Chaldeans,
Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites overran the country.
The prophecy concerning Iahvah's " evil neighbours "
is understood to refer to these marauding inroads,
and is accordingly supposed to have been uttered
between the eighth and the eleventh years of Jehoiakim
(Hitzig). It has, however, been pointed out (Naegels-
bach) that the prophet does not once name the
Chaldeans in the present discourse ; which " he invari
ably does in all discourses subsequent to the decisive
battle of Carchemish in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,"
which gave the Chaldeans the sovereignty of Western
Asia This discourse must, therefore, be of earlier
date, and belong either to the first years of Jehoiakim,
or to the time immediately subsequent to the eighteenth
of Josiah. The history as preserved in Kings and
Chronicles is so incomplete, that we are not bound to
connect the reference to " evil neighbours " with what
is so summarily told in 2 Kings xxiv. 2. There may
have been other occasions when Judah's jealous and
watchful enemies profited by her internal weakness
and dissensions to invade and ravage the land ; and
throughout the whole period the country was exposed

273 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
to the danger of plundering raids by the wild nomads
of the eastern and southern borders. It is possible,
however, that w. 14-17 are a later postscript, added
by the prophet when he wrote his book in the fifth
or sixth year of Jehoiakim (xxxvi. 9, 32).
There is, in reality, a close connexion of thought
between ver. 7 sqq. and what precedes. The relations
of the prophet to his own family are made to symbolise
the relations of lahvah to His rebellious people; just
as a former prophet finds in his own merciful treat
ment of a faithless wife a parable of Iahvah's dealings
with faithless Israel. I have forsaken My house, I have
cast away My domain; I have given My souPs love
into the grasp of her foes. My domain hath become
to Me like the lion in the wood; she hath given utter
ance with her voice against Me; therefore I hale her.
It is lahvah who, still speaks, as in ver. 6; the
" house " is His holy house,1 the temple ; the domain
is His domain, the land of Judah ; His " soul's love,"
is the Jewish people. Yet the expressions, "my
house," " my domain," " my soul's love," equally suit
the prophet's own family and their estate ; the mention
of the " lion in the wood " and its threatening roar,
and the enmity provoked thereby, recalls what was
said about the "wilds of the Jordan" in ver. 5, and
the full outcry of his kindred after the prophet in ver.
6 ; and the solemn words " I have forsaken Mine house,
I have cast away My domain" ... "I hate her,"
clearly correspond with the sentence of destruction
upon Anathoth, ch. xi. 21 sqq. The double reference of
the language becomes intelligible when we remember
that in rejecting His messengers, Israel, nay mankind,
1 Or perhaps rather the holy land itself, as Hitzig suggested : Hos,
ix.15.

xl.xii.] THB BROKEN COVENANT. 273
rejects God ; and that words and deeds done and uttered
by Divine authority may be ascribed directly to God
Himself. And regarded in the light of the prophet's
commission " to pluck up and to break down, and to
destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant
nations and kingdoms (i. 10), all that is here said may
be taken to be the prophet's own deliverance concerning
his country. This, at all events, is the case with
verses 12, 13.
What! do I see my domain (all) vultures (and)
hyenas ? l Are vultures all around her ? Go ye,
assemble all the beasts of the field! Bring them to
devour (ver. 9). The questions express astonishment
at an unlooked-for and unwelcome spectacle. The
loss of Divine favour has exposed Judah to the active
hostility of man ; and her neighbours eagerly fall upon
her, like birds and beasts of prey, swarming over a
helpless quarry. It is — so the prophet puts it— it
is as if a proclamation had gone forth to the wolves
and jackals of the desert, bidding them come and
devour the fallen carcase.' In another oracle he
speaks of the heathen as " devouring Jacob " (x. 25).
The people of lahvah are their natural prey (Ps. xiv.
4 : " who eat up My people as they eat bread ") ; but
they are not suffered to devour them, until they have
forfeited His protection.
1 Lit "Is my domain vultures, hyenas, to me?" The , dative ex
presses the interest of the speaker in the fact (dat. ethic). The
Heb. term 1?13V only occurs here. It is the Arabic dhabii, " hyena " (so
Sept.). St. Jerome renders avis discolor. So the Targum : " a strewn "
" sprinkled," or " spotted fowl"
* The references to " birds of prey," " beasts of the field," and
" spoilers" (ver. 12), are interpreted by the phrase " mine evil neigh
bours" (ver. 14); and this constitutes a link between vv. 7-14
and 14-17. 18

»74 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
The image is now exchanged for another, which
approximates more nearly to the fact pourtrayed.
Many shepherds have marred My vineyard; they have
trodden down My portion ; iltey have turned My pleasant
portion into a desolate wilderness. He (the foe, the in
strument of this ruin) hath made it a desolation; it
mournelh against Me, being desolate; desolated is all the
land, for there is no man that giveth heed (vv. 10, ii).
As in an earlier discourse, ch. vi. 3, the invaders
are now compared to hordes of nomad shepherds,
who enter the land with their flocks and herds,
and make havoc of the crops and pastures. From
time immemorial the wandering Bedawis have been a
terror to the settled peasantry of the East, whose way
of life they despise as ignoble and unworthy of free
men. Of this traditional enmity we perhaps hear
a far-off echo in the story of Cain the tiller of the
ground and Abel the keeper of sheep ; and certainly
in the statement that " every shepherd was an abomina
tion unto the Egyptians " (Gen. xlvi. 34). The picture
of utter desoiateness, which the prophet suggests by
a fourfold repetition, is probably sketched from a scene
which he had himself witnessed ; if it be not rather
a representation of the actual condition of the country
at the time of his writing. That the latter is the case
might naturally be inferred from a consideration of the
whole passage ; and the twelfth verse seems to lend
much support to this view : Over all bare hills in
the wilderness have come ravagers; for lahvah hath a
devouring sword: from land's end lo land's end no
flesh hath peace} The language indeed recalls that
1 Such seems to be the best punctuation of the sentence. It involves
the transter ol Athnach to n?3K,

xl,xii.] TBE BROKEN COVENANT. 275
of ch. iv. 10, 1 1 ; and the entire description might be
taken as an ideal picture of the ruin that must ensue
upon Iahvah's rejection of the land and people, especially
if the closing verses (14-17) be considered as a later
addition to the prophecy, made in the light of accom
plished facts. But, upon the whole, it would seem to
be more probable that the prophet is here reading the
moral of present or recent experience. He affirms
(ver. 11) that the affliction of the country is really a
punishment for the religious blindness of the nation :
there is no man that layeth to heart the Divine teaching
of events as interpreted by himself (cf. ver. 4). The
fact that we are unable, in the scantiness of the re
cords of the time, to specify the particular troubles to
which allusion is made, is no great objection to this
view, which is at least effectively illustrated by the
brief statement of 2 Kings xxiv. 2. The reflexion
appended in ver. 13 points in the same direction:
They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they
have put themselves lo pain (or, exhausted themselves)
without profit, (or, made themselves sick with unprofit
able toil); and they are ashamed of their1 produce
(ingatherings), through the heat of the wrath of lahvah.
When the enemy had ravaged the crops, thorns would
naturally spring up on the wasted lands ; and " the
heat of the wrath of lahvah " appears to have
been further manifested in a parching drought, which
ruined what the enemy had left untouched (ver. 4,
ch. xiv.).
Thus, then, Jeremiah receives the answer to his
doubts in a painfully visible demonstration of what
the wrath of lahvah means. It means drought and
1 So the LXX This agrees better with the context than "So be yo
ashamed of your fruits."

276 THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAS.
famine ; it means the exposure of the country, naked
and defenceless, to the will of rapacious and vindictive
enemies. For Iahvah's wrongs are far deeper and
more bitter than the prophet's. The misdeeds of
individuals are lighter in the balance than the sins of
a nation ; the treachery of a few persons on a particular
occasion is as nothing beside the faithlessness of many
generations. The partial evils, therefore, under which
the country groans, can only be taken as indications
of a far more complete and terrible destruction reserved
for final impenitence. The perception of this truth,
we may suppose, sufficed for the time to silence the
, prophet's complaints ; and in the revulsion of feeling
inspired by the awful vision of the unimpeded
outbreak of Divine wrath, he utters an oracle con
cerning his country's destroyers, in which retributive
justice is tempered by compassion and mercy. Thus
hath Jehovah said, Upon all Mine evil neighbours,
who touch the heritage which I caused My people Israel
to inherit : Lo I am about to uproot (i. io) them from
off their own land, and the house of Judah will I uproot
from their midst. And after I have uprooted them, I
will have compassion on them again, and will restore
them each io their own heritage and their own land.
And if they truly learn the ways of My people, lo swear
by My name, ' as lahvah liveth ! ' even as they taught My
people to swear by the Baal; they shall be rebuilt in the
midst of My people. And if they will not hear, I will
uproot that nation, utterly and fatally ; it is an oracle of
lahvah (14-17). The preceding section (vv. 7-14), as
we have seen, rapidly yet vividly sketches the calami
ties which have ensued and must further ensue upon
the Divine desertion of the country. lahvah has for
saken the land, left her naked to her enemies, for her

si, xii.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 277
causeless, capricious, thankless revolt against her Divine
Lord. In this forlorn, defenceless condition, all manner
of evils befall her; the vineyards and cornfields are
ravaged, the goodly land is desolated, by hordes of
savage freebooters pouring in from the eastern deserts.
These invaders are called Iahvah's " evil neighbours ; "
an expression which implies, not individuals banded
together for purposes of brigandage, but hostile nations.1
Upon these nations also will the justice of God be
vindicated ; for that justice is universal in its operation,
and cannot therefore be restricted to Israel. Judgment
must " begin at the house of God ; " but it will not endi
there. The " evil neighbours," the surrounding heathen
kingdoms, have been Iahvah's instruments for the
chastisement of His rebellious people; but they are
not on that account exempted from recompense. They
too must reap what they have sown. They have in
sulted lahvah, by violating His territory; they have
indulged their malice and treachery and rapacity, in
utter disregard of the rights of neighbours, and the
moral claims of kindred peoples. As they have done,
so shall it be done unto them : Apaaavri iraBeiv. They
have laid hands on the possessions of their neighbour,
and their own shall be taken from them ; / am about
to uproot them from off their own land (cf. Amos i. 3-
ii. 3). And not only so, but the house of Judah will
I pluck up from their midst. The Lord's people shall
be no more exposed to their unneighbourly ill-will ; the
butt of their ridicule, the victim of their malice, will be
removed to a foreign soil as well as they ; but oppressed
and oppressors will no longer be together ; their new
* As Hitzig has observed, only a people, or a king, or a national
god, could be spoken of as a "neighbour" to the God of Israel.

278 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
settlements will lie far apart ; under the altered state of
things, under the shadow of the great conqueror of the
future, there will be no opportunity for the old injurious
dealings. All alike, Judah and the enemies of Judah,
will be subject to the will of the foreign lord. But that
is not the end. The Judge of all the earth is merciful
as well as just. He is loth to blot whole peoples out
of existence, even though they have merited destruction
by grievous and prolonged transgression of His laws.
Therefore banishment will be followed by restoration,
not in the case of Judah only, but of all the expa
triated peoples. After enduring the Divine probation
of adversity, they will be brought again, by the
Divine compassion, "each to their own heritage and
their own land." And then, if they will profit by the
teaching of Iahvah's prophets, and " learn the ways,"
that is, the religion of His people, making their supreme
appeal to lahvah, as the fountain of all truth and the
sovran vindicator of right and justice, as hitherto they
have appealed to the Baal, and misled Israel into the
same profane and futile course; then "they shall be
built up," or rebuilt, or brought to great and ever
growing prosperity, "in the midst of My people."
Such is to be the blessing of the Gentiles ; they shall
share in the glorious future that awaits repentant Israel.
The present condition of things is to be completely
reversed: now Judah sojourns in their midst; then
they will be surrounded on every side by the emanci
pated and triumphant people of God : now they beset
Judah with jealousies, suspicions, enmities; then Judah
will embrace them all with the arms of an unselfish
and protecting love. A last word of warning is added.
The doom of the nation that will not accept the Divine
teaching will be utter and absolute extermination.

xi.,xii.] THE BROKEN COVENANT. 279
The forecast is plainly of a Messianic nature; it
recognises in lahvah the Saviour, not of a nation, but
of the world. It perceives that the disunion and
mutual hatred of peoples, as of individuals, is a breach
of Divine law ; and it proclaims a general return to
God, and submission to His guidance in all political
as well as private affairs, as the sole cure for the
numberless evils that flow from that hatred and dis
union. It is only when men have learnt that God is
their common Father and Lord, that they come to see
with the clearness and force of practical conviction that
they themselves are all members of one family, bound
as such to mutual offices of kindness and charity; it
is only when there is a conscious identity of interest
with all our fellows, based upon the recognition that
all alike are children of God and heirs of eternal life,
that true freedom and universal brotherhood become
possible for man.

VIII.
THB FALL OF PRIDE.
Jeremiah xiii.
THIS discourse is a sort of appendix to the pre
ceding ; as is indicated by its abrupt and brief
beginning with the words " Thus said lahvah unto
me," without the addition of any mark of time, or
other determining circumstance. It predicts captivity,
in retribution for the pride and ingratitude of the
peopL;; and thus suitably follows the closing section
of the last address, which announces the coming
deportation of Judah and her evil neighbours. The
recurrence here (ver. 9) of the peculiar term rendered
"swelling" or "pride" in our English versions (ch.
xii. 5), points to the same conclusion. We may sub
divide it thus : It presents us with (i) a symbolical
action, or acted parable, with its moral and application
(w. 1-n); (ii) a parabolic saying and its interpre
tation, which leads up to a pathetic appeal for penitence
(vv. 12-17); (iii) a message to the sovereigns (vv.
18, 19); and (iv) a closing apostrophe to Jerusalem —
the gay and guilty capital, so soon to be made desolate
for her abounding sins (vv. 20-27).
In the first of these four sections, we are told how
the prophet was bidden of God to buy a linen girdle,
and after wearing it for a time, to bury it in a cleft of

xiii.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 281
the rock at a place whose very name might be taken
to symbolize the doom awaiting his people. A long
while afterwards he was ordered to go and dig it up
again, and found it altogether spoiled and useless.
The significance of these proceedings is clearly enough
explained. The relation between Israel and the God
of Israel had been of the closest kind. lahvah had
chosen this people, and bound it to Himself by a
covenant, as a man might bind a girdle about his body ;
and as the girdle is an ornament of dress, so had the
Lord intended Israel to display His glory among men
(ver. 11). But now the girdle is rotten; and like that
rotten girdle will He cause the pride of Judah to rot
and perish (vv. 9, 10).
It is natural to ask, whether Jeremiah really did as
he relates ; or whether the narrative about the girdle
be simply a literary device intended to carry a lesson
home to the dullest apprehension. If the prophet's
activity had been confined to the pen ; if he had not
been wont to labour by word and deed for the attain
ment of his purposes ; the latter alternative might be
accepted. For mere readers, a parabolic narrative
might suffice to enforce his meaning. But Jeremiah,
who was all his life a man of action, probably did the
thing he professes to have done, not in thought nor in
word only, but in deed and to the knowledge of certain
competent witnesses. There was nothing novel in this
method of attracting attention, and giving greater force
and impressiveness to his prediction. The older
prophets had often done the same kind of things, on
the principle that deeds may be more effective than
words. What could have conveyed a more vivid sense
of the Divine intention, than the simple act of Ahijah
the Shilonite, when he suddenly caught away the new

282 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
mantle of Solomon's officer, and rent it into twelve
pieces, and said to the astonished courtier, " Take thee
ten pieces ! for thus said lahvah, the God of Israel,
Behold I am about to rend the kingdom out of the
hand of Solomon, and will give the ten tribes to thee " ?
(i Kings xi. 29 sqq.) In like manner, when Ahab
and Jehoshaphat, dressed in their robes of state, sat
enthroned in the gateway of Samaria, and " all the
prophets were prophesying before them" about the
issue of their joint expedition to Ramoth-gilead,
Zedekiah, the son of a Canaanitess — as the writer is
careful to add of this false prophet — " made him horns
of iron and said, Thus said lahvah, With these shalt
thou butt the Arameans, until thou make an end of
them" (1 Kings xxii. 11). Isaiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel,
record similar actions of symbolical import. Isaiah for
a time walked half-clad and barefoot, as a sign that
the Egyptians and Ethiopians, upon whom Judah was
inclined to lean, would be led away captive, in this
comfortless guise, by the king of Assyria (Isa. xx.).
Such actions may be regarded as a further develop
ment of those significant gestures, with which men in
whajt is called a state of nature are wont to give
emphasis and precision to their spoken ideas. They
may also be compared with the symbolism of ancient
law. " An ancient conveyance," we are told, " was not
written but acted. Gestures and words took the place
of written technical phraseology, and any formula
mispronounced, or symbolical act omitted, would have
vitiated the proceeding as fatally as a material mistake
in stating the uses or setting out the remainders would,
two hundred years ago, have vitiated an English deed."
(Maine, Ancient Law, p. 276.) Actions of a v purely
symbolical nature surprise us, when we first encounter

»ii] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 283
them in Religion or Law, but that is only because they
are survivals. In the ages when they originated, they
were familiar occurrences in all transactions between
man and man. And this general consideration tends
to prove that those expositors are wrong who main
tain that the prophets did not really perform the
symbolical actions of which they speak. Just as it is
argued that the visions which they describe, are merely
a literary device ; so the reality of these symbolical
actions has needlessly enough been called in question.
The learned Jews Abenezra and Maimonides in the
twelfth century, and David Kimchi in the thiiteenth,
were the first to affirm this opinion. Maimonides held
that all such actions passed in vision before the
prophets ; a view which has found a modern advocate
in Hengstenberg: and Staudlin, in the last century,
affirmed that they had neither an objective nor a sub
jective reality, but were simply a " literary device."
This, however, is only true, if true at all, of the declin
ing period of prophecy, as in the case of the visions.
In the earlier period, while the prophets were still
accustomed to an oral delivery of their discourses, we
may be quite sure that they suited the action to the
word in the way that they have themselves recorded ;
in order to stir the popular imagination, and to create a
more vivid and lasting impression. The narratives of
the historical books leave no doubt about the matter.
But in later times, when spoken addresses had for
the most part become a thing of the past, and when
prophets published their convictions in manuscript, it
is possible that they were content with the description
of symbolical doings, as a sort of parable, without any
actual performance of them. Jeremiah's hiding his
girdle in a cleft of the rock at " Euphrates " has been

284 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
regarded by some writers as an instance of such purely
ideal symbolism. And certainly it is difficult to suppose
that the prophet made the long and arduous journey
from Jerusalem to the Great River for such a purpose.
It is, however, a highly probable conjecture that the
place whither he was directed to repair was much
nearer home ; the addition of a single letter to the name
rendered " Euphrates " gives the far preferable reading
" Ephrath," that is to say, Bethlehem in Judah (Gen.
xlviii. 7). Jeremiah may very well have buried his
girdle at Bethlehem, a place only five miles or so to
the south of Jerusalem ; a place, moreover, where he
would have no trouble in finding a " cleft of the rock,"
which would hardly be the case upon the alluvial banks
of the Euphrates. If not accidental, the difference may
be due to the intentional employment of an unusual
form of the name, by way of hinting at the source
whence the ruin of Judah was to flow. The enemy
" from the north " (ver. 20) is of course the Chal
deans. The mention of the queen-mother (ver. 18) along
with the king appears to point unmistakably to the
reign of Jehoiachin or Jechoniah. The allusion is
compared with the threat of ch. xxii. 26 : "I will cast
thee out, and thy mother that bare thee into another
country." Like Josiah, this king was but eight years
old when he began to reign (2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, after
which 2 Kings xxiv. 8 must be corrected) ; and he had
enjoyed the name of king only for the brief period of
three months, when the thunderbolt fell, and Nebuchad
rezzar began his first siege of Jerusalem. The boy-
king can hardly have had much to do with the issue of
affairs, when " he and his mother and his servants and
his princes and his eunuchs " surrendered the city, and

siii.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 285
were deported to Babylon, with ten thousand of the
principal inhabitants (2 Kings xxiv. 12 sqq.). The date
of our discourse will thus be the beginning of the year
b.c. 599, which was the eighth year of Nebuchadrezzar
(2 Kings xxiv. 12).
It is asserted, indeed, that the difficult verse 21
refers to the revolt from Babylon as an accomplished
fact; but this is by no means clear from the verse
itself. What wilt thou say, demands the prophet, when
He shall appoint over thee — albeit, thou thyself hast
instructed them against thyself; — lovers to be thy head ?
The term " lovers " or " lemans " applies best to the
foreign idols, who will one day repay the foolish
attachment of Iahvah's people by enslaving it (cf. ch.
iiL 4, where lahvah himself is called the " lover " of
Judah's youthful days); and this question might as
well have been asked in the days of Josiah, as at any
later period. At various times in the past Israel and
Judah had courted the favour of foreign deities. Ahaz
had introduced Aramean and Assyrian novelties;
Manasseh and Amon had revived and aggravated his
apostasy. Even Hezekiah had had friendly dealings
with Babylon, and we must remember that in those
times friendly intercourse with a foreign people implied
some recognition of their gods, which is probably the
true account of Solomon's chapels for Tyrian and other
deities. The queen of ver. 18 might conceivably be Jedidah,
the mother of Josiah, for that king was only eight at
his accession, and only thirty-nine at his death (2 Kings
xxii. 1). And the message to the sovereigns (ver. 18)
is not couched in terms of disrespect nor of reproach :
it simply declares the imminence of overwhelming
disaster, and bids them lay aside their royal pomp, and

286 THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
behave as mourners for the coming woe. Such words
might perhaps have been addressed to Josiah and his
mother, by way of deepening the impression produced
by the Book of the Law, and the rumoured invasion of
the Scythians. But the threat against " the kings thai
sit on David's throne" (ver. 13) is hardly suitable on
this supposition; and the ruthless tone of this part
of the address — / will dash them in pieces, one against
another, both the fathers and the sons together: I will
not pity, nor spare, nor relent from destroying them —
considered along with the emphatic prediction of an
utter and entire captivity (ver. 19), seems to indicate a
later period of the prophet's ministry, when the obdu
racy of the people had revealed more fully the hope
lessness of his enterprise for their salvation. The
mention of the enemy " from the north " will then be a
reference to present circumstances of peril, as trium
phantly vindicating the prophet's former menaces of
destruction from that quarter. The carnage of conquest
and the certainty of exile are here threatened in the
plainest and most direct style ; but nothing is said by
way of heightening the popular terror of the coming
destroyer. The prophet seems to take it for granted
that the nature of the evil which hangs over their
heads, is well known to the people, and does not need
to be dwelt upon or amplified with the lyric fervour of
former utterances (see ch. iv., v. 15 sqq., vi. 22 sqq.).
This appears quite natural, if we suppose that the
first invasion of the Chaldeans was now a thing of the
past ; and that the nation was awaiting in trembling
uncertainty the consequences of Jehoiakim's breach of
faith with his Babylonian suzerain (2 Kings xxiv. i. 10).
The prophecy may therefore be assigned with some
confidence to the short reign of Jehoiachin, to which

xiii.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. ab7
perhaps the short section, ch. x. 17-25, also belongs;
a date which harmonizes better than any other with
the play on the name Euphrates in the opening
of the chapter. It agrees, too, with the emphatic
lahvah hath spoken ! (ver. 1 5), which seems to be
more than a mere assertion of the speaker's vera
city, and to point rather to the fact that the course
of events had reached a crisis; that something had
occurred in the political world, which suggested imminent
danger; that a black cloud was looming up on the
national horizon, and signalling unmistakably to the
prophet's eye the intention of lahvah. What other
view so well explains the solemn tone of warning, the
vivid apprehension of danger, the beseeching tenderness,
that give so peculiar a stamp to the three verses in
which the address passes from narrative and parable, to
direct appeal ? Hear ye and give hear : be not proud:
for lahvah hath spoken! Give glory to lahvah your
God — the glory of confession, of avowing your own
guilt and His perfect righteousness (Josh. vii. 19 ;
St John ix. 24) ; of recognising the due reward of
your deeds in the destruction that threatens you ; the
glory involved in the cry, "God be merciful to me a
sinner ! " — Give glory to lahvah your God, before the
darkness fall, and before your feet, stumble upon the twi
light mountains; and ye wail for dawn, and He make
it deepest gloom, He turn it to uller darkness. The day
was declining ; the evening shadows were descending
and deepening ; soon the hapless people would be
wandering bewildered in the twilight, and lost in the
darkness, unless, ere it had become too late, they would
yield their pride, and throw themselves upon the pity of
Him who "maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth
the deepest gloom into the morning" (Amos v. 8).

288 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
The verbal allusiveness of the opening section does
not, according to Oriental taste, diminish the solemnity
of the speaker ; on the contrary, it tends to deepen the
impression producod by his words. And perhaps there
is a psychological reason for the fact, beyond the
peculiar partiality of Oriental peoples for such displays
of ingenuity. It is, at all events, remarkable that the
greatest of all masters of human feeling has not hesi
tated to make a dying prince express his bitter and
desponding thoughts in what may seem an artificial
toying and trifling with the suggestiveness of his own
familiar name ; and when the king asks : " Can sick
men play so nicely with their names ? " the answer is :
" No, misery makes sport to mock itself." (Rich. II.,
Act 2, Sc. i., 72 sqq.) The Greek tragedian, too, in
the earnestness of bitter sport, can find a prophecy in
a name. " Who was for naming her thus, with truth
so entire ? (Was it One whom we see not, wielding
tongue happily with full foresight of what was to be ?)
the Bride of Battles, fiercely contested Helen : seeing
that, in full accord with her name, haler of ships, huler
of men, haler of cities, forth of the soft and precious
tapestries away she sailed, under the gale of the giant
West" (iEsch., Ag., 681 sqq.). And so, to Jeremiah's
ear, Ephrath is prophetic of Euphrates, upon whose
distant banks the glory of his people is to languish
and decay. " I to Ephrath, and you to Phrath ! " is his
melancholy cry. Their doom is as certain as if it were
the mere fulfilment of an old-world prophecy, crystal
lized long ages ago in a familiar name; a word of
destiny fixed in this strange form, and bearing its
solemn witness from the outset of their history until
now concerning the inevitable goal.
There is nothing so very surprising, as Ewald seems

xiii.] TBE FALL OF PRIDE. 289
to have thought, in the suggestion that the Perath of
the Hebrew text may be the same as Ephrath. But
perhaps the valley and spring now called Furah (or
Furdt) which lies at about the same distance N.E. of
Jerusalem, is the place intended by the prophet. The
name, which means fresh or sweet water is identical
with the Arabic name of the Euphrates (Furdt, ol/)»
which again is philologically identical with the Hebrew
Perath. It is obvious that this place would suit the
requirements of the text quite as well as the other,
while the coincidence of name enables us to dispense
with the supposition of an unusual form or even a
corruption of the original ; but Furat or Forah is not
mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. The old
versions send the prophet to the river Euphrates, which
Jeremiah calls simply " The River " in one place (ii. iS),
and " The river of Perath " in three others (xlvi. 2, 6, 10) ;
while the rare " Perath," without any addition, is only
found in the second account of the Creation (Gen. ii. 14),
in 2 Chron. xxxv. 20, and in a passage of this book
which does not belong, nor profess to belong, to
Jeremiah (li. 63). We may, therefore, conclude that
" Perath " in the present passage means not the great
river of that name, but a place near Jerusalem, although
that place was probably chosen with the intention, as
above explained, of alluding to the Euphrates.
I cannot assent to the opinion which regards this
narrative of the spoiled girdle as founded upon some
accidental experience of the prophet's life, in which he
afterwards recognised a Divine lesson. The precision
of statement, and the nice adaptation of the details of
the story to the moral which the prophet wished to
convey, rather indicate a symbolical course of action,
or what may be called an acted parable. The whole
19

290 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
proceeding appears to have been carefully thought out
beforehand. The intimate connexion between lahvah
and Israel is well symbolized by a girdle — that part of
an Eastern dress which " cleaves to the loins of a man,"
that is, fits closest to the body, and is most securely
attached thereto. And if the nations be represented
by the rest of the apparel, as the girdle secures and
keeps that in its place, we may see an implication that
Israel was intended to be the chain that bound mankind
to God. The girdle was of linen, the material of the
priestly dress, not only because Jeremiah was a priest,
but because Israel was called to be " a kingdom of
priests," or the Priest among nations (Ex. xix. 6).
The significance of the command to wear the girdle,
but not to put it into water, seems to be clear enough.
The unwashed garment which the prophet continues
to wear for a time represents the foulness of Israel;
just as the order to bury it at Perath indicates what
lahvah is about to do with His polluted people.
The exposition begins with the words, Thus will
I mar the great pride of Judah and of Jerusalem !
The spiritual uncleanness of the nation consisted in
the proud selfwill which turned a deaf ear to the
warnings of Iahvah's prophets, and obstinately per
sisted in idolatry (ver. io). It continues : For as the
girdle cleavelh to the loins of a man, so made I the
whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to
cleave unto Me, saith lahvah; that they might become
to Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise,
and for an ornament (Ex. xxviii. 2). Then their
becoming morally unclean, through the defilements of
sin, is briefly implied in the words, And they obeyed
not (ver. 1 1).
It is not the pride of the tyrant king Jehoiakim that

xiii.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 291
is here threatened with destruction. It is the national
pride which had all along evinced itself in rebellion
against its heavenly King — the great pride of Judah ana
Jerusalem; and this pride, inasmuch as it "trusted in
man and made flesh its arm" (xvii. 5), and boasted
in a carnal wisdom, and material strength and riches
(ix. 23, xxi. 13), was to be brought low by the com
plete extinction of the national autonomy, and the
reduction of a high-spirited and haughty race to the
status of humble dependents upon a heathen power.
2. A parabolic saying follows, with its interpreta
tion. And say thou unto them this word: Thus said
lahvah, the God of Israel: Every jar is wont to be
filled (or shall be filled) with wine. And if they say
unto thee, Are we really not aware that every jar is
wont to be filled with wine ? say thou unto them, Thus
said lahvah, Lo, I am about to fill all the inhabitants
of this land, and the kings that sit for David upon his
throne, and the priests and the prophets, and all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness; and I wiU
dash them in pieces against one another, and the fathers
and the sons together, saith lahvah : I will not forbear
nor spare nor pity, so as not to mar them (cf. w. 7, 9).
The individual members of the nation, of all ranks
and classes, are compared to earthenware jars, not
" skins," as the LXX. gives it, for they are to be dashed
in pieces, " like a potter's vessel " (Ps. ii. 9 ; cf. ver. 14). l
Regarding them all as ripe for destruction, Jeremiah
exclaims, " Every jar is filled with wine," in the ordinary
course of things ; that is its destiny. His hearers
answer with the mocking question, " Do you suppose
that we don't know that ? " They would, of course,

1 Also xlviii. 12 ; Lam. iv. 2 ; Isa. xxx. 1 4.

202 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
be aware that a prophet's figure, however homely,
covered an inner meaning of serious import ; but deri
sion was their favourite retort against unpopular truths
(xvii. 15, xx. 7, 8). They would take it for granted
that the thing suggested was unfavourable, from their
past experience of Jeremiah. Their ill-timed banter is
met by the instant application of the figure. They, and
the kings then sitting on David's throne, i.e., the young
Jehoiachin and the queen-mother Nehushta (who pro
bably had all the authority if not the title of a regent),
and the priests and prophets who fatally misled them
by false teachings and false counsels, are the wine-jars
intended, and the wine that is to fill them is the wine
of the wrath of God (Ps. Ixxv. 8 ; Jer. xxv. 15 ; cf. li. 7;
Rev. xvi. 19; Isa. xix. 14, 15). The effect is intoxica
tion — a fatal bewilderment, a helpless lack of decision,
an utter confusion and stupefaction of the faculties of
wisdom and foresight, in the very moment of supreme
peril (cf. Isa. xxviii. 7 ; Ps. lx. 5). Like drunkards,
they will reel against and overthrow each other. The
strong term I will dash them in pieces is used, to indicate
the deadly nature of their fall, and because the prophet
has still in his mind the figure of the wine-jars, which
were probably amphorae, pointed at the end, like those
depicted in Egyptian mural paintings, so that they
could not stand upright without support. By their fall
they are to be utterly " marred " (the term used of the
girdle, ver. 9).
But even yet one way of escape lies open. It is to
sacrifice their pride, and yield to the will of lahvah.
Hear ye, and give ear, be not haughty! for lahvah
hath spoken : give ye to lahvah your God the glory,
before il grow dark (or He cause darkness), and be
fore your feet stumble upon mountains of twilight; and

xiii.] TBE FALL OF PRIDE. 293
ye wait for the dawn, and He make it gloom, turning
it to cloudiness ! (Isa. v. 30, viii. 20, 22 ; Amos viii. 9).
It is very remarkable, that even now, when the
Chaldeans are actually in the country, and blockad
ing the strong places of southern Judah (ver. 19),
which was the usual preliminary to an advance upon
Jerusalem itself (2 Chron. xii. 4, xxxii. 9 ; Isa. xxxvi.
I, 2), Jeremiah should still speak thus ; assuring his
fellow- citizens that confession and self-humiliation
before their offended God might yet deliver them from
the bitterest consequences of past misdoing. lahvah
had indeed spoken audibly enough, as it seemed to the
prophet, in the calamities that had already befallen the
country ; these were an indication of more and worse
to follow, unless they should prove efficacious in leading
the people to repentance. If they failed, nothing would
be left for the prophet but to mourn in solitude over his
country's ruin (ver. 17). But Jeremiah was fully per
suaded that the Hand that had stricken could heal ; the
Power that had brought the invaders into Judah, could
cause them to " return by the way that they had come "
(Isa. xxxvii. 34). Of course such a view is unintel
ligible from the standpoint of unbelief; but then the
standpoint of the prophets is faith.
3. After this general appeal for penitence, the dis
course turns to the two exalted persons whose position
and interest in the country were the highest of all, the
youthful king, and the empress or queen-mother.
They are addressed in a tone which, though not dis
respectful, is certainly despairing. They are called
upon, not so much to set the example of penitence
(cf. Jonah iii 6), as to take up the attitude of mourners
(Job ii. 13; Isa. iii. 26; Lam. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvi. 16)
in presence of the public disasters. Say thou to the

294 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

king and lo the empress, Sit ye low on ihe ground! (lit
make low your seat I cf. Isa. vii. for the construction)
for it is fallen from your heads x—your beautiful crown !
(Lam. v. 16). The cities of the south are shut fast,
and there is none that openeth (Josh. vi. i) : Judah is
carried away captive all of her, she is wholly carried
away. There is no hope ; it is vain to expect help ;
nothing is left but to bemoan the irreparable. The
siege of the great fortresses of the scuth country and
the sweeping away of the rural population were sure
signs of what was coming upon Jerusalem. The
embattled cities themselves may be suggested by the
fallen crown of beauty ; Isaiah calls Samaria " the
proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim " (Isa. xxviii.
i), and cities are commonly represented in ancient art
by female figures wearing mural crowns. In that case,
both verses are addressed to the sovereigns, and the
second is exegetical of the first
As already observed, there is here no censure, but
only sorrowful despair over the dark outlook. In the
same way, Jeremiah's utterance (xxii. 20 sqq.) about the
fate of Jehoiachin is less a malediction than a lament.
And when we further consider his favourable judgment
of the first body of exiles, who were carried away with
this monarch soon after the time of the present oracle
(chap, xxiv.), we may perhaps see reason to conclude
that the surrender of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans on
this occasion was partly due to his advice. The
narrative of Kings, however, is too brief to enable us
to come to any certain decision about the circumstances
of Jehoiachin's submission (2 Kings xxiv. IO-12).
•LXX. diro KtfaXije v/iw. Read D^rj'tyKnt.J-.DJWJ^; and c£
Assyrian resu, plur. reie'tu ( — riHPttl),

x«l.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 295
4. From the sovereigns, the prophet turns to Jeru
salem. Lift up thine eyes (O Jerusalem1), and behold
them that came from the north ! Where is the flock that
was given to thee, thy beautiful sheep ? What wilt thou
say when He shall appoint over thee — nay, thou thyself hast
spurred them against thyself! — lovers (iii. 4, xi. 19) for
head? Will not pangs take thee, as a woman in
travail? Jerusalem sits upon her hills, as a beautiful
shepherdess. The country towns and unwalled villages
lay about her, like a fair flock of sheep and goats
entrusted to her care and keeping. But now these
have been destroyed and their pastures are made a
silent solitude, and the destroyer is advancing against
herself. What pangs of shame and terror will be hers,
when she recognises in the enemy triumphing over her
grievous downfall the heathen " friends " whose love
she had courted so long ! Her sin is to be her scourge.
She shall be made the thrall of her foreign lovers.
lahvah will " appoint them over her " (xv. 3, li. 27) ;
they will become the " head," and she the " tail "
(Lam. i. 5 ; Deut. xxviii. 44). Yet this will, in truth,
be her own doing, not Iahvah's ; she has herself
" accustomed them to herself" (x. 2), or " instructed "
or "spurred them on" against herself (ii. 33, iv. 18).
The revolt of Jehoiakim, his wicked breach of faith with
1 For D3»3»» we might read, with LXX., Vat, D(Wv») YJ'B. The
Arabic has Israel. But Vulg. and Targ, agree with the Q're, and take
the verbs as plur. : " Lift ye up your eyes and see who are coming
from the north." The sing. fcm. is to be preferred as the more
difficult reading, and on account of ver. 21, where it recurs. Jeru
salem is addressed (ver. 27), and "your eyes," plur. masc. pron.,
may be justified as indicating the colleclive sense of the fern. sing.
The population of the capital is meant. Cf. Mic. i. 1 1 ; Jer. xxi.
13, 14. In ver. 23, the masc plur. appears again, the figure for a
moment 'leing dropped.

»96 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

Nebuchadrezzar, had turned friends to enemies (iv. 30).
But the chief reference seems to be more general — the
continual craving of Judah for foreign alliances and
foreign worships. And if thou say in thine heart, " Where
fore did these things befall me ? " through the greatness of
thy guilt were thy skirls uncovered, thine heels violated
(Nah. iii. 5) or exposed. Will a Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots ? ye, too, are ye able to do good, O
ye that are wont to do evil? If amid the sharp throes
of suffering Jerusalem should still fail to recognise the
moral cause of them (v. 19), she may be assured before
hand that her unspeakable dishonour is the reward of
her sins ; that is why " the virgin daughter of Sion " is
surprised and ravished by the foe (a common figure :
Isa. xlvii. 1-3). Sin has become so ingrained in her,
that it can no more be eradicated than the blackness
of an African skin, or the spots of a leopard's hide.
The habit of sinning has become "a second nature,"
and, like nature, is not to be expelled (cf. viii. 4-7).
The effect of use and wont in the moral sphere could
hardly be expressed more forcibly, and Jeremiah's
comparison has become a proverb. Custom binds us
all in every department of life ; it is only by enlisting
this strange influence upon the side of virtue, that
we become virtuous. Neither virtue nor vice can
be pronounced perfect, until the habit of either has
become fixed and invariable. It is the tendency of
habitual action of any kind to become automatic ; and
it is certain that sin may attain such a mastery over
the active powers of a man that its indulgence may
become almost an unconscious exercise of his will, and
quite a matter of course. But this fearful result of
evil habits does not excuse them at the bar of common
sense, much less at the tribunal of God The inveterate

xiii.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 297
sinner, the man totally devoid of scruple, whose con
science is, as it were, " seared with a hot iron," is not
on that account excused by the common judgment of
his kind ; the feeling he excites is not forbearance, but
abhorrence ; he is regarded not as a poor victim of
circumstances over which he has no control, but as a
monster of iniquity. And justly so ; for if he has lost
control of his passions, if he is no longer master of
himself, but the slave of vice, he is responsible for the
long course of self-indulgence which has made him
what he is. The prophet's comparison cannot be
applied in support of a doctrine of immoral fatalism.
The very fact that he makes use of it, implies that he
did not intend it to be understood in such a sense.
" Will a Cushile change his skin, or a leopard his spots ?
Ye also — supposing such a change as that — will be able
to do good, O ye that are taught — trained, accustomed —
to do evil!" (perhaps the preferable rendering).
Not only must we abstain from treating a rhetorical
figure as a colourless and rigorous proposition of
mathematical science ; not only must we allow for the
irony and the exaggeration of the preacher : we must
also remember his object, which is, if possible, to shock
his hearers into a sense of their condition, and to
awaken remorse and repentance even at the eleventh
hour. His last words (ver. 27) prove that he did not
believe this result, improbable as it was, to be altogether
impossible. Unless some sense of sin had survived
in their hearts, unless the terms, " good " and " evil."
had still retained a meaning for his countrymen,
Jeremiah would hardly have laboured still so strenu
ously to convince them of their sin.
For the present, when retribution is already at the
doors, when already the Divine wrath has visibly

298 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
broken forth, his prevailing purpose is not so much to
suggest a way of escape, as to bring home to the heart
and conscience of the nation the true meaning of
the public calamities. They are the consequence of
habitual rebellion against God. And I will scatter them
like stubble passing away to (= before : cf. xix. 10) the
wind of the wilderness. This is thy lot (fern, thine, O
Jerusalem), the portion of thy measures (others : lap)
from Me, saith lahvah ; because thou forgatlesl Me, ana
didst trust in the Lie. And I also — I will surely strip
thy skirts lo thy face, and thy shame shall be seen ! (Nah.
iii. 5). Thine adulteries and thy neighings, the foulness
of thy fornications upon the hills in the field (ui. 2-6) —
I have seen thine abominations 1 (For the construction,
compare Isa. i. 13.) Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem!
After how long yet wilt thou not become clean ? (2 Kings
v. 12, 13). That which lies before the citizens in the
near future is not deliverance, but dispersion in foreign
lands. The onset of the foe will sweep them away, as
the blast from the desert drives before it the dry
stubble of the corn-fields (cf. iv. 11, 12). This is no
chance calamity, but a recompense allotted and meted
out by lahvah to the city that forgot Him and
" trusted in the Lie " of Baal-worship and the
associated superstitions. The city that dealt shame
fully in departing from her God, and dallying with
foul idols, shall be put to shame by Him before all the
world (ver. 26 recurring to the thought of ver. 22, but
ascribing the exposure directly to lahvah). Woe —
certain woe — awaits Jerusalem ; and it is but a faint
and far-off glimmer of hope that is reflected in the final
question, which is like a weary sigh : Afkr how long yet
wilt thou not become clean ? How long must the fiery
process of cleansing go on, ere thou be purged of thine

xiii.] THE FALL OF PRIDE. 299
inveterate sins ? It is a recognition that the punish
ment will not be exterminative ; that God's chastise
ments of His people can no more fail at last than His
promises ; that the triumph of a heathen power and
the disappearance of Iahvah's Israel from under His
heaven cannot be the final phase of that long eventful
history which began with the call of Abraham.

IX.
TEE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS.
Jeremiah xiv., xv. (xvii.?).
VARIOUS opinions have been expressed about the
division of these chapters. They have been cut
up into short sections, supposed to be more or less inde
pendent of each other;1 and they have been regarded as
constituting a well-organized whole, at least so far as
the eighteenth verse of chap. xvii. The truth may lie
between these extremes. Chapters xiv., xv. certainly
hang together; for in them the prophet represents himself
as twice interceding with lahvah on behalf of the people,
and twice receiving a refusal of his petition (xiv. i-xv. 4),
the latter reply being sterner and more decisive than
the first. The occasion was a long period of drought,
involving much privation for man and beast. The
connexion between the parts of this first portion of the
discourse is clear enough. The prophet prays for his
people, and God answers that He has rejected them,
and that intercession ia futile. Thereupon, Jeremiah
throws the blame of the national sins upon the false
prophets ; and the answer is that both the people and
1 Hitzig : (1) xiv. 1-9, 19-22 : " Lament and Prayer on occasion of
a Drought." (2) xiv. 10-18. "Oracle against the false Prophets and
the misguided People" (Hitzig mistakes the import of the phrase
Vm 13HN ]3, " Thus have they loved to wander," ver. 10; supposing

xiv„xT.] THE DROUGHT, 301
their false guides will perish. The prophet then solilo
quises upon his own hard fate as a herald of evil
tidings, and receives directions for his own personal
guidance in this crisis of affairs (xv. 10-xvi. 9). There
is a pause but no real break at the end of chap. xv.
The next chapter resumes the subject of directions
personally affecting the prophet himself ; and the dis
course is then continuous so far as xvii. 18, although,
naturally enough, it is broken here and there by pauses
of considerable duration, marking transitions of thought,
and progress in the argument.
The heading of the entire piece is marked in the
that the "thus" refers to xiii. 27, and that xiv. 1-9 is misplaced).
(3) xv. 1-9. " The incorrigible People will be punished mercilessly."
Hitzig thinks C. B. Michaelis wrong in asserting close connexion
with the end of the preceding chapter, because the intercession, w.
2-9, docs not agree with the prohibition, xiv. 11; and because xiv.
19-22, merely prays for cessation of the Drought ; while the rejection
of " the hypothetical intercession," xv. I, delivers the people over
to all the horrors which follow in the train of war. xv. 1-9 may
originally have followed xiv. 18. But this is far from cogent reason
ing. There is nothing surprising in the renewal of the prophet's
intercession, except on a theory of strictly verbal inspiration ; and xv.
I sqq. in refusing deliverance from the Drought, or rather in answer
to the prayer imploring it, announces further and worse evils to
follow. (4) "Complaint of the Seer against lahvah, and Soothing
of his Dejection," xv. 10-21. Hitzig thinks internal evidence here
points to the fourth year of Jehoiakim; and that xvii. 1-4 originally
preceded this section, especially as ch. xvi. connects closely with xv. 9.
(5) xvi. I-20. "Prediction of an imminent general Judgment by Plague
and Captivity." Written immediately after xv. 1-9, and falls with
that in the short reign of Jehoiachin. (6) xvii. 1-4. "Judah's unfor-
gotten Guilt will be punished by Captivity." Wanting in LXX. (as
early as Jerome), but contains original of xv. 13, 14, and must there
fore be genuine. Belongs 602 b.c, year of Jehoiakim's revolt. (7)
xvii. 5-18. "The Vindication of Trust in God on Despisers and
Believers. Prayer for its Vindication." Date immediately after death
of Jehoiakim. (8) 19-27. " Warning to keep the Sabbath," Time
of Jehoiachin.

302 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
original by a peculiar inversion of terms, which meets
us again, chap. xlvi. I, xlvii. I, xlix. 34, but which, in
spite of this recurrence, wears a rather suspicious look.
We might render it thus : " What fell as a word of
lahvah to Jeremiah, on account of the droughts"
(the plural is intensive, or it signifies the long con
tinuance of the trouble — as if one rainless period
followed upon another). Whether or not the singular
order of the words be authentic, the recurrence at chap.
xvii. 8 of the remarkable term for "drought" (Heb.
baccdreth of which baccaro'lh here is plur.) favours
the view that that chapter is an integral portion of
the present discourse. The exordium (xiv. 1-9) is a
poetical sketch of the miseries of man and beast, closing
with a beautiful prayer. It has been said that this is
not "a word of lahvah to Jeremiah," but rather the
reverse. If we stick to the letter, this no doubt is the
case ; but, as we have seen in former discourses, the
phrase " Iahvah's word " meant in prophetic use very
much more than a direct message from God, or a pre
diction uttered at the Divine instigation. Here, as
elsewhere, the prophet evidently regards the course of
his own religious reflexion as guided by Him who
"fashioneth the hearts of men," and "knoweth their
thoughts long before;" and if the question had sug
gested itself, he would certainly have referred his own
poetic powers — the tenderness of his pity, the vividness
of his apprehension, the force of his passion, — to the
inspiration of the Lord who had called and consecrated
him from the birth, to speak in His Name.
There lies at the heart of many of us a feeling, which
has lurked there, more or less without our cognisance,
ever since the childish days when the Old Testament
was read at the mother's knee, and explained and

xiv., xv.] TBE DROUGBT. 303
understood in a manner proportioned to the faculties
of childhood. When we hear the phrase " The Lord
spake," we instinctively think, if we think at all, of an
actual voice knocking sensibly at the door of the out
ward ear. It was not so; nor did the sacred writer
mean it so. A knowledge of Hebrew idiom — the
modes of expression usual and possible in that ancient
speech — assures us that this statement, so startlingly
direct in its unadorned simplicity, was the accepted
mode of conveying a meaning which we, in our more
complex and artificial idioms, would convey by the use
of a multitude of words, in terms far more abstract, in
language destitute of all that colour of life and reality
which stamps the idiom of the Bible. It is as though
the Divine lay farther off from us moderns ; as though
the marvellous progress of all that new knowledge of
the measureless magnitude of the world, of the power
and complexity of its machinery, of the surpassing
subtlety and the matchless perfection of its laws and
processes, had become an impassable barrier, at least
an impenetrable veil, between our minds and God. We
have lost the sense of His nearness, of His immediacy,
so to speak ; because we have gained, and are ever
intensifying, a sense of the nearness of the world with
which He environs us. Hence, when we speak of
Him, we naturally cast about either for poetical phrases
and figures, which must always be more or less vague
and undefined, or for highly abstract expressions, which
may suggest scientific exactness, but are, in truth,
scholastic formulae, dry as the dust of the desert,
untouched by the breath of life ; and even if they affirm
a Person, destitute of all those living characters by
which we Instinctively and without effort recognise
Personality. We make only a conventional use of the

304 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
language of the sacred writers, of the prophets and
prophetic historians, of the psalmists, and the legalists
of the Old Testament ; the language which is the native
expression of a peculiar intensity of religious faith,
realizing the Unseen as the Actual and, in truth, the
only Real.
" Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish,
They are clad in black down to the ground ;
And the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up.
And their nobles have sent their lesser folk for water;
They have been to the pits, and found no water:
Their vessels have come back empty ;
Ashamed and confounded, they have covered their heads.
" Because the ground is chapt, for there hath not been rain
in the land,
The plowmen are ashamed, they have covered their heads.
" For even the hind in the field hath yeaned and forsaken
her fawn,
For there is no grass.
And the wild asses stand on the bare fella ;
They snuff the wind like jackals ;
Their eyes fail, for there is no pasturage.
" If our sins have answered against us,
lahweh, act for Thine own Name sake;
For our relapses are many ;
Against Thee have we trespassed.
" Hope of Israel, that savest him in time of trouble,
Wherefore wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land,
And as a traveller that leaveth the road but for the night ?
Wherefore wilt Thou be as a man o'erpowered with sleep,
As a warrior that cannot rescue ?
" Sith Thou art in our midst, O lahvah,
And Thy Name upon us hath been called ;
Cast us not down I "
How beautiful both plaint and prayer ! The simple
description of the effects of the drought is as lifelike

«iv.,xv.) THE DROUGBT. ya%
and impressive as a good picture. The whole country
is stricken ; the city-gates, the place of common resort,
where the citizens meet for business and for conversa
tion, are gloomy with knots of mourners robed in black
from head to foot, or, as the Hebrew may also imply,
sitting on the ground, in the garb and posture of deso
lation (Lam. ii. io, iii. 28). The magnates of Jeru
salem send out their retainers to find water ; and we
see them returning with empty vessels, their heads
muffled in their cloaks, in sign of grief at the failure
of their errand (cf. I Kings xviii. 5, 6). The parched
ground everywhere gapes with fissures;1 the yeomen
go about with covered heads in deepest dejection. The
distress is universal, and affects not man only, but the
brute creation. Even the gentle hind, that proverb of
maternal tenderness, is driven by sorest need to for
sake the fruit of her hard travail ; her starved dugs are
dry, and she flies from her helpless offspring. The
wild asses of the desert, fleet, beautiful and keen-eyed
creatures, scan the withered landscape from the naked
cliffs, and snuff the wind, like jackals scenting prey ;
but neither sight nor smell suggests relief. There is
no moisture in the air, no glimpse of pasture in the
wide sultry land.
The prayer is a humble confession of sin, an un
reserved admission that the woes of man evince the
righteousness of God. Unlike certain modern poets,
who bewail the sorrows of the world as the mere in
fliction of a harsh and arbitrary and inevitable Destiny,
Jeremiah makes no doubt that human sufferings are due
1 The Heb. verb Hfin " is broken " may probably have this meaning.
" Dismayed " is not nearly so suitable, though it is the usual meaning
of the term. Cf. Isa. vii 3.
20

306 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
to the working of Divine justice. " Our sins have
answered against our pleas at Thy judgment seat ;
our relapses are many; against Thee have we tres
passed," against Thee, the sovereign Disposer of events,
the Source of all that happens and all that is. If this
be so, what plea is left ? None, but that appeal to the
Name of lahvah, with which the prayer begins and
ends. "Act for Thine own Name sake." . . . "Thy
Name upon us hath been called." Act for Thine own
honour, that is, for the honour of Mercy, Compassion,
Truth, Goodness ; which Thou hast revealed Thyself
to be, and which are parts of Thy glorious Name
(Ex. xxxiv. 6). Pity the wretched, and pardon the
guilty ; for so will Thy glory increase amongst men ;
so will man learn that the relentings of love are
diviner affections than the ruthlessness of wrath and
the cravings of vengeance.
There is also a touching appeal to the past. The
very name by which Israel was sometimes designated
as "the people of lahvah," just as Moab was known
by the name of its god as " the people of Chemosh "
(Num. xxi. 29), is alleged as proof that the nation
has an interest in the compassion of Him whose name
it bears ; and it is implied that, since the world knows
Israel as Iahvah's people, it will not be for Iahvah's
honour that this people should be suffered to perish
in their sins. Israel had thus, from the outset of its
history, been associated and identified with lahvah;
however ill the true nature of the tie has been under
stood, however unworthily the relation has been
conceived by the popular mind, however little the
obligations involved in the call of their fathers have been
recognised and appreciated. ^ God mnsLbeJrue. though
man be Jalse. There is no weakness, no caprice, no

xiv., xv.] TBE DROUGBT. 307
vacillation in God. In bygone " times of trouble " the
" Hope of Israel " had saved Israel over and over
again ; it was a truth admitted by all — even by the
prophet's enemies. Surely then j-[e will save His
peoD]e_once again, and vindicate His Name of Saviour.
Surely He who has dwelt in their midst so many
changeful centuries, will not now behold their trouble
with the lukewarm feeling of an alien dwelling amongst
them for a time, but unconnected with them by ties
of blood and kin and common country; or with the
indifference of the traveller who is but coldly affected
by the calamities of a place where he has only lodged
one night. Surely the entire past shews that it
would be utterly inconsistent for lahvah to appear
now as a man so buried in sleep that He cannot be
roused to save His friends from imminent destruction
(cf. I Kings xviii. 27) (St. Mark iv. 38). He who had
borne Israel and carried him as a tender nurseling all
the days of old (Isa. lxiii. 9) could hardly without
changing His own unchangeable Name, His character
and purposes, cast down His people and forsake them
at last.
Such is the drift of the prophet's first prayer. To
this apparently unanswerable argument his religious
meditation upon the present distress has brought him.
But presently the thought returns with added force,
with a sense of utmost certitude, with a conviction
that it is Iahvah's Word, that the people have wrought
out their own affliction, that misery is the hire of
sin. "Thus hath lahvah said of this people:
Even so have they loved to wander,
Their feet they have not refrained ;
And as for lahvah, He accepteth them not]

308 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
" He now remembereth their guilt,
And visiteth their trespasses.
And lahvah said unto me,
Intercede thou not for this people for good !
If they fast, I will not hearken unto their cry ;
And if they offer whole-offering and oblation,
I will not accept their persons ;
But by the sword, the famine, and the plague, will I consume
them.
" And I said, Ah, Lord lahvah 1
Behold the prophets say to them, Ye shall not see sword,
And famine shall not befall you ;
For peace and permanence will I give you in this place.
" And lahvah said unto me :
Falsehood it is that the prophets prophesy in My Name.
I sent them not, and I charged them not, and I spake not
unto them.
A vision of falsehood and jugglery and nothingness, and the
guile of their own heart,
They, for their part, prophesy you.
" Therefore thus said lahvah :
Concerning the prophets who prophesy in My Name, albeit
I sent them not,
And of themselves say, Sword and famine there shall not be
in this land ;
By the sword and by the famine shall those prophets be
fordone.
And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie thrown
out in the streets of Jerusalem,
Because of the famine and the sword,
With none to bury them, —
Themselves, their wives, and their sons and their daughters :
And I will pour upon them their own evil.
And thou shalt say unto them this word :
Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day,
And let them not tire ;
For with mighty breach is broken
The virgin daughter of my people —
With a very grievous blow.

tlv.,XT.j THE bROLGHT. 309
If I go forth into the Geld,
Then behold ! the slain of the sword ;
And if I enter the city,
Then behold ! the pinings of famine :
For both prophet and priest go trafficking about the land,
And understand not." '
It has been supposed that this whole section is mis
placed, and that it would properly follow the close of
chap. xiii. The supposition is due to a misapprehension
of the force of the pregnant particle which introduces
the reply of lahvah to the prophet's intercession.
" Even so have they loved to wander ; " even so, as is
naturally implied by the severity of the punishment of
which thou complainest The dearth is prolonged ; the
distress is widespread and grievous. So prolonged, so
grievous, so universal, has been their rebellion against
Me. The penalty corresponds to the offence. It is
really " their own evil " that is being poured out upon
their guilty heads (ver. 16; cf. iv. 18). lahvah can
not accept them in their sin ; the long drought is a
token that their guilt is before His mind, unrepented,
unatoned. Neither the supplications of another, nor
their own fasts and sacrifices, avail to avert the visita
tion. So long as the disposition of the heart remains
unaltered ; so long as man hates, not his darling sins,
but the penalties they entail, it is idle to seek to pro
pitiate Heaven by such means as these. And not only
so. The droughts are but a foretaste of worse evils
to come ; by the sword, ihe famine, and the plague
will I cousume litem. The condition is understood,
If they repent and amend not. This is implied by the
prophet's seeking to palliate the national guilt, as he
proceeds to do, by the suggestion that the people are
1 CC viii. 9, " And no wisdom is in them."

3»o TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.

more sinned against than sinning, deluded as they are
by false prophets ; as also by the renewal of his inter
cession (ver. 19). Had he been aware in his inmost
heart that an irreversible sentence had gone forth
against his people, would he have been likely to think
either excuses or intercessions availing? Indeed,
however absolute the threats of the prophetic preachers
may sound, they must, as a rule, be qualified by this
limitation, which, whether expressed or not, is insepar
able from the object of their discourses, which was the
moral amendment of those who heard them.
Of the " false," that is, the common run of prophets,
who were in league with the venal priesthood of the
time, and no less worldly and self-seeking than their
allies, we note that, as usual, they foretell what the
people wishes to hear ; " Peace (Prosperity), and Per
manence," is the burden of their oracles. They knew
that invectives against prevailing vices, and denuncia
tions of national follies, and forecasts of approaching
ruin, were unlikely means of winning popularity and
a substantial harvest of offerings. At the same time,
like other false teachers, they knew how to veil their
errors under the mask of truth ; or rather, they were
themselves deluded by their own greed, and blinded by
their covetousness to the plain teaching of events.
They might base their doctrine of " Peace and Perman
ence in this place 1 " upon those utterances of the great
Isaiah, which had been so signally verified in the life
time of the seer himself; but their keen pursuit of
selfish ends, their moral degradation, caused them to
shut their eyes to everything else in his teachings, and,
like his contemporaries, they " regarded not the work
of lahvah, nor the operation of His hand." Jeremiah
accuses them of " lying visions ; " visions, as he explains,

xiv.,-xv.] THE DROUGHT. 31 1
which were the outcome of magical ceremonies, by aid
of which, perhaps, they partially deluded themselves,
before deluding others, but which were, none the less,
" things of nought," devoid of all substance, and mere
fictions of a deceitful and self-deceiving mind (ver. 14).
He expressly declares that they have no mission; in
other words, their action is not due to the overpowering
sense of a higher call, but is inspired by purely ulterior
considerations of worldly gain and policy. They pro
phesy to order ; to the order of man, not of God. If
they visit the country districts, it is with no spiritual
end in view ; priest and prophet alike make a trade ol
their sacred profession, and, immersed in their sordid
pursuits, have no eye for truth, and no perception of
the dangers hovering over their country. Their mis
conduct and misdirection of affairs are certain to bring
destruction upon themselves and upon those whom
they mislead. War and its attendant famine will
devour them all.
But the day of grace being past, nothing is left for
the prophet himself but to bewail the ruin of his
people (ver. 17). He will betake himself to weeping,
since praying and preaching are vain. The words
which announce this resolve may portray a sorrowful
experience, or they may depict the future as though
it were already present (vv. 17, 18). The latter in
terpretation would suit ver. 17, but hardly the follow
ing verse, with its references to " going forth into the
field," and "entering into the city." The way in
which these specific actions are mentioned seems to
imply some present or recent calamity; and there is
apparently no reason why we may not suppose that
the passage was written at the disastrous close of the
reign of Josiah, in the troublous interval of three

312 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
months, when Jehoahaz was nominal king in Jerusalem,
but the Egyptian arras were probably ravaging the
country, and striking terror into the hearts of the
people. In such a time of confusion and bloodshed,
tillage would be neglected, and famine would naturally
follow; and these evils would be greatly aggravated
by drought The only other period which suits is the
beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim j1 but the former
seems rather to be indicated by chap. xv. 6-9.
Heartbroken at the sight of the miseries of his
country, the prophet once more approaches the eternal
throne. His despairing mood is not so deep and dark
as to drown his faith in God. He refuses to believe
the utter rejection of Judah, the revocation of the
covenant (The measure is Pentameter).
" Hast Thou indeed cast off Judah ?
Hath Thy soul re%'olted from Sion?
Why hast Thou smitten us, past healing?
Waiting for peace, and no good came,
For a time of healing, and behold terror I
"We know, lahvah, our wickedness, our fathers' guilt;
For we have trespassed toward Thee.
Scorn Thou not, for Thy Name sake,
Disgrace not Thy glorious throne 1
Remember, break not, Thy covenant with us I
" Are there, in sooth, among the Nothings of the nations senders
of rain ?
And is it the heavens that bestow the showers ?
Is it not Thou, lahvah our God ?
And we wait for Thee,
For Thou it was that madest the world." ¦

1 So Dathe, Naegelsbach.
* Lit. " all these things," it., this visible world. There is no Heb.
special term for the " universe " or " world." " The all " or " heaven
and earth," or the phrase in the text, are used in this sense.

«lv,xv.] THE DROUGHT. %\%
To all this the Divine answer is stern and decisive.
And lahvah said unto me: If Moses and Samuel
were to stand (pleading) before Me, My mind would
not be towards this people : send them away from before
Me (dismiss them from My Presence), that they may
go forth 1 After ages remembered Jeremiah as a
mighty intercessor, " and the brave Maccabeus could
see him in his dream as a grey-haired man " exceeding
glorious " and " of a wonderful and excellent majesty,"
who "prayed much for the people and for the holy
city" (2 Mace. xv. 14). And the beauty of the prayers
which lie like scattered pearls of faith and love among
the prophet's soliloquies is evident at a glance. But
here Jeremiah himself is conscious that his prayers are
unavailing ; and that the office to which God has called
him is rather that of pronouncing judgment than of
interceding for mercy. Even a Moses or a Samuel,
the mighty intercessors of the old heroic times, whose
pleadings had been irresistible with God, would now
plead in vain (Ex. xvii. II sqq., xxxii. 11 sqq. ; Num.
xiv. 13 sqq. for Moses; 1 Sam. vii. 9 sqq., xii. 16
sqq. ; Ps. xcix. 6 ; Ecclus. xlvi. 16 sqq. for Samuel).
Tlie day of grace has gone, and the day of doom is
come. His sad function is to " send them away " or
" let thenVgo " from Iahvah's Presence ; to pronounce
the decree of their banishment from the holy land
where His tempjle is, and where they have been wont
to " see His face." The main part of his commission
was " to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy,
and to overthrow" (i. 10). And if they say unto thee,
Whither are we to go forth ? Thou shall say unto them,
thus hath lahvah said: They that belong lo the Death
(i.e. the Plague; as the Black Death was spoken of
in medieval Europe) to death; and they that belong lo

314 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
the Sword, to the sword; and they that belong to the
Famine, to famine; and they that belong to Captivity,
to captivity! The people were to "go forth" out of
their own land, which was, as it were, the Presence-
chamber of lahvah, just as they had at the outset of
their history gone forth out of Egypt, to take possession
of it. The words convey a sentence of exile, though
they do not indicate the place of banishment. The
menace of woe is as general in its terms as that lurid
passage of the Book of the Law upon which it appears
to be founded (Deut. xxviii. 21-26). The time for the
accomplishment of those terrible threatenings " is nigh,
even at the doors." On the other hand, Ezekiel's
"four sore judgments " (Ezek. xiv. 21) were suggested
by this passage of Jeremiah.
The prophet avoids naming the actual destination of
the captive people, because captivity is only one element
in their punishment. The horrors of war — sieges and
slaughters and pestilence and famine — must come first.
In what follows, the intensity of these horrors is realized
in a single touch. The slain are left unburied, a prey
to the birds and beasts. The elaborate care of the
ancients in the provision of honourable restingplaces for
the dead is a measure of the extremity thus indicated.
In accordance with the feeling of his age, the prophet
ranks the dogs and vultures and hyenas that drag and
disfigure and devour the corpses of the slain, as three
" kinds " of evil equally appalling with the sword that
slays. The same feeling led our Spenser to write :
" To spoil the dead of weed
Is sacrilege, and doth all sins exceed."
And the destruction of Moab is decreed by the
earlier prophet Amos, " because he burned the bones of

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGBT. 315
the king of Edom into lime," thus violating a law uni
versally recognised as binding upon the conscience of
nations (Amos ii. 1). Cf. also Gen. xxiii.
Thus death itself was not to be a sufficient expiation
for the inveterate guilt of the nation. Judgment was
to pursue them even after death. But the prophet's
vision does not penetrate beyond this present scene.
With the visible world, so far as he is aware, the
punishment terminates. He gives no hint here, nor
elsewhere, of any further penalties awaiting individual
sinners in the unseen world. The scope of his prophecy
indeed is almost purely national, and limited to the
present life. It is one of the recognised conditions of
Old Testament religious thought.
And the ruin of the people is the retribution reserved
for what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. To the prophet,
as to the author of the book of Kings, who wrote
doubtless under the influence of his words, the guilt
contracted by Judah under that wicked king was
unpardonable. But it would convey a false impression
if we left the matter here ; for the whole course of his
after-preaching — his exhortations and promises, as
well as his threats — prove that Jeremiah did not
suppose that the nation could not be saved by genuine
repentance and permanent amendment. What he
intends rather to affirm is that the sins of the fathers
will be visited upon children, who are partakers of
their sins. It is the doctrine of St. Matt, xxiii. 29 sqq. ;
a doctrine which is not merely a theological opinion,
but a matter of historical observation.
And I will set over them four kinds — It is an oracle
of lahvah — the sword to slay, and the dogs to hale,
and the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, to
devour and to destroy. And I will make them a sport

Jl6 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
for all the realms of earth; on account of Manasseh
ben Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in
' Jerusalem. Jerusalem ! — the mention of that magical name
touches another chord in the prophet's soul; and
the fierce tones of his oracle of doom change into a
dirge-like strain of pity without hope.
" For who will have compassion on Thee, O Jerusalem ?
And who will yield thee comfort ?
And who will turn aside to ask of thy welfare ?
Twas thou that rejectedst Me (it is Iahvah's word) ;
Backward wouldst thou wend :
So I stretched forth My hand against thee and destroyed
thee ;
I wearied of relenting.
And I winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the lano.
I bereaved, I undid My people :
Vet they returned not from their own ways.
His widows outnumbered before Me the sand of seas :
I brought them against the Mother of Warriors a harrier at
high noon ;
I threw upon her suddenly anguish and horrors.
She that had borne seven sons did pine away ;
She breathed out her soul.
Her sun did set, while it yet was day;
He blushed and paled.
But their remnant will I give to the sword
Before their foes : (It is Iahvah's word)."
The fate of Jerusalem would strike the nations dumb
with horror ; it would not inspire pity, for man would
recognise that it was absolutely just. Or perhaps the
thought rather is, In proving false to Me, thou wert
false to thine only friend : Me thou hast estranged
by thy faithlessness ; and from the envious rivals, who
beset thee on every side, thou canst expect nothing but
rejoicing at thy downfall (Ps. exxxvi. ; Lam. ii. 15-17;

xiv,xy.] THE DROUGHT. 317

Obad. 10 sqq). The peculiar solitariness of Israel
among the nations (Num. xxiii. 9) aggravated the
anguish of her overthrow.
In what follows, the dreadful past appears as a
prophecy of the yet more terrible future. The poet-
seer's pathetic monody moralizes the lost battle of
Megiddo — that fatal day when the sun of Judah set in
what seemed the high day of her prosperity, and all
the glory and. the promise of good king Josiah vanished
like a dream in sudden darkness. Men might think —
doubtless Jeremiah thought, in the first moments of
despair, when the news of that overwhelming disaster
was brought to Jerusalem, with the corpse of the good
king, the dead hope of the nation — that this crushing
blow was proof that lahvah had rejected His people,
in the exercise of a sovereign caprice, and without
reference to their own attitude towards Him. But, says
or chants the prophet, in solemn rhythmic utterance,
" 'Twas thou that rejectedst Me ;
Backward wouldst thou wend :
So I stretched forth My hand against thee, and wrought thee
hurt ;
I wearied of relenting."
The cup of national iniquity was full, and its baleful
contents overflowed in a devastating flood. " In the
gates of the land " — the point on the north-west frontier
where the armies met — lahvah " winnowed His people
with a fan," separating those who were doomed to fall
from those who were to survive, as the winnowing fan
separates the chaff from the wheat in the threshing-
floor. There He " bereaved" the nation of their dearest
hope, " the breath of their nostrils, the Lord's Anointed "
(Lam. iv. 20) ; there He multiplied their widows. And
after the lost battle He brought the victor in hot haste

318 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
against the "Mother" of the fallen warriors, the ill-
fated city, Jerusalem, to wreak vengeance upon her for
her ill-timed opposition. But, for all this bitter fruit of
their evil doings, the people "turned not back from their
own ways " ; and therefore the strophe of lamentation
closes with a threat of utter extermination: "Their rem
nant" — the poor survival of these fierce storms — "Their
remnant will I give to the sword before their foes." *
If the thirteenth and fourteenth verses be not a
mere interpolation in this chapter (see xvii. 3, 4),
their proper place would seem to be here, as continuing
and amplifying the sentence upon the residue of the
people. The text is unquestionably corrupt, and must
be amended by help of the other passage, where it is
partially repeated. The twelfth verse may be read thus :
" Thy wealth and thy treasures will I make a prey,
For the sin of thine high places in all thy borders."'
Then the fourteenth verse follows, naturally enough,
with an announcement of the Exile :
"And I will enthral thee to thy foea
In a land thou knowest not :
¦ For a fire is kindled in Mine anger,
That shall burn for evermore 1 " *
1 The reference to an eclipse of the sun in the words
" Her sun went down, while it yet was day ;
He blushed and paled."
appears fairly certain. Such an event is said to have occurred in that
part of the world, Sept. 30, B.C. 610.
1 13. Read -pnCQ "Thine high places" for TnD2 $b "without
price " ; and transpose riKDrD (xvii. 3).
• 14- Read "piP^m "and I will make thee serve" (xvii. 4) for
VTUrni "and I will make to pass through. . ."
The third member is a quotation from Deut. xxxii. 22. In the
fourth, read D711T7I? "for ever" (xvii. 4) instead of DD'?I/ "upen
you,"

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 319
The prophet has now fulfilled his function of judge
by pronouncing upon his people the extreme penalty
of the law. His strong perception of the national
guilt and of the righteousness of God has left him no
choice in the matter. But how little this duty of
condemnation accorded with his own individual feeling
as a man and a citizen is clear from the passionate
outbreak of the succeeding strophe.
"Woe's me, my mother," he exclaims, "that thou barest me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to all the country I
Neither lender nor borrower have I been ;
Yet all of them do curse me."
A desperately bitter tone, evincing the anguish
of a man wounded to the heart by the sense of fruit
less endeavour and unjust hatred. He had done his
utmost to save his country, and his reward was universal
detestation. His innocence and integrity were requited
with the odium of the pitiless creditor who enslaves
his helpless victim, and appropriates his all; or the
fraudulent borrower who repays a too ready confidence
with ruin.1
The next two verses answer this burst of grief and
despair :
" Said lahvah, Thine oppression shall be for good ;
I will make the foe thy suppliant in time of evil and in
time of distress.
Can one break iron,
Iron from the north, and brass ?
In other words, faith counsels patience, and assures
the prophet that all things work together for good
1 The tone of all this indicates that the prophet was no novice
in his office. It does not suit the time of Josiah ; but agrees very
well with the time of confusion and popular dismay which followed

320 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
to them that love God. The wrongs and bitter treat
ment which he now endures will only enchance his
triumph, when the truth of his testimony is at last
confirmed by events, and they who now scoff at his
message, come humbly to beseech his prayers. The
closing lines refer, with grave irony, to that unflinch
ing firmness, that inflexible resolution, which, as a
messenger of God, he was called upon to maintain.
He is reminded of what he had undertaken at the
outset of his career, and of the Divine Word which
made him " a pillar of iron and walls of brass against
all the land" (i. 1 8). Is it possible that the pillar
of iron can be broken, and the walls of brass beaten
down by the present assault ?
There is a pause, and then the prophet vehemently _
pleads his own cause with lahvah. Smarting with
the sense of personal wrong, he urges that his suffer
ing is for the Lord's own sake; that consciousness
IH^the Divine calling has dominated his entire life,
ever since his dedication to the prophetic office; and
that the honour of lahvah requires his vindication
upon his heartless and hardened adversaries.
" Thou knowest, lahvah !
Remember me, and visit me, and avenge me on my per.
secutors.
Take me not away in thy longsuffering ;
Regard my bearing of reproach for Thee.
" Thy words were found, and I did eat them,
And it became to me a joy and mine heart's gladness ;
For I was called by Thy Name, O lahvah, God of
Sabaoth I
his death. That event must have brought great discredit upon
Jeremiah and upon all who had been instrumental in the religious
changes of his reign.

xiv, xv.] THB DROUGHT. 3*1
" I sate not in the gathering of the mirthful, nor rejoiced ;
Because of Thine hand 1 sate solitary,
For with indignation Thou didst fill me.
" Why hath my pain become perpetual,
And my stroke malignant, incurable?
Wilt Thou indeed become to me like a delusive stream
Like waters which are not lasting ? "
The pregnant expression, " Thou knowest, lahvah ! "
does not refer specially to anything that has been
already said ; but rather lays the whole case before
God in a single word. The Thou is emphatic ; Thou,
Who knowest all things, knowest my heinous wrongs :
Thou knowest and seest it all, though the whole world
beside be blind with passion and self-regard and sin
(Ps. x. 11-14). Thou knowest how pressing is my
need; therefore Take me not away in Thy longsuffer-
ing : sacrifice not the life of Thy servant to the claims
of forbearance with his enemies and Thine. The
petition shews how great was the peril in which
the prophet perceived himself to stand : he believes
that if God delay to strike down his adversaries, that
longsuffering will be fatal to his own life.
The strength of his case is that he is persecuted,
because he is faithful ; he bears reproach for God.
He has not abused his high calling for the sake of
worldly advantage; he has not prostituted the name
of prophet to the vile ends of pleasing the people,
and satisfying personal covetousness. He has not
feigned smooth prophecies, misleading his hearers with
flattering falsehood ; but he has considered the
privilege of being called a prophet of lahvah as in
itself an all-sufficient reward ; and when the Divine
Word came to him, he has eagerly received, and fed
his inmost soul upon that spiritual aliment, which was
21

322 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
at once his sustenance and his deepest joy. Other
joys, for the Lord's sake, he has abjured. He has
withdrawn himself even from harmless mirth, that in
silence and solitude he might listen intently to the
inward Voice, and reflect with indignant sorrow upon
the revelation of his people's corruption. Because
of Thine Hand — under Thy influence; conscious of
the impulse and operation of Thy informing Spirit ; —
/ sate solitary ; for with indignation Thou didst fill me.
The man whose eye has caught a glimpse of eternal
Truth, is apt to be dissatisfied with the shows of things;
and the lighthearted merriment of the world rings
hollow upon the ear that listens for the Voice of God.
And the revelation of sin — the discovery of all
that ghastly evil which lurks beneath the surface
of smooth society — the appalling vision of the grim
skeleton hiding its noisome decay behind the mask
of smiles and gaiety ; the perception of the hideous
incongruity of revelling over a grave ; has driven
others, besides Jeremiah, to retire into themselves, and
to avoid a world from whose evil they revolted, and
whose foreseen destruction they deplored.
The whole passage is an assertion of the prophet's
integrity and consistency, with which, it is suggested,
that the failure which has attended his efforts, and the
serious peril in which he stands, are morally inconsistent,
and paradoxical in view of the Divine disposal of events.
Here, in fact, as elsewhere, Jeremiah has freely opened
his heart, and allowed us to see the .whole process of
his spiritual conflict in the agony of his moments of
doubt and despair. It is an argument of his own
perfect sincerity ; and, at the same time, it enables us
to assimilate the lesson of his experience, and to profit
by the heavenly guidance he received, far more effec-

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 323
tually, than if he had left us ignorant of the painful
struggles at the cost of which that guidance was won.
The seeming injustice or indifference of Providence
is a problem which recurs to thoughtful minds in all
generations of men.
" O, goddes cruel, that govenie
This world with byndyng of youre word eterne • • •
What governance is in youre prescience
That gilteles tormenteth innocence ? . . . .
Alas 1 I see a serpent or a theif,
That many a trew6 man hath doon mescheit,
Gon at his large, and wher him luste may tume ;
But I moste be in prisoun."
That such apparent anomalies are but a passing trial,
from which persistent faith will emerge victorious in
the present life, is the general answer of the Old Testa
ment to the doubts which they suggest. The only
sufficient explanation was reserved, to be revealed by
Him, who, in the fulness of time, " brought life and
immortality to light."
The thought which restored the failing confidence
and courage of Jeremiah was the reflexion that such
complaints were unworthy of one called to be a spokes
man for the Highest; that the supposition of the
possibility of the Fountain of Living Waters failing
like a winter torrent, that runs dry in the summer
heats, was an act of unfaithfulness that merited reproof;
and that the true God could not fail to protect His
messenger, and to secure the triumph of truth in the
end. " To this lahvah said thus:
If thou come again,
I will make thee again to stand before Me ;
And if thou utter that is precious rather than that is vile,
As My mouth shall thou become :

324 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
They shall return unto thee,
But Thou shalt not return unto them.
"And I will make, thee to this people an embattled wall ol
brass ;
And they shall fight against thee, but not overcome thee,
For I will be with thee to help thee and to save thee ;
It is Iahvah's word.
And I will save thee out of the grasp of the wicked,
And will ransom thee out of the hand of the terrible."
In the former strophe, the inspired poet set forth the
claims of the psychic man, and poured out his heart
before God. Now he recognises a Word of God in the
protest of his better feeling. He sees that where he
remains true to himself, he will also stand near to his
God. Hence springs the hope, which he cannot
renounce, that God will protect His accepted servant
in the execution of the Divine commands. Thus the
discords are resolved ; and the prophet's spirit attains
to peace, after struggling through the storm.
It was an outcome of earnest prayer, of an unreserved
exposure of his inmost heart before God. What a
marvel it is — that instinct of prayer ! To think that a
being whose visible life has its beginning and its end,
a being who manifestly shares possession of this earth
with the brute creation, and breathes the same air, and
partakes of the same elements with them for the sus
tenance of his body ; who is organized upon the same
general plan as they, has the same principal members
discharging the same essential functions in the economy
of his bodily system ; a being who is born and eats
and drinks and sleeps and dies like all other animals;
— that this being and this being only of all the multi
tudinous kinds of animated creatures, should have and
exercise a faculty of looking off and above the visible

«iv.,xv.] THE DROUGHT 325
which appears to be the sole realm of actual existence,
and of holding communion with the Unseen I That,
following what seems to be an original impulse of his
nature, he should stand in greater awe of this Invisible
than of any power that is palpable to sense ; should
seek to win its favour, crave its help in times of pain
and conflict and peril ; should professedly live, not
according to the bent of common nature and the appe
tites inseparable from his bodily structure, but according
to the will and guidance of that Unseen Power ! Surely
there is here a consummate marvel. And the wonder
of it does not diminish, when it is remembered that this
instinct of turning to an unseen Guide and Arbiter of
events, is not peculiar to any particular section of the
human race. Wide and manifold as are the differences
which characterize and divide the families of man, all
races possess in common the apprehension of the
Unseen and the instinct of prayer. The oldest records
of humanity bear witness to its primitive activity, and
Whatever is known of human history combines with
what is known of the character and workings of the
human mind to teach us that as prayer has never been
unknown, so it is never likely to become obsolete.
May we not recognise in this great fact of human
nature a sure index of a great corresponding truth ?
Can we avoid taking it as a clear token of the reality
of revelation ; as a kind of immediate and spontaneous
evidence on the part of nature that there is and always
has been in this lower world some positive knowledge
of that which far transcends it, some real apprehension
of the mystery that enfolds the universe? a know
ledge and an apprehension which, however imperfect
and fragmentary, however fitful and fluctuating, how
ever blurred in outline and lost in infinite shadow, is

326 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
yet incomparably more and better than none at alL
Are we not, in short, morally driven upon the convic
tion that this powerful instinct of our nature is neither
blind nor aimless ; that its Object is a true, substantive
Being; and that this Being has discovered, and yet
discovers, some precious glimpses of Himseli and His
essential character to the spirit of mortal man ? It
must be so, unless we admit that the soul's dearest
desires are a mocking illusion, that her aspirations
towards a truth and a goodness of superhuman per
fection are moonshine and madness. It cannot be
nothingness that avails to evoke the deepest and purest
emotions of our nature ; not mere vacuity and chaos,
wearing the semblance of an azure heaven. It is not
into a measureless waste of outer darkness that we
reach forth trembling hands.
Surely the spirit of denial is the spirit that fell from
heaven, and the best and highest of man's thoughts
aim at and affirm something positive, something that
is, and the soul thirsts after God, the Living God.
We hear much in these days of our physical nature.
The microscopic investigations of science leave nothing
unexamined, nothing unexplored, so far as the visible
organism is concerned. Rays from many distinct
sources converge to throw an ever -in creasing light
upon the mysteries of our bodily constitution. In all
this, science presents to the devout mind a valuable
subsidiary revelation of the power and goodness of the
Creator. But science cannot advance alone one step
beyond the things of time and sense ; her facts belong
exclusively to the material order of existence; her
cognition is limited to the various modes and conditions
of force that constitute the realm of sight and touch ;
she cannot climb above these to a higher plane of

xiv., xv.] TBE drougbt. 32?
being. And small blame it is to science, that she thus
lacks the power of overstepping her natural boundaries.
The evil begins when the men of science venture, in
her much-abused name, to ignore and deny reali'-ies
not amenable to scientific tests, and immeasurably
transcending all merely physical standards and methods.
Neither the natural history nor the physiology of
man, nor both together, are competent to give a com
plete account of his marvellous and many-sided being.
Yet some thinkers appear to imagine that when a place
has been assigned him in the animal kingdom, and his
close relationship to forms below him in the scale of
life has been demonstrated ; when every tissue and
structure has been analysed, and every organ described
and its function ascertained ; then the last word has
been spoken, and the subject exhausted. Those unique
and distinguishing faculties by which all this amazing
work of observation, comparison, reasoning, has been
accomplished, appear either to be left out of the account
altogether, or to be handled with a meagre inadequacy
of treatment that contrasts in the strongest manner
with the fulness and the elaboration which mark the
other discussion. And the more this physical aspect of
our composite nature is emphasized ; the more urgently
it is insisted that, somehow or other, all that is in man
and all that comes of man may be explained on the
assumption that he is the natural climax of the animal
creation, a kind of educated and glorified brute — that
and nothing more ; — the harder it becomes to give any
rational account of those facts of his nature which are
commonly recognised as spiritual, and among them of
this instinct of prayer and its Object.
Under these discouraging circumstances, men are
fatally prone to seek escape from their self-involved

328 THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAS.
dilemma, by a hardy denial of what their methods
have failed to discover and their favourite theories to
explain. The soul and God are treated as mere meta
physical expressions, or as popular designations of the
unknown causes of phenomena ; and prayer is declared
to be an act of foolish superstition which persons of
culture have long since outgrown. Sad and strange
this result is ; but it is also the natural outcome of an
initial error, which is none the less real because unper-
ceived. Men "seek the living among the dead"; they
expect to find the soul by post mortem examination, or
to see God by help of an improved telescope. They
fail and are disappointed, though they have little right
*o be so, for " spiritual things are discerned spiritually,"
and not otherwise.
In speculating on the reasons of this lamentable issue,
we must not forget that there is such a thing as an
unpurified intellect as well as a corrupt and unregenerate
heart. Sin is not restricted to the affections of the
lower nature ; it has also invaded the realm of thought
and reason. The very pursuit of knowledge, noble
and elevating as it is commonly esteemed, is not with
out its dangers of self-delusion and sin. Wherever
the love of self is paramount, wherever the object really
sought is the delight, the satisfaction, the indulgence of
self, no matter in which of the many departments of
human life and action, there is sin. It is certain that
the intellectual consciousness has its own peculiar
pleasures, and those of the keenest and most trans
porting character ; certain that the incessant pursuit of
such pleasures may come to absorb the entire energies
of a man, so that no room is left for the culture of
humility or love or worship. Everything is sacrificed
to what is called the pursuit of truth, but is in sober

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 329
fact a passionate prosecution of private pleasure. It is
not truth that is so highly valued ; it is the keen excite
ment of the race, and not seldom the plaudits of the
spectators when the goal is won. Such a career may
be as thoroughly selfish and sinful and alienated from
God as a career of common wickedness. And thus
employed or enthralled, no intellectual gifts, however
splendid, can bring a man to the discernment of
spiritual truth. Not self-pleasing and foolish vanity
and arrogant self-assertion, but a self-renouncing
humility, an inward purity from idols 01 every kind, a
reverence of truth as divine, are indispensable con
ditions of the perception of things spiritual.
The representation which is often given is a mere
travesty. Believers in God do not want to alter His
laws by their prayers — neither His laws physical, nor
His laws moral and spiritual. It is their chief desire
to be brought into submission or perfect obedience to
the sum of His laws. They ask their Father in heaven
to lead and teach them, to supply their wants in His
own way, because He is their Father ; because " It is
He that made us, and His we are." Surely, a reason
able request, and grounded in reason.
To a plain man, seeking for arguments to justify
prayer may well seem like seeking a justification of
breathing, or eating and drinking and sleeping, or any
other natural function. Our Lord never does anything
of the kind, because His teaching takes for granted the
ultimate prevalence of common sense, in spite of all the
subtleties and airspun perplexities, in which a specula
tive mind delights to lose itself. So long as man has
other wants than those which he can himself supply,
prayer will be their natural expression.
If there be a spiritual as distinct from a material world,

33» TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
the difficulty to the ordinary mind is not to conceive
of their contact but of their absolute isolation from each
other. This is surely the inevitable result of our own
individual experience, of the intimate though not indis
soluble union of body and spirit in every living person.
How, it may be asked, can we really think of his
Maker being cut off from man, or man from his Maker?
God were not God, if He left man to himself. But not
only are His wisdom, justice and love manifested forth
in the beneficent arrangements of the world in which
we find ourselves ; not only is He " kind to the unjust
and the unthankful." In pain and loss He quickens
our sense of Himself (cf. xiv. 19-22). Even in the
first moments of angry surprise and revolt, that sense
is quickened ; we rebel, not against an inanimate world
or an impersonal law, but against a Living and Personal
Being, whom we acknowledge as the Arbiter of our
destinies, and whose wisdom and love and power we
affect for the time to question, but cannot really
gainsay. The whole of our experience tends to this
end — to the continual rousing of our spiritual con
sciousness. There is no interference, no isolated and
capricious interposition or interruption of order within
or without us. Within and without us, His Will is
always energizing, always manifesting forth His Being,
encouraging our confidence, demanding our obedience
and homage.
Thus prayer has its Divine as well as its human side •
it is the Holy Spirit drawing the soul, as well as the
soul drawing nigh unto God. The case is like the
action and reaction of the magnet and the steel. And
so prayer is not a foolish act of unauthorised pre
sumption, not a rash effort to approach unapproachable
and absolutely isolated Majesty. Whenever man truly

xiv. xv.] THE DROUGBT, 331

prays, his Divine King has already extended the sceptre
of His mercy, and bidden him speak.
xvi. -xvii. After the renewal of the promise there
is a natural pause, marked by the formula with which
the present section opens. When the prophet had
recovered his firmness, through the inspired and
inspiring reflexions which took possession of his soul
after he had laid bare his inmost heart before God
(xv. 20, 21), he was in a position to receive further
guidance from above. What now lies before us is the
direction, which came to him as certainly Divine, for
the regulation of his own future behaviour as the chosen
minister of lahvah at this crisis in the history of his
people. " And there fell a word of lahvah unto me,
saying : Thou shalt not take thee a wife ; that thou get
not sons and daughters in this place." Such a pro
hibition reveals, with the utmost possible clearness and
emphasis, the gravity of the existing situation. It
implies that the "peace and permanence," so glibly
predicted by Jeremiah's opponents, will never more be
known by that sinful generation. " This place," the
holy place which lahvah had " chosen, to establish His
name there," as the Book of the Law so often describes
it ; " this place," which had been inviolable to the fierce
hosts of the Assyrian in the time of Isaiah (Isa. xxxvii.
33), was now no more a sure refuge, but doomed to
utter and speedy destruction. To beget sons and
daughters there was to prepare more victims for the
tooth of famine, and the pangs of pestilence, and the
devouring sword of a merciless conqueror. It was to
fatten the soil with unburied carcases, and to spread a
hideous banquet for birds and beasts of prey. Children
and parents were doomed to perish together; and
Iahvah's witness was to keep himself unencumbered by

33* THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
the sweet cares of husband and father, that he might be
wholly free for his solemn duties of menace and warn
ing, and be ready for every emergency.
" For thus hath lahvah said :
Concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are
born in this place,
And concerning their mothers that bear them,
And concerning their fathers that beget them, in this land :
By deaths of agony shall they die ;
They shall not be mourned nor buried ;
For dung on the face of the ground shall they serve;
And by the sword and by the famine shall they be fordone :
And their carcase shall serve for food
To the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the earth"
(xvi. 3-4).
The " deaths of agony " seem to indicate the pes
tilence, which always ensued upon the scarcity and vile
quality of food, and the confinement of multitudes
within the narrow bounds of a besieged city (see
Josephus' well-known account of the last siege of
Jerusalem). The attitude of solitary watchfulness and strict
separation, which the prophet thus perceived to be
required by circumstances, was calculated to be a
warning of the utmost significance, among a people
who attached the highest importance to marriage, and
the permanence of the family.
It proclaimed more loudly than words could do, the
prophet's absolute conviction that offspring was no
pledge of permanence ; that universal death was hanging
over a condemned nation. But not only this. It marks
a point of progress in the prophet's spiritual life. The
crisis, through which we have seen him pass, has purged
his mental vision. He no longer repines at his dark
lot ; no longer half envies the false prophets, who may

xiv, xv.] THE DROUGHT. 333
win the popular love by pleasing oracles of peace and
well-being ; no longer complains of the Divine Will,
which has laid such a burden upon him. He sees now
that his part is to refuse even natural and innocent
pleasures for the Lord'? sake ; to foresee calamity and
ruin ; to denounce unceasingly the sin he sees around
him ; to sacrifice a tender and affectionate heart to a
life of rigid asceticism ; and he manfully accepts his
part. He knows that he stands alone — the last fortress
of truth in a world of falsehood; and that. for truth
it becomes a man to surrender his all.
That which follows tends to complete the prophet's
social isolation. He is to give no sign of sympathy in
the common joys and sorrows of his kind.
" For thus hat1: lahvah said :
Enter thou not into the house of mourning,
Nor go to lament, nor comfort thou them :
For I have taken away My friendship from this people (Tis
Iahvah's utterance ! )
The lovingkindness and the compassion ;
And old and young shall die in this land,
They shall not be buried, and men shall not wail for them ;
Nor shall a man cut himself, nor make himself bald, for them :
Neither shall men deal out bread to them in mourning,
To comfort a man over the dead ;
Nor shall they give them to drink the cup of consolation,
Over a man's father and over his mother.
" And the house ot feasting thou shalt not enter,
To sit with them to eat and to drink.
For thus hath lahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, said:
Lo, I am about to make to cease from this place,
Before your own eyes and in your own days,
Voice of mirth and voice of gladness,
The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride."
Acting as prophet, that is, as one whose public
actions were symbolical of a Divine intent, Jeremiah it

334 THE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
henceforth to stand aloof, on occasions when natural
feeling would suggest participation in the outward life
of his friends and acquaintance. He is to quell the
inward stirrings of affection and sympathy, and to abstain
from playing his part in those demonstrative lamen
tations over the dead, which the immemorial custom
and sentiment of his country regarded as obligatory ;
and this, in order to signify unmistakably that what
thus appeared to be the state of his own feelings, was
really the aspect under which God would shortly appear
to a nation perishing in its guilt. " Enter not into the
house of mourning . . . for I have taken away My
friendship from this people, the lovingkindness and the
compassion." An estranged and alienated God would
view the coming catastrophe with the cold indifference
of exact justice. And the consequence of the Divine
aversion would be a calamity so overwhelming, that
the dead would be left without those rites of burial,
which the feeling and conscience of all races of man
kind have always been careful to perform. There
should be no burial, much less ceremonial lamentation,
and those more serious modes of evincing grief by
disfigurement of the person,1 which, like tearing the
hair and rending the garments, are natural tokens of
the first distraction of bereavement. Not for wife or
child (no : see Gen. xxiii. 3), nor for father or mother
should the funeral feast be held ; for men's hearts would
grow hard at the daily spectacle of death, and at last
there would be no survivors.
In like manner, the prophet is forbidden to enter as
1 Practices forbidden, Lev. xxi. 5 ; Deut. xiv. I. Jeremiah mentions
them as ordinary signs of mourning, and doubtless they were general
in his- time. An ancient usage, having its root in natural feeling, is
not easily extirpated.

xiv., xv.] TBE DROUGHT. 335
guest " the house of feasting." He is not to be seen at
the marriage-feast, — that occasion of highest rejoicing,
the very type and example of innocent and holy mirth ;
to testify by his abstention that the day of judgment
was swiftly approaching, which would desolate all
homes, and silence for evermore all sounds of joy and
gladness in the ruined city. And it is expressly added
that the blow will fall " before your own eyes and in
your own days ; " shewing that the hour of doom was
very near, and would no more be delayed.
In all this, it is noticeable that the Divine answer
appears to bear special reference to the peculiar terms
of the prophet's complaint. In despairing tones he had
cried (xv. io), " Woe's me, my mother, that thou didst
bear me 1 " and now he is himself warned not to take
a wife, and seek the blessing of children. The outward
connexion here may be : " Let it not be that thy
children speak of thee, as thou hast spoken of thy
mother I " x But the inner link of thought may rather
be this, that the prophet's temporary unfaithfulness
evinced in his outcry against God and his lament that
ever he was born is punished by the denial to him
of the joys of fatherhood — a penalty which would be
severe to a loving, yearning nature like his, but which
was doubtless necessary to the purification of his spirit
from all worldly taint, and to the discipline of his
natural impatience and tendency to repine under the
hand of God. His punishment, like that of Moses,
may appear disproportionate to his offence ; but God's
dealings with man are not regulated by any mechanical
calculation of less and more, but by His perfect know
ledge of the needs of the case ; and it is often in truest
mercy that His hand strikes hard. " As gold in the
1 Naegelsbach.

336 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
furnace doth He try them " ; and the purest metal
comes out of the hottest fire.
Further, it is not the least prominent but the leading
part of a man's nature that most requires this heavenly
discipline, if the best is to be made of it that can be
made. The strongest element, that which is most
characteristic of the person, that which constitutes his
individuality, is the chosen field of Divine influence
and operation ; for here lies the greatest need. In
Jeremiah this master element was an almost feminine
tenderness ; a warmly affectionate disposition, craving
the love and sympathy of his fellows, and recoiling
almost in agony from the spectacle of pain and suffer
ing. And therefore it was that the Divine discipline
was specially applied to this element in the prophet's
personality. In him, as in all other men, the good
was mingled with evil, which, if not purged away,
might spread until it spoiled his whole nature. It is
not virtue to indulge our own bent, merely because
it pleases us to do so ; nor is the exercise of affection
any great matter to an affectionate nature. The involved
strain of selfishness must be separated, if any naturally
good gift is to be elevated to moral worth, to become
acceptable in the sight of God. And so it was pre
cisely here, in his most susceptible point, that the
sword of trial pierced the prophet through. He was
saved from all hazard of becoming satisfied with the
love of wife and children, and forgetting in that earthly
satisfaction the love of his God. He was saved from
absorption in the pleasures of friendly intercourse with
neighbours, from passing his days in an agreeable
round of social amenities ; at a time when ruin was
impending over his country, and well nigh ready to fall.
And the means which God chose for the accomplish-

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 337
ment of this result were precisely those of which the
prophet had complained (xv. 17) ; his social isolation,
which though in part a matter of choice, was partly
forced upon him by the irritation and ill-will of his
acquaintance. It is now declared that this trial is to
continue. The Lord does not necessarily remove a
trouble, when entreated to do it. He manifests His
love by giving strength to bear it, until the work of
chastening be perfected.
An interruption is now supposed, such as may often
have occurred in the course of Jeremiah's public utter
ances. The audience demands to know why all this
evil is ordained to fall upon them. What is our guilt
and what our trespass, that we have trespassed against
lahvah our God ? The answer is a twofold accusation.
Their fathers were faithless to lahvah, and they have
outdone their fathers' sin ; and the penalty will be
expulsion and a foreign servitude.
" Because your fathers forsook Me (It is Iahvah's word I)
And went after other gods, and served them, and bowed
down to them,
And Me they forsook, and My teaching they observed not :
And ye yourselves (or, as for you) have done worse than
your fathers ;
And lo, ye walk each after the stubbornness of his evil heart,
So as not to hearken unto Me.
Therefore will I hurl you from off this land,
On to the land that ye and your fathers knew not ;
And ye may serve there other gods, day and night,
Since I will not gTant you grace."
The damning sin laid to Israel's charge is idolatry,
with all the moral consequences involved in that prime
transgression. That is to say, the offence consisted
not barely in recognising and honouring the gods of
the nations along with their own God, though that
22

338 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
were fault enough, as an act of treason against the
sole majesty of Heaven ; but it was aggravated enor
mously by the moral declension and depravity, which
accompanied this apostasy. They and their fathers
forsook lahvah " and kept not His teaching; " a reference
to the Book of the Law, considered not only as a collec
tion of ritual and ceremonial precepts for the regulation
of external religion, but as a guide of life and conduct.
And there had been a progress in evil ; the nation had
gone from bad to worse with fearful rapidity : so that
now it could be said of the existing generation that
it paid no heed at all to the monitions which lahvah
uttered by the mouth of His prophet, but walked simply
in stubborn self-will and the indulgence of every corrupt
inclination. And here too, as in so many other cases,
the sin is to be its own punishment. The Book of
the Law had declared that revolt from lahvah should
be punished by enforced service of strange gods in
a strange land (Deut. iv. 28, xxviii. 36, 64); and
Jeremiah repeats this threat, with the addition of a
tone of ironical concession : there, in your bitter banish
ment, you may have your wish to the full ; you may
serve the foreign gods, and that without intermission
(implying that the service would be a slavery).
The whole theory of Divine punishment is implicit
in these few words of the prophet. They who sin
persistently against light and knowledge are at last
given over to their own hearts' lust, to do as they
please, without the gracious check of God's inward
voice. And then there comes a strong delusion, so
that they believe a lie, and take evil for good and good
for evil, and hold themselves innocent before God,
when their guilt has reached its climax ; so that, like
Jeremiah's hearers, if their evil be denounced, they can

THE DROUGHT. 339

ask in astonishment : " What is our iniquity ? or what
is our trespass ? "
They are so ripe in sin that they retain no knowledge
of it as sin, but hold it virtue.
" And they, so perfect is their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
But boast themselves more comely than before."
And not only do we find in this passage a striking
instance of judicial blindness as the penalty of sin.
We may see also in the penalty predicted for the Jews
a plain analogy to the doctrine that the permanence of
the sinful state in a life to come is the penalty of sin
in the present life. "He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy
still ! " and know himself to be what he is.
The prophet's dark horizon is here apparently lit up
for a moment by a gleam of hope. The fourteenth and
fifteenth verses, however, with their beautiful promise
of restoration, really belong to another oracle, whose
prevailing tones are quite different from the present
gloomy forecast of retribution (xxiii. 7 sqq.). Here
they interrupt the sense, and make a cleavage in the
connexion of thought, which can only be bridged over
artificially, by the suggestion that the import of the two
verses is primarily not consolatory but minatory ; that
is to say, that they threaten Exile rather than promise
Return ; a mode of understanding the two verses which
does manifest violence to the whole form of expression,
and, above all, to their obvious force in the original
passage from which they have been transferred hither.
Probably some transcriber of the text wrote them in
the margin of his copy, by way of palliating the other
wise unbroken gloom of this oracle of coming woe.
Then, at some later time, another copyist, supposing

340 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
the marginal note indicated an omission, incorporated
the two verses in his transcription of the text, where
they have remained ever since. (See on xxiii. 7, 8.)
After plainly announcing in the language of Deuter
onomy the expulsion of Judah from the land which
they had desecrated by idolatry, the prophet develops
the idea in his own poetic fashion ; representing the
punishment as universal, and insisting that it is a
punishment, and not an unmerited misfortune.
" Lo, I am about to send many fishers (It is Iahvah's word 1)
And they shall fish them ;
And afterwards will I send many hunters,
And they shall hunt them,
From off every mountain,
And from off every hill,
And out of the clefts of the rocks.''
Like silly fish, crowding helplessly one over another
into the net,1 when the fated moment arrives, Judah
will fall an easy prey to the destroyer. And " after
wards," to ensure completeness, those who have sur
vived this first disaster will be hunted like wild beasts,
out of all the dens and caves in the mountains, the
Adullams and Engedis, where they have found a refuge
from the invader.
There is clearly reference to two distinct visitations
of wrath, the latter more deadly than the former ; else
why the use of the emphatic note of time "after
wards " ? If we understand by the " fishing " of the
country the so-called first captivity, the carrying away
of the boy-king Jehoiachin and his mother and his
nobles and ten thousand principal citizens, by Nebu-
1 The figure recalls the Persian custom of sweeping off the whole
population of an island, by forming a line and marching over it, a
process of extermination called by the Greek writers oayqvtvuv,
" fishing with a seine or drag-net " (Herod, iii. 149, iv. 9, vi. 31),

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 341
chadrezzar to Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. IO sqq.); and
by the " hunting " the final catastrophe in the time of
Zedekiah ; we get, as we shall see, a probable explana
tion of a difficult expression in the eighteenth verse,
which cannot otherwise be satisfactorily accounted for.
The next words (ver. 17) refute an assumption,
implied in the popular demand to know wherein the
guilt of the nation consists, that lahvah is not really
cognisant of their acts of apostasy.
" For Mine eyes are upon all their ways,
They are not hidden away from before My face ;
Nor is their guilt kept secret from before Mine eyes."
The verse is thus an indirect reply to the questions
of verse 10; questions which in some mouths might
indicate that unconsciousness of guilt, which is the
token of sin finished and perfected; in others, the
presence of that unbelief which doubts whether God
can, or at least whether He does regard human conduct.
But " He that planted the ear, can He not hear ? He
that formed the eye, can He not see ? " (Ps. xciv. 9).
It is really an utterly irrational thought, that sight, and
hearing, and the higher faculties of reflexion and con
sciousness, had their origin in a blind and deaf, a
senseless and unconscious source such as inorganic
matter, whether we consider it in the atom or in the
enormous mass of an embryo system of stars.
The measure of the penalty is now assigned.
" And I will repay first the double of their guilt and their
trespass
For that they profaned My land with the carcases of their
loathly offerings,
And their abominations filled Mine heritage." l
1 For the construction, cf. Gen. i. 22; Jer. li. 11. Or "With their
•bomjnations they filled, etc," a double accusative,

342 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
" I will repay first." The term " first," which has
occasioned much perplexity to expositors, means " the
first time " (Gen. xxxviii. 28 ; Dan. xi. 29), and refers
it I am not mistaken, to the first great blow, the
captivity of Jehoiachin, of which I spoke just now ; an
occasion which is designated again (ver. 21), by the
expression " this once " or rather " at this time." And
when it is said " I will repay the double of their guilt
and of their trespass," we are to understand that the
Divine justice is not satisfied with half measures ; the
punishment of sin is proportioned to the offence, and
the cup of self-entailed misery has to be drained to
the dregs. Even penitence does not abolish the
physical and temporal consequences of sin ; in our
selves and in others whom we have influenced they
continue — a terrible and ineffaceable record of the past.
The ancient law required that the man who had
wronged his neighbour by theft or fraud should restore
double (Ex. xxii. 4, 7, 9) ; and thus this expression
would appear to denote that the impending chastise
ment would be in strict accordance with the recognised
rule of law and justice, and that Judah must repay
to the Lord in suffering the legal equivalent for her
offence. In a like strain, towards the end of the Exile,
the great prophet of the captivity comforts Jerusalem
with the announcement that "her hard service is
accomplished, her punishment is held sufficient ; for
she hath received of Iahvah's hand twofold for all her
trespasses" (Isa. xl. 2). The Divine severity is, in
fact, truest mercy. Only thus does mankind learn to
realize "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," only as
Judah learned the heinousness of desecrating the Holy
Land with "loathly offerings" to the vile Nature-
gods, and With the symbols in wood and stone of the

xiv, xv.] TBE DROUGHT. 343
cruel and obscene deities of Canaan ; viz. by the
fearful issue of transgression, the lesson of a calamitous
experience, confirming the forecasts of its inspired
prophets. " lahvah my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the
day of distress 1
Unto Thee the very heathen will come from the ends of the
earth, and will say :
' Mere fraud did our fathers receive as their own,
Mere breath, and beings among whom is no helper.
Should man make him gods,
When such things are not gods ? '
" Therefore, behold I am about to let them know —
At this time will I let them know My hand and My might,
And they shall know that My name is lahvah 1 "
In the opening words Jeremiah passionately recoils
from the very mention of the hateful idols, the loathly
creations, the lifeless "carcases," which his people
have put in the place of the Living God. An over
mastering access of faith lifts him off the low ground
where these dead things lie in their helplessness, and
bears him in spirit to lahvah, the really and eternally
existing, Who is his " strength and stronghold and refuge
in the day of distress." From this height he takes an
eagle glance into the dim future, and discerns — O marvel
of victorious faith ! — that the very heathen, who have
never so much as known the Name of lahvah, must
one day be brought to acknowledge the impotence of
their hereditary gods, and the sole deity of the Mighty
One of Jacob. He enjoys a glimpse of Isaiah's and
Micah's glorious vision of the latter days, when " the
mountain of the Lord's House shall be exalted as chief
of mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it."
In the light of this revelation, the sin and folly of

344 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
 \ ¦
Israel in dishonouring the One only God, by asso
ciating Him with idols and their symbols, becomes
glaringly visible. The very heathen (the term is
emphatic by position), will at last grope their way out
of the night of traditional ignorance, and will own the
absurdity of manufactured gods. Israel, on the other
hand, has for centuries sinned against knowledge and
reason. They had "Moses and the prophets"; yet
they hated warning and despised reproof. They
resisted the Divine teachings, because they loved to
walk in their own ways, after the imaginings of their
own evil hearts. And so they soon fell into that
strange blindness, which suffered them to see no sin
in giving companions to lahvah, and neglecting His
severer worship for the sensuous rites of Canaan.
A rude awakening awaits them. Once more will
lahvah interpose to save them from their infatuation.
" This time " they shall be taught to know the nothing
ness of idols, not by the voice of prophetic pleadings,
not by the fervid teachings of the Book of the Law,
but by the sword of the enemy, by the rapine and ruin,
in which the resistless might of lahvah will be mani
fested against His rebellious people. Then, when the
warnings which they have ridiculed find fearful accom
plishment, then will they know that the name of the
One God is iahvah — He Who alone was and is and
shall be for evermore. In the shock of overthrow, in
the sorrows of captivity, they will realize the enormity
of assimilating the Supreme Source of events, the
Fountain of all being and power, to the miserable
phantoms of a darkened and perverted imagination.
xvii. 1-18. Jeremiah, speaking for God, returns to
the affirmation of Judah's guiltiness. He has answered
the popular question (xvi, io), so far as it implied that

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 345
it was no mortal sin to associate the worship of alien
gods with the worship of lahvah. He now proceeds
to answer it with an indignant contradiction, so far as
it suggested that Judah was no longer guilty of the
grossest forms of idolatry.
1 "The trespass of Judah," he affirms, "is written with pen oi
iron, with point of adamant ;
Graven upon the tablet of their heart,
And upon the horns of their altars :
Even as their sons remember their altars,
And their sacred poles by the evergreen trees,
Upon the high hills.
2 " O My mountain in the field I
Thy wealth and all thy treasures will I give for a spoil,
For the trespass of thine high-places in all thy borders.
And thou shalt drop thine hand ' from thy demesne which I
gave thee ;
And I will enslave thee to thine enemies,
In the land that thou knowest not ;
" For a fire have ye kindled in Mine anger }
It shall burn for evermore."
It is clear from the first strophe that the outward
forms of idolatry were no longer openly practised in
the country. Where otherwise would be the point of
affirming that the national sin was " written with pen
of iron, and point of adamant " — that it was " graven
upon the tablet of the people's heart ? " Where would
be the point of alluding to the children's memory of
the altars and sacred poles, which were the visible
adjuncts of idolatry ? Plainly it is implied that the
1 i.e., Loose thine hold of ... let go .. . release. Read "p* for
131. The uses of t2DB> " to throw down," "let fall," resemble those of
the Greek iq/11 and its compounds. I corrected the passage thus, to
find afterwards that I had been anticipated by J. D. Michaelis, Graf,
Mid other*

346 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
hideous rites, which sometimes involved the sacrifice
of children, are a thing of the past; yet not of the
distant past, for the young of the present generation
remember them ; those terrible scenes are burnt in
upon their memories, as a haunting recollection which
can no more be effaced, than the guilt contracted by
their parents as agents in those abhorrent rites can be
done away. The indelible characters of sin are graven
deeply upon their hearts ; no need for a prophet to
remind them of facts to which their own consciences,
their own inward sense of outraged affections, and of
nature sacrificed to a dark and bloody superstition,
bears irrefragable witness. Rivers of water cannot
cleanse the stain of innocent blood from their polluted
altars. The crimes of the past are unatoned for, and
beyond reach of atonement; they cry to heaven for
vengeance, and the vengeance will surely fall (xv. 4).
Hitzig rather prosaically remarks that Josiah had
destroyed the altars. But the stains of which the
poet-seer speaks are not palpable to sense; he con
templates unseen realities.
" Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand ? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."
The second strophe declares the nature of the
punishment The tender, yearning, hopeless love of
the cry with which lahvah resigns His earthly seat
to profanation and plunder and red-handed ruin,
enhances the awful impression wrought by the slow,
deliberate enunciation of the details of the sentence —
the utter spoliation of temple and palaces ; the accumu
lated hoards of generations — all that represented the
wealth and culture and glory of the time — carried away

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 347
for ever ; the enforced surrender of home and country ;
the harsh servitude to strangers in a far-off land.
It is difficult to fix the date of this short lyrical
outpouring, if it be assumed, with Hitzig, that it is an
independent whole. He refers it to the year B.C. 602,
after Jehoiakim had revolted from Babylon — "a pro
ceeding which made a future captivity well-nigh certain,
and made it plain that the sin of Judah remained still
to be punished." Moreover, the preceding year (b.c.
603) was what was known to the Law as a Year of
Release or Remission (shenath shemittah); and the
phrase " thou shalt drop thine hand," i.e. " loose thine
hold of" the land (xvii. 4), appears to allude to the
peculiar usages of that year, in which the debtor was
released from his obligations, and the corn-lands and
vineyards were allowed to lie fallow. The Year of
Release was also called the Year of Rest (shenath
shabbathon, Lev. xxv. 5); and both in the present
passage of Jeremiah, and in the book of Leviticus,
the time to be spent by the Jews in exile is regarded
as a period of rest for the desolate land, which would
then " make good her sabbaths " (Lev. xxvi. 34, 35, 43).
The Chronicler indeed seems to refer to this very
phrase of Jeremiah; at all events, nothing else is to
be found in the extant works of the prophet with
which his language corresponds (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21).
If the rendering of the second verse, which we find
in both our English versions, and which I have adopted
above, be correct, there arises an obvious objection
to the date assigned by Hitzig ; and the same objection
lies against the view of Naegelsbach, who translates :
" As their children remember their altars,
And their images of Baal by (le. at thCsight of) the green
trees, by the high hills."

348 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
For in what sense could this have been written " not
long before the fourth year of Jehoiakim," which ia
the date suggested by this commentator for the whole
group of chapters, xiv.-xvii. 1 8 ? The entire reign of
Josiah had intervened between the atrocities of Manasseh
and this period ; and it is not easy to suppose that any
sacrifice of children had occurred in the three months'
reign of Jehoahaz, or in the early years of Jehoiakim.
Had it been so, Jeremiah, who denounces the latter
king severely enough, would certainly have placed the
horrible fact in the forefront of his invective ; and
instead of specifying Manasseh as the king whose
offences lahvah would not pardon, would have thus
branded Jehoiakim, his own contemporary. This diffi
culty appears to be avoided by Hitzig, who explains
the passage thus : " When they (the Jews) think of
their children, they remember, and cannot but remember,
the altars to whose horns the blood of their immolated
children cleaves. In the same way, by a green tree
on the hills, i.e., when they come upon any such, their
Asherim are brought to mind, which were trees of that
sort." And since it is perhaps possible to translate
the Hebrew as this suggests, "When they remember
their sons, their altars, and their sacred poles, by (i.e.
by means of) the evergreen trees (collective term) upon
the high hills," and this translation agrees well with
the statement that the sin of Judah is " graven upon
the tablet of their heart," his view deserves further
consideration. The same objection, however, presses
again, though with somewhat diminished force. For
if the date of the section be 602, the eighth year of
Jehoiakim, more than forty years must have elapsed
between the time of Manasseh's bloody rites and the
utterance of this oracle. Would many who were

iv.,xv.] THE DROUGHT. 349
parents then, and surrendered their children for sacri
fice, be still living at the supposed date ? And if not,
where is the appropriateness of the words " When they
remember their sons, their altars, and their Asherim ? "
There seems no way out of the difficulty, but either
to date the piece much earlier, assigning it, e.g., to the
time of the prophet's earnest preaching in connexion
with the reforming movement of Josiah, when the
living generation would certainly remember the human
sacrifices under Manasseh ; or else to construe the
passage in a very different sense, as follows. The
first verse declares that the sin of Judah is graven upon
the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of their
altars. The pronouns evidently shew that it is the
guilt of the nation, not of a particular generation, that
is asserted. The subsequent words agree with this
view. The expression, " Their sons " is to be under
stood in the same way as the expressions " their heart,"
" their altars." It is equivalent to the " sons of Judah "
(bene Jehu da h), and means simply the people of Judah,
as now existing, the present generation. Now it does
not appear that image-worship and the cultus of the
high-places revived after their abolition by Josiah.
Accordingly, the symbols of impure worship mentioned
in this passage are not high-places and images but
altars and Asherim, i.e., the wooden poles which were
the emblems of the reproductive principle of Nature.
What the passage therefore intends to say would seem
to be this : " The guilt of the nation remains, so long
as its children are mindful of their altars and Asherim
erected beside * the evergreen trees on the high hills " ;
1 There is something strange about the phrase " by (upon, 'at) the
evergreen tree." Twenty-five Heb. MSS., the Targ., and the Syriac,
read "every" (koi) for "upon" ('at). We still feel the want of a

350 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
i.e., so long as they remain attached to the modified
idolatry of the day.
The general force of the words remains the same,
whether they accuse the existing generation of serving
sun -pillars (macceboth) and sacred poles (asherim), or
merely of hankering after the old forbidden rites. For
so long as the popular heart was wedded to the former
superstitions, it could not be said that any external
abolition of idolatry was a sufficient proof of national
repentance. The longing to indulge in sin is sin ; and
sinful it is not to hate sin. The guilt of the nation
remained, therefore, and would remain, until blotted
out by the tears of a genuine repentance towards
lahvah. But understood thus, the passage suits the time of
Jehoiachin, as well as any other period.
" Why," asks Naegelsbach, " should not Moloch have
been the terror of the Israelitish children, when there
was such real and sad ground for it, as in wanting in
other bugbears which terrify the children of the present
day ?" To this we may reply, (i) Moloch is not men
tioned at all, but simply altars and asherim ; (2) would
the word "remember " be appropriate in this case ?
The beautiful strophes which follow (5-13) are not
obviously connected with the preceding text. They
preposition, and may confidently restore " under " {tahath), from the
nine other passages in which " evergreen tree " {'ec rdanan) occurs in
connexion with idolatrous worship. In all these instances the ex
pression is " under every evergreen tree " {tahath kol 'ec rdanan) ; from
the Book of the Law (Deut. xii. 2), whence Jeremiah probably-drew
the phrase, to 2 Chron. xxviii. 4. Jeremiah has already used the
phrase thrice (ii. 20, iii. 6, 13), in exactly the same form. The other
passages are Ezek. vi, 13 ; Isa. Ivii. 5 ; 2 Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10. The
corruption of kol into 'al is found elsewhere. Probably taftath had
dropt out of the text, before the change took place here.

dv.,xv.] THE DROUGHT. 3S«
wear a look of self-completeness, which suggests that
here and in many other places Jeremiah has left us,
not whole discourses, written down substantially in the
form in which they were delivered, but rather his more
finished fragments ; pieces which being more rhythmical
in form, and more striking in thought, had imprinted
themselves more deeply upon his memory.
" Thus hath lahvah said :
Cursed is the man that trusteth in human kind,
And maketh flesh his arm,
And whose heart swerveth from lahvah 1
And he shall become like a leafless tree in the desert,
And shalt not see when good cometh ;
And shall dwell in parched places in the steppe,
A salt land and uninhabited.
" Blessed is the man that trusteth in lahvah,
And whose trust lahvah becometh 1
And he shall become like a tree planted by water,
That spreadeth its roots by a stream,
And is not afraid when heat cometh,
And its leaf is evergreen ;
And in the year of drought it feareth not,
Nor leaveth off from making fruit."
The form of the thought expressed in these two
octostichs, the curse and the blessing, may have been
suggested by the curses and blessings of that Book
of the Law of which Jeremiah had been so faithful
an interpreter (Deut. xxvii. 15-xxviii. 20); while both
the thought and the form of the second stanza are
imitated by the anonymous poet of the first psalm.
The mention of "the year of drought" in the penulti
mate line may be taken, perhaps, as a link of connexion
between this brief section and the whole of what pre
cedes it so far as chap, xiv., which is headed " Concern
ing the droughts." If, however, the group of chapters

3S* THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
thus marked out really constitute a single discourse,
as Naegelsbach assumes, one can only say that the
style is episodical rather than continuous ; that the
prophet has often recorded detached thoughts, worked
up to a certain degree of literary form, but hanging
together as loosely as pearls on a string. Indeed,
unless we suppose that he had kept full notes of his
discourses and soliloquies, or that, like certain pro
fessional lecturers of our own day, he had been in the
habit of indefinitely repeating to different audiences the
same carefully elaborated compositions, it is difficult to
understand how he would be able without the aid of
a special miracle, to write down in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim the numerous utterances of the previous
three and twenty years. Neither of these suppositions
appears probable. But if the prophet wrote from
memory, so long after the original delivery of many
of his utterances, the looseness of internal connexion,
which marks so much of his book, is readily under
stood. The internal evidence of the fragment before us,
so far as any such is traceable, appears to point to
the same period as what precedes, the time immediately
subsequent to the death of Jehoiakim. The curse
pronounced upon trusting in man may be an allusion
to that king's confidence in the Egyptian alliance,
which probably induced him to revolt from Nebuchad
rezzar, and so precipitate the final catastrophe of his
country. He owed his throne to the Pharaoh's
appointment (2 Kings xxiii. 34), and may perhaps have
regarded this as an additional reason for defection
from Babylon. But the chastisement of Egypt pre
ceded that of Judah ; and when the day came for the
latter, the king of Egypt durst no longer go to the

xiv, xv.] THE DROUGHT. 353
help of his too trustful allies (2 Kings xxiv. 7).
Jehoiakim had died, but his son and successor was
carried captive to Babylon. In the brief interval
between those two events, the prophet may have
penned these two stanzas, contrasting the issues of
confidence in man and confidence in God. On the
other hand, they may also be referred to some time
not long before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when
that king, egged on by Egypt, was meditating rebellion
against his suzerain ; an act of which the fatal con
sequences might easily be foreseen by any thoughtful
observer, who was not blinded by fanatical passion
and prejudice, and which might itself be regarded as
an index of the kindling of Divine wrath against the
country. " Deep is the heart above all things else ;
And sore-diseased it is : who can know it ?
I, lahvah, search the heart, I try the reins,
And that, to give to a man according to his own ways,
According to the fruit of his own doings.
" A partridge that gathereth young which are not hers,
Is he that maketh wealth not by right
In the middle of his days it will leave him,
And in his end he shall prove a fool.
" A throne of glory, a high seat from of old,
Is the place of our sanctuary.
Hope of Israel, lahvah 1
All that leave Thee shall be ashamed ;
Mine apostates shall be written in earth ;
For they left the Well of Living Waters, even lahvah.
" Heal Thou me, lahvah, and I shall be healed,
Save Thou me, and I shall be saved,
For Thou art my praise.
" Lo, they say unto me,
Where is the Word of lahvah ? Prithee, let it come I
Yet I, I hasted not from being a shepherd after Thee,
23

354 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
And woeful day I desired not — Thou knowest ;
The issue of my lips, before Thy face it felL
" Become not a terror to me I
Thou art my refuge in the day of evil.
Let my pursuers be ashamed, and let not me be ashamed 1
Let them be dismayed, and let not me be dismayed ;
Let Thou come upon them a day of evil,
And doubly with breaking break Thou them 1 "
In the first of these stanzas, the word "heart" is
the connecting link with the previous reflexions. The
curse and the blessing had there been pronounced
not upon any outward and visible distinctions, but
upon a certain inward bent and spirit. He is called
accursed, whose confidence is placed in changeable,
perishable man, and "whose heart swerveth from
lahvah." And he is blessed, who pins his faith to
nothing visible ; who looks for help and stay not to the
seen, which is temporal, but to the Unseen, which is
eternal. The thought now occurs that this matter of inward
trust, being a matter of the heart, and not merely of
the outward bearing, is a hidden matter, a secret
which baffles all ordinary judgment. Who shall take
upon him to say whether this or that man, this or that
prince confided or not confided in lahvah ? The
human heart is a sea, whose depths are beyond human
search; or it is a shifty Proteus, transforming itself
from moment to moment under the pressure of
changing circumstances, at the magic touch of impulse,
under the spell of new perceptions and new phases
of its world. And besides, its very life is tainted with
a subtle disease, whose hereditary influence is ever
interfering with the will and affections, ever tampering
with the conscience and the judgment, and making

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 3^5
difficult a clear perception, much more a wise decision.
Nay, where so many motives press, so many plausible
suggestions of good, so many palliations of evil,
present themselves upon the eve of action ; when the
colours of good and evil mingle and gleam together in
such rich profusion before the dazzled sight, that the
mind is bewildered by the confused medley of appear
ances, and wholly at a loss to discern and disentangle
them one from another; is it wonderful, if in such
a case the heart should take refuge in the comfortable
illusion of self-deceit, and seek, with too great success,
to persuade itself into contentment with something
which it calls not positive evil but merely a less
sublime good ?
It is not for man, who cannot see the heart, to
pronounce upon the degree of his fellow's guilt. All
sins, all crimes, are in this respect relative to the
intensity of passion, the force of circumstances, the
nature of surroundings, the comparative stress of
temptation. Murder and adultery are absolute crimes
in the eye of human law, and subject as such to fixed
penalties; but the Unseen Judge takes cognizance of
a thousand considerations, which though they abolish
not the exceeding sinfulness of these hideous results
of a depraved nature, yet modify to a vast extent the
degree of guilt evinced in particular cases by the same
outward acts. In the sight of God, a life socially
correct may be stained with a deeper dye than that of
profligacy or bloodshed; and nothing so glaringly
shows the folly of inquiring what is the unpardonable
sin, as the reflexion that any sin whatever may become
such in an individual case.
Before God, human justice is often the liveliest
injustice. And how many flagrant wrongs, how many

356 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
monstrous acts of cruelty and oppression, how many
wicked frauds and perjuries, how many of those vile
deeds of seduction and corruption, which are, in truth,
the murder of immortal souls ; how many of those
fearful sins, which make a sorrow-laden hell beneath
the smiling surface of this pleasure-wooing world,
are left unheeded, unavenged by any earthly tribunal 1
But all these things are noted in the eternal record of
Him who searches the heart, and penetrates man's
inmost being, not from a motive of mere curiosity, but
with fixed intent to award a righteous recompense for
all choice and all conduct.
The calamities which marked the last years of
Jehoiakim, and his ignominious end, were a signal
instance of Divine retribution. Here that king's
lawless avarice is branded as not only wicked but
foolish. He is compared to the partridge, which
gathers and hatches the eggs of other birds, only to
be deserted at once by her stolen brood. 1 " In the
middle of his days, it shall leave him " (or " it may
leave him," for in Hebrew one form has to do duty for
both shades of meaning). The uncertainty of posses
sion, the certainty of absolute surrender within a few
short years, this is the point which demonstrates the
unreason of making riches the chief end of one's
earthly activity. " Truly man walketh in a vain
shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain : he heapeth
up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them." It
is the point which is put with such terrible force in the
parable of the Rich Fool. " Soul, thou hast much
goods laid up for thyself for many years ; take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry." " And the Lord said
1 A popular opinion of the time.

xiv, xv.] THE DROUGBT. 3S7
unto him, Thou fool ! this night shall thy soul be
required of thee."
The covetousness, oppression, and bloodthirstiness
of Jehoiakim are condemned in a striking prophecy
(xxii. 13-19), which we shall have to consider here
after. A vivid light is thrown upon the words, " In
the middle of his days it shall leave him," by the fact
recorded in Kings (2 Kings xxiii. 36), that he died
in the thirty-sixth year of his age; when, that is, he
had fulfilled but half of the threescore years and ten
allotted to the ordinary life of man. We are reminded
of that other psalm which declares that " bloody and
deceitful men shall not live out half their days " (Iv. 23).
Apart indeed from all consideration of the future,
and apart from all reference to that loyalty to the
Unseen Ruler which is man's inevitable duty, a life
devoted to Mammon is essentially irrational. The
man is most truly a " fool " — that is, one who fails to
understand his own nature, one who has not attained
to even a tolerable working hypothesis as to the needs
of life, and the way to win a due share of happiness ;
— who has not discovered that
" riches have their proper stint
In the contented mind, not mint ;"
and that " those who have the itch
Of craving more, are never rich ;"
and who has missed all apprehension of the grand
secret that " Wealth cannot make a life, but love."
From the vanity of earthly thrones, whether of
Egypt or of Judah, thrones whose glory is transitory,
and whose power to help and succour is so ill-assured,
the prophet lifts his eyes to the one throne whose

358 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
glory is everlasting, and whose power and permanence
are an eternal refuge.
" Thou Throne of Glory, High Seat from of old,
Place of our Sanctuary, Hope of Israel, lahvah 1
All who leave Thee blush for shame ;
Mine apostates are written in earth ;
For they have forsaken the Well of Living Water, even
lahvah 1"
It is his concluding reflexion upon the unblest,
unhonoured end of the apostate Jehoiakim. If Isaiah
could speak of Shebna as a " throne of glory,"1 i.e., the
honoured support and mainstay of his family, there
seems no reason why lahvah might not be so
addressed, as the supporting power and sovereign of
the world.
The terms " Throne of Glory " . . . " Place of our
Sanctuary" seem to be used much as we use the
expressions, "the Crown," "the Court," "the Throne,"
when we mean the actual ruler with whom these things
are associated. And when the prophet declares
" Mine2 apostates are written in earth," he asserts that
oblivion is the portion of those of his people, high or
low, who forsake lahvah for another god. Their names
are not written in the Book of Life (Ex. xxxii. 32;
Ps. Ixix. 28), but in the sand whence they are soon
effaced. The prophets do not attempt to expose
" The sweet strange mystery
Of what beyond these things may lie."
They do not in express terms promise eternal life to
the individual believer.
1 Isa. xxii. 23.
* The Heb. term is probably written with omission of the final
mem, a common abb-eviation ; and the right reading may be 0,"I1D1
" and apostates."

xrv,xv.] THE DROUGBT. 359

But how often do their words imply that comfortable
doctrine ! They who forsake lahvah must perish, for
there is neither permanence nor stay apart from
Iahvah, whose very Name denotes He who Is, the
sole Principle of Being and Fountain of Life. If they
— nations and persons — who revolt from Him must
die, the implication, the truth necessary to complete
this affirmation, is that they who trust in Him, and
make Him their arm, will live ; for union with Him
is eternal life.
In this Fountain of Living Water Jeremiah now seeks
healing for himself. The malady that afflicts him is the
apparent failure of his oracles. He suffers as a prophet
whose word seems idle to the multitude. He is hurt
with their scorn, and wounded to the heart with their
scoffing. On all sides men press the mocking question,
" Where is the word of Iahvah ? Prithee, let it come
to pass I " His threats of national overthrow had not
been speedily realized ; and men made a mock of the
delays of Divine mercy. Conscious of his own integrity,
and keenly sensitive to the ridicule of his triumphant
adversaries, and scarcely able to endure longer his
intolerable position, he pours out a prayer for healing
and help. Heal me, he cries, and I shall be healed,
Save me and I shall be saved — really and truly saved,
as the form of the Hebrew term implies; for Thou
art my praise, my boast and my glory, as the Book
of the Law affirms (Deut. x. 21). I have not trusted
in man, but in God ; and if this my sole glory be
taken away, if events prove me a false prophet, as
my friends allege, applying the very test of the sacred
Law (Deut. xviii. 21 sq.), then shall I be of all men
most forsaken and forlorn. The bitterness of his woe
is intensified by the consciousness that he has not

360 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
thrust himself without call into the prophetic office, like
the false prophets whose aim was to traffic in sacred
things (xiv. 14, 15); for then the consciousness of
guilt might have made the punishment more tolerable,
and the facts would have justified the jeers of his
persecutors. But the case was far otherwise. He had
been most unwilling to assume the function of prophet;
and it was only in obedience to the stress of repeated
calls that he had yielded. " But as for me," he protests,
" I hasted not from being a shepherd to follow Thee."
It would seem, if this be the correct, as it certainly is
the simplest rendering of his words, that, at the time
when he first became aware of his true vocation, the
young prophet was engaged in tending the flocks that
grazed in the priestly pasture-grounds of Anathoth.
In that case, we are reminded of David, who was sum
moned from the sheepfold to camp and court, and of
Amos the prophet-herdsman of Tekoa. But the Hebrew
term translated " from being a shepherd " is probably
a disguise of some other original expression ; and it
would involve no very violent change to read " I made
no haste to follow after Thee fully " or " entirely " '
(Deut. i. 36); a reading which is partially supported
by the oldest version. Or it may be even better, as
involving a mere change in the punctuation,2 to amend
the text thus : " But as for me, I made no haste, in
olio wing thee," more literally, " in accompanying thee "
(Judg. xiv. 20). This, however, is a point of textual
criticism, which leaves the general sense the same in
any case.
When the prophet adds : " and the ill day I desired
not," some think that he means the day when he sur-
» \jbt for mm • njni? for njn&.

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGBT. 361
rendered to the Divine calling, and accepted his mission.
But it seems to suit the context better, if we understand
by the " ill day " the day of wrath whose coming was
the burden of his preaching ; the day referred to in
the taunts of his enemies, when they asked "Where
is the word of Iahvah ? " adding with biting sarcasm :
" Prithee, let it come to pass." They sneered at Jere
miah as one who seized every occasion to predict evil,
as one who longed to witness the ruin of his country.
The utter injustice of the charge, in view of the frequent
cries of anguish which interrupt his melancholy fore
casts, is no proof that it was not made. In all ages,
God's representatives have been called upon to endure
false accusations. Hence the prophet appeals from
man's unrighteous judgment to God the Searcher of
hearts. " Thou knowest ; the utterance of my lips
(Deut. xxiii. 24) before Thy face it fell " : as if to
say, No word of mine, spoken in Thy name, was a
figment of my own fancy, uttered for my own pur
poses, without regard of Thee. I have always spoken
as in Thy presence, or rather, in Thy presence.
Thou, who hearest all, didst hear each utterance of
mine ; and therefore knowest that all I said was
truthful and honest and in perfect accord with my
commission. If only we who, like Jeremiah, are called upon to
speak for God, could always remember that every word
we say is uttered in that Presence, what a sense of
responsibility would lie upon us ; with what labour and
prayers should we not make our preparation ! Too
often alas ! it is to be feared that our perception of
the presence of man banishes all sense of any higher
presence; and the anticipation of a fallible and frivolous
criticism makes us forget for the time the judgment of

362 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
God. And yet " by our words we shall be justified,
and by our words we shall be condemned."
In continuing his prayer, Jeremiah adds the remark
able petition, "Become not Thou to me a cause of
dismay 1 " He prays to be delivered from that over
whelming perplexity, which threatens to swallow him
up, unless God should verify by events that which His
own Spirit has prompted him to utter. He prays that
Iahvah, his only " refuge in the day of evil," will not
bemock him with vain expectations ; will not falsify
His own guidance ; will not suffer His messenger to be
" ashamed," disappointed and put to the blush by the
failure of his predictions. And then once again, in the
spirit of his time, he implores vengeance upon his un
believing and cruel persecutors: "Let them be ashamed,"
disappointed in their expectation of immunity, "let
them be dismayed," crushed in spirit and utterly over
come by the fulfilment of his dark presages of evil. "Let
Thou come upon them a day of evil, And doubly with
breaking break Thou them I " This indeed asks no
more than that what has been spoken before in the
way of prophecy — " I will repay the double of their
guilt and their trespass " (xvi. 18) — may be forthwith
accomplished. And the provocation was, beyond all
question, immense. The hatred that burned in the
taunt " Where is the word of Iahvah ? Prithee, let it
come to pass ! " was doubtless of like kind with that
which at a later stage of Jewish history expressed it
self in the words " He trusted in God, let Him deliver
Him 1 " " If He be the Son of God, let Him now come
down from the cross, and we will believe on Him 1 "
And how much fierce hostility that one term " my
pursuers " may cover, it is easy to infer from the narra
tives of the prophet's evil experience in chaps, xx., xxvi.

xiv., xv.] THE DROUGHT. 363
and xxxviiL But allowing for all this, we can at best
only affirm that the prophet's imprecations on his foes
are natural and human ; we cannot pretend that they
are evangelical and Christ-like.1 Besides, the latter
would be a gratuitous anachronism, which no intelli
gent interpreter of Scripture is called upon to perpe
trate. It is neither necessary to the proper vindication
of the prophet's writings as truly inspired of God, nor
helpful to a right conception of the method of revela
tion. 1 I have left this paragraph as I wrote it, although I feel great
doubts upon the subject What I have remarked elsewhere on
similar passages, should be considered along with the present sug
gestions. We have especially to remember, (i) the peculiar status
of the speaker as a true prophet ; and (ii) the terrible invectives ot
Christ Himself on certain occasions (St. Matt, xxiii 33-35 ; St Luke
x. 15 ; St. John viii. 44).

THB SABBATH— A WARNING.
Jeremiah xvii. 19-27.
" 'TH'HUS said Iahvah unto me : Go and stand in the
gate of Benjamin, whereby the kings of fudah
come in, and whereby they go out; and in all the gates
of Jerusalem. And say unto them, Hear ye the word
of Iahvah, O kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all
inhabitants of Jerusalem, who come in by these gates I
" Thus said Iahvah : Beware, on your lives, and bear
ye not a burden on the Day of Rest, nor bring it in by
the gates of Jerusalem ! Nor shall ye bring a burden
forth out of your houses on the Day of Rest, nor shall
ye do any work; but ye shall hallow the Day of Rest,
as I commanded your fathers. (Albeit, they hearkened
not, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened their neck against
hearkening, and against receiving instruction.)
" And it shall come to pass, if ye will indeed hearken
unto Me, saith Iahvah, not to bring a burden in by the
gates of this city on the Day of Rest, but to hallow the
Day of Rest, not to do therein any work; then there shall
come in by the gates of this city kings [and princes]
sitting upon the throne of David, riding on the chariots
and on the horses, they and their princes, O men of
Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem I and this city shall
be inhabited for ever. And people shall come in from

xvii 19-37.] THE SABBATB—A WARNING. 365
the cities of Judah and from the places round Jerusalem,
and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowlands,
and from the hill-country, and from the south, bringing
in burnt-offering and thank-offering, and oblation and
incense; and bringing a thanksgiving into the house of
Iahvah. "And if ye hearken not unto Me to hallow the Day
of Rest, and not to bear a burden and come in by the
gates of Jerusalem on the Day of Rest : I will kindle a
fire in her gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jeru
salem, and shall not be quenched."
The matter and manner of this brief oracle mark it
off from those which precede it as an independent
utterance, and a whole complete in itself. Its position
may be accounted for by its probable date, which may
be fixed a little after the previous chapters, in the three
months' reign of the ill-starred Jehoiachin ; and by the
writer's or his editor's desire to break the monotony of
commination by an occasional gleam of hope and promise.
At the same time, the introductory formula with whidi
it opens is so similar to that of the two following
oracles (chaps, xviii., xix.), as to suggest the idea of a
connexion in time between the members of the group.
Further, there is an obvious connexion of thought
between chaps, xviii., xix. In the former, the house of
Israel is represented as clay in the hand of the Divine
Potter ; in the latter, Judah is a potter's vessel destined
to be broken in pieces. And if we assume the priority
of the piece before us, a logical progress is observable,
from the alternative here presented for the people's
choice, to their decision for the worse part (xviii. 12
sqq.), and then to the corresponding decision on the
part of Iahvah (xix.). Or, as Hitzig puts it otherwise,
in the piece before us the scales are still in equipoise j

36fi THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
in chap, xviii. one goes down ; Iahvah intends mischief
(ver. ii), and the people are invited to appease His
anger. But the warning is fruitless ; and therefore the
prophet announces their destruction, depicting it in the
darkest colours (chap. xix.). The immediate conse
quence to Jeremiah himself is related in chap. xx. 1-6;
and it is highly probable that the section, chap. xxi. 1 1-
xxii. 9, is the continuation of the oracle addressed to
Pashchur : so that we have before us a whole group of
prophecies belonging to the same eventful period of the
prophet's activity (xvii. 20 agrees closely with xxii. 2,
and xvii. 25 with xxii. 4).
The circumstances of the present oracle are these.
Jeremiah is inwardly bidden to station himself first
in "the gate of the sons of the people" — a gate of
Jerusalem which we cannot further determine, as it is
not mentioned elsewhere under this designation, but
which appears to have been a special resort of the
masses of the population, because it was the one by
which the kings were wont to enter and leave the city,
and where they doubtless were accustomed to hear
petitions and to administer justice ; and afterwards, he
is to take his stand in all the gates in turn, so as not to
miss the chance of delivering his message to any of his
countrymen. He is there to address the "kings of
Judah " (ver. 20) ; an expression which may denote the
young' king Jehoiachin and his mother (xiii. 1 8), or the
king and the princes of the blood, the " House of David"
of chap. xxi. 12. The promise "kings shall come in
by the gates of this city . . . and this city shall be
inhabited for ever," and the threat " I will kindle a fire
in her gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jeru
salem," may be taken to imply a time when the public
danger was generally recognised. The first part of the

xvii. 19-27.] TBE SABBATB—A WARNING. 367
promise may be intended to meet an apprehension,
such as might naturally be felt after the death of
Jehoiakim, that the incensed Chaldeans would come
and take away the Jewish place and nation. In raising
the boy Jehoiachin to the throne of his fathers, men
may have sorrowfully foreboded that, as the event
proved, he would never keep his crown till manhood,
nor beget a race of future kings.
The matter of the charge to rulers and people is the
due observance of the fourth commandment : " ye shall
hallow the Day of Rest, as I commanded your fathers "
(see Ex. xx. 8, "Remember the Day of Rest, to
hallow it " — which is probably the original form of the
precept Jeremiah, however, probably had in mind
the form of the precept as it appears in Deuteronomy :
" Observe the Day of Rest to hallow it, as Iahvah thy
God commanded thee:" Deut v. 12). The Hebrew
term for " hallow " means lo separate a thing from
common things, and devote it to God.
To hallow the Day of Rest, therefore, is to make a
marked distinction between it and ordinary days, and
to connect it in some way with religion. What is here
commanded is to abstain from " bearing burdens," and
doing any kind of work (melakah, Gen. ii. 2, 3 ; Ex.
xx. 9, IO, xxxi. 14, 15; Gen. xxxix. II, "appointed
task," "duty," "business"). The bearing of burdens
1 The context is against supposing, with Graf, that the prophet's
call " hear ye 1 " extends also to princes yet unborn (cf. xjii. 13 ; xxv.
18 is different). If, however, it be thought that Jeremiah addressed
not the sovereigns personally, but only the people passing in and out
of the gates ; then the expression becomes intelligible as a generalised
plural, like the parallels in 2 Chron. xxviii. 3 (" his children "), ibid.
16 ("the kings of Assyria "=Tiglath-pileser II.). The prophet might
naturally avoid the singular as too personal, in affirming an obliga
tion which lay upon the Judean kings in general,

368 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
into the gates and out of the houses clearly describes
the ordinary commerce between town and country.
The country folk are forbidden to bring their farm
produce to the market in the city gates, and the towns
people to convey thither from their houses and shops
the manufactured goods which they were accustomed
to barter for these. Nehemiah's memoirs furnish a
good illustration of the general sense of the passage
(Neh. xiii. 15), relating how he suppressed this Sabbath
traffic between town and country. Dr. Kuenen has
observed that "Jeremiah is the first of the prophets
who stands up for a stricter sanctification of the
seventh day, treating it, however, merely as a day of
rest. . . . What was traditional appears to have been
only abstinence from field-work, and perhaps also from
professional pursuits." In like manner, he had before
stated that " tendencies to such an exaggeration of
the Sabbath rest as would make it absolute, are found
from the Chaldean period. Isaiah (i. 13) regards the
Sabbath purely as a sacrificial day." The last state
ment here is hardly a fair inference. In the passage
referred to Isaiah is inveighing against the futile
worship of his contemporaries ; and he only mentions
the Sabbath in this connexion. And that " tradition "
required more than " abstinence from field-work " is
evident from words of the prophet Amos, written at
least a century and a half before the present oracle,
and implying that very abstinence from trading which
Jeremiah prescribes. Amos makes the grasping dealers
of his time cry impatiently, " When will the new moon
be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the sabbath, that
we may set out wheat for sale ? " (Amos viii. 5) ; a
clear proof that buying and selling were suspended on
the sabbath festival in the eighth century b.c,

xvii 19-27.] THE SABBATH— A WARNING. 369

It is hardly likely that, when law or custom com
pelled covetous dealers to cease operations on the
Sabbath, and buying and selling, the principal business
of the time, was suspended, the artisans of town or
country would be allowed by public opinion to ply
their everyday tasks. Accordingly, when Jeremiah
adds to his prohibition of Sabbath trading, a veto upon
any kind of "work" — a term which includes this
trafficking, but also covers the labour of handicraftsmen
(cf. 1 Kings v. 30; 2 Kings xii. 12; Ex. xxxv. 35) —
he is not really increasing the stringency of the tra
ditional rule about Sabbath observance.
Further, it is difficult to understand how Dr. Kuenen
could gather from this passage that Jeremiah treats the
Sabbath "merely as a day of rest." This negative
character of mere cessation from work, of enforced
idleness, is far from being the sole feature of the
Sabbath, either in Jeremiah's view of it, or as other
more ancient authorities represent it The testimony
of the passage before us proves, if proof were needed,
that the Sabbath was a day of worship. This is
implied both by the phrase " ye shall hallow the Day
of Rest," that is, consecrate it to Iahvah ; and by the
promise that if the precept be observed faithfully,
abundant offerings shall flow into the temple from all
parts of the country, that is, as the context seems to
require, for the due celebration of the Sabbath festival.
There is an intentional contrast between the bringing
of innumerable victims, and " bearing burdens " of flour
and oil and incense on the Sabbath, for the joyful
service of the temple, including the festal meal of the
worshippers, and that other carriage of goods for
merely secular objects. And as the wealth of the
Jerusalem priesthood chiefly depended upon the abund*
24

370 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
ance of the sacrifices, it may be supposed that Jeremiah
thus gives them a hint that it is really their interest
to encourage the observance of the law of the Sabbath.
For if men were busy with their buying and selling,
their making and mending, upon the seventh as on
other days, they would have no more time or inclina
tion for religious duties, than the Sunday traders of
our large towns have under the vastly changed con
ditions of the present day. Moreover, the teaching of
our prophet in this matter takes for granted that of his
predecessors, with whose writings he was thoroughly
acquainted. If in this passage he does not expressly
designate the Sabbath as a religious festival, it is
because it seemed needless to state a thing so obvious,
so generally recognised in theory, however loosely
observed in practice. The elder prophets Hosea,
Amos, Isaiah, associate Sabbath and new moon together
as days of festal rejoicing, when men appeared before
Iahvah, that is, repaired to the sanctuary for worship
and sacrifice (Hos. ii. 1 1 ; Isa. i. 1 1-14), and when
all ordinary business was consequently suspended
(Amos viii. 5).
It is clear, then, from this important passage of
Jeremiah that in his time and by himself the Sabbath
was still regarded under the double aspect of a religious
feast and a day of cessation from labour, the latter
being, as in the ancient world generally, a natural
consequence of the former characteristic. Whether
the abolition of the local sanctuaries in the eighteenth
year of Josiah resulted in any practical modification of
the conception of the Sabbath, so that, in the words
of Professor Robertson Smith, "it became for most
Israelites an institution of humanity divorced from
ritual," is rendered doubtful by the following considera-

xvii.19-27.] THE SABBATB—A WARNING. 371
tions. The period between the reform of Josiah and
the fall of Jerusalem was very brief, including not more
than about thirty-five years (621-586, according to
Wellhausen). But tnat a reaction followed the disas
trous end of the royal Reformer, is both likely under
the circumstances, and implied by the express asser
tions of the author of Kings, who declares of the suc
ceeding monarchs that they " did evil in the sight of
the Lord according to all that their fathers had done."
As Wellhausen writes : " the battle of Megiddo had
shown that in spite of the covenant with Jehovah the
possibilities of non-success in war remained the same
as before " : so at least it would appear to the unspiritual
mind of a populace, still hankering after the old forms
of local worship, with their careless connivance at riot
and disorder. It is not probable that a rapacious and
bloody tyrant, like Jehoiakim, would evince more tender
ness for the ritual laws than for the moral precepts of
Deuteronomy. It is likely, then, that the worship at
the local high places revived during this and the follow
ing reigns, just as it had revived after its temporary
abolition by Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 22). Moreover,
it is with Judah, not ruined and depopulated Israel,
that we have to deal; and even in Judah the people
must by this time have been greatly reduced by war
and its attendant evils, so that Jerusalem itself and its
immediate neighbourhood probably comprised the main
part of the population to which Jeremiah addressed
his discourses during this period. The bulk of the
little nation would, in fact, naturally concentrate upon
Jerusalem, in the troublous times that followed the
death of Josiah. If so, it is superfluous to assume
that "most men could only visit the central altar at
rare inte-vals " during *hese last decades of the national

37* THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
existence.1 The change of view belongs rather to the
sixth than the seventh century, to Babylonia rather
than to Judea.
The Sabbath observance prescribed by the old Law,
and recommended by Jeremiah, was indeed a very
different thing from the pedantic and burdensome
obligation which it afterwards became in the hands of
scribes and Pharisees. These, with their long catalogue
of prohibited works, and their grotesque methods of
evading the rigour of their own rules, had succeeded
in making what was originally a joyous festival and
day of rest for the weary, into an intolerable interlude
of joyless restraint; when our Lord reminded them
that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath (St. Mark ii. 2f). Treating the strict ob
servance of the day as an end in itself, they forgot
or ignored the fact that the oldest forms of the sacred
Law agreed in justifying the institution by religious and
humanitarian considerations (Ex. xx. 8, io ; Deut. v.
12). The difference in the grounds assigned by the
different legislations — Deuteronomy alleging neither
the Divine Rest of Exodus xx., nor the sign of Exodus
xxxi. 13, but the enlightened and enduring motive
"that thy bondman and thine handmaid may rest
as well as thou," coupled with the feeling injunction,
" Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of
Egypt " (Deut. v. 14, 15) — need not here be discussed ;
for in any case, the different motives thus suggested
were enough to make it clear to those who had eyes
to see, that the Sabbath was not anciently conceived
as an arbitrary institution established purely for its
own sake, and without reference to ulterior considera
tions of public benefit. The Book of the Covenant
1 Encycl. Britann,, s.v. Sabbath, p. 125.

xviLi9-27-] THE SABBATB—A WARNING. 373
affirmed the principle of Sabbath rest in these unmis
takable terms : " Six days thou mayst do thy works,
and on the seventh day thou shalt leave off, that thine
ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine hand
maid " — the home-born slave — " and the alien may
be refreshed" (Ex. xxiii. 12), lit. recover breath, have
respite. The humane care of the lawgiver for the
dumb toilers and slaves requires no comment ; and we
have already noticed the same spirit of humanity in the
later precept of the Book of the Law (Deut. v. 14, 15).
These older rules, it will be observed, are perfectly
general in their scope, and forbid not particular actions
(Ex. xvi. 23, xxxv. 3 ; Num. xv. 32), but the continu
ance of ordinary labour ; prescribing a merciful inter
mission alike for the cattle employed in husbandry and
as beasts of burden, and for all classes of dependents.
The origin of the Sabbath festival is lost in obscurity.
When the unknown writer of Gen. L so beautifully
connects it with the creation of the world, he betrays
not only the belief of his contemporaries in its imme
morial antiquity, but also a true perception of the utility
of the institution, its perfect adaptation to the wants of
humanity. He expresses his sense of the fact in the
most emphatic way possible, by affirming the Divine
origin of an institution whose value to man is divinely
great; and by carrying back that origin to the very
beginning, he implies that the Sabbath was made for
mankind and not merely for Israel. To whom indeed
could an ancient Jewish writer refer as the original
source of this unique blessing of a Day of Rest and
drawing near to God, if not to Iahvah, the fountain of
all things good?
That Moses, the founder of the nation, gave Israel
the Sabbath, is as likely as anything can be. Whether,

374 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
in doing so, he simply sanctioned an ancient and
salutary custom (investing it perhaps with new and
better associations), dating from the tribal existence of
the fathers in Chaldea, or ordered the matter so in
purposeful contrast to the Egyptian week of ten days,
cannot at present be determined. The Sabbath of
Israel, both that of the prophets and that of the scribes,
was an institution which distinguished the nation from
all others in the period open to historical scrutiny ; and
with this knowledge we may rest content. That which
made Israel what it was, and what it became to the
world ; the total of the good which this people realized,
and left as a priceless heritage to mankind for ever, was
the outcome, not of what it had in common with heathen
antiquity, but of what was peculiar to itself in ideas and
institutions. We cannot be too strongly on our guard
against assuming external, superficial, and often acci
dental resemblances, to be an index of inward and
essential likeness and unity. Whatever approximations
may be established by modern archaeology between
Israel and kindred peoples, it will still be true that
those points of contact do not explain, though to the
apprehension of individuals they may obscure what is
truly characteristic of Israel, and what alone gives that
nation its imperishable significance in the history of the
world. After all deductions made upon such grounds,
nothing can abolish the force of the fact that Moses and
the prophets do not belong to Moab, Ammon, or Edom ;
that the Old Testament, though written in the language
of Canaan, is not a monument of Canaanite but of
Israelite faith ; that the Christ did not spring out of
3abylon or Egypt, and that Christianity is not explic
able as the last development of Accadian magic or
Egyptian animal worship.

xvii. 19-27.;) THE SABBATH— A WARNING. 375
To those who believe that the prophets enjoyed a
higher and less fallible guidance than human fancy,
reflexion, experience ; who recognise in the general
aim and effect of their teaching, as contrasted with that
of other teachers, the best proof that their minds were
subject to an influence and a spirit transcending the
common limits of humanity ; the prominence given by
Jeremiah to the law of the Sabbath will be sufficient
evidence of the importance of that law to the welfare of
his contemporaries, if not of all subsequent generations.
If we have rightly assigned the piece to the reign of
Jehoiachin, we may suppose that among the contrary
currents which agitated the national life at that crisis,
there were indications of repentance and remorse at the
misdoings of the late reign. The present utterance of
the prophet might then be regarded as a test of the
degree and worth of the revulsion of popular feeling
towards the God of the Fathers. The nation was
trembling for its existence ; and Jeremiah met its fears,
by pointing out the path of safety. Here was one
special precept hitherto but little observed. Would
they keep it now and henceforth, in token of a genuine
obedience ? Repentance in general terms is never
difficult The rub is conduct. Recognition of the
Divine Law is easy, so long as life is not submitted
to its control. The prophet thus proposes, in a single
familiar instance, a plain test of sincerity, which is
perhaps not less applicable in our own day than it was
then. The wording of the final threat suggests a thought
of solemn consequence for ourselves. " I will kindle
a fire in her gates, and it shall devour the castles of
Jerusalem — and shall not be quenched I " The gates

376 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
were the scene of Judah's sinful breach of the Sabbath
law, and in them her punishment is to begin. So
in the after life of the lost those parts of the physical
and mental organism which have been the principal
seats of sin, the means and instruments of man's mis
doing, will also be the seat of keenest suffering, the
source and abode of the most poignant misery. " The
fire that never shall be quenched " — Jesus has spoken of
that awful mystery, as well as Jeremiah. It is the ever-
kindling, never-dying fire of hopeless and insatiable
desire ; it is the withering flame of hatred of self, when
the castaway sees with open eyes what that self has
become ; it is the burning pain of a sleepless memory of
the unalterable past ; it is the piercing sense of a life
flung recklessly to ruin ; it is the scorching shame, the
scathing self-contempt, the quenchless, raging thirst for
deliverance from ourselves; it is the fearful conscious
ness of self-destruction, branded upon the soul for ever
and ever !

XI.
THE DIVINE POTTER.
Jeremiah xviii
JEREMIAH goes down into the Lower Town, or the
valley between the upper and lower city; and
there his attention is arrested by a potter sitting at
work before his wheel. As the prophet watches, a
vessel is spoiled in the making under the craftsman's
hand; so the process begins afresh, and out of the
same lump of clay another vessel is moulded, accord
ing to the potter's fancy.
Reflecting upon what he had seen, Jeremiah recog
nised a Divine Word alike in the impulse which led
him thither, and in the familiar actions of the potter.
Perhaps as he sat meditating at home, or praying in
the court of the temple, the thought had crossed his
mind that Iahvah was the Potter, and mankind the
clay in His hands; a thought which recurs so often
in the eloquent pages of the second Isaiah, who was
doubtless indebted to the present oracle for the sug
gestion of it Musing upon this thought, Jeremiah
wandered half-unconsciously down to the workshop of
the potter ; and there, under the influence of the
Divine Spirit, his thought developed itself into a lesson
for his people and for us.
Cannot I do unto you like this potter, O house of

378 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
Israel ? saith Iahvah ; Behold, as the clay in Ike
potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O house of
Israel. Iahvah has an absolute control over His
people and over all peoples, to shape their condition
and to alter their destiny ; a control as absolute as that
of the potter over the clay between his hands, which
he moulds and remoulds at will. Men are wholly
malleable in the hands of their Maker; incapable, by
the nature of things, of any real resistance to His pur
pose. If the first intention of the potter fail in the
execution, he does not fail to realize his plan on a
second trial. And if man's nature and circumstances
appear for a time to thwart the Maker's design ; if the
unyielding pride and intractable temper of a nation mar
its beauty and worth in the eyes of its Creator, and
render it unfit for its destined uses and functions ; He
can take away the form He has given, and reduce His
work to shapelessness, and remodel the ruined mass
into accordance with His sovereign design. Iahvah,
the supreme Author of all existence, can do this. It is
evident that the Creator can do as He will with His
creature. But all His dealings with man are conditioned
by moral considerations. He meddles with no nation
capriciously, and irrespective of its attitude towards
His laws. At one moment I threaten a nation and a
kingdom that I will uproot and pull down and destroy.
And that nation which I threatened returneth from its
evil, and I repent of the evil that I purposed to do it.
And at another moment, I promise a nation and a
kingdom that I will build and plant. And it doeth the
Evil in Mine eyes, in not hearkening unto My voice;
and I repent of the good that I said I would do it
(w. 7-10).
This is a bold affirmation, impressive in its naked

xviii] THE DIVINE POTTER. 379
simplicity and directness of statement, of a truth which
in all ages has taken possession of minds at all capable
of a comprehensive survey of national experience ; the
truth that there is a power revealing itself in the
changes and chances of human history, shaping its
course, and giving it a certain definite direction, not
without regard to the eternal principles of morality.
When in some unexpected calamity which strikes
down an individual sinner, men recognise a "judg
ment " or an instance of " the visitation of God," they
infringe the rule of Christian charity, which forbids us
to judge our brethren. Yet such judgment, liable as it
is to be too readily suggested by private ill-will, envy
and other evil passions, which warp the even justice
that should guide our decisions, and blind the mind to
its own lack of impartiality, is in general the perversion
of a true instinct which persists in spite of all scientific
sophistries and philosophic fallacies. For it is an
irrepressible instinct rather than a reasoned opinion
which makes us all believe, however inconsistently and
vaguely, that God rules ; that Providence asserts itself
in the stream of circumstance, in the current of human
affairs. The native strength of this instinctive belief is
shewn by its survival in minds that have long since
cast off allegiance to religious creeds. It only needs
a sudden sense of personal danger, the sharp shock
of a serious accident, the foreboding of bitter loss, the
unexpected but utter overthrow of some well-laid
scheme that seemed assured of success, to stir the faith
that is latent in the depths of the most callous and
worldly heart, and to force the acknowledgment of a
righteous Judge enthroned above.
Compared with the mysterious Power which evinces
itself continuously in the apparent chaos of conflicting

380 THE PROPHECSES OF JEREMIAH.
events, man's free will is like the eddy whirling round
upon the bosom of a majestic river as it floats irresis
tibly onward to its goal, bearing the tiny vortex along
with it. Man's power of self-determination no more
interferes with the counsels of Providence than the
diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis interferes
with its annual revolution round the sun. The greater
comprises the less ; and God includes the world.
The Creator has implanted in the creature a power of
choice between good and evil, which is a pale reflexion
of His own tremendous Being. But how can we even
imagine the dependent, the limited, the finite, acting
independently of the will of the Absolute and Infinite ?
The fish may swim against the ocean current ; but can
it swim at all out of the ocean ? Its entire activity
depends upon the medium in which it lives and moves
and has its being.
But Jeremiah exposes the secret of Providence to the
eyes of his fellow-countrymen for a particular purpose.
His aim is to eradicate certain prevalent misconceptions,
so as to enable them to rightly apprehend the meaning
of God's present dealings with themselves. The popular
belief was that Zion was an inviolable sanctuary; that
whatever disasters might have befallen the nation in
the past, or might be imminent in the future, Iahvah
could not, for His own sake, permit the extinction of
Judah as a nation. For then His worship, the worship
of the temple, the sacrifices of the one altar, would be
abolished ; and His honour and His Name would be
forgotten among men. These were the thoughts which
comforted them in the trying time when a thousand
rumours of the coming of the Chaldeans to punish their
revolt were flying about the land ; and from day to day
men lived in trembling expectation of impending siege

»viii] The divine potter. 3«<
and slaughter. These were the beliefs which the
popular prophets, themselves probably in most cases
fanatical believers in their own doctrine, vehemently
maintained in opposition to Jeremiah. Above all, there
was the covenant between Iahvah and His people,
admitted as a fact both by Jeremiah and his opponents.
Was it conceivable that the God of the Fathers, who
had chosen them and their posterity to be His people
for ever, would turn from His purpose, and reject His
chosen utterly ?
Jeremiah meets these popular illusions by applying
his analogy of the potter. The potter fashions a mass
of clay into a vessel ; and Iahvah had fashioned Israel
into a nation. But as though the mass of inert matter
had proven unwieldy or stubborn to the touches of his
plastic hands; as the wheel revolved, a misshapen
product resulted, which the artist broke up again, and
moulded afresh on his wheel, till it emerged a fair copy
of his ideal. And so, in the revolutions of time, Israel
had failed of realizing the design of his Maker, and had
become a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction. But
as the rebellious lump was fashioned again by the deft
hand of the master, so might this refractory people be
broken and built up anew by the Divine master hand.
In the light of this analogy, the prophet interprets
the existing complications of the political world. The
serious dangers impending over the nation are a sure
symptom that the Divine Potter is at work, "moulding"
an evil fate for Judah and Jerusalem. "And now
prithee say unto the men of Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem :
" Thus hath Iahvah said.
Behold I am moulding evil against yoo,
And devising a device against you 1 "

38a TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAH.
But Iahvah's menaces are not the mere vent of a
tyrant's caprice or causeless anger: they are a deliberate
effort to break the hard heart, to reduce it to contrition,
to prepare it for a new creation in a more glorious like
ness. Therefore the threat closes with an entreaty :
" Return ye, I pray you, each from his evil way,
And make good your ways and your doings t "
If the prophetic warning fulfil its purpose, and the
nation repent, then as in the case of Nineveh, which
repented at the preaching of Jonah, the sentence of
destruction is revoked, and the doomed nation is
granted a new lease of life. The same truth holds good
reversely. God's promises are as conditional as His
threats. If a nation lapse from original righteousness,
the sure consequence is the withdrawal of Divine
favour, and all of blessing and permanence that it
confers. It is evident that the prophet directly con
tradicts the popular persuasion, which was also the
current teaching of his professional opponents, that
Iahvah's promises to Israel are absolute, that is,
irrespective of moral considerations. Jeremiah is
revealing, in terms suited to the intelligence of his
time, the true law of the Divine dealings with Israel
and with man. And what he has here written, it is
important to bear in mind, when we are studying other
passages of his writings and those of his predecessors,
which foreshow judgments and mercies to individual
peoples. However absolute the language of prediction,
the qualification here supplied must usually be under
stood ; so that it is not too much to say that this
remarkable utterance is one of the keys to the com
prehension of Hebrew prophecy.
But now, allowing for antique phraseology, and for

xviii] THE DIVINE POTTER. 383
the immense difference between ancient and modern
modes of thought and expression; allowing also for
the new light shed upon the problems of life and
history by the teaching of Him who has supplemented
all that was incomplete in the doctrine of the prophets
and the revelation granted to the men of the elder
dispensation ; must we pronounce this oracle of Jere
miah's substantially true or the contrary ? Is the view
thus formulated an obsolete opinion, excusable in days
when scientific thinking was unknown; useful indeed
for the furtherance of the immediate aims of its authors,
but now to be rejected wholly as a profound mistake,
which modern enlightenment has at once exposed and
rendered superfluous to an intelligent faith in the God
of the prophets ?
Here and everywhere else, Jeremiah's language is
in form highly anthropomorphic. If it was to arrest
the attention of the multitude, it could not well have
been otherwise. He seems to say that God changes
His intentions, according as a nation changes its be
haviour. Something must be allowed for style, in a
writer whose very prose is more than half poetry, and
whose utterances are so often lyrical in form as well
as matter. The Israelite thinkers, however, were also
well aware that the Eternal is superior to change ; as
is clear from that striking word of Samuel : " The Glory
of Israel lieth not nor repenteth ; for He is not man, that
He should repent " (1 Sam. xv. 29). And prophetic
passages like that in Kings, which so nobly declares
that the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot con
tain God (cf. Jer. xxiii. 24), or that of the second Isaiah
which affirms that the Divine ways and purposes are as
much higher than those of His people, as the heavens are
higher than the earth (Isa. Iv. 9), prove that the vivid

384 THE PROPHECIES Of JEREMIAH.
anthropomorphic expressions of the popular teaching
of the prophets ought in mere justice to be limited
by these wider conceptions of the Divine Nature and
attributes. These passages are quite enough to clear
the prophets of the accusation of entertaining such
gross and crude ideas of Deity as those which Xeno-
phanes ridiculed, and which find their embodiment in
most mythologies.
There is indeed a sense in which all thinking, not
only thought about God, but about the natural world,
must be anthropomorphic. Man is unquestionably
" the measure of all things," and he measures by a
human standard. He interprets the world without in
terms of his own consciousness ; he imposes the forms
and moulds of his own mind upon the universal mass
of things. Time, space, matter, motion, number,
weight, organ, function, — what are all these but inward
conceptions by which the mind reduces a chaos of
conflicting impressions to order and harmony ? What
the external world may be, apart from our ideas of it,
no philosopher pretends to be able to say; and an
equal difficulty embarrasses those who would define
what the Deity is, apart from His relations to man.
But then it is only those relations that really concern
us ; everything else is idle speculation, little becoming
to creatures so frail and ephemeral as we.
From this point of view, we may fairly ask, what
difference it makes whether the prophet affirm that
Iahvah repents of retributive designs, when a nation
repents of its sins, or that a nation's repentance will
be followed by the restoration of temporal prosperity.
It is a mere matter of statement ; and the former way
of putting the truth was the more intelligible way to
his contemporaries, and has, besides, the advantage

xviii] THE DIVINE POTTER. 385
of implying the further truth that the fortunes of
nations do not depend upon a blind and inexorable
fate, but upon the Will and Law of a holy God. It
affirms a Lawmaker as well as a Law, a Providence as
well as an uniform sequence of events.
The prophet asserts, then, that nations reap what
they have sown ; that their history is, in general, a
record of God's judgments upon their ways and doings.
This is, of course, a matter of faith, as are all beliefs
about the Unseen ; but it is a faith which has its root
in an apparently ineradicable instinct of humanity.
ApdcravTi iradeiv, "The doer must suffer," is not a
conviction of Hebrew religion only ; it belongs to the
universal religious consciousness. Some critics are
fond of pronouncing the "policy" of the prophets a
mistaken one. They commend the high tone of their
moral teachings, but consider their forecasts of the
future and interpretations of passing events, as
erroneous deductions from their general views of the
Divine nature. We are not well acquainted with the
times and circumstances under which the prophets
wrote and spoke. This is true even in the case of
Jeremiah ; the history of the time exists only in the
barest outline. But the writings of an Isaiah or an
Amos make it difficult to suppose that their authors
would not have occupied a leading position in any age
and nation ; their thought is the highest product of
the Hebrew mind ; and the policy of Isaiah at least,
during the Assyrian crisis, was gloriously justified by
the event.
We need not, however, stop here in attempting to
vindicate the attitude and aims of the prophets. With
out claiming infallibility for every individual utterance
of theirs — without displaying the bad taste and entire
25

386 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
lack of literary tact which would be implied by insist
ing upon the minute accuracy and close correspondence
to fact, of all that the prophets foreboded, all that they
suggested as possible or probable, and by turning all
their poetical figures and similes into bald assertions
of literal fact ; we may, I think, steadfastly affirm that
the great principles of revealed religion, which it was
their mission to enunciate and impress by all the
resources of a fervid oratory and a high-wrought
poetical imagination, are absolutely and eternally true.
Man does reap as he sows ; all history records it. The
present welfare and future permanence of a nation do
depend, and have always depended, upon the strength
of its adhesion to religious and moral convictions.
What was it that enabled Israel to gain a footing in
Canaan, and to reduce, one after another, nations and
communities far more advanced in the arts of civiliza
tion than they ? What but the physical and moral
force generated by the hardy and simple life of the
desert, and disciplined by wise obedience to the laws
of their Invisible King ? What but a burning faith in
the Lord of Hosts, Iahvah Sabaoth, the true Leader
of the armies of Israel ? Had they only remained
uncontaminated by the luxuries and vices of the con
quered races; had they not yielded to the soft seduction
of sensuous forms of worship ; had they continued
faithful to the God who had brought them out of Egypt,
and lived, on the whole, by the teaching of the true
prophets; who can say that they might not have
successfully withstood the brunt of Assyrian or
Chaldean invasion?
The disruption of the kingdom, the internecine
conflicts, the dynastic revolutions, the entanglements
with foreign powers which mark the progressive

xriii] IHE DIVINE POTTER. 387
decline of the empire of David and Solomon, would
hardly have found place in a nation that steadily lived
by the rule of the prophets, clinging to Iahvah and
Iahvah only, and "doing justice and loving mercy"
in all the relations of life. The gradual differentiation
of the idea of Iahvah into a multitude of Baals at the
local sanctuaries must have powerfully tended to disin
tegrate the national unity. Solomon's temple and the
recognition of the one God of all the tribes of Israel as
supreme, which that religious centre implied, was, on
the other hand, a real bond of union for the nation.
We cannot forget that, at the outset of the whole
history, Moses created or resuscitated the sense of
national unity in the hearts of the Egyptian serfs, by
proclaiming to them Iahvah, the God of their fathers.
It is a one-sided representation which treats the policy
of the prophets as purely negative ; as confined to the
prohibition of leagues with the foreigner, and" the con
demnation of walls and battlements, chariots and horses,
and all the elements of social strength and display.
The prophets condemn these things, regarded as sub
stitutes for trust in the One God, and faithful obedience
to His laws. They condemn the man who puts his
confidence in man, and makes flesh his arm, and forgets
the only true source of strength and protection. To
those who allege that the policy of the prophets was a
failure, we may reply that it never had a full and fair
trial

And they will say, Hopeless 1 for we will follow after our <
devices, and will each practise the stubbornness of his own evil
heart. Therefore thus hath Iahvah said :
1. "Ask ye now among the heathen,
Who hath heard the Uke?

388 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
The virgin (daughter) of Israel
Hath done a very horrible thing.
3. " Doth the snow of Lebanon cease
From overflowing the field ?
Do the running waters dry up,
The icy streams ? '
3. " For My people have forgotten me,
To vain things they burn incense ;
And they have made them stumble in their ways, the ancient
paths,
To walk in bypaths, a way not cast up :
4. "To make their land a desolation,
Perpetual hissings;
Every one that passeth her by shall be amazed,
And shall shake his head.
5. " Like an east wind will I scatter them
In the face of the foe ;
The back and not the face will I shew them.
In the day of their overthrow."
God foresees that His gracious warning will be
rejected as heretofore; the prophet's hearers will cry
" It is hopeless 1 " thy appeal is in vain, thine enterprise
desperate; "for after our own devices" or thoughts
" will we walk," not after thine, though thou urge them
as Iahvah's ; " and we will each practise the stubbornness
of his own evil heart " — this last in a tone of irony, as if
to say, Very well ; we accept thy description of us ; our
ways are stubborn, and our hearts evil : we will abide
by our character, and stand true to your unflattering
portrait. Otherwise, the words may be regarded as
1 Instead of ifV 7l¥D "from the rock of the field," I have ventured
to read Ht}> S]1XD (Lam. iii. 54; Deut xi. 4; 2 Kings vi 6). For
lBTIJ' "plucked up" "uprooted," which is inappropriate in connexion
with water, Schnurrer's intS^1 " dried up " (Isa. xix. 5 ; Jer. li 30), is
probably right In the second couplet, I read DOT for DHT, which
is meaningless, and transpose D*1p with D vtll

xviii.] THE DIVINE POTTER. 389
giving the substance of the popular reply, in terms
which at the same time convey the Divine condem
nation of it ; but the former view seems preferable.
God foresees the obstinacy of the people, and yet the
prophet does not cease his preaching. A cynical
assent to his invective only provokes him to more
strenuous endeavours to convince them that they are
in the wrong; that their behaviour is against reason
and nature. Once more (ii. IO sqq.) he strives to
shame them into remorse by contrasting their conduct
with that of other nations. These were faithful to
their own gods ; among them such a crime as national
apostasy was unheard of and unknown. It was
reserved for Israel to give the first example of this
abnormal offence ; a fact as strange and fearful in the
moral world, as some unnatural revolution in the
physical sphere. That Israel should forget his duty to
Iahvah was as great and inexplicable a portent, as if
the perennial snows of the Lebanon should cease to
supply the rivers of the land ; or as if the ice-cold
streams of its glens and gorges should suddenly cease
to flow. And certainly, when we look at the matter
with the eye of calm reason, the prophet cannot be said
to have here exaggerated the mystery of sin. For,
however strong the temptation that lures man from
the path of duty, however occasion may suggest, and
passion urge, and desire yearn, these influences cannot
of themselves silence conscience, and obliterate expe
rience, and overpower judgment, and defeat reason.
As surely as it is possible to know anything, man
knows that his vital interests coincide with duty ; and
that it is not only weak but absolutely irrational to
sacrifice duty to the importunities of appetite.
When man forsakes the true God, it is to "burn

39« THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
incense to vain gods" or things of nought. He who
worships what is less than God, worships nothing. No
being below God can yield any true satisfaction to
that human nature which was made for God. The man
who fixes his hope upon things that perish in the using,
the man who seeks happiness in things material, the
man whose affections have sole regard to the joys of
sense, and whose devotion is given wholly to worldly
objects, is the man who will at the last cry out, in
hopeless disappointment and bitterness of spirit, Vanity
of vanities ! all is vanity 1 " For what shall it profit
a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul ? " The soul's salvation consists in devotion
to its Lord and Maker; its eternal loss and ruin, in
alienation from Him who is its true and only life.
The false gods are nought as regards help and profit ;
they are powerless to bless, but they are potent to hurt
and betray. They "make men stumble out of their
ways, out of the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths,
in a way not cast up." So it was of old ; so it is now.
When the heart is estranged from God, and devoted to
some meaner pursuit than the advancement of His glory,
it soon deserts the straight road of virtue, the highway
of honour, and falls into the crooked and uneven paths
of fraud and hypocrisy, of oppression and vice. The end
appears to sanctify the means, or at least to make them
tolerable; and, once the ancient path of the Law is
forsaken, men will follow the most tortuous, and often
thorny and painful courses, to the goal of their choice.
The path which leads away from God, leads both
individuals and nations to final ruin. Degraded ideas
of the Deity, false ideas of happiness, a criminal
indifference to the welfare of others, a base devotion to

xviii] TBE DIVINE POTTER. 391
private and wholly selfish ends, must in the long run
sap the vigour of a nation, and render it incapable of
any effectual resistance to its enemies. Moral declen
sion is a sure symptom of approaching political
dissolution ; so sure, that if a nation chooses and
persists in evil, in the face of all dissuasion, it may be
assumed to be bent on suicide. Like Israel, it may be
said to do thus, " in order to make its land an astonish
ment, perpetual hissings." Men will be surprised at
the greatness of its fall, and at the same time will
acknowledge by voice and gesture that its doom is
absolutely just.
So far as his immediate hearers were concerned, the
effect of the prophet's words was exactly what had
been anticipated (ver. 18; cf. ver. 12). Jeremiah's
preaching was a ministry of hardening, in a far more
complete sense than Isaiah's had been. On the present
occasion, the popular obduracy and unbelief evinced
itself in a conspiracy to destroy the prophet by false
accusation. They would doubtless find it not difficult
to construe his words as blasphemy against Iahvah,
and treason against the state. And they said : Come
and let us devise devices — lay a plot — against Jeremiah.
Dispassionate wisdom, mere worldly prudence, would
have said, Let us weigh well the probability or even
possibility of the truth of his message. Moral
earnestness, a sincere love of God and goodness,
would have recognised in the prophet's fearful earnest
a proof of good faith, a claim to consideration. Un
biassed common sense would have asked, What has
Jeremiah to gain by persistence in unpopular teaching ?
What will be his reward, supposing his words come
true ? Is it to be supposed that a man whose woeful
tidings are uttered in a voice broken with sobs, and

39* THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
interrupted by bursts of wild lamentation, will look
with glad eyes upon destruction when it comes, if it
come after all ? But habitual sin blinds as well as
pollutes the soul. And when admonition is unaccept
able, it breeds hatred. The heart that is not touched
by appeal becomes harder than it was before. The
ice of indifference becomes the adamant of malignant
opposition. The populace of Jerusalem, like that of
more modern capitals, was enervated by ease and
luxury, altogether given over to the pursuit of wealth
and pleasure as the end of life. They hated the man
who rebuked in the gate, and abhorred him that spoke
uprightly (Amos v. io). They could not abide one
whose life and labours were a continual protest against
their own. And now he had done his best to rob
them of their pleasant confidence, to destroy the
delusion of their fool's paradise. He had burst into
the heathenish sanctuary where they offered a worship
congenial to their hearts, and done his best to wreck
their idols, and dash their altars to the ground. He
had affirmed that the accredited oracles were all a lie,
that the guides whom they blindly followed were
leading them to ruin. So the passive dislike of good
blazes out into murderous fury against the good man
who dares to be good alone in the face of a sinful
multitude. That they are made thoroughly uneasy by
his message of judgment, that they are more than half
convinced that he is right, is plain from the frantic
passion with which they repeat and deny his words.
Law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from
the wise, nor the word from the prophet: these things
cannot, shall not be. When people have pinned their
faith to a false system — a system which accords with
their worldly prejudices, and flatters their ungodly

xviii] THE DIVINE POTTER. 393
pride, and winks at or even sanctions their vices ;
when they have anchored their entire confidence upon
certain men and certain teachings which are in perfect
harmony with their own aims in life and their own
selfish predilections, they are not only disturbed and
distressed but often enraged by a demonstration that
they are lulled in a false security. And anger of this
kind is apt to be so irrational, that they may think
to escape from the threatened evil by silencing its
prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue,
and let us not hearken to any of his words I They will
first get rid of him, and then forget his words of
warning. Their policy is no better than that of the
bird which buries its head in the sand, when its
pursuers have run it down ; an infatuated Out of sight,
out of mind. And Jeremiah's recompense for his dis
interested zeal is another conspiracy against his life.
Once more he lays his cause before the one impartial
Judge ; the one Being who is exalted above all passion,
and therefore sees the truth as it is.
" Hearken Thou, O Iahvah, unto me,
And hear Thou the voice of mine adversaries.
Should evil be recompensed for good ?
For they have digged a pit for my life.
Remember my standing before Thee to speak good about them,
To turn back Thy wrath from them."
Hearken Thou, since they refuse to hearken; hear
both sides, and pronounce for the right Behold the
glaring contrast between my innocence of all hurtful
intent, and their clamorous injustice, between my truth
and their falsehood, my prayers for their salvation and
their outcry for my blood.
As we read this prayer of Jeremiah's, we are
reminded of the very similar language of the thirty-fifth

394 TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
and hundred and ninth psalms, of which he was himself
perhaps the author (see especially Ps. xxxv. i, 4,
5, 7, 11, 12; cix. 2, 5). We have already partially
considered the moral aspect of such petitions. It is
necessary to bear in mind that the prophet is speaking
of persons who have persistently rejected warning, and
ridiculed reproof; and now, in return for his interces
sions on their behalf, are attempting his life, not in a
sudden outbreak of uncontrollable fury, but with craft
and deliberate malice, after seeking, apparently, like
their spiritual successors in a later age, to entrap him
into admissions that might be construed as treason or
blasphemy (Ps. xxxv. 19-21).
" Therefore give their sons to the famine,
And pour them into the hands of the sword ;
And let their wives be bereaved and widows,
And let their husbands be slain of Death ;
Let their young men be stricken down of the sword in the
battle t
" Let a cry be heard from their houses,
When Thou bringest a troop upon them suddenly !
For they digged a pit to catch me,
And snares they hid for my feet.
" But of Thyself, Iahvah, Thou knowest all their plan against
me for death ;
Pardon Thou not their iniquity,
And blot not out their trespass from before Thee ;
But let them be made to stumble before Thee,
In the time of Thine anger deal Thou with them 1 ' "
The passage is lyrical in form and expression, and
something must be allowed for the fact in estimating
its precise significance. Jeremiah had entreated God
and man that all these things might not come to pass.
Now, when the attitude of the people towards his
message and himself at last leaves no doubt that theii

xviii] THE DIVINE POTTER. 39$
obduracy is invincible, in his despair and distraction
he cries, Be it so, then I They are bent on destruction ;
let them have their will 1 Let the doom overtake them,
that I have laboured in vain to avert ! With a weary
sigh, and a profound sense of the ripeness of his
country for ruin, he gives up the struggle to save it
The passage thus becomes a rhetorical or poetical
expression of the prophet's despairing recognition of
the inevitable.
How vivid are the touches with which he brings out
upon his canvas the horrors of war I In language lurid
with all the colours of destruction, he sets before us
the city taken by storm, he makes us hear the cry of
the victims, as house after house is visited by pillage
and slaughter. But stripped of its poetical form, all
this is no more than a concentrated repetition of the
sentence which he has over and over again pronounced
against Jerusalem in the name of Iahvah. The impre
catory manner of it may be considered to be simply a
solemn signification of the speaker's own assent and
approval. He recalls the sentence, and he affirms its
perfect consonance with his own sense of justice.
Moreover all these terrible things actually happened in
the sequel. The prophet's imprecations received the
Divine seal of accomplishment. This fact alone seems
to me to distinguish his prayer from a merely human
cry for vengeance. So far as his feelings as a man and
a patriot were concerned, we cannot doubt that he
would have averted the catastrophe, had that been
possible, by the sacrifice of his own life. That indeed
was the object of his entire ministry. We may call the
passage an emotional prediction ; and it was probably
the predictive character of it which led the prophet to
put it on record.

396 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
While we admit that no Christian may ordinarily
pray for the annihilation of any but spiritual enemies,
we must remember that no Christian can possibly
occupy the same peculiar position as a prophet of the
Old Covenant ; and we may fairly ask whether any
who may incline to judge harshly of Jeremiah on the
ground of passages like this, have fully realized the
appalling circumstances which wrung these prayers
from his cruelly tortured heart ? We find it hard to
forgive small personal slights, often less real than
imaginary; how should we comport ourselves to persons
whose shameless ingratitude rewarded evil for good to
the extent of seeking our lives ? Few would be content,
as Jeremiah was, with putting the cause in the hand
of God, and abstaining from all attempts at personal
vindication of wrongs. It surely betrays a failure of
imaginative power to realize the terrible difficulties
which beset the path of one who, in a far truer sense
than Elijah, was left alone to uphold the cause of true
religion in Israel, and not less, a very inadequate
knowledge of our own spiritual weakness, when we are
bold to censure or even to apologise for the utterances
of Jeremiah.
The whole question assumes a different aspect, when
it is noticed that the brief " Thus said Iahvah 1 " of the
next chapter (xix.) virtually introduces the Divine
reply to the prophet's prayer. He is now bidden to
foreshow the utter destruction of the Jewish polity by
a symbolic act which is even more unambiguous than
the language of the prayer. He is to take a common
earthenware bottle (baqbuq, as if " pour-pour " ; from
baqaq, "to pour out"), and, accompanied by some of
the leading personages of the capital, heads of families
and priests, to go out of the city to the valley of ben

xviii] • TBE DIVINE POTTER. 397

Hinnom, and there, after a solemn rehearsal of the
crimes perpetrated on that very spot in the name of
religion, and after predicting the consequent retribu
tion which will shortly overtake the nation, he is to
dash the vessel in pieces before his companions' eyes,
in token of the utter and irreparable ruin which awaits
their city and people.
Having enacted his part in this striking scene,
Jeremiah returns to the court of the temple, and there
repeats the same terrible message in briefer terms
before all the people; adding expressly that it is the
reward of their stubborn obstinacy and deafness to
the Divine voice.
The prophet's imprecations of evil thus appear to
have been ratified at the time of their conception by
the Divine voice, which spoke in the stillness of his
after reflexion.

XII.
TBE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT.
Jeremiah xix.
THE result of his former address, founded upon the
procedure of the potter, had only been to bring
out into clearer distinctness the appalling extent of the
national corruption. It was evident that Judah was
incorrigible, and the Potter's vessel must be broken
in pieces by its Maker.
Thus said Iahvah : Go and buy a bottle (baqbuq, as if
" a pour-pour " ; the meaning is alluded to in the first
word of ver. 7 : ubaqqothi, " and I will pour out ") of a
moulder of pottery (so the accents ; but perhaps the Vul
gate is right : " lagunculam figuli testeam," " a potter's
earthen vessel," A.V. ; lit. a potter's bottle, viz., earthen
ware), and (take: LXX. rightly adds) some of the elders
of the people and of the elders of the priests, and go out
into the valley of ben Hinnom at the entry of the Pottery
Gate (a postern, where broken earthenware and rubbish
were shot forth into the valley : the term is connected
with that for "pottery," ver. 1, which is the same as
that in Job ii. 8), and cry there the words that I shall
speak unto thee, — Jeremiah does not pause here, to
relate how he followed the Divine impulse, but goes
on at once to communicate the tenor of the Divine
" words " ; a circumstance which points to the fact that

TBE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT, m
this narrative was only written some time after the
symbolical action which it records; — and say thou,
Hear ye Iahvah's word, O kings of Judah and inhabit
ants of Jerusalem 1 Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God
of Israel: Lo, I am about to bring an evil upon this place,
such that, whoever heareth it, his ears shall tingle ! If
we suppose, as seems likely, that this series of oracles
(xviii.-xx.) belongs to the reign of Jehoiachin, the
expression " kings of Judah " may denote that king and
the queen-mother. Another view is that the kings of
Judah in general are addressed " as an indefinite class
of persons," here' and elsewhere (xvii. 20, xxii. 4),
because the prophet did not write the main portion of
his book until after the siege of Jerusalem (Ewald).
The announcement of this verse is quoted by the
compiler of Kings in relation to the crimes of king
Manasseh (2 Kings xxi. ,12).
Because that they forsook Me, and made this place
strange — alienated it from Iahvah by consecrating it
to " strange gods " ; or as the Targum and Syriac,
" polluted " it — and burnt incense therein to other gods,
whom neither they nor their fathers knew (xvi. 13); and
the kings of Judah did fill this place with blood of inno
cents (so the LXX. " Nor the kings of Judah " gives a
poor sense; they are included in the preceding phrase),
and built the bamoth Baal (High-places of Baal; a proper
name, Josh. xiii. 17), to burn their sons in the fire, [as
burnt-offerings to the Baal: LXX omits, and it is
wanting, vii. 31, xxxii. 35. It may be a gloss, but is
probably genuine, as there are slight variations in each
passage], which I commanded not, [nor spake : LXX.
omits], neither came it into My mind: therefore, behold days
are coming, saith Iahvah, when this place will no more be
called the Tophet and valley of ben Hinnom but the Valley

?oo THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
of Slaughter ! [and in Tophet shall they bury, so that
there be — remain — no room to bury ! This clause, pre
served at the end of ver. n, but omitted there by the
LXX., probably belongs here : see vii. 42]. And I
will pour out (ver. 1 ; Isa. xix. 3) the counsel of Judah
and Jerusalem in this place — that is, I will empty the
land of all wisdom and resourcefulness, as one empties
a bottle of its water, so that the heads of the state shall
be powerless to devise any effectual scheme of defence
in the face of calamity (cf. xiii. 13) — and I will cause
them to fall by the sword " before their enemies " (Deut.
xxviii. 25), and by the hand of them that seek their life;
and I will make " their carcases food unto the birds of the
air and the beasts of the earth " (Deut. xxviii. 26 ; chap.
vii. 33, xvi. 4). And I will set this city "for an astonish
ment" (Deut. xxviii. 37) and a hissing (xviii. 16) ; every
one that passeth by her shall be astonished and hiss at all
her " strokes " (xlix. 17, 1. 13) or "plagues " (Deut. xxviii.
59). And I will cause them to "eat the flesh of their sons
and the flesh of their daughters," and each the flesh of his
fellow shall they eat — " in the stress and the straitness
wherewith their enemies" and they that seek their life
" shall straiten them." It will be seen from the references
that the Deuteronomic colouring of these closing threats
(vv. 7-9) is very strong, the last verse being practi
cally a quotation (Deut. xxviii. 53). The effect of the
whole oracle would thus be to suggest that the terrible
sanctions of the sacred Law would not remain inopera
tive ; but that the shameless violation of the solemn
covenant under Josiah, by which the nation undertook
to observe the code of Deuteronomy, would soon be
visited with the retributive calamities so vividly fore
shadowed in that book.
And break thou the bottle, to the eyes of the men that

TBE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT. 401
go with thee, and say unto them: Thus said Iahvah
Sabaoth ; So will I break this people and this city, as one
breaketh the potter's vessel so that it cannot be mended
again ! Thus will I do to this place, saith Iahvah, and
to the inhabitants thereof, and make (infin. constr. as in
xvii. 10, continuing the mood and person of the pre
ceding verb ; which is properly a function of the infin.
absol., as in ver. 13) this city like a Tophet — make it
one huge altar of human sacrifice, a burning-place
for thousands of human victims. And the houses of
Jerusalem, and the houses of tlie kings of Judah — the
palace of David and Solomon, in which king after
king had reigned, and " done the evil in Iahvah's
eyes,"— shall become like the place of the Tophet, the
defiled ones I even all the houses upon the roofs of which
they burnt incense unto all the host of heaven, and poured
outpourings (libations of wine and honey) unto other
gods. (So the Heb. punctuation, which seems to give
a very good sense. The principal houses, those of the
kings and grandees, are called "the defiled," because
their roofs especially have been polluted with idolatrous
rites. The last clause of the verse explains the epithet,
which might have been referred to " the kings of Judah,"
had it preceded " like the place of the Tophet." The
houses were not to become " defiled " ; they were already
so, past all cleansing ; they were to be destroyed with
fire, and in their destruction to become the Tophet or
sacrificial pyre of their inhabitants. We need not,
therefore, read Tophteh, after Isa. xxx. 33, as I at first
thought of doing, to find afterwards that Ewald had
already suggested it. The term rendered " even all," is
lit. " unto all," that is, " including all " ; cf. Ezek. xliv. 9).1
1 LXX. dirb t&v a.Ka9apaiSiv abruiv makes it possible that they read
D'KDOO which would represent D'^fJtDD "denied."
26

40* THE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
The command and break thou the bottle . . . and
say unto them . . . compared with that of ver. 2, and
cry there the words that I shall speak unto thee ! seems
to indicate the proper point of view from which the
whole piece is to be regarded. Jeremiah is recalling
and describing a particular episode in his past ministry ;
and he includes the whole of it, with the attendant
circumstances and all that he said, first to the elders
in the vale of ben Hinnom, and then to the people
assembled in the temple, under the comprehensive
Thus said Iahvah ! with which he begins his narrative.
In other words, he affirms that he was throughout
the entire occurrence guided by the impulses of the
Spirit of God. It is very possible that the longer
first address (w. 2-9) really gives the substance of
what he said to the people in the temple on his
return from the valley, which is merely summarized
in verse 15.
And Jeremiah came in — into the temple— from the
Tophet, whither Iahvah had sent him to prophesy, and
took his stand in the court of Iahvah's House, and said
unto all the people : Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth Israels
God; Lo, I am about to bring upon (ver. 3) this city and
upon all her cities [and upon her villages : LXX. adds]
all the evil that I have spoken concerning her; because
they stiffened their neck (vii. 26), not to hear My words !
In this apparent epitome of His discourse to the people
in the temple, the prophet seems to sum up all his
past labours, in view of an impending crisis. "All the
evil" spoken hitherto concerning Jerusalem is upon
the point of being accomplished (cf. xxv. 3).
In reviewing the entire oracle, we may note as in
former instances, the care with which all the circum
stances of the symbolical action are chosen, in order

THE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT. 403
to enhance the effect of it upon the minds of the
witnesses. The Oriental mind delights in everything
that partakes of the nature of an enigma ;, it loves to
be called upon to unravel the meaning of dark sentences,
and to disentangle tbe wisdom wrapped up in riddling
words and significant actions. It would have found
eloquence in Tarquin's unspoken answer to his son's
messenger. "Rex velut deliberabundus in hortum
sedium transit, sequente nuncio filii : ibi inambulans
tacitus summa papaverum capita dicitur baculo decus-
sisse" (Liv. i. 54). No doubt Jeremiah's companions
would watch his every step, and would not miss the
fact that he carried his earthenware vessel out of the
city by the "Sherd Gate." Here was a vessel yet
whole, treated as though it were already a shattered
heap of fragments 1 They would be prepared for the
oracle in the valley.
It is worth while, by the way, to notice who those
companions were. They were certain of " the elders
of the people " and of the " the elders of the priests."
Jeremiah, it seems, was no wild revolutionary dreamer
and schemer, whose hand and voice were against all
established authority in Church and State. This was
not the character of the Hebrew prophets in general,
though some writers have conceived thus of them.
There is no evidence that Jeremiah ever sought to
divest himself of the duties and privileges of his heredi
tary priesthood ; or that he looked upon the monarchy
and the priestly guilds and the entire social organisa
tion of Israel, as other than institutions divinely
originated and divinely preserved through all the ages
of the national history. He did not believe that man
created these institutions though experience taught
him that man might abuse and pervert them from their

404 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
lawful uses. His aim was always to reform, to restore,
to lead the people back to " the old paths " of primi
tive simplicity and rectitude ; not to abolish hereditary
institutions, and substitute for the order which had
become an integral part of the national life, some brand-
new constitution which had never been tried, and would
be no more likely to fit the body corporate than the
armour of Saul fitted the free limbs of the young
shepherd who was to slay Goliath.
The prophets never called for the abolition of those
laws and customs, civil and ecclesiastical, which were
the very framework of the state, and the pillars of the
social edifice. They did not cry, " Down with kings
and priests ! " but to both kings and priests they cried,
" Hear ye Iahvah's word 1 " And all experience proves
that they were right. Paper constitutions have never
yet redeemed a nation from its vices, nor delivered, a
community from the impotence and the decay which
are the inevitable fruits of moral corruption. Arbitrary
legislative changes will not alter, the inward condition
of a people ; covetousness and hypocrisy, pride and
selfishness, intemperance and uncleanness and cruelty,
may be as rampant in a commonwealth as in a
kingdom. The contents of the oracle are much what we have
had many times already. The chief difference lies in
a calm definiteness of assurance, a tone of distinct
certitude, as though the end were so near at hand, as
to leave no room for doubt or hesitation. And this
difference is fittingly and impressively suggested by
the particular symbol chosen — the shattering of an
earthenware vessel, beyond the possibility of repair.
The direct mention of the king of Babylon and the
Babylonian captivity, in the sequel (chap, xx.), points

TBE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT 405
to the presence of a Babylonian invasion, probably that
which ended with the exile of Jeconiah and the chief
citizens of Jerusalem.
The fatal sin, from which the oracle starts and to
which it returns, is forsaking Iahvah, and making the
city of His choice " strange " to Him, that is, hateful
and unclean, by contact with foreign and bloody super
stitions, which were even falsely declared by their
promoters to be pleasing to Iahvah, the Avenger of
innocent blood! (chap. vii. 31). The punishment
corresponds to the offence. The sacrifices of blood
will be requited with blood, shed in torrents on the
very spot which had been so foully polluted ; they who
had not scrupled to slay their children for the sacrifice,
were to slay them again for food under the stress of
siege and famine ; the city and its houses, defiled with
the foreign worships, will become one vast Molech-fire
(xxxii. 35), in which all will perish together.
It may strike a modern reader that there is something
repulsive and cold-blooded in this detailed enumeration
of appalling horrors. But not only is it the case that
Jeremiah is quoting from the Book of the Law, at a
time when, to an unprejudiced eye, there was every
likelihood that the course of events would verify his
dark forebodings ; in the dreadful experience of those
times such incidents as those mentioned (ver. 9) were
familiar occurrences in the obstinate defence and pro
tracted sufferings of beleaguered cities. The prophet,
therefore, simply affirms that obstinate persistence in
following their own counsels and rejecting the higher
guidance will bring upon the nation its irretrievable
ruin. We know that in the last siege he did his
utmost to prevent the occurrence of these unnatural
horrors by urging surrender; but then, as always,

406 tbe Prophecies of jerEmiah.
the people " stiffened their neck, not to hear Iahvah's
words." Jeremiah knew his countrymen well. No phrase
could have better described the resolute obstinacy of
the national character. How were the headstrong
self-will, the inveterate sensuality, the blind tenacity
of fanatical and non-moral conceptions which charac
terized this people, to be purified and made serviceable
in the interests of true religion, except by means of the
fiery ordeal which all the prophets foresaw and fore
told? As we have seen, polytheism exercised upon
the popular mind a spell which we can hardly com
prehend from our modern point of view ; a polytheism
foul and murderous, which violated the tenderest
affections of our nature by demanding of the father
the sacrifice of his child, and violated the very instinct
of natural purity by the shameless indulgence of its
worship. It was a consecration of lust and cruelty, —
that worship of Molech, those rites of the Baals and
Asheras. Meagre and monotonous as the sacred records
may on these heads appear to be, their witness is
supplemented by other sources, by the monuments of
Babylon and Phenicia.
It is hard to see how the religious instinct of men
in this peculiar stage of belief and practice was to
be enlightened and purified in any other way than the
actual course of Providence. What arguments can be
imagined that would have appealed to minds which
found a fatal fascination, nay, we must suppose an
intense satisfaction, in rites so hideous that one durst
not even describe them; minds to which the lofty
monotheism of Amos, the splendid eloquence of an
Isaiah, the plaintive lyrical strain of a Jeremiah, ap
pealed in vain ? Appeals to the order of the world, to

THE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT. 407
the wonders of organic life, were lost upon minds which
made gods of the most obvious subjects of that order,
the sun, moon, and stars ; which even personified and
adored the physical principle whereby the succession
of life after life is perpetuated.
Nothing short of the perception that the word of the
prophets had come to pass, the recognition, therefore,
that the prophetic idea of God was the true idea, could
have succeeded in keeping the remnant of Judah safe
from the contagion of surrounding heathenism in the
land of their exile, and in radically transforming once
for all the religious tendencies of the Jewish race.
In Jeremiah's view, the heinousness of Judah's idol
atry is heightened by the consideration that the gods
of their choice are gods " whom neither they nor theii
fathers knew" (ver. 4). The kings Ahaz, Manasseh,
Amon, had introduced novel rites, and departed from
" the old paths " more decidedly than any of their pre
decessors. In this connexion, we may remember that,
while modern Romish controversialists do not scruple
to accuse the Church of this country of having unlaw
fully innovated at the Reformation, the Anglican appeal
has always been to Scripture and primitive antiquity.
Such, too, was the appeal of the prophets (Hos. vi. 1, 7,
xi. I ; Jer. ii. 2, vi. 16, xi. 3). It is the glory of our
Church, a glory of which neither the lies of Jesuits
nor the envy of the sectaries can rob her, that she
returned to " the old paths," boldly overleaping the
dark ages of medieval ignorance, imposture, and cor
ruption, and planting her foot firmly upon the rock
of apostolic practice and the consent of the undivided
Church. Disunion among Christians is a sore evil, but union
in the maintenance and propaganda of falsehood is a

4<j8 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
worse ; and the guilt of disunion lies at the door of that
system which abused its authority to crush out legiti
mate freedom of thought, to retard the advancement
of learning, and to establish those monstrous innova
tions in doctrine and worship, which subtle dialecticians
may prove to their own satisfaction to be innocent
and non-idolatrous in essence and intention, though
all the world can see that in practice they are grossly
idolatrous. God preserve England from that toleration
of serious error, which is so easy to sceptical indifference 1
God preserve her from lending an ear to the siren
voices that would seduce her to yield her hard-won
independence, her noble freedom, her manly rational
piety, to the unhistorical and unscriptural claims of the
Papacy !
If we reverence those Scriptures of the Old Testa
ment to which our Lord and His Apostles made their
constant appeal, we shall keep steadily before our minds
the fact that, in the estimation of a prophet like Jere
miah, the sin of sins, the sin that involved the ruin
of Israel and Judah, was the sin of associating other
objects of worship with the One Only God. The
temptation is peculiarly strong to some natures. The
continual relapse of ancient Israel is not so great a
wonder to those of us who have any knowledge of
mankind, and who can observe what is passing around
them at the present day. It is the severe demand of
God's holy law, which makes men cast about for some
plausible compromise — it is that demand which also
makes them yearn after some intermediary power,
whose compassion will be less subject to considerations
of justice, whom prayers and entreaties and presents
may overcome, and induce to wink at unrepented sin.
In an age ©f unsettlement, the more daring spirits will

THE BROKEN VESSEL— A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT. 409
be prone to silence their inconvenient scruples by rush
ing into atheism, while the more timid may take refuge
in Popery. " For to disown a Moral Governour, or to
admit that any observances of superstition can release
men from the duty of obeying Hirn, equally serves the
purpose of those, who resolve to be as wicked as they
dare, or as little virtuous as they can " (Bp. Hurd).
Then, too, there is the glory of the saints and angels
of God. How can frail man refuse to bow before the
vision of their power and splendour, as- they stand, the
royal children of the King of kings, around the heavenly
throne, deathless, radiant with love and joy and purity,
exalted far above all human weakness and human
sorrows ? If the holy angels are " ministering spirits,"
why not the entire community of the Blessed ? And
what is to hinder us from casting ourselves at the feet
of saint or angel, one's own appointed guardian, or
chosen helper ? Let good George Herbert answer for
us all. " Oh glorious spirits, who after all your bands
See the smooth face of God, without a frown,
Or strict commands ;
Where every one is king, and hath his crown,
If not upon his head, yet in his hands :
" Not out of envy or maliciousness
Do I forbear to crave your special aid.
I would address
My vows to thee most gladly, blessed Maid,
And Mother of my God, in my distress :
• ••••••
" But now, (alas I) I dare not ; for our King,
Whom we do all jointly adore and praise.
Bids no such thing :
And where His pleasure no injunction lays,
(Tis your own case) ye never move a wing.

410 THE PROtHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
" All worship is prerogative, and a flower
Of His rich crown, from whom lies no appeal
At the last hour :
Therefore we dare not from His garland steal,
To make a posy for inferior power."
In this sense also, as in many others, the warnic? oi
St. John applies:
UTTLE CHILDREN, KEEP TOURSELVES FROM IDOLS 1

XIIL
JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION
Jeremiah xx.
THE prophet has now to endure something more
than a scornful rejection of his message. And
Pashchur ben Immer the priest (he was chief officer in the
house of Iahvah) heard Jeremiah prophesying these words.
And Pashchur smote Jeremiah the prophet and put him
in the stocks, which were in the upper gate of Benjamin
in the house of Iahvah. Like the priest of Bethel, who
abruptly put an end to the preaching of Amos in the
royal sanctuary, Pashchur suddenly interferes, appa
rently before Jeremiah has finished his address to the
people; and enraged at the tenour of his words, he
causes him — " Jeremiah the prophet," as it is significantly
added, to indicate the sacrilege of the act — to be beaten
in the cruel Eastern manner on the soles of the feet,
inflicting probably the full number of forty blows per
mitted by the Law (Deut), and then leaving him, in his
agony of mind and body, fast bound in " the stocks."
For the remainder of that day and all night long the
prophet sat there in the gate, at first exposed to the
taunts and jeers of his adversaries and the rabble of
their followers, and as the weary hours slowly crept on,
becoming painfully cramped in his limbs by the bar
barous machine which held his hands and feet near

4ia TBE PROPHECIES OP JEREMIAH.
together, and bent his body double. This cruel punish
ment seems to have been the customary mode of dealing
with such as were accounted false prophets by the
authorities. It was the treatment which Hanani
ensured in return for his warning to king Asa (2
Chron. xvi. 10), some three centuries earlier than
Jeremiah's time ; and a few years later in our prophet's
history, an attempt was made to enforce it again in
his case (jer. xxix. 26). Thus, like the holy apostles
of our Lord, was Jeremiah " counted worthy to suffer
shame " for the Name in which he spoke (Acts v. 40,
41) ; and like Paul and Silas at Philippi, after enduring
" many stripes " his feet were " made fast in the
stocks " (Acts xvi. 23, 24). The message of Jeremiah
was a message of judgment, that of the apostles was a
message of forgiveness ; and both met with the same
response from a world whose heart was estranged from
God. The heart that loves its own way, is only at ease
when it can forget God. Any reminder of His Presence,
of His perpetual activity in mercy and judgment, is
unwelcome, and makes its authors odious. From the out
set, transgressors of the Divine law have sought to hide
among the trees of the garden — in the engrossing pursuits
and pleasures of life — from the Presence of God.
Pashchur's object was not to destroy Jeremiah, but
to break his spirit, and discredit him with the multi
tude, and so silence him for ever. But in this expecta
tion he was as signally disappointed as his successor
was in the case of St. Peter (Acts v. 24, 29). Now as
then, God's messenger could not be turned from his
conviction that we_ ought to obey God rather than men.
And as he sat alone in his intolerable anguish, brooding
over his shameful wrongs, and despairing of redress,
a Divine Word came in the stillness of night to this

xx.] JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION. 413

victim of human tyranny. For it came to pass on the
morrow that Pashchur brought Jeremiah forth out of the
stocks; and Jeremiah said unto him, Not Pashchur1 —
as if " Glad and free " — but Magor-missabib — " Fear on
every side " — hath Iahvah called thy name ! Sharpened
with misery, the seer's eye pierces through the shows
of life, and discerns the grim contrast of truth and
appearance. Before him stands this great man, clothed
with all the dignity of high office, and able to destroy
him with a word ; but Iahvah's prophet does not quail
before abused authority. He sees the sword suspended
by a hair over the head of this haughty and super
cilious official; and he realizes the solemn irony of
circumstance, which has connected a name suggestive
of gladness and freedom with a man destined to become
the thrall of perpetual terrors. For thus hath Iahvah
said: Lo, I am about to make thee a Fear to thyself and to
all thy lovers; and they will fall by the sword of their
foes, while thine eyes look on ! This " glad and free "
persecutor, wantoning in the abuse of power, blindly
fearless of the future, is not doomed to be slain out
of hand ; a heavier fate is in store for him, a fate pre-
* * *
1 The name is probably a quadriliteral from nt£>Q, ~J Ethiopic
"Vt^J^J rh " to be glad," Assyrian £*= V -]<] pashachu " to
be at ease," "to rest," (which comes nearest to the Hebrew root).
The Arabic verb means " The place was roomy, wide, ample " ;
whence ^."_j"free from distress or narrowness of mind." Thii3
Pashchur="ease," "tranquillity," and is formed like Achbor, kaphtor,
"a capital," (LXX. Pashchor). But the name might remind a
Hebrew of the root B»1D " to leap," " prance," Jer. 1. 1 1 , and in " free "
(plur. only), as if it were a compound of pash and chor. " Glad and
free:" cf. the LXX. vocalisation n~a<rv,up. I think this popular
etymology pasn -)- chor is probably what Jeremiah thought o£

414 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
figured and foreshadowed by his present sins. His
proud confidence is to give place to a haunting sense
of danger and insecurity ; he is to see his followers
perish one after another, and evermore to be expecting
the same end for himself : while the freedom which he
has enjoyed and abused so long, is to be exchanged
for a lifelong captivity in a foreign land. And all Judah
will I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he
will transport them to Babylon, and smite them with the
sword. And I will give all the store of this city — the
hoarded wealth of all sorts, which constitutes its strength
and reserve force — and all the gain thereof- — the produce
of labour — and all the value thereof — things rare and
precious of every kind, works of the carver's and the
goldsmith's and the potter's and the weaver's art; —
and all the treasures of ihe kings of Judah will I give
into the hand of their foes, that they may spoil them and
take them and bring them to Babylon.
And for thyself, Pashchur, and all that dwell in thine
house, ye shall depart among the captives ; and to Babylon
thou shalt come, and there thou shalt die, and there be
buried, thyself and all thy lovers, to whom thou hast
prophesied with untruth, or rather by the Lie, i.e., by the
Baal (ii. 8, xxiii. 13, cf. xii. 16).
The play on the name of Pashchur is like that on
Perath (ch. xiii.), and the change to Magor-missabib
is like the change of Tophet into "Valley of Slaughter"
(ch. xix.). Like Amos (vii. 16), Jeremiah repeats his
obnoxious prophecy, with a special application to his
cruel persecutor, and with the added detail that all the
wealth of Jerusalem will be carried as spoil to Babylon ;
a detail in which there may lie an oblique reference to
the covetous worldliness and the interested opposition
pf such men as Pashchur. Riches and ease and

xx.J JEREMIAS UNDER PERSECUTION. 415
popularity were the things for which he and those like
him had bargained away their integrity, prophesying
with conscious falsehood to the deluded people. His
"lovers" are his partisans, who eagerly welcomed his
presages of peace and prosperity, and doubtless actively
opposed Jeremiah with ridicule and threats. The last
detail is remarkable, for we do nototherwise know that
Pashchur affected to prophesy. If it be not meant
simply that Pashchur accepted and lent the weight of
his official sanction to the false prophets, and especially
those who uttered their divinations in the name of
" the Baal," that is to say, either Molech, or the popular
and delusive conception of the God of Israel, we see
in this man one who combined a steady professional
opposition to Jeremiah with power to enforce his
hostility by legalized acts of violence. The conduct
of Hananiah on a later occasion (xxviii. 10), clearly
proves that, where the power was present, the will for
such acts was not wanting in Jeremiah's professional
adversaries. It is generally taken for granted that the name of
"Pashchur" has been substituted for that of " Malchijah"
in the list of the priestly families which returned with
Zerubbabel from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra ii. 38 ;
Neh. vii. 41 ; cf. 1 Chron. xxiv. 9) ; but it seems quite
possible that " the sons of Pashchur" were a subdivision
of the family of Immer, which had increased largely
during the Exile. In that case, the list affords evidence
of the fulfilment of Jeremiah's prediction to Pashchur.
The prophet elsewhere mentions another Pashchur,
who was also a priest, of the course or guild of
Malchijah (xxi. I, xxxviii. 1), which was the-designa-
tion of the fifth class of the priests, as " Immer " was
that of the sixteenth (1 Chron. xxiv. 9, 14). The

416 TEE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
prince Gedaliah, who was hostile to Jeremiah, was ap
parently a son of the present Pashchur (Jer. xxxviii. i).
It is not easy to determine the relation of the lyrical
section which immediately follows the doom of Pashchur,
to the preceding account (w. 7-8). If the seventh
verse be in its original place, it would seem that the
prophet's word had failed of accomplishment, with
the result of intensifying the unbelief and the ridicule
which his teachings encountered. There is also some
thing very strange in the sequence of the thirteenth
and fourteenth verses, where, as the text now stands,
the prophet passes at once, in the most abrupt fashion
imaginable, from a fervid ascription of praise, a heart
felt cry of thanksgiving for deliverance either actual
or contemplated as such, to utterances of unrelieved
despair. I do not think that this is in the manner
of Jeremiah ; nor do I see how the violent contrast
of the two sections (7-13 and 14-18) can fairly be
accounted for, except by supposing either that we
have here two unconnected fragments, placed in juxta
position with each other because they belong to the
same general period of the prophet's ministry ; or that
the two passages have by some accident of transcrip
tion been transposed, which is by no means an un
common occurrence in the MSS. of the Biblical writers.
Assuming this latter as the more probable alternative,
we see in the entire passage a powerful representation
of the mental conflict into which Jeremiah was thrown
by Pashchur's high-handed violence and the seeming
triumph of his enemies. Smarting with the sense of
utter injustice, humiliated in his inmost soul by shame
ful indignities, crushed to the earth with the bitter
consciousness of defeat and failure, the prophet like.
Job opens his mouth and curses his day.

xx.] JEREMIAS UNDER PERSECUTION. 417
I. " Cursed be the day wherein I was bom I
The day that my mother bare me,
Let it not be blest !
a. Cursed be the man who told the glad tidings to my father,
' There is born to thee a male child ; '
Who made him rejoice greatly.
3. And let that man become like the cities that lahweh over
threw, without relenting,
And let him hear a cry in the morning,
And an alarm at the hour of noon 1
4. For that he slew me not in the womb,
That my mother might have become my grave,
And her womb have been laden evermore 1
5. O why from the womb came I forth
To see labour and sorrow,
And my days fordone with shame ? "
These five triplets afford a glimpse of the lively grief,
the passionate despair, which agitated the prophet's
heart as the first effect of the shame and the torture
to which he had been so wickedly and wantonly
subjected. The elegy, of which they constitute the
proem, or opening strophe, is not introduced by any
formula ascribing it to Divine inspiration ; it is simply
written down as a faithful record of Jeremiah's own
feelings and reflexions and self-communings, at this
painful crisis in his career. The poet of the book of
Job has apparently taken the hint supplied by these
opening verses, and has elaborated the idea of cursing
the day of birth through seven highly wrought and
imaginative stanzas. The higher finish and somewhat
artificial expansion of that passage leave little doubt that
it was modelled upon the one before us. But the point
to remember here is that both are lyrical effusions,
expressed in language conditioned by Oriental rather
than European standards of taste and usage. As the
27

418 TBE PROPBECIES OF JEREMIAS.
prophets were not inspired to express their thoughts
and feelings in a modern English dress, it is superflu
ous to inquire whether Jeremiah was morally justified
in using these poetic formulas of imprecation. To
insist on applying the doctrine of verbal inspiration to
such a passage is to evince an utter want of literary
tact and insight, as well as adhesion to an exploded
and pernicious relic of sectarian theology. The prophet's
curses are simply a highly effective form of poetical
rhetoric, and are in perfect harmony with the imme
morial modes of Oriental expression; and the under
lying thought, so equivocally expressed, according to
our ways of looking at things, is simply that his life
has been a failure, and therefore it would have been
better not to have been born. Who that is at all
earnest for God's truth, nay, for far lower objects of
human interest and pursuit, has not in moments of
despondency and discouragement been overwhelmed
for a time by the like feeling ? Can we blame Jeremiah
for allowing us to see in this faithful transcript of his
inner life how intensely human, how entirely natural
the spiritual experience of the prophets really was ?
Besides, the revelation does not end with this initial
outburst of instinctive astonishment, indignation and
despair. The proem is succeeded by a psalm in seven
stanzas of regular poetical form — six quatrains rounded
off with a final couplet — in which the prophet's thought
rises above the level of nature, and finds in an over
ruling Providence both the source and the justification
of the enigma of his life.
I. "Thou enticedst me, Iahvah, and I was enticed,
Thou urgedst l me, and didst prevail !
I am become a derision all the day long.
Every one mocketh at me.
1 Ex. xii. 33 Isa. viii. 1 1 ; Ezek. iiL 14 ; Jer. xv. 17.

xx.] JEREMIAS UNDER PERSECUTION. 419
2. " For as oft as speak, I cry alarm,
Violence and havoc do I proclaim ;
For Iahvah's word is become to me a reproach,
And a scoff all the day long.
3. " And if I say, I will not mind it,
Nor speak any more in His Name ;
Then it becometh in my heart like a burning fire prisoned
in my bones.
And I weary of holding it in ' and am not able.
4. " For I have heard the defaming of many, the terror on every
side ; *
All the men of my friendship are watching for my fall j
'Perchance he will be enticed, and we shall prevail over
him,
And take our revenge of him.'
5. " Yet Iahvah is with me as a dread warrior,
Therefore my pursuers shall stumble and not prevail ;
They shall be greatly ashamed, for that they have not
prospered,
With eternal dishonour that shall not be forgotten.
6. " And Iahvah Sabaoth trieth the righteous,
Seeth the reins and the heart ;
I shall see Thy revenge of them,
For unto Thee have I committed my quarrel.
7. Sing ye to Iahvah, acclaim ye Iahvah 1
For He hath snatched the poor man's life out of the hand of
evildoers."
The cause was of God. Thou didst lure me, Iahvah,
and I let myself be lured; Thou urgedst me and wert
victorious. He had not rashly and presumptuously
taken upon himself this office of prophet ; he had been
called, and had resisted the call, until his scruples and
his pleadings were overcome, as was only natural, by a
Will more powerful than his own (chap. i. 6). In
speaking of the inward persuasions which determined
1 vi. 1 1 (or, of enduring, Mai. iii. 2).
' ' Denounce ye, and we will denounce him 1 '

4» TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
the course of his life, he uses the very terms which
are used by the author of Kings in connexion with
the spirit that misled the prophets of Arab before the
fatal expedition to Ramoth Gilead. And he said, Thou
shalt entice, and also be victorious (i Kings xxii. 22).
Iahvah, therefore, has treated him as an enemy rather
than a friend, for He has lured him to his own destruc
tion. Half in irony, half in bitter complaint, the
prophet declares that Iahvah has succeeded only too
well in His malign purpose : / am become a derision
all the day long; Every one mocketh at me.
In the second stanza, the thought appears to be
continued thus : Thou overcamest me ; for as often as
I speak, I am a prophet of evil, / cry alarm ('es'aq;
cf. zeaqah, vers. 16) ; I proclaim the imminence of
invasion, the violence and havoc of a ruthless conqueror.
Thou overcamest me also, in Thy purpose of making me
a laughing-stock to my adversaries ; for Iahvah's word
is become to me a reproach, and a scoff all the day long
(the relation between the two halves of the stanza
is that of coordination ; each gives the reason of the
corresponding couplet in the first stanza). His
continual threats of a judgment that was still de
layed, brought upon him the merciless ridicule of his
opponents. Or the prophet may mean to complain that the
monotony of his message, his ever-recurring denuncia
tion of prevalent injustice, is made a reproach against
him. For as often as I speak I make an outcry of in
dignation at foul wrongdoing (Gen. iv. 10, xviii. 21,
xix. 13); wrong and robbery do I proclaim (Hab. i. 2, 3)
— the oppression of the poor by the covetous and
luxurious ruling classes. A third view is that Jeremiah
complains of the frequent attacks upon himself: For

xx.] f ERE MI AS UNDER PERSECUTION. 431
as often as I speak I have to exclaim ; Of assault and
violence do I cry ; but the first suggestion appears to
suit best, as giving a reason for the ridicule which the
prophet finds so intolerable (cf. xvii. 1 5).
The third stanza carries this plea for justice a Btep
further. Not only was the prophet's overwhelming
trouble due to his having yielded to the persuasions
and promises of Iahvah ; not only has he been re
warded with scorn and the scourge and the stocks for
his compliance with a Divine call. He has been in a
manner forced and driven into his intolerable position
by the coercive power of Iahvah, which left him no
choice but to utter the word that burnt like a fire
within him. Sometimes his fears of perfidy and
betrayal suggested the thought of succumbing to the
insuperable obstacles which seemed to block his path ;
of giving up once for all a thankless and fruitless
and dangerous enterprise : but then the inward flame
burnt so fiercely, that he could find no relief for his
anguish but by giving it vent in words (cf. Ps. xxxix.
i-3). The verse finely illustrates that vivid sense of a
Divine constraint which distinguishes the true prophet
from pretenders to the office. Jeremiah does not pro
test the purity of his motives ; indirectly and uncon
sciously he expresses it with a simplicity and a strength
which leave no room for suspicion. He has himself
no doubt at all that what he speaks is " Iahvah's
word." The inward impulse is overpowering ; he has
striven in vain against its urgency; like Jacob at
Peniel, he has wrestled with One stronger than him
self. He is no vulgar fanatic or enthusiast, in whom
rooted prejudices and irrational frenzies overbalance
the judgment, making him incapable of estimating the

42a TBE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH.
hazards and the chances of his enterprise ; he is as
well aware of the perils that beset his path as the
coolest and craftiest of his worldly adversaries. Thanks
to his natural quickness of perception, his developed
faculty of reflexion, he is fully alive to the probable
consequences of perpetually thwarting the popular will,
of taking up a position of permanent resistance to the
policy and the aims and the interests of the ruling
classes. But while he has his mortal hopes and fears,
his human capacity for anxiety and pain; while his
heart bleeds at the sight of suffering, and aches for
the woes that thickly crowd the field of his prophetic
vision ; his speech and his behaviour are dominated,
upon the whole, by an altogether higher consciousness.
His emotions may have their moments of mastery ; at
times they may overpower his fortitude, and lay him
prostrate in an agony of lamentation and mourning
and woe ; at times they may even interpose clouds and
darkness between the prophet and his vision of the
Eternal ; but these effects of mortality do not last :
they shake but cannot loosen his grasp of spiritual
realities ; they cannot free him from the constraining
influence of the Word of Iahvah. That word pos
sesses, leads him captive, " triumphs over him," over
all the natural resistance of flesh and blood ; for he is
" not as the many " — the false prophets — " who corrupt
the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God, he speaks" (2 Cor. ii.
14, 17)-
And still, unless a man be thus impelled by the
Spirit ; unless he have counted the cost and is pre
pared to risk all for God ; unless he be ready to face un
popularity and social contempt and persecution ; unless
he knows what it is to suffer for and with Jesus Christ ;

xxj JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION. 423
I doubt if he has any moral right to speak in that most
holy Name. For if the all-mastering motive be absent,
if the love of Christ constrain him not, how can his
desires and his doings be such as the Unseen Judge
will either approve or bless ?
The fourth stanza explains why the prophet laboured, ^
though vainly, to keep silence. It was because of the
malicious reports of his utterances, which were carefully
circulated by his watchful antagonists. They beset
him on every side; like Pashchur, they were to him
a " magor-missabib," an environing terror (cf. vi. 25),
as they listened to his harangues, and eagerly invited
each other to inform against him as a traitor (The
words " Inform ye, and let us inform against him 1 "
or " Denounce ye, and let us denounce him I " may be
an ancient gloss upon the term dibbah, "ill report,"
" calumny ; " Gen. xxxvii. 2 ; Num. xiii. 32 ; Job xvii. 5.
For the construction, cf. Job xxxi. 37. They spoil
the symmetry of the line. That dibbah really means
" defaming," or " slander," appears not only from the
passages in which it occurs, but also from the Arabic
dabilb, "one who creeps about with slander," from
dabba, " to move gently or slowly about." The Heb.
ragal, riggel, "to go about slandering," and rakil,
" slander," are analogous).
And not only open enemies thus conspired for the
prophet's destruction. Even professed friends (for the
phrase, cf. xxxviii. 22 ; Ps. xli. 10) were treacherously
watchful to catch him tripping (cf. ix. 2, xii. 6). Those
on whom he had a natural claim for sympathy and
protection, bore a secret and determined grudge against
him. His unpopularity was complete, and his position
full of peril. We have in the thirty-first and several \

424 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS.
of the following psalms outpourings of feeling under
circumstances very similar to those of Jeremiah on the
present occasion, even if they were not actually written
by him at the same crisis in his career, as certain
striking coincidences of expression seem to suggest
(ver. io; cf. Ps. xxxi. 13, xxxv. 15, xxxviii. 17, xli. 9;
ver. 13 with Ps. xxxv. 9, 10).
The prophet closes his psalm-like monologue with
an act of faith. He remembers that he has a Champion
who is mightier than a thousand enemies. Iahvah
is with him, not with them (cf. 2 Kings vi. 16) ; their
plots, therefore, are foredoomed to failure, and them
selves to the vengeance of a righteous God (xi. 20).
The last words are an exultant anticipation of deliver
ance. We thus see that the whole piece, like a previous
one (xv. 10-21), begins with cursing and ends with an
assurance of blessing.

By GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D., LL.D.
The
Historical Geography
of the Holy Land
Seventh Edition. With Scripture Index and Six Colored
Maps, specially prepared. 8vo, cloth, 730 pages, $4.50

. . . No one work has ever before embodied all this variety of material
to illustrate the whole subject. His geographical statements are pen-pictures.
We are made to see the scene. No important problem is untouched. With
out question it will take its place, at once as a standard work, indispensable to
the thoroughgoing student of the Bible. — Sunday-School Times,
... An exhaustive collection of material lay outside the plan of the author.
His intention is rather to show how the history of the land is conditioned by
its physical structure. It is thus the idea of Karl Ritter which rules the treat
ment and presentation. Very comprehensive sections are concerned, not with
the history, but with the nature of the land. . . . The author pays special
attention to the military operations, One could sometimes imagine that an
officer is writing, who, above all, regards the land from the point of view of the
military strategist. In this connection especially the history of Israel in its
chief crises in Old Testament times receives striking illumination. Large pas
sages are frequently quoted from the Old Testament in order to explain them
by the exhibition of their geographical background. In addition the author
has a special gift of vivid representation. He makes the history transact itself
before the eye of the reader in dramatic form. One sees, everywhere, that the
landscapes which he describes stand before his own eyes. Thus the book is
an extremely valuable means of aid to the understanding of the history, espe
cially of the Old Testament. — Prof. Schurer, of Kiel, in the Thsol. Litera-
iur-Zeitung. The book is too rich to summarize. . . . The language is particularly well
chosen. Few pages are without some telling phrase happily constructed to
attract attention and hold the memory, and we often feel that the wealth of
imagery would be excessive for prose were it not that it is chosen with such
appropriateness and scientific truth. _. . . To the reader much of the pleasure
of perusing the volume comes from its luxurious typography, and the exquisite
series of orographical maps prepared by Mr. Bartholomew from the work of
the Survey. These maps alone are more suggestive and enlightening than
many treatises, and they are destined, we trust, to enliven many a sermon, and
turn the monotony of the records of Israelitish wars into a thrilling romance. —
Speaker.

A. C ARMSTRONG & SON
3 and 5 W". J8th Street, New York

By GEORGE ADAM SMITH, P.P., LL.D.
The Book of Isaiah
In Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.50 each.
Volume I. Chapters I.— XXXIX.
Volume II. Chapters XL. — LXVI.
This is a noble volume of a noble series. Isaiah will ever be the cream ol
the Old Testament evangelistic prophecy, and as the ages go on will supply
seed-thought of the Holy Ghost which grow into flowers and fruits, vines
and trees, of divine truth for the refreshment and nourishment cf the intellect,
heart, character, and life- How can any Pastor or instructor of the public,
young- or old, afford to be without such aids ? — Baltimore Methodist.
Prof. George Adam Smith has such a mastery of the scholarship of his
subject that it would be a sheer impertinence for most scholars,_even though
tolerable Hebraists, to criticise his translations ; and certainly it is not the
intention of the present reviewer to attempt anything of the kind, to do which
he is absolutely incompetent. All we desire is to let English readers know
how very lucid, impressive — and, indeed^ how vivid — a study of Isaidh is
within their reach ; the fault of the book, if it has a fault, being rather that rt
finds too many points of connection between Isaiah and our modern world,
than that it finds too few- In other words, no one can say that the book ia
not full of life. — Spectator.
It would be difficult to say how highly we appreciate the work, or how
useful we believe it will be. — Church Bells.
He writes with great rhetorical power, and brings out into vivid reality the
historical position of his author. — Saturday Review.
Mr. Smith gives us models of expositions; expositions for cultivated con
gregations, no doubt, but still expositions which may have been largely
preached in church. They are full of matter, and show careful scholarship
throughout. We can think of no commentary on Isaiah from which the
preacher will obtain scholarly and trustworthy suggestions for his sermons so
rapidly and so pleasantly as from this. — Record.
The Book of the Twelve Prophets
COMMONLY CALLED THE MINOR
In Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.50 each.
Vol. I. — Amos, Hosea and Micah. Seventh Edition.
Vol. II. — Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah,
Haggai, Zechariah I. — VIII., "Malachi," Joel,
"Zechariah" IX.-XIV., and Jonah. Fourth Edition.
In Dr. Smith's volumes we have much more than a popular exposition of
the minor Prophets. We have that which will satisfy the scholar and the stu
dent quite as much as the person who reads for pleasure and for edification.
... If the minor Prophets do not become popular reading it is not because
anything more can be done to make them attractive. Dr. Smith's volumes
present this part of Scripture in what is at once the most attractive and the
most profitable form. — Dr. Marcus Dods, in the British Weekly.
Few interpreters of the Old Testament to-day rank higher than George
Adam Smith. He is_ at home in criticism, in geographical and archaeological
questions, and in philology. . . . Hardly any commentator of the present day
is more successful than he in putting the student at once into the heart of an
Old Testament problem. — S. S. Times.
The above four volumes are contained in "The
Expositor's Bible," and are subject to special sub
scription rates in connection with that series.
Descriptive circular on application.
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON
3 and 5 W. 18th Street, New York