THE GIFT OF 
 
 Alfred C Barnes, 
 
BS1525 .gTs" ""'™"'"' '■'""^ 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 306 078 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029306078 
 
JEREMIAH 
 
 The Man and his Message 
 
JEREMIAH 
 
 THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE 
 
 By 
 J. R. GILLIES 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 LONDON MCMVII 
 
Bmtltr and Tamntr, Th€ Sthvedd Printing Works^ Fro^u^ »nd Ltnd^te 
 
TO MY CONGREGATION 
 (Trinity Presbyterian Church, Hampstead), 
 
 without whose sympathy and forbearance 
 i could not have pursued those lines of study, 
 the fruits of which i offer them now, 
 with my best thanks and prayers. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General Introduction 13 
 
 The Prophet's Call. Chapter I ... 32 
 
 Loquitur Jahveh. Chapters II-III ». 5 . . 39 
 
 Israel and Judah. Chapters III v. 6-IV v.z . 54 
 
 The Scythian Invasion. Chapters III-VI . 63 
 
 Within the City. Chapters V-VI • • . 75 
 
 The Knell of Doom. Chapters VII-X . . 89 
 
 The Problem of Providence. Chapters XI-XIII 112 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Fountain of Living Waters. Chapters 
 
 XIV-XVII 132 
 
 The Potter's Wheel. Chapters XVIII-XX . 154 
 
 Kings and Prophets. Chapters XXI-XXIII . 171 
 
 The Turning Point. Chapter XXV . . . 190 
 
 A Temple Address. Chapter XXVI . . 203 
 
 An International Congress. Chapters XXVII- 
 
 XXVIII 208 
 
 A Letter to Babylon. Chapters XXIV-XXIX . 221 
 
 A Hymn of Praise. Chapters XXX-XXXIII . 230 
 
 The Prelude. Chapter XXX .... 233 
 
CONTENTS 9 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Reunion of the Tribes. Chapters XXI. 
 
 vv. 1-26 ....... 238 
 
 The New Covenant. Chapter XXXI, vv. 27-38 247 
 
 The Redemption of the Land .... 266 
 
 The Reorganization of the National Life. 
 
 Chapter XXXIII .... 277 
 
 Side-Lights. Chapter XXXV . . .285 
 
 The Burning of the Roll. Chapter XXXVI . 290 
 
 The Fall of the City ..... 300 
 
 The Flight to Egypt. Chapters XL-XLIV . 321 
 
 Baruch. Chapter XLV 336 
 
 The Oracles of the Nations. Chapters XLVI- 
 
 LI . ... • ■ 339 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 B.C. 
 646 (?) 
 
 638 . 
 
 626 . 
 
 630-625 
 
 621 
 
 60S 
 
 604 
 
 597 
 
 The Prophet's Birth. 
 Accession of Josiah. 
 The Prophet's Call. 
 The Scythian Invasion. 
 Deuteronomic Reformation. 
 Battle of Megiddo. 
 Death of Josiah. 
 I Reign of Jehoahaz. 
 V Accession of Jehoiakim. 
 ("Battle of Carchemish. 
 (.Publication of the Prophet's Roll. 
 CJehoiakim's Death. 
 Reign of Jehoiachin. 
 Accession of Zedekiah. 
 ^First Babylonian Captivity. 
 
 588 Siege of Jerusalem begins. 
 
 o fFall of Jerusalem. 
 
 (.Second Babylonian Captivity. 
 
 5(33 Nebuchadrezzar in Egypt. 
 
 538 Fall of Babylon. 
 
 537 Return of the Exiles. 
 
 10 
 
LITERATURE 
 
 Commentaries by Graf, Hitzig, Ewald, Nagelsbach, Orelli, 
 Giesebrecht, Duhm, Erbt, in German. 
 
 Also in English, Expositor's Bible (Ball and Bennett, 
 2 vols.) ; Driver's Jeremiah ; Lije and Times of Jeremiah, 
 by Canon Cheyne ; Studies in Jeremiah, by Rev. A. 
 Ramsay. 
 
 Also articles in Encyclopaedia Biblica (Jeremiah, by Schmidt), 
 and Bible Dictionary (Jeremiah, by A. B. Davidson) ; 
 with articles by Dr. Davidson and Dr. Stalker in the 
 Expositor ; articles in Studien U. Kritiken, and Zeitschrift 
 fit)' die alt-iest. Wissenchaft (ZATW). 
 
 See also Driver's Deuteronomy (International Critical Com- 
 mentary) ; and his Hebrew Tenses ; Davidson's Syntaxj 
 and GeseniuS-Kautzsch, Hebrew Grammar [G.K.). 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 JEREMIAH was bom at Anathoth. He received 
 his call to the prophetic office in the thirteenth 
 year of Josiah, 626 B.C. ; but he seems to have 
 remained in comparative retirement for some years, 
 a person of no particular account in the councils 
 of his people. Beginning work early in life, he pro- 
 phesied for a period of forty years, saw the downfall 
 of his country, and apparently ended life as an exile 
 in Egypt. 
 
 The age in which he lived was stirring and event- 
 ful beyond most. The year 626 was marked by an 
 invasion of semi-savage tribes, known as Scythians. 
 In 620 came the Religious Reformation under Josiah ; 
 in 608, his defeat and death on the field of Megiddo. 
 The Renaissance of Egypt, an ancient empire which, 
 after a period of decadence, started about this time on 
 a fresh career of political and mihtary aggression, 
 could not fail powerfully to affect Jewish history. 
 Later on, in 607, came the fall of Nineveh and the 
 dissolution of the Assyrian Empire. This was followed 
 by the emergence at Babylon of a new Power destined, 
 for half a century, to sway the sceptre of the East. 
 Seldom has a single lifetime witnessed transformation 
 so sudden and so complete. The old landmarks 
 entirely disappeared. The old forms of thought and 
 speech became obsolete at once. New social and 
 political conditions called for a new conception of 
 Religion. A man with our prophet's wide outlook 
 
14 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 and quick sympathy could not fail to respond ; 
 and, if he helped to make the age in which he lived, 
 it was because he himself was largely made by it. 
 
 It will help us in our study of the Book of Jeremiah 
 if we can form some general idea of the man wh© 
 wrote it. 
 
 1. First of all, then, we must realize that he 
 makes no pretence to be a theological teacher. The 
 prophets were not dogmatists ; least of them all 
 was Jeremiah one. He apprehends truth in the 
 concrete. The material with which he deals is not 
 abstract ideas but religious experience — first and 
 foremost, his own. Among the most distinctive 
 of his writings is a series of poems relating to the 
 Scythian Invasion already mentioned ; in which, 
 from first to last, there is practically no dogma, nor 
 any attempt to convey theological truth, but only 
 the quick response of a tender and passionate nature 
 to what was passing around. It is, I think, certain 
 that these Scythian Songs {" dirges " might be a 
 better name for them, but there is too much of life 
 and action in them to permit the phrase) were the 
 earliest of his utterances ; and from that fact we 
 may infer that he was called to the front, and became 
 conscious of his prophetic vocation, not in connexion 
 with any special message he had to deliver, but under 
 what was, to him, the imperious necessity to sympathize 
 with his people under a Sudden and terrible calamity. 
 
 2. We notice an interesting and remarkable change 
 that passed over him during his public ministry. 
 It is true of all of us that we learn by every attempt 
 we make to teach others ; and often we learn much 
 more than we teach. Now in the early stages of 
 the prophet's career we observe that he deals largely 
 with the past history of his people. In this, no 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 doubt, he was influenced by Hosea and the Book of 
 Deuteronomy ; although his treatment of the theme 
 is always independent, and sometimes original. The 
 splendid Revelation of Divine Grace with which 
 Israel's history began, seemed to lie in the immediate 
 past. It was " but yesterday," and the shadow 
 of it lay with consecrating power on himself and, 
 as he believed, on his people. However different the 
 time and the mood, there had, as yet, been no definite 
 break from the past. It was still possible, and natural, 
 to appeal to the people on the ground of it. At this 
 time his horizon was wide and his spirit tranquil. It 
 seemed not too much to hope that the religious fervour 
 of Judah, rekindled by the example of a pious king, 
 might prevail to the conversion of Israel ; and that 
 thus, at last, the disastrous effects of the disruption 
 of the kingdom might be undone. But the rejection 
 of Josiah's reform, and the definite and final relapse 
 of the people into idolatry under Jehoiakim, ended 
 these bright dreams. Steadily the horizon narrowed 
 about the prophet. Instead of hoping for Israel, 
 he came to despair even of Judah, and was left with 
 nothing certain, nothing on which he could build, 
 but his own religious experience. On the other 
 hand this change in the situation emphasized the 
 distinction between what was national or dispen- 
 sational and that which was personal, and therefore 
 of permanent spiritual worth, in religion. In this 
 way it led the prophet to remarkable developments 
 along very fruitful lines of which more must be said 
 afterwards. What had seemed a breakdown proved 
 a new departure ; the most important in Israel's 
 history. \li, then, there is a unity pervading the 
 utterances of our prophet, it is the unity not of thought 
 in the thinker, but of experience in the Man."> 
 
16 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 3. For, without doubt, the noblest contribution 
 he makes to our spiritual wealth is not what he says 
 or does, but what he himself is. No study could be 
 more instructive than such a personality as Jeremiah. 
 Certainly he does not answer to the idea of a saint, 
 current among us. The worse perhaps for us ! The 
 vehemence of the Oriental characterizes his passionate 
 outbursts. He curses roundly the day of his birth, 
 and heaps invectives on those who, like Pashhur 
 and Hananiah, have the misfortune not to agree with 
 him. He makes no pretence to the spurious spirit- 
 uality which lifts a man above his surroundings, 
 which discredits Nature and leaves him impervious 
 to her appeals. On the other hand, how gentle 
 he can be ; with what strength of will, tenacity of 
 purpose, wealth of affection and reserve of spiritual 
 power ! Without the commanding genius of Isaiah, 
 he is far more sympathetic. Isaiah lectures his 
 contemporaries on every subject under the sun, from 
 the Temple-worship to the contents of a lady's ward- 
 robe. But he does it all with a certain aloofness, 
 as one whose " soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." 
 Jeremiah identifies himself with his people ; burdens 
 himself with their sorrows, confesses, as his own, the 
 sins he spent a lifetime in combating. There is a 
 note of intimacy in all he writes which gives peculiar 
 value to his representations of contemporary life. 
 To Isaiah the Nattie of Jahveh 1 " comes from afar," > 
 a distant portent, like a storm cloud fringed with 
 fire. To Jeremiah it is rather the secret spring of 
 all the sweetness and strength of his own religious 
 life. His writings furnish us with the highest 
 
 » Throughout, I have adopted this, probably the original 
 form oi the great Name, better known to us as Jehovsi. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 example of a department of Literature which includes 
 such noble works as St. Augustine's Confessions 
 and the Imitation of Christ. Prophecy, originally a 
 state, had become a habit ; it was now to become 
 a life.^ Jeremiah utters truths which are revolutionary 
 in their profound spirituality ; but he does more. 
 In himself, he presents us with a new type of the 
 religious Mfe, more near than anything else in the 
 Old Testament to the normal Christian experience. 
 4. A word may be added about our prophet as an 
 Interpreter of Nature. In this respect, I think, very 
 scanty justice has been done to him. It has been 
 said " that his temper was too sombre, and his spirit 
 too heavy-laden with the burden and mystery of all 
 this unintelligible world, to permit the impressions of 
 external nature to play freely upon his soul. He 
 cannot drag himself away from the scenes and problems 
 of practical life to enjoy the peace and exaltation 
 others have enjoyed as they looked on the face of 
 Nature ; his allusions to Nature are pervaded rather 
 by a polemical "purpose than by the artistic spirit." * 
 There is, of course, a grain of truth in this. His spirit 
 was sombre, for the shadow of a dark age lay on it. 
 The claims of office left him little time for that leisurely 
 self-culture and technical training which are essential 
 to the highest success in literature or art. But that 
 cannot obscure what is clear as sunlight on every page 
 he wrote — the quick, patient, and observant eye with 
 which he regarded Nature, or the keen enjoyment 
 and ready response with which he followed her in all 
 her changeful moods. In this, which we may call 
 the Sense of Nature (Natur-gefiihl), he has, I take 
 
 ' See Dr. A. B. Davidson, in the Diet, of the Bible. 
 ' See Dr. Stalker in the Expositor, 1895. 
 J. 2 
 
18 GENEEAL INTKODUCTION 
 
 it, no equal among the prophets. He was one born 
 to be a poet, though doomed to spend his life in 
 controversy. It is not, of course, by any mere enumera- 
 tion of references to Nature that one can vindicate 
 his claim in this respect. Among English poets 
 Wordsworth is admittedly the poet of Nature. But 
 why ? As a word painter he is inferior to Tennyson 
 and many others. Nature is not to him a mirror in 
 which, by way of analogy, he sees his own experience 
 reflected. She stands in too close and vital a relation 
 for that. She is a living organism of which the poet's 
 soul is an integral part. There is a constant and 
 subtle interchange between them, so that his experience 
 is not only stimulated, but perfected and expressed, 
 by his surroundings. A ruined cottage suggests the 
 family life once sheltered by it ; whose misfortunes, 
 bravely borne, cast a shade of pleasing melancholy 
 over the poet's soul. The bleating of a stray sheep is 
 the voice of the solitude, which infects him with its 
 sadness. A wayside flower awakens in him thoughts 
 too deep for tears. Now it is this sense of community 
 between Nature and man — of that larger life in which 
 his own and his people's is at once rooted and realized, 
 that comes out in almost every page of Jeremiah's 
 writings, and vindicates, from any superficial criticism, 
 his claim to be the poet among the prophets. To 
 him a landscape is, in effect, " a state of mind." 
 Judgment is wrought out in the desolation of the 
 landscape, from which every trace of life has been 
 swept ; while Grace is crowned by the showers that 
 soften the earth, and the ripening of the vintage, 
 and the murmur of distant folds. I would particularly 
 call the attention of the student to the unrivalled 
 power possessed by this man to represent, through the 
 medium of sound, the most elementary ideas, such 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 as loneliness, or desolation ; wherein he is again 
 the forerunner of our own great Nature-poet .^ The 
 skilful use of often repeated refrains (e.g. " Without 
 man and without beast," " None dwelling there," 
 " None passing by," " None gathering up ") is not 
 with him a mere trick of style, as it became with his 
 imitators ; it is the effort of a highly sensitive spirit 
 to perpetuate and convey, in a single phrase, the 
 momentary] impression made by some scene or event. 
 It only remains here to notice that Jeremiah is the one 
 instance of a prophet who traces the birth of his 
 spiritual life to the influence of Nature. It was 
 amid the blossoming of^the almond trees, and with the 
 breath of spring fanning his cheek, that the Spirit 
 of God first stirred in him ; and through life he never 
 lost the impression of that hour.^ 
 
 In his recent work on Jeremiah, Dr. Driver, while 
 recognizing the " tendency " of the prophet to cast 
 his prophecies into the rhythmical form of Hebrew 
 poetry, professes himself unable, except in a very few 
 cases, to represent this to the English reader "without 
 alterations of the text which he is not prepared to in- 
 troduce." It is, of course, with the utmost diffidence 
 that one parts company from a guide so safe and so 
 wise as Dr. Driver, even with so brilliant a scholar 
 as Duhm or Erbt to take his place. And it would 
 be absurd to suppose that Jeremiah always " talked 
 poetry " ; or that the mere fact that a passage is in 
 prose is proof that it is not Jeremian. Style variies 
 with mood and matter. On the other hand there 
 are whole passages where the poetical form is 
 quite indisputable ; elsewhere, a comparison of the 
 Hebrew text with the Greek version suggests just 
 
 1 See Pater's Appreciations. 
 ^ Chap, i, II-I2, 
 
20 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 the alteration which is needful to restore it ; some- 
 times the omission of a phrase, in itself redundant, 
 a variant or expletive, is all that is required. I am 
 convinced that no translation, however accurate and 
 sympathetic, can convey to the reader any idea of 
 that rhythmic quahty which made the utterances 
 of Jeremiah at once charming and memorable to 
 his contemporaries, unless it accept the risk and do 
 something to preserve their poetic form. For these 
 reasons I have thought it wise to make the attempt. 
 The task is of course greatly lightened by the 
 labours of those German scholars whom I have 
 named. Only those who know their work can realize 
 how deeply I am indebted to them. 
 
 There are three preliminary points which it is well 
 to face and, if possible, to settle before we begin that 
 detailed study of the text which lies before us. 
 
 I. As to the Deuteronomic Reformation ; what 
 it was, and how the prophets stood toward it. 
 
 It was a great day when the High Priest Hilkiah 
 found in the Temple courts a roll purporting to be 
 the Book of the Law of Jahveh, and sent it by the hand 
 of Shaphan, the scribe, to the palace. There is no 
 reason to doubt that the book, thus unearthed, was 
 the Book of Deuteronomy practically as we have 
 it now ; and a brief examination of its contents will 
 form an excellent introduction to our prophet's text. 
 The characteristic element of Deuteronomy is very 
 striking. It is suffused by a tender and beautiful 
 humanity, and lays stress on such points as personal 
 purity, the sanctity of home life, reverence for the 
 past, and a chivalrous consideration for the poor 
 and oppressed. Against the idolatry which had 
 swept in, transforming the worship of the people, it 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 proclaimed with new emphasis the Unity of Jahveh. 
 " Hear ! O Israel, Jahveh, thy God, is one God."^ 
 The words do not, of course, exclude the existence of 
 other gods ; but they deny them any authority in 
 presence of the One. This Unity is closely connedted 
 with the Spirituality of Jahveh. No form or semblance 
 of Him had been seen, and none must be .associated 
 with His worship. The work of a man's hands, however 
 exquisite, can never suggest the source from which 
 he derives his being ; and even the contemplation 
 of the heavenly bodies leaves him still within the 
 finite, and far short of God. It is the moral qualities 
 of Jahveh which are prominent ; His patience and 
 faithfulness and compassion towards the Covenant 
 people. For these there can be no material 
 equivalent. From the Unity and Spirituality of 
 Jahveh the Divine-Sovereignty is deduced. His 
 Unity, an abstract truth, finds its equivalent in 
 the undivided homage which He requires ; His Spirit- 
 uality is reflected in the nature of that homage. 
 " Jahveh thy God is one God. And thou shaft love 
 Jahveh, thy God, with all thy heart, and soul, and 
 strength and mind." It should be noted that these 
 conclusions as to the Godhead are reached, not so 
 much by speculation, as by experience. 
 
 Jahveh being such. His worship must correspond. 
 Those degrading customs with which the heathen 
 honoured their deities are utterly disallowed. Even 
 the sacrificial system which prevailed in Israel, while 
 recognized and enforced, is yet subordinated to 
 ethical aims. To know God, to do His will, to cleave 
 to Him at all costs, this is at once the religion and the 
 life of His people. Particularly we notice how the fear 
 
 ^ Deuteronomy vi. 4. 
 
22 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 of Jahveh and His love are here combined in a way 
 as certainly novel as it is profoundly true. The fear 
 of Jahveh is not physical in its basis, nor instinctive 
 in its action ; nor does it tend to bondage. It is 
 based on the knowledge of His nature, and the 
 admission of His claims, and passes imperceptibly 
 into a love, which is not so much its corrective as 
 its complement and crown. Such fear is the shadow 
 of love.i 
 
 To preserve the worship of Jahveh from the taint 
 of impure and alien elements, it is enacted that it 
 shall be carried on not, as hitherto, at any convenient 
 spot, not, as the people loved to have it, under shady 
 trees or on breezy heights which rise to heaven, nor 
 beside their own homesteads and in immediate con- 
 nexion with their domestic life ; but in Jerusalem and 
 within the Temple courts. The change thus contem- 
 plated was serious, the step apparently retrograde. 
 Tolerable only as a discipline required by the 
 conditions of the time ; it is intelligible only as " a 
 providential stage in the purification of the popular 
 idea of God."^ Under Josiah, a devout and sympathetic 
 ruler, the Deuteronomic programme was sanctioned 
 and enforced ; and for a time it seemed as if the evil 
 had been killed out by the roots. But the people were 
 ill prepared for such a revolution. Their attitude 
 probably meant concession to royal influence rather 
 than any change of personal conviction ; and, on 
 the death of the king, they reverted to habits which 
 had never lost their hold. The worship of the high- 
 places was re-established ; and, with a rebound from 
 the enforced Purism of the previous reign to the 
 natural idolatry of their hearts, they plunged into 
 
 1 Deuteronomy vi, 2, 3 ; also xi, 13 and 22, etc. 
 ^ Dr. Driver. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 excesses unknown before. Thus the immediate result 
 of the Deuteronomic legislation was to confirm the 
 evil it proposed to cure. But it did more. To the 
 reforming zeal of the orthodox party within the State, 
 it gave a powerful impulse in a very questionable 
 direction. It concentrated attention on the externals 
 of worship, rather than on the essence of religion. It 
 removed into distance, and invested .with an unnatural 
 dread, that Divine presence which had given its 
 power and charm to human Hfe. " Pharisaism and 
 Deuteronomy were born on the same day." 
 
 From the incidental references he makes to it, we 
 gather that Jeremiah was an interested and sympathetic 
 spectator of the new movement. Indeed, with 
 chap, xi before us, we can hardly doubt that he 
 lent it his active support. After the writings of 
 Hosea, there was no book that so powerfully impressed 
 him as Deuteronomy ; his religious conceptions 
 are moulded by it, he refers to it, quotes from it, 
 bases on it his most earnest appeals. We shall find 
 him, to the last, tenacious of its fundamental 
 principles in the attitude which he maintains {a) 
 towards the Nature-worship of the local shrines, 
 and (b) towards Jerusalem, which he regards as the 
 one centre of J ahveh- worship for the whole nation, 
 in the future as in the past. On the other hand, 
 his attitude towards it is always free ; and the main 
 business of his life was not to support it, but rather 
 to protest against the idea that it had done its work. 
 The greatest hindrance he encountered was not the 
 heathen proclivities openly acknowledged by a sec- 
 tion of the nation, but the easy, indolent spirit of 
 self-confidence which prevailed among the majority, 
 the disposition to rest on what had been attempted 
 by legislative enactments, to confound external 
 
24 GENEBAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 conformity with spiritual affinity, and repression with 
 regeneration. Already the spirit of Pharisaism was at 
 work. 
 
 2. As to the prophet's relation to foreign powers. 
 
 According to chap, i Jeremiah was raised up "to 
 be a prophet over the nations " ; and popular belief 
 has credited him with prompt and effective inter- 
 vention on the field of international politics. But 
 this, according to Duhm, is " popular imagination," 
 based on a confusion of what is authentic and what 
 is legendary in the text. The real Jeremiah, according 
 to Duhm, was cast in a more modest mould — a 
 peasant-priest who wept over the sorrows of his own 
 people, and for whom, when Jerusalem had fallen, 
 the end of the world had come. We shall have 
 constantly to choose between these two conceptions 
 of our prophet's mission, retaining or rejecting phrases, 
 verses, and whole chapters, as we incline to the one or 
 the other. And I think it must be granted that 
 Duhm is not amiss in his conviction that popular 
 imagination has been busy here, and has done not a 
 little in the way of transforming fact to fiction. Not 
 content with a prophet who, like all inspired men, 
 had an open eye, a wide range of vision, and proformd 
 insight into spiritual truth, we have conceived one 
 for ourselves who transcends the fundamental 
 conditions of human experience, and expatiates, 
 through space and time, with a secular largeness and 
 freedom which baffles every effort that we may make 
 to follow him. This Jeremiah appeals to generations 
 yet unborn. He holds commerce with nations whose 
 names were hardly known to his contemporaries. 
 He presides over historical developments of which 
 the germs were not in existence while he lived. He 
 not only survives the fall of Jerusalem but anticipates 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 the rise and fall of great empires in comparison with 
 which Judah was the small dust of the balance. 
 Like a vast Colossus, he bestrides the globe and 
 casts his shadow down the ages. He is less a man, 
 dealing with fellow-men for righteousness, than a 
 symbol of that Universal Providence which appoints 
 the destiny of all. Let me give an illustration of the 
 dualism which " popular imagination " has introduced 
 into our conception of the prophet. In chap, xxix 
 we have an authentic communication from Jere- 
 miah, a letter written by him in the fourth year 
 of Zedekiah to the exiles in Babylon. Nothing could 
 be more sane and wise, nothing more religious, than 
 its tone and spirit. Yet, on the evidence of a brief 
 note which, rightly understood, makes no claim to be 
 part of the original text or to possess any prophetic 
 value,! it is believed that in the same year he 
 covered a Roll with woes and curses directed against 
 the great city, and forwarded it to Babylon, with 
 orders to heave it overboard and sink it in the 
 Euphrates ! It is possible to reconcile these two 
 communications, but only on the Popish doctrine 
 of Reserve, which, I take it, was even more alien to 
 the prophetic character than it is repugnant to a 
 Protestant conscience. It is further believed that, 
 while he imposed on others the duty of submission 
 to Babylon, he himself not only foresaw her end, 
 but marshalled the forces which were to destroy her, 
 and gloried openly, and with a savage delight, over 
 the prospect of her Fall. On the contrary, and as 
 the result of a careful study of the text, I believe 
 
 ^ Chap, li, 59-64 ; verse 64 ends thus : " They shall be 
 weary ; so far are the words of Jeremiah." That is, the 
 proper prophecy closes with verse 58 ; the appended note is 
 from a scribe. 
 
26 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 that there is no one passage, certainly or even prob- 
 ably Jeremian, in which the Fall of Babylon is 
 foretold. 
 
 But while there is truth in Duhm's criticism of 
 the popular conception of our prophet, I believe 
 the position he himself assumes is no less extreme. 
 It is admitted by all that chaps, xxvii and xxviii 
 are, at least in substance, authentic. Now in them 
 we see Jeremiah playing a very masterful part in the 
 politics of his day and wrecking a defensive aUiance 
 between the various principalities of Syria. These 
 chapters, even if they stood alone, would justify 
 the representation of the prophetic caU given in chap, 
 i. But they do not stand alone. Chaps, xxv, xliii, xlvi, 
 however manipulated by editorial hands, are certainly 
 based on authentic documents, and they prove how 
 far our prophet was from refusing the great role 
 thrust on him by Providence. Indeed, in the age in 
 which he lived, it was impossible, even for religious 
 purposes, to maintain the isolation of Judah. No 
 man could be a prophet at all, who was not, in a 
 sense, a prophet for aU. In transcending the national 
 standpoint, Jeremiah does what every true prophet 
 did, he conforms to the ideals of his own age, which 
 were distinctly international. Certainly he never 
 ignores the ethical postulates of prophecy. He 
 concerns himself strictly with the problems, pressing 
 problems, of his own age. But these, from their very 
 nature, carried him far beyond the merely provincial 
 into the realm of universal truth. He speaks in the 
 name of Jahveh, Maker of heaven and earth. Lord of 
 that new world that was then only opening up before 
 men's eyes ; and the authority by which he speaks 
 involves the universal application which he gives 
 to his message. 
 
GENERAL INTEODUCTION 27 
 
 3. In chap, xxxvi we are told that, in the fourth 
 year of Jehoiakim, the prophet was instructed to 
 commit to writing " all the words which Jahveh had 
 spoken through him to the people . . . from the 
 day that I spake to thee, from the days of Josiah, 
 until now." If we put aside as needless, and therefore 
 intolerable, the idea of a supernatural impulse given 
 to the prophet's memory, there is just one possible 
 explanation of the process which is suggested here. 
 During his ministry it had been the prophet's habit, 
 in moments of spiritual exaltation, to throw the 
 truth as conceived by him, i.e. the message sent 
 through him, into poetic form — jets of thought and 
 feeling, lyrical outbursts, with a strong infusion of 
 the proverbial element. Such utterances, from their 
 nature, tended to recur, and thus to impress them- 
 selves on the mind both of the speaker and of his 
 hearers. It was on this store he now drew ; and in 
 this way we may quite naturally explain the fact 
 that nearly all the utterances of the prophet which 
 have been preserved for us are poetic in form. Of 
 the original Roll, as written by Baruch to the prophet's 
 dictation, we have no direct knowledge. It was 
 burnt by an angry king as soon as it was writ and 
 read. But its place was taken by another, in sub- 
 stance the same, but with certain additions which, no 
 doubt, were meant to bring it up to date. If we may 
 anticipate the results of the study which lies before 
 us, we shall identify the prophet's Roll with the 
 first six chapters of the present Book of Jeremiah. 
 We find there a summary of his early teaching ; a 
 series of Scythian songs, by which, first of all, he won 
 the ear of his people ; and certain insertions which 
 reflect the situation or the spirit of his own maturer 
 years. The personal matter contained in chap, i 
 
28 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 was not inappropriate by way of introduction. 
 Particularly we notice the pathetic and impressive 
 passage, chap, vi, w. 27-30, in which he confesses fail- 
 ure, and returns tojahveh the sacred charge entrusted 
 to him ; a passage which, premature at an earher 
 date than 604, must have formed a fitting and formal 
 close to this re-statement and publication of his message. 
 Apparently certain portions of chap, xxv were added 
 to the Roll by way of appendix. But Baruch, who 
 wrote the Roll at the prophet's dictation, was no 
 mere scribe. There is a large section of the book 
 awaiting our study which is narrative in form. It 
 speaks of the prophet in the third person, and there- 
 fore cannot have come from his own hand, while 
 yet it- betrays an eye-witness, and is evidently the 
 work of one who could say of what he describes : 
 Pars omnium fui. In default of any better, indeed 
 of any other explanation, we may safely attribute 
 this to Baruch. We may suppose that after the faU of 
 the city, and possibly after Jeremiah's death, Baruch, 
 whilst still an exile in Egypt, jotted down and pre- 
 pared for publication those Memorabilia to which 
 all lovers of the prophet are so deeply indebted. Of 
 their original scope and plan we cannot speak. We 
 know only the little that has been preserved for us, 
 and that little disjointed and scattered through the 
 book. The bulk of it will be found towards the close, 
 and comprises chaps, xxvi-xxix, xxxiv-xlv. It is fur- 
 ther probable that many of the prophet's utterances, 
 which were not included by him in the Roll, would 
 live in the memory of his hearers ; and that, from 
 time to time after his death, they would be grouped 
 together with more or less of insight, and committed 
 to writing with more or less of accuracy. These 
 form what is now the heart of the Book — the various 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 sections from chap, vii to chap, xxiii. Each of them 
 is accompanied by introductory notes, mainly histori- 
 cal, descriptive of the circumstances in which the 
 various oracles were supposed to originate.^ The 
 more interesting and reliable of these notes are 
 probably based on the Memorabilia of Baruch, and 
 serve greatly to enlarge our knowledge of the prophet's 
 character and work. It is evident from the various 
 headings of these sections that each of them was 
 originally designed for independent circulation. Their 
 value varies according to the proportion in each of 
 what is originally and authentically prophetic, to 
 the editorial setting it has received. That which 
 most of all distinguishes them from the rest of the 
 Book of which they now form a part, is the prominence 
 given to the editorial " idea " which lends unity to 
 each section. The formative process which resulted 
 in our present book was not yet complete. A great 
 personaUty attracts others. Our prophet made disciples 
 who drank in his spirit, and set themselves to continue 
 and to complete his work. Their phraseology is 
 strongly Jeremian ; and with more or less of success 
 they seek to maintain his standpoint. Yet the tone and 
 outlook of their writings is often quite distinct ; and 
 the attitude they adopt toward foreign powers, e.g. 
 Babylon, necessarily varies with the political situation 
 in which they found themselves. It is to these disciples 
 of the prophet we owe, I believe, the greater part of 
 
 ' Compare the story, as told by Sir W. Muir in his Life of 
 Mahomet, of Zeid ibn Thibet, who " sought out the Suras 
 and fragments from every quarter, and gathered them together 
 from date leaves and tablets of white stone and from the 
 breasts of men," thus rescuing from ^oblivion the utterances 
 of Mahomet which are now preserved in the Koran. {Life 
 of Mahomet ; Introduction, pp. 19, 20.) 
 
30 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 the so-called Oracles of the Nations (chaps, xlvi-li). 
 To one of them we owe that most important section 
 which we may describe as the Hymn of Praise (chaps, 
 xxx-xxxiii), in which genuine fragments from the 
 prophet's lips and narratives borrowed from Baruch's 
 MemorabiUa are combined with other passages, poetic 
 and prosaic, which display all the marks of a later 
 and decadent age. 
 
 Thus we recognize four elements in the book ; {a) 
 prophetic, i.e. directly from Jeremiah's lips ; (6) sub- 
 prophetic, from the Memorabiha of Baruch ; (c) popular, 
 comprising miscellaneous and anon3anous groupings 
 of genuine prophetic oracles ; [d) progressive, consisting 
 of applications of prophetic ideas and principles to 
 later situations by those, his disciples, who owed their 
 inspiration to the teaching and example of the great 
 master. And then, to complete our survey of a process 
 whose duration covered centuries, we have to reckon 
 with the tendency on the part of Jewish scribes to 
 tamper with their text ; the result of which, in the 
 present case, has been at points hopelessly to corrupt it, 
 and, all over, to obscure the original poetic form of the 
 prophetic oracles. It is not necessary to enter on the 
 question as to the relation of our Hebrew (Massoretic) 
 text to the various Greek versions, and particularly 
 the Septuagint (LXX) . I believe that it is not possible 
 to justify a general preference for either version. I 
 have sought to compare them at every point, giving 
 the preference to one or other, as the case may re- 
 quire. 
 
 To sum up ; it is evident that in the survey which 
 lies before us, we shall find ourselves dealing with what 
 is not so much a book, the product of a single mind, 
 as a Literature, the product of many minds, and of 
 many and divers ages. For the Category of Unity, 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 which fails us here, we must substitute that of Con- 
 tinuity as our guide. The task that Ues before us may 
 be briefly outlined thus : 
 
 (a) To sift the original and prophetic from the sub- 
 prophetic and editorial in the text ; 
 
 (6) as far as it is possible, to restore to their original 
 poetic form those Jeremian oracles which have been 
 preserved ; 
 
 (c) to mark the transition of thought and feeling 
 effected by time and reflected in the various elements 
 that enter into the composition of the text ; 
 
 [d) to apply to our own lives those divine truths 
 which, however variously communicated, have become 
 the common heritage of the Church in every age and in 
 every land. 
 
THE PROPHET'S CALL 
 Chapter I 
 
 THE first three verses of chap, i furnish us with 
 brief disjointed notes mainly personal and 
 chronological. From verse i we learn that Jeremiah 
 was born at Anathoth, a Levitical city in Benjamin, 
 two or three miles N.E. of Jerusalem, and, no doubt, 
 dominated by it. Hence we may explain his natural 
 fitness for the prophetic office, i.e. his insight into the 
 ideal and actual in the history of his people, priestly 
 lore and patriotic fervours of the capital. In vv. 
 2, 3, we see the background of his ministry, varying 
 political conditions, bright days under Josiah, followed 
 by a rapid and hopeless decline under Jehoiakim and 
 Zedekiah. 
 
 [It should be noted that verse 3 indicates a point of time ; 
 verse 3, a period. The brief reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin 
 are entirely overlooked. This introductory paragraph is 
 clearly composite, Probably verse 2, in a fuller form, was 
 originally the preface to chap. i. A later, but still incom- 
 plete record of the prophet's career is suggested by verse 3. 
 As an introduction to the book in its present latest form, verse 
 I completes the heading.] 
 
 With verse 4 we pass at once to the prophet's call. 
 Pascal says : " The last thing one finds out in writing a 
 book, ought to come first." That is to say, the last 
 reflects light on the first, and gives the key to all that 
 went before it. It was so here. The outcome of J ere- 
 
THE PROPHET'S CALL 33 
 
 miah's long and chequered career was the conviction 
 that Jahveh had sent him. Three steps may be noted 
 in connexion with his call (v. 5). 
 
 {a) " I knew thee." Here is Foreknowledge ; ,which, 
 as divine, is not merely notional and speculative, but 
 practical and efficacious. For those who, like Jere- 
 miah, learned to think within the sphere of Revelation, 
 Plato's ideal world was anticipated by the Doctrine of 
 Predestination. It is as we are rooted in the Eternal, 
 that the element of steadfastness passes over into our 
 lives, (b) " I sanctified thee." No moral signifi- 
 cance is to be attached to this phrase. As the vessels 
 of the sanctuary were set apart for holy use, as we 
 consecrate a church to be the House of God, so with the 
 child yet unborn. Only, in the case of a child more 
 is implied than mere relationship. There is the nature 
 (as distinct from character) toned and tempered into 
 subtle harmony with destiny. Nothing in history is 
 more remarkable than the congenital fitness of men 
 like St. Paul and Luther for their life's work, (c) " I 
 gave thee as a prophet to the nations." Attention is 
 challenged at once to the wide outlook suggested here. 
 It is impossible to separate any organism from its 
 proper environment. At an earlier period in Israel's 
 history, a career like Jeremiah's would have been a 
 glaring anachronism. The Exile, which terminated the 
 isolation of his people, suggested and required the 
 note of Universalism which marks a new departure in 
 prophecy. 
 
 Youth, training, and temper, alike protest. We see 
 the prophet trembling on the brink of the " Great 
 Refusal." " Then I said. Ah, Lord Jahveh, behold I 
 cannot speak, for I am a child." He is however 
 reassured by a representation of the infinite resources 
 at his command (verses 7-10). There is first the 
 I. 3 
 
34 THE PROPHET'S CALL 
 
 Divine Purpose (" I send thee ") ; then the Divine 
 Presence (" I am with thee ") ; and, further, the Divine 
 Power (" He put forth His hand "). Here, as else- 
 where, Grace speciaUzes, " He touched my hps." With 
 this we may compare Ezekiel's call, sealed by the same 
 sacramental touch. But in Ezekiel's case the message 
 itself is given ; here, only the impulse to speak. We 
 do not wonder that the prophet hesitated when we 
 learn the nature of his mission. Judgment and mercy 
 are the two factors in it. But Judgment is first and, 
 to the prophet's own consciousness, overwhelmingly 
 predominant ; only, in the distant background, Mercy 
 smiles. " I have this day set thee over the nations, 
 to pluck up and pull down, to delete and destroy, to 
 build and to plant. 
 
 [It must be remembered that according to chap, xxxvi, this 
 record of his early experience was made in the fourth year of 
 Jehoiakim, i.e., a quarter of a century later than the events 
 themselves. In its present form the chapter belongs to the 
 second half of the prophet's ministry ; and what Reflection did 
 for others, it must have done for him. It made manifest 
 those wider relations and further issues of his work to which 
 he gives expression here.] 
 
 What from one point of view is the beginning of the 
 prophet's ministry, from another point of view is the 
 outcome of the spiritual experience which had pre- 
 pared him for it. Of this preparatory discipline he 
 proceeds to speak. 
 
 Verses ii, 12. He recalls a day when he wandered 
 through the fields round Anathoth. The winter was 
 past, the rains were gone ; and the almond tree was 
 in blossom. In Hebrew, the almond tree is called 
 Shaked, i.e. the tree that wakes up. We know what 
 it is, early in April, to see even a spray of deHcate pink-^ 
 
THE PROPHET'S CALL 35 
 
 white blossom against the dark branches, here and 
 there a single almond tree coming into flower. Imagine 
 then, miles of continuous almond trees ; the whole 
 plain seeming to wake up from its wintry sleep. That 
 was what Jeremiah saw. Beautiful in itself, it was 
 doubly beautiful because of the promise it brought. 
 It seemed as if the breeze, whispering through the 
 blossom, were Jahveh's voice questioning him : " What 
 seest thou ? " and then interpreting its own symbohsm : 
 " I am waking up (Shoked) to my work, to perform 
 it." There is more here than a play on words ; there 
 is insight into things. Nature and Grace are two aspects 
 of one Divine order. The yearly miracle of spring is 
 more than a parable, it is a pledge of the Resurrection. 
 What the prophet saw, meant more than he could see. 
 Others said, spring is coming; he said, Jahveh is 
 waking up. Behind him lay long years of apparent 
 inactivity and indifference on Jahveh's part, but a 
 glorious summer was at hand. In that hour the 
 prophet received " such an impression of the Divine 
 power and goodness as never left him." The practice of 
 the presence of God became, for him, the rule of life.^ 
 Verses 13-16. Secondly, we have the vision of the 
 seething cauldron. The year 626 B.C. was marked by 
 an event which affected the prophet's whole life. The 
 East had been startled by an irruption of semi-savage 
 tribes known as Scythians. More will have to be said 
 of them in connexion with chpp. iv-vi. Meantime we 
 must note the impression they made on his youthful 
 spirit. The dust raised by their horses hung like 
 storm clouds over the horizon. He traced their 
 advance by the long black line of ruined homesteads 
 left behind them. The fierce play of brutal passion 
 
 ' Cf. the well-known Letters of Brother Lawrence. 
 
36 THE PROPHET'S CALL 
 
 which marked their march suggested the figure of a 
 cauldron fanned by flame till it boils over. The figure 
 was common enough in those days ; the experience was 
 universal. What is peculiar to Jeremiah is the way 
 in which he ponders what others were glad to forget, and 
 sees in it a premonition of things to come. Each wave 
 recedes, but the tide steadily advances up the shore ; 
 the Scythians might retire, but others were ready to 
 take their place. The face of the cauldron was ' ' turned 
 to the Northwards." ^ To a Jew the North was 
 the home of mystery and gloom and all wild, incal- 
 culable and destructive forces. Already it had sent 
 forth these Scythians, and other yet greater evils were 
 brewing there for all tfie land. Inserted here by a 
 later hand, verses 15 and 16 anticipate for us that 
 exposition of the symbol which experience and the 
 slow stern years brought to Jeremiah. Instead of a 
 robber horde he was yet to see a regular army, " all 
 the families of the kingdoms of the North," breaking 
 loose on the land, like the loosening of a girdle or the 
 opening of prison doors. He was yet to see them 
 investing the whole of the city, pitching their tents, 
 and setting their seats against her. The Chaldeans of 
 604 B.C. were the successors of the Scythians of 626. 
 In the tumult of the last mortal struggle the voice of 
 Jahveh was heard once again, uttering His judgments 
 against the guilty city. 
 
 Nothing could be more different than these two 
 visions. In the first all is still life, beauty and promise ; 
 in the second all is human passion, sore travail and 
 strife. We seem to have left the fresh springtime 
 behind ; the sultry dog-days are on us, when the 
 clouds are charged with electricity, and there is thunder 
 in the air. But what is common to both, as the prophet 
 > Reading MopbnS instead of Mippene (Duhm),. 
 
THE PROPHET'S CALL 37 
 
 saw them, is the Divine purpose behind. Spring and 
 summer make up the year ; judgment and mercy 
 work out God's plan. 
 
 For a youth with such a reUgious experience, with 
 such visions of beauty in his eye and such a burden of 
 sorrow in his soul, there could be only one future. 
 He cannot rest without an earnest effort to share with 
 others the insight he has gained. In the calamities 
 which left so many hard, bitter, and despairing, he 
 would have them see the hand of God working good. 
 A third time Jahveh speaks ; this time, as we have seen, 
 with the call to prophecy. " And thou, gird up thy 
 loins and speak to them " (verse 17). It was no easy 
 task ; it meant that he stood alone against his people. 
 But, after all, it is only the difficult that is worth doing. 
 And the one thing that wrecks a hfe, that unmans us, 
 is not opposition from without, however bitter, but the 
 conviction that we have proved false to ourselves 
 and forfeited our claim on God. " Fear them not, lest 
 I affright thee before them." The sense of a Divine 
 mission made him not merely strong, but impregnable. 
 " And behold I make thee this day a fortified city, and 
 an iron pillar, and a bronze wall . . . and they shall 
 fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against 
 thee ; for I am with thee, said Jahveh, to deliver thee." 
 All which came to pass. For Jeremiah, life henceforth 
 was a persistent struggle between a feeling of weakness, 
 on the one hand, and of overmastering duty on the 
 other ; between love of his people and loyalty to his 
 God ; between dismay at the dooih impending, and 
 hope of the Grace to be revealed. Dark days lay 
 before him ; but he never forgot the spring morning 
 in the fields around Anathoth, when he saw the almond 
 blossom, and knew that, after long years of seeming 
 inaction, Jahveh was waking up. 
 
38 THE PROPHET'S CALL 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE ON CHAPTER I. 
 
 While acknowledging the high interest and religious value 
 of the chapter Duhm denies its Jeremian authorship on the 
 ground of a previous conception of the prophet's mission, 
 which is manifestly inconsistent with it. 
 
 Erbt analyses the chapter as follows . According to him verse 
 17 follows directly on verse 10, and closes the narrative of the 
 prophet's call. The second vision (verses 13 and 14) belongs 
 to the same period. The first vision (verses 11, 12) impUes, he 
 thinks, a period of earnest but fruitless labour on the prophet's 
 part. He therefore places it later in his career. He thinks 
 that verses 15 and 16 cannot refer to the Scythians, who were 
 one tribe, nor to the Chaldeans, who formed one kingdom 
 under one king. He therefore refers them to the fall of 
 Nineveh in 607 before the Medians, Chaldeans, and other 
 northern tribes, and thinks that in that great catastrophe the 
 prophet saw an anticipation of the fall of Jerusalem. With 
 respect to verse 17 I would point out that its immediate con- 
 nexion with verses 7-10 is maintained only by striking out 
 certain phrases, e.g. " At their faces," and " Before them " ; 
 and that even then the emphasis with which it opens (v^'attah. 
 But thou) seems to require the intervention of verse 14. With 
 respect to the first vision, I think I have given a construction 
 of it which is psychologically tenable and obviates the necessity 
 of removing it from its present context. Asto verses 15, 16, it 
 may be granted that they cannot well have been written by the 
 prophet either of the Scythians or of the Chaldeans. But can 
 he have written them, with the fall of Nineveh in his mind? Of 
 so great a catastrophe, could he say anything, without saying 
 much more than this ? On the other hand, we have here the 
 phraseology with which later editors describe the Chaldean 
 army (cf. chap, xxxiv, 1-5). Compare also the phrase, "I 
 will utter my judgment against them," with the same phrase, 
 used in the same sense, in chap, xxxix, 5, which is also 
 editorial ; and contrast with it the prophet' s own use of the 
 phrase in chap, xii, i. If these two verses are read as a 
 later and editorial insertion, the rest of the narrative may be 
 accepted as a unity, and, in its origin, prophetic] 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 Chapters II — III, Verse 5 
 
 THE first verse of the chapter, absent from the 
 LXX,i must be omitted as an editorial gloss. 
 The chapter represents an early address of the prophet 
 to his townsmen of Anathoth. The scenery throughout 
 is that of the country ; the theme, the national apostasy 
 from Jahveh. As yet the prophet knows little of the 
 moral and social degradation forced on his notice at 
 a later period by a prolonged residence in the capital. 
 
 There is a remarkable similarity between this 
 chapter and Isaiah, chap. i. It is the Great Arraign- 
 ment, renewed after another century of probation. 
 But the contrast is equally striking. There, the prophet 
 alleges the moral and social corruption of the people 
 as invalidating the fanatical zeal with which they wor- 
 ship Jahveh. Things have by no means stood still 
 since then. The thin veneer of piety has been worn 
 off ; and here the people unblushingly proclaim their 
 emancipation from Jahveh's yoke (verse 31). There, 
 Jahveh impleads His people before the Great Tribunal ; 
 the process is legal, and carried on in open court. 
 Here, it is more personal, and the tone is correspond- 
 ingly pathetic and tender. Jahveh pleads with 
 Israel as a man with a faithless wife whom yet, re- 
 membering the past, he would fain recall to himself. 
 
 ^ " Moreover the Word of Jahveh came to me, saying, 
 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying." LXX, Kdl 
 etirev. 
 
40 LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 
 There, the heavens are invoked to pronounce judgment ; 
 here, they are silent and sympathetic witnesses of a 
 domestic tragedy. Jahveh's pleading may be out- 
 lined thus : 
 
 Verses 2, 3. He recalls the earlier days of the 
 people, the freedom and abandonment of a first love. 
 The verses are in the prophet's favourite measure — 
 double lines, the first with three, the second with two, 
 accented syllables. Two such double lines make a 
 stanza. We render thus : 
 
 V. 2. I remember, for thee, the kindness of thy youth, 
 The love of thine espousals ; 
 Thy going after Me in the wilderness. 
 In a land untilled. 
 
 «. 3. A sacred thing to Jahveh was Israel, 
 First fruits of His increase ; 
 All that devoured him paid the penalty ; 
 Evil came upon them. 
 
 In the eyes of the prophet the exile period repre- 
 sented Israel's halcyon days. It witnessed the betrothal 
 of the nation to Jahveh as the national God. In 
 Jahveh's eyes Israel was a sacred thing, precious as 
 the firstUng of the flock, or the first ripe sheaf laid 
 on His altar. To touch them was sacrilege, involving 
 a heavy penalty .^ 
 
 Verses 4-13. Jahveh's tone changes as He con- 
 trasts the early history of the people with their later 
 past ; His own faithfulness with their apostasy. This 
 apostasy is all the worse because it has been headed 
 by the ecclesiastical and civil leaders of the people. 
 The priests are described as " those that handle the 
 law " ; a reference possibly to the ancient custom of 
 
 1 Asham ; cf. Leviticus v. vv. 6, 15. 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVBH 41 
 
 divining by means of the Urim and Thummim ; ^ 
 possibly to the Book of the Law lately unearthed in 
 the Temple courts, and now in the priests' hands for 
 their guidance. Either way, the contrast is one be- 
 tween an external, formal contact and a spiritual 
 intuition : " They knew me not." As against the 
 apostasy of His own people, Jahveh appeals to the 
 tenacity with which the Gentiles adhere to such crude 
 conceptions of the Deity as survive among them. 
 Travel west to the Kitians, i.e. Cyprus, or east to Kedar, 
 i.e. Arabia, where will you find such fickleness, or 
 infidelity, as in Israel ? A twofold folly has been com- 
 mitted by the people. " They have forsaken the foun- 
 tain, and they have hewed out cisterns." The fountain 
 (Makor) is a large reservoir fed by springs, such as 
 abound in Palestine. The cistern has no such constant 
 supply ; it is purely artificial, and often, through 
 leakage, empty. So then, the people have exchanged 
 God and satisfaction for the vain hopes set on man. 
 
 IJThese verses (verses 4-13) are rejected by Duhm on account 
 (a) of a Deuteronomic element which pervades them, and, 
 (6) of the absence of the poetic form. The former considera- 
 tion can hardly be pressed on those who take a different view 
 of the prophet's relation to the new movement, and, while it 
 is true that the rhythm has been hopelessly damaged in the 
 process of transmission, there are still traces of it, as in the 
 refrains, " None passing through," " None dwelling there," 
 (verse 6) ; so also in verses 11, 12. 
 
 Hath a nation changed its gods, 
 
 Which are no gods ? 
 But my people hath changed their glory 
 
 For that which profiteth not. 
 Be astonished at this, ye heavens ! 
 And be greatly amazed ! 
 It is interesting to find ourselves here following in the foot- 
 steps of St. Paul, that profound thinker and diligent student 
 
 ^ Cf. Deut. xxxiii, 8 ; Isaiah xxviii, 6. 
 
42 LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 
 of the Word of God. We see him bending over his copy of 
 the prophet's Roll, and making an inward note of verse 5. 
 It became, in his rich mind, the germ of that fine piece of 
 Christian philosophy (Romans i. 20-23}, in which he traces the 
 influence of a materialized conception of the Deity on the 
 character and hfe of the nation : " They became vain in their 
 imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened."] 
 
 From verse 14 the poetic form reappears, and is 
 maintained throughout the rest of the chapter in eight 
 strophes, each of six double hues. As a fine specimen 
 of the prophet's style the passage may be given entire 
 
 Verse 14, Now then is Israel a servant, 
 A home-born slave ? 
 Why is he become a prey. 
 His cities wasted ? 
 
 Verse 15. The young lions roar over him ; 
 They utter their voice ; 
 They make the land desolate. 
 Without inhabitant. 
 
 Verse 16. The sons also of Noph and Tahpanhes 
 
 Have shaven thy head. 
 Verse 17. Is not this come on thee, forsaking 
 
 Jahveh, thy God ? 
 
 The question of verse 14 is startling, and reveals 
 the degradation into which the Covenant People have 
 fallen. Is not Israel, as a servant, the property of 
 Jahveh ? As one born in the house, is he not under 
 the protection of his master's roof ? Why then is 
 he bought and sold, a prey to the aliens ? Cannot 
 Jahveh defend his own ? Egypt on one side, and Assyria 
 on the other, are like young lions roaring over the 
 carcass of a kid ; the land is desolate. The sons of 
 Noph and Tahpanhes, in verse 16, are probably 
 marauding bands detached from Pharaoh Necho's 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVEH 43 
 
 victorious army, after the battle of Megiddo (608 b.c.)-^ 
 The " shaving of the head " (a doubtful but picturesque 
 phrase) describes the devastation jvrought by them. 
 The poor pasture, left after protracted drought, is 
 cropped bare ; the wretched peasantry are left to perish. 
 On this interpretation, the verse reflects the political 
 situation under Jehoahaz and in the early years of 
 Jehoiakim, and must have been added by the prophet 
 in 604. 
 
 II 
 
 Verse 18. What hast thou to do in Egypt's way, 
 Drinking the waters of the Nile ? 
 What hast thou to do in Ashur's way, 
 Drinking the waters of the river ? 
 
 Verse ig. Thine adversities shall correct thee ; 
 Know thou, and see ! 
 Yea, my fear is not in thee, 
 Saith Jahveh, thy God. 
 
 Verse 20. For, from of old, thou hast broken thy yoke. 
 And burst thy bands. 
 And thou said'st : "I will not serve " ; 
 A wanton harlot, thou ! 
 
 Still, in their folly, the people persist. There were 
 two parties in the State ; one more conservative, re- 
 verting to the old friendly relations with Egypt ; the, 
 other looking to the North, if not for liberty, for lar- 
 gess in the way of trading rights and so forth. How, 
 between them, they brought the country to ruin, we 
 shall see. " The waters of the Nile," as an emblem of 
 Egypt's power, recall Isaiah's phrase : " The waters of 
 Shiloah, that so softly," i.e. the House of David.^ 
 Calamity has dogged the steps of these party politi- 
 cians ; yet in vain. The only fear of which they 
 are innocent, is the fear of Jahveh. The only yoke 
 
 1 See Introduction to chap. xxv. ^ See Isa. viii. 6. 
 
44 LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 
 they will not bear, is the yoke that had made them free. 
 " They will not serve ; " The A.V. alters this to : I 
 will not transgress. But it is on no momentary fit 
 of repentance, but on their resolute determination to 
 resist, that the prophet bases his scathing indictment. 
 
 Ill 
 Verse 21. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine. 
 Wholly a good stock. 
 How art thou then turned to bitterness, 
 A degenerate vine ! 
 Verse 22. For, though thou wash thee with nitre 
 And take thee much lye, 
 Thy transgression is ingrained before me, 
 Saith Jahveh, thy Lord. 
 
 Verse 23. How canst thou say, I am not defiled 
 With Baal-worship ? 
 See thy way in the valley ; 
 Know what thou hast done. 
 
 This is no new thing. The tendency to idolatry is 
 so deep-rooted as to be desperate. Old habit has 
 become second nature. Instead of the sweet grapes 
 gathered in the wilderness, Jahveh finds bitter clusters 
 in His own vineyard. There is indeed no remedy. No 
 chemicals, however powerful, mineral or vegetable, 
 can efface the stain. The proof of their hopeless 
 condition is that they do not realize the change that 
 has passed over them. Yet in the valley of Hinnom, 
 under the city walls, they sacrifice their children to 
 Baal.i 
 
 Verse 236. Thou art a swift young camel, 
 Doubling on her track ; 
 
 Verse 24. An heifer run wild in the desert 
 In the heat of her passion. 
 
 ' See on chaps, vii-x. 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVEH 45 
 
 She snuffeth the breeze ; in the pairing season, 
 
 Who can restrain her ? 
 None that seek her need weary themselves ; 
 
 In her month they shall find her. 
 
 Verse 25. Refrain thy foot from being unshod. 
 And thy throat from thirst. 
 But thou said'st ; " No hope, no ; 
 For I have loved strangers." 
 
 In a figure, almost brutal in its boldness, the people 
 are made to see themselves. The idea is not merely 
 that of Israel's zeal in following false gods ; but of the 
 vehemence with which they break away from Jahveh. 
 Even domestic animals are shy to the point of wildness 
 during gestation. Then, the contrast is pointed out 
 between the strength of passion and the prostration 
 which ensues : "In her month (i.e. the time of par- 
 turition) they shall find her." 
 
 Verse 26. As a tliief is ashamed when he is caught. 
 
 So is the House of Israel ; 
 Verse 27. Saying to a tree. My father ; and to a stone. 
 
 Thou hast borne me. 
 
 For they have turned on Me the back. 
 
 And not the face ; 
 Yet in the time of trouble they say : 
 
 Up, and save us ! 
 
 Verse 28. And where are those thy gods 
 
 Whom thou madest for thyself ? 
 Let them up, if they can save thee ! 
 In the time of thy trouble. 
 
 The people are not, of course, without feeling. Even 
 a thief is ashamed when he is caught. And yet how 
 shamelessly, in time of trouble, they return and fawn 
 on Hira whom they have denied. 
 
46 LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 
 Verse 29. Why do ye contend with Me ? 
 Ye all have done wickedly ; 
 And ye have rebelled against Me. 
 It is the oracle of Jahveh. 
 Verse 30. In vain have I smitten your children. 
 They receive not correction. 
 The sword hath devoured your prophets, 
 As a lion that layeth waste. 
 
 Verse 31. Have I been as a wilderness to Israel, 
 A land of darkness ? 
 Why say they : We are broken loose, 
 We come not to Thee ? 
 
 The tables are turned in the strangest way. Jahveh 
 is put on the defensive, and prosecuted by the people 
 for an alleged breach of contract. Such trifling is 
 intolerable. Note the pathetic appeal of verse 31. 
 
 VII 
 
 Verse 32. Doth a maid forget her ornaments, 
 A bride her attire ? 
 Yet my people have forgotten Me, 
 Days without number. 
 
 Verse 33. Why trimmest thou thy ways 
 To seek after love ? 
 And thus, also, thou hast done evil, 
 Defiling thy ways. 
 
 Verse 34, Also on thy sldrts is found 
 
 The blood of innocent ones. 
 I have not found it in the breach. 
 Nay, upon all these ! 
 
 Jahveh speaks to the people as a lover, speaking 
 " to their heart." But it is all in vain. Their energies 
 are turned into quite other channels ; they seek after 
 other love. Religious apostasy meant the dissolution 
 of the social bond — violence, and the perversion of 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVEH 47 
 
 i ustice. Accordingly, He confronts them with evidence 
 of their guilt (verse 34). The plea of self-defence, 
 allowed by the law {see Exod. xxiii, 3), could scarcely 
 be urged in extenuation of judicial murders, the 
 slaughter of these innocent ones. " Upon all these " ; 
 so he points them to " the skirts" already mentioned, 
 i.e. the grassy slopes and fertile valleys that gathered 
 round the land like the folds of a garment, now stained 
 with blood. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Verse 35. Yet thou say est : I am absolved, 
 
 Surely His anger is turned from me. 
 Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee 
 Who sayest, I have not sinned. 
 
 Verse 36. Why glidest thou ever away. 
 Changing thy beat ? 
 Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also. 
 As thou wert of Asshur. 
 
 Verse 37. Thou shalt go forth from them also, 
 Hands on thy head. 
 For Jahveh hath rejected whom thou trustest ; 
 And thou shalt not prosper with them. 
 
 The severity of a Judge mingles with the wounded 
 pride of a lover, as he pronounces sentence on them. 
 Israel shall experience at the hands of others what she 
 has herself inflicted on Jahveh. 
 
 Right through this chapter, there runs a broad and 
 simple contrast, physical in its basis but capable of 
 easy transference to the spiritual sphere — a contrast 
 between "the wilderness" and Karmel (verse 7). 
 From the Red Sea, northward to the roots of Lebanon, 
 there runs a deep depression. In its upper reaches, 
 known as the Ghor, it forms the channel of the Jordan ; 
 midway, as the Arabah, it forms the bed of the Salt 
 Sea ; while toward the south, as the wilderness of 
 
48 LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 
 Zin, it opens out to a breadth of from five to ten 
 miles, "its surface littered with gravel and blown sand, 
 often piled up in great dunes." ^ The prophet's youth 
 was spent on the verge of the Arabah, and with a few 
 rapid strokes he conveys to us here the impression it 
 had burned in on his soul. It is a land of deep drifts 
 and narrow gorges, with few springs or permanent 
 streams ; where the atmospheric effects, due to the 
 pure air, are pecuHarly strong. Such shade does not 
 so much rest the eye, as oppress the heart, suggesting 
 the evil that lurks within (" a land of mirk darkness "). 
 It is a land with no homesteads or towns, and none of 
 the great trade routes that run along the coast. It is 
 true that in the desert there is pasture for flocks, and 
 fuel for camp fires, and that from time to time, after 
 winter rains, " drifts and gorges become thundering 
 cataracts, round which there springs up a carpet of 
 fresh green, all the more lovely from the contrast with 
 the surrounding barrenness." - But the showers pass, 
 and the short-lived spring yields to the arid, pulseless 
 heat of summer. In this way the desert becomes, 
 from another point of view, a still more impressive 
 symbol, suggestive of disappointed hopes and efforts 
 that end in despair (verse 35). The effect of this 
 Vision of Death on the prophet's mind was deepened 
 by the force of contrast. Behind it lay Karmel, the 
 fruitful land. The word Karmel means a garden. Often 
 it is used as a descriptive term ; thus, in chap, xlviii 
 Moab is Karmel (verse 33) . But here the local refer- 
 ence is unmistakable. The mind passes instinctively 
 from the abstract idea to the spot which most impres- 
 sively illustrates it — the great hiU, " cutting across 
 the sea board of Palestine, like a hand reached out to 
 
 ' Hull's Desert of Sinai. ' Prof. Palmer. 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVRH 49 
 
 catch the rains, and scatter them over the plain below. "^ 
 Between these two, the Wilderness and Karmel, 
 Jahveh sets Himself, to plead with His people : Have I 
 been a wilderness to you ? (verse 31). 
 
 The whole passage is characteristic of our prophet. 
 He makes no attempt to demonstrate the existence of 
 God ; but, taking his stand on the broad ground of 
 experience, makes this magnificent appeal to the con- 
 science and heart of his people. Jahveh reveals 
 Himself in action, in those great miraculous interposi- 
 tions on which the whole Covenant history is based. 
 And Judgment, when it follows sin, records itself, with 
 almost automatic precision, in the altered political 
 and social conditions. While the people followed 
 Jahveh, the wilderness blossomed like a rose ; when 
 they forsook Him, even Karmel withered and became 
 a desert. For our prophet the science of Economics 
 is very simple. The tide of material prosperity ebbs 
 and flows in obedience to celestial laws. While Faith 
 orbs to her fullness, dominating the hfe of a people, the 
 tide rises steadily ; when she wanes, it as surely recedes. 
 
 If we can interpret the prophet's symbol, the appeal, 
 here made to Israel, is valid for ourselves to-day. It 
 is impossible to eliminate the Wilderness from life ; 
 it is by conflict, stern and often lonely, that men grow 
 strong. Yet, all through, there is a kindly Providence 
 guiding our steps, scattering blessings on our way. 
 If the results of life are disappointingly poor, we have 
 ourselves to blame. The Eclipse of Faith is temporary ; 
 the great celestial forces work on. " Thus saith Jahveh : 
 Have I been a wilderness unto you ? " 
 
 Ch. ii. 1-5. The first five verses of chap, iii properly 
 belong to chap. ii. The same figure of the unfaithful 
 ^ G. A. Smith's Hist. Geography. 
 
50 LOQUITUR JAHVEH 
 
 wife is continued here ; though the point of view is 
 somewhat altered, and the situation more advanced. 
 The following rendering of these verses may be offered : 
 
 Verse i. If a man put away his wife, 
 
 And she go from him ; 
 If she become another man's wife. 
 
 Shall she return to him ? 
 Were there not utter defilement 
 
 In such a land ? 
 And thou hast played the harlot with many lovers- 
 
 And wilt return to Me ? 
 
 Verse 2. Lift up thine eyes to the bare heights ; 
 Where hast thou not been lien with ? 
 Thou sattest waiting for them by the way. 
 
 Like the marauding Arab, 
 And hast defiled the land with thy harlotry, 
 And by thy wickedness. 
 Verse 3. So the showers were withheld, and the latter rain — 
 It hath not been. 
 
 Ill 
 
 And the front of an harlot was thine, 
 Thou refused'st to be ashamed. 
 Verse 4. Is it not a new thing, that thou callest to Me, 
 
 " The Friend of my youth ! 
 Verse 5. Will Jahveh retain anger for ever ? 
 Will He keep it continually ? " 
 Behold, thou hast said and done it — 
 Done evil with thy might. 
 
 Having impleaded the nation as a faithless wife, 
 Jahveh here raises, in abstract and purely legal form, 
 the question of their return. But the question has al- 
 ready been settled on the highest authority ■} and with 
 
 ' Deut. xxiv, 1-4. 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVEH 51 
 
 a brief summary of this former judgment, He pro- 
 ceeds to enforce it. Certainly no excuse could be 
 urged in Judah's case. She had sinned openly, and 
 in the light of day. She had built altars to Baal on 
 hiU tops, as if to flaunt her infidehty in the sight of 
 heaven. Watchful and wary, like the Arab of the Desert 
 who lies in wait for the caravan he means to despoil, 
 she had intrigued with the nations and consummated 
 those political alliances by which she renounced her 
 allegiance to Jahveh. Nor had she done this unwarned. 
 With a merciful severity He had chastened her, with- 
 holding the showers that soften the earth, and the 
 rains that swell the fruit ; but in vain. Nor could it 
 be urged in her defence that on occasion she could 
 dissemble well. The reference in verse 4 is no doubt 
 to the Deuteronomic Reformation, the shallowness, 
 if not the hoUowness, of which must very soon have 
 become apparent to the prophet. A few conventional 
 phrases, legislation as worthless as the parchment 
 on which it was inscribed, were enough in Judah's 
 eyes to efface the memory of generations of wrongdoing. 
 Meantime, with fair words on her lips, her ways were 
 fierce and foul as ever : Thou doest evil with thy 
 might. 
 
52 LOQUITUR JAHYEH 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. II, i-III, 2. 
 
 It is impossible to record here, still less to justify, the 
 numerous trifling alterations and omissions made in restoring 
 the poetic form. Students must be referred to Duhm's work. 
 I mention those only which are of importance, and where I 
 differ from him. 
 
 Ch. ii. verse 14a. The original requires the insertion of 
 an accented syllable to complete the line (" Now "). It 
 may be borrowed from verse 18, where it is redun- 
 dant. The fourth line of the verse is recovered from 
 verse 15. 
 
 Verse 15. " Shaven Thy head,'' By easy transposition 
 of letters, from 'arah=»To be bare. Cf. Ta'ar=»a 
 razor. See Driver's note. 
 
 Verse 17. The closing phrase ("At the time when He 
 led them," etc.) is omitted. It is really a variant of 
 verse i8a ; and is omitted in LXX. 
 
 Verse 19a. " Thy backsliding shall reprove thee " (A.V.) 
 is omitted as exegetical of the previous (ambiguous) 
 phrase. See Duhm. 
 
 Verse 196. The close of the verse (" That it is an evil 
 thing," etc., etc.) is omitted as an interpolation. It 
 is a favourite phrase with the Editors ; borrowed here 
 from verse 17 ; cf. iv, 18. The text is uncertain, as 
 the LXX proves. 
 
 Verse 206. Omit the phrase : " For upon every high 
 hill," etc. Not content with this earlier amplification 
 of the text, the LXX adds : iropevo/j.ai. " A wanton 
 harlot, thou ! " The verb " to wanton " expresses 
 a gesture either of pride (Bending back ; of Isa. Ixiii, i) 
 or of lust (Bending over ; so here, and cf. Isa. li, 14). 
 For another, transitive, use of the verb ("to tilt"), 
 cf. chap, xlviii, 12. 
 
 Verse 21. "To bitterness." For the present almost 
 impossible text, I propose to read : Lim'r6r6th GSphSn ; 
 relying on Deut. xxxii, 32 ; and on the LXX rendering 
 of the phrase : cis triKpiav. 
 
 Verse 23. Insert : 'Att (Thou), which has been merged 
 in previous word; and point: Dark§,h (Her way). 
 
 Verse 24. The combination of " the swift young camel " 
 (fem.) with the " wild ass " (masc.) creates gramma- 
 
LOQUITUR JAHVEH 53 
 
 tical confusion. Read : P5,rah ; and alter suffixes 
 accordingly ; also, the accents. 
 
 Verse 28. The close of the verse, which is in prose, is 
 omitted, as a later addition. 
 
 Verse 29. The verse is restored in agreement with the 
 LXX. 
 
 Verse 31, In the M.T., the verse begins : O generation, 
 see yc the Word of Jahveh. The LXX endeavours, 
 but without much success, to deal with what is evidently 
 a late insertion. 
 
 Verse 336. We adopt the reading suggested by the LXX. 
 See note in Streane's Double Text. 
 
 Verse 35. " Why glidest thou away." Duhm and 
 Giesebrecht, following the LXX, render : " Why 
 dost thou lightly " (as if from zalal). But see Driver's 
 note. The verb 'azal is used of streams that fail the 
 traveller (Job xiv, 11), and of failing food or strength 
 (i Sam. ix, 7 ; Deut. xxxii, 36). Thus a new turn is 
 given to the imagery of the Desert. See Introduction 
 to the chapter. 
 Ch. iii. verses 1-5. 
 
 Verse i. Duhm, Giesebrecht and others read: "That 
 woman," for ; " that land." Yet, in favour of the 
 present text, is the undoubted reference to Deut. 
 xxiv, 4. 
 
 Verse 3. Duhm and Erbt prefer to follow the LXX, and 
 read : " And thy many friends were a snare to thee," 
 instead of : And the showers were withheld. But 
 with chap, xiv before us, the fact of such recurrent 
 droughts in Josiah's day is made certain. 
 
 Verse 4. It is probably better to omit the phrase : My 
 Father — an anticipation, here, of verse 19. In verse 
 5(1, a word has fallen out— probably, Jahveh. Duhm 
 greatly improves the rhythm by reading the Hiph'U 
 of the verb : Thou hast done evil. The change in the 
 original is very slight. 
 
ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 Chapters III, 6— IV, 2 
 
 ANEW section opens here dealing with the rela- 
 tions between Israel and Judah, and dating, 
 like the former section, from the reign of Josiah. 
 
 [The question as to the unity and authorship of the section 
 is somewhat difficult. Driver connects verse 19 \vith verse 5, 
 and treats the intervening verses as a separate section, appar- 
 ently accepting it as Jeremian throughout. Stade and Cornill 
 also connect verse 19 wdth verse 5. They reject verses 17, 18 
 as post-exilic ; and regard verses 6-16 as a displaced Jeremian 
 oracle. But verse 16, which is negative, seems to require the 
 positive statement of verse 17 as its supplement ; in which 
 case their analysis of the passage must be rejected. Duhm 
 regards verses 12&, 13 as a Jeremian kernel, provided here with 
 an editorial setting (6-120). He connects verse 13 directly 
 with verse 19. But there is very little to justify the special 
 importance attached to verses 126 and 13, unless it be their 
 poetic form. Erbt connects verses 4 and 5 with verses 19, 20 ; 
 verses 11- 13 with verses 22-25, regarding verses 6- 10 and verse 
 21 as later insertions. On the whole, I am disposed to agree 
 with Giesebrecht.who connects verses 6-13 with verses 19-iv. 2 ; 
 and, having excised verses 14-18, which are certainly post- 
 exilic, regards the rest as an early oracle of our prophet. It 
 is true that elsewhere Jeremiah uses the name Israel of the 
 whole nation, whereas here it denotes the North as opposed to 
 the South, Ephraim as contrasted with Judah. But the fact 
 that the contrast is introduced, not by way of implication or 
 parenthesis, but expressly and as the burden of the passage, 
 may justify, as it certainly requires, the narrower connotation 
 of the name. We notice that the North is divorced (verse 
 8), i.e. the bulk of the Ten Tribes are already gone into exile 
 
ISRAEL AND JUDAH 55 
 
 when the prophet writes. The contrast instituted between 
 North and South implies that things have not yet reached this 
 stage with Judah (verse 9) ; and if so, the passage, as a whole, 
 must be relieved of those verses (verses 14-18) which imply 
 that Judah also is in exile. On the other hand, the condition 
 of Israel, divorced and decimated, forms a fine background 
 for the sympathetic description of their repentance and return 
 as given in verses 19-iv, 2.] 
 
 To understand the attitude which the prophet here 
 assumes towards Israel, we must briefly review the 
 history of the nation. From an external point of view 
 the reign of Solomon was splendid enough ; but, from 
 another, inner point of view, it was just as sordid. 
 Protracted wars, and the heavy duties levied to main- 
 tain public works had exhausted the people and alien- 
 ated their affections from the throne. Jerusalem might 
 be proud of a king who poured through her gates 
 the treasures of every chme ; but, through the land, 
 the people, as a whole, felt that they were being fleeced 
 like sheep to feed a luxurious and dissolute court. 
 Hence, at the first opportunity, when, on the death 
 of Solomon, a young and inexperienced hand assumed 
 the reins of government, they raised the standard of 
 revolt. The secession of the Ten Tribes was a political 
 and social movement ; perhaps the earliest attempt 
 made, on a great scale, to assert the rights of man. As 
 such we are assured it had the approval and sympathy 
 not only of patriots but of prophets like Ahijah. But 
 it entailed consequences which, if not foreseen, proved 
 not less inevitable. To maintain her position as an 
 independent kingdom, Israel threw herself into the 
 arms of the heathen powers lying around. Then 
 followed royal marriages with Tyre, commercial 
 treaties with S5Tia, and a general absorption of 
 foreign customs and ideas which left her practically 
 a heathen country. Thus the movement, once deemed 
 
56 ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 
 not only hopeful but sacred, proved, like the French 
 Revolution, disastrous in its actual results. It began 
 as a political protest ; it ended in disavowal of the 
 ancient Faith. We must remember that, within the 
 historic period, i.e. after their settlement in Canaan, 
 the Northern tribes were never really permeated by 
 the idealsof Jahvehism, as these took root and developed 
 in the South. Lying far apart and separated by natural 
 barriers, they retained much of the old Nature worship 
 inherited from their fathers. Here and there, now 
 and then, a Gideon might arise to conjure with the 
 mighty Name and galvanize the tribes into a semblance 
 of unity. But the influence of such men did not sur^-ive 
 themselves. To the bulk of the people the newer 
 developments of Jahvehism were associated with 
 Judah, and regarded as a political innovation threaten- 
 ing the independence of the North. Further, as their 
 literature and history assure us, the temper of the North 
 was lively, sensiti^'e, artistic, readily responding to 
 the kindly influences which played on them. They 
 loved warmth and colour ; and were as naturally 
 ritualistic in their worship as are the peasantry of 
 the sunny South to-day. There was no break, no 
 formal renunciation of Jahveh ; but rather a gradual 
 decline into forms of worship which became more 
 and more sensuous. The sin of Israel was instinctive, 
 involuntary, almost unconscious ; largely a matter of 
 environment. They were fickle, rather than false. 
 The prophet calls them " Turncoat Israel." 
 
 With Judah it was otherwise. At an early period 
 the kingdom was transferred from the North to the 
 South. The Temple of Jahveh and the House of 
 David stood side by side. Judah could never disown 
 Jahveh ; but she could blend with His worship heathen 
 elements, cruel and ghastly rites, such as shocked every 
 
ISRAEL AND JUDAH 57 
 
 natural feeling. The temper of the capital was not 
 gay and versatile as in the North, but gloomy, resolute, 
 and treacherous. 
 
 One other point is brought out in this survey of the 
 national history. For a century before the Fall of 
 Judah, the Ten Tribes were expiating in exile their 
 apostasy from Jahveh. That was a great object 
 lesson, a demonstration on the Blackboard of History, 
 an experiment in the Laboratory of Life, which should 
 have burned conviction into any conscience that was 
 not wholly seared. No doubt it had some effect. The 
 Deuteronomic legislation was an attempt to avert 
 such a fate from Judah, and, in our prophet, we have 
 the representative of aUttle band who never swerved 
 from their loyalty to Jahveh. But in the main Judah 
 was unmoved. The people, misled by the false prophets, 
 rejoiced that at last Jahveh had rejected their rival, 
 and concluded that they might now safely presume 
 on their privileged position as the Covenant Folk. 
 
 Jeremiah, by birth, belonged to the North. He 
 spent a long lifetime in the capital, but he was never 
 at home there. In reviewing their history, he judges 
 on the whole favourably of Israel, holding them as at 
 least less guilty than Judah. " The Turncoat Israel 
 has justified herself in comparison with the Treacherous 
 Judah." 
 
 There always have been these two types of siimers. 
 Our Lord found them side by side ; and in the judgment 
 He passed on the Pharisees in His own day, He confirmed 
 that of the prophet as recorded here. " The publicans 
 and harlots shall go into the Kingdom of Heaven before 
 you." It is so still. It is easy to pass wholesale 
 condemnation on the masses in our great cities and 
 country districts, who, in good sooth, are pagan enough 
 in character and conduct. But how much is it, with 
 
58 ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 
 them as with Israel, a question of environment ? To 
 them one preaches the Gospel with a certain coniidence 
 that it is the right word in the right place. It is 
 different with those who unite a profession of the 
 Christian faith with the rankest vices, the pride and 
 selfishness, of a pagan age. On one of the few occasions 
 when John Wesley preached to a courtly audience, he 
 chose Repentance as his theme, and flung denunciations 
 right and left. At the close, one of his hearers re- 
 monstrated with him : " That sermon should have been 
 preached in Newgate ! " " On the contrary," was his 
 reply, " had I been preaching there, I should have 
 chosen as my text. Behold the Lamb of God." 
 
 On the ground of the favourable judgtftent passed on 
 Israel the prophet is commissioned to preach forgiveness 
 to the North. It must of course be understood that 
 in making this appeal he does not, as Duhm puts it, 
 talk " in die Luft," but addresses himself to these 
 members of the Northern tribes who were left in the 
 land. In this he follows the example of godly kings 
 like Hezekiah. 
 
 Verse 126. Turn again, Oh, turncoat Israel, 
 Unto Me, saith Jahveh ; 
 I will not frown upon you, 
 For I am merciful ; 
 
 Verse 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, 
 
 That thou hast rebelled 'gainst Me 
 And hast scattered thy ways to strangers, 
 And hast not hearkened to My voice. 
 
 But the problem is not so easily solved. John 
 Baptist preached repentance, and lost his head ; Jesus 
 Christ came, revealing the Father, and the world's 
 heart was won. What the people needed in Jeremiah's 
 day was, not the urgency either of patriot or of prophet, 
 
ISRAEL AND JUDAH 59 
 
 but some new and more spiritual conception of Jahveh. 
 Jahveh Himself interposes (notice the emphasis of 
 verse 19) to solve the problem not by a tour-de-force, 
 but by the insight and patient sympathy which wins 
 men to His side. 
 
 Verse ig. But I, I have said : 
 
 How put thee among the children, 
 And give thee a choice land, 
 A very goodly heritage ? 
 
 And I said, Thou shalt call Me, my Father ! 
 Nor turn away from Me. 
 Verse 20. Surely, as a wife playeth false with her husband, 
 So hast thou played false with Me. 
 
 The phrase : "To put among the children," can 
 hardly mean : How shall I establish thee with children ! ^ 
 nor even : How shall I restore thee, a faithless wife, 
 to thy place and influence among the children, i.e. 
 as mistress of the house ? It is simply : How shall I 
 treat thee, a faithless servant, as if thou wert a child ? ^ 
 As if teaching a child to babble, Jahveh puts into the 
 mouth of the people the words they shall speak. But, 
 of course, it is the spirit of adoption, not any phrase- 
 ology, however seemly and sacred, that avails. In 
 verse 20, the figure shifts from that of the children 
 to that of the wife. The nation, as individuals, were 
 Jahveh's apostate children ; as a community. His 
 faithless wife. His appeal is not in vain. Deep answers 
 to deep ; the penitence of the people to the pity in the 
 heart of God. Affliction has done its work. They 
 recognize the vanity of their efforts, of the energy put 
 forth in the worship of idols — mere " tumult on the 
 mountains." The Baal they had worshipped so 
 ardently, is now no better in their eyes than a Bosheth, 
 
 ' As Cheyne suggests. ^ Compare Prov. xvii, 2. 
 
60 ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 
 a shameful thing that has consumed their substance 
 and clothed them with confusion. 
 
 Verse 21. A voice is heard on the bare heights. 
 Weeping and supplication ; 
 For they have perverted their ways, forgotten 
 Jahveh, their God. 
 Verse 22. Return, ye apostate children, 
 I will heal your apostasy. 
 Behold, we come unto thee. 
 For Thou art our God I 
 
 Verse 23. Surely in vain, from the hills. 
 
 Is the tumult of the mountains ; 
 Surely in Jahveh, our God, 
 Is the salvation of Israel. 
 
 Verse 24. And the Shameful One hath devoured, from our 
 youth, 
 The labours of our fathers. 
 We lay us down in our shame, and cover us 
 With our confusion. 
 
 The passage is exceedingly interesting, as giving us 
 insight into the wider outlook with which the prophet 
 began his ministry — the sanguine and optimistic tem- 
 per of his youth. It seemed to him still possible, by an 
 earnest appeal, not only to rouse Judah but to reclaim 
 Israel. As a Benjamite, a member of the Northern 
 kingdom, it lay near his heart to make this early appeal, 
 not to Jerusalem, but to the whole nation in its ideal 
 unity. All too soon his horizon narrowed. Step by 
 step he was driven in upon himself. There came a 
 time when, instead of hoping to save Israel, he des- 
 paired of saving Judah ; when he had to fight hard for 
 his own spiritual Hfe. In this, no doubt, his experi- 
 ence was that of all enthusiasts. Vast is the egoism 
 of youth! In the morning of life we project our 
 shadow easily across the globe, conscious only of 
 power and will ; not yet of the limitations which they 
 
ISRAEL AND JITDAH 61 
 
 bring with them. We too have to learn to measure 
 our steps, and to moderate our pace ; and often it 
 happens that, because we have failed to do all, we 
 despair of doing an5rthing. What is xmique in the 
 prophet's experience is, that the wider outlook of his 
 early days returns to him at the close of Ufe. We shall 
 hear him, amid the siege of Jerusalem, in the words 
 of consolation which he addresses to the people, in- 
 clude the North once more, aiming, not by passionate 
 appeal as in his youth, but in reliance on the infinitely 
 patient and therefore omnipotent promises of God, at 
 a United Israel. And rightly so. He who can do 
 anything, can do everything. He who will save Judah 
 must save Israel as well. 
 
 Chap, iii, 14-18. There still remains for consider- 
 ation, the short oracle, verses 14-18. It is full of life 
 and force, emanating from the very heart of the Covenant 
 People ; but it has no marks of Jeremian authorship. 
 The Ark is lost ; the House of David is no more ; 
 Judah, sharing in Israel's sin, shares her punishment, 
 and has gone into captivity. All this seems hopeless 
 enough ; but the very extremity of the situation is 
 the one hopeful element in it. The Fall of Judah has 
 broken down the wall of pride and imagined superiority 
 which separated her from her sister. If we might put 
 the case in modern phraseology, the Disestablishment 
 of the Church has opened the way to the Reunion of 
 Christendom ! And, no doubt, in the utter absence of 
 earthly leaders, the people were more willing to wait 
 on God. 
 
 First of all, there comes the call to Repentance — 
 the condition of all Restoration : Turn ye. With 
 eager hand Jahveh is seen, gathering His outcasts, 
 sifting them like grains of wheat, and gathering them 
 
62 ISRAEL AND JUDAH 
 
 into His granary : I will bring you to Zion. The 
 " family," i.e. tribe or clan, is a larger unit than the 
 city, and therefore yields larger results : " One of a 
 city, and two of a family." The roots of the national 
 apostasy lay deep in political conditions. Upstart 
 rulers, like Jeroboam, naturally favoured religious 
 innovations ; and weak kings, like Zechariah, had 
 followed suit. Hence the importance of the promise 
 Jahveh gives : " I will give you shepherds, i.e. rulers, 
 after My heart, which shall feed you with knowledge 
 and judgment." Feeding in such pastures the little 
 flock soon breaks bounds. The primal blessing is 
 reafifirmed : " Ye shall multiply and increase." ^ 
 Even loss becomes gain, as in the case of the Ark. The 
 later history of the Ark is obscure. From Pss. xxiv and 
 Ixviii, we learn that it had existed in comparatively 
 recent times. According to 2 Chron. xxxv, 3, it was an 
 object of veneration even in Josiah's days. Now it 
 is gone, and with it the Temple. In this connexion, a 
 special interest attaches to verse 17 : " At that time 
 they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jahveh, and 
 all the nations shall be gathered unto it, because of 
 the name of Jahveh." The meaning is not, that one 
 symbol shall be replaced by another more stable and 
 striking than itself, e.g. the Ark by the city ; but rather 
 that all which no material symbol could ever express 
 shaU be realized in a new spiritual society, the com- 
 munity of the redeemed. The impersonation of Jahveh's 
 Name, as well as this gathering of the nations to Jeru- 
 salem, not for war but for worship, are marks of a 
 late and post-exilic age. 
 
 • Cf. Genesis i, 28. 
 
THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 
 Chapters III— VI 
 
 REFERENCE has already been made to an event 
 which marked the prophet's youth, and 
 powerfully affected him throughout life, the Scjrthian 
 Invasion. Classical writers, such as Homer and 
 Aeschylus, mention the Scythians ; but it is to Hero- 
 dotus we are indebted for what we know of their 
 movements at this time. According to him, their 
 early home lay to the north-east of the Caspian Sea, in 
 a barren region the air of which was darkened by a 
 perpetual fall of snow. They lived in waggons, fed 
 on mares' milk, and wore coats and leggings of skin. 
 They blinded their slaves, and were noted for their 
 use of the bow. Driven by the love of change, they 
 moved southwards toward the Black Sea, where so 
 many great rivers pour their waters across the fertile 
 plain. The legend of a golden plough and yoke that 
 fell from heaven indicates that, at an early period, 
 they had passed from a simple nomadic stage of 
 civilization to the practice of agriculture. Moving 
 still further South, they drove the Cimmerians 
 before them into Asia Minor, in hot haste maintaining 
 the pursuit ; but, mistaking their way, as Herodotus 
 thinks, they came out far to the East. They next 
 overran the Ass5nian Empire ; checked the advance 
 of Media for a generation ; and poured along the 
 sea-board of Palestine, till they reached Eg57pt. There 
 
 6t 
 
64 THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 
 
 they were met with peaceful weapons,^ and persuaded 
 to turn their horses' heads to the North. On their 
 homeward way they spoiled the Temple of Venus at 
 Ascalon, indulging in excesses the physical, and prob- 
 ably quite natural, results of which are attributed by 
 the historian to the vengeance of thegods. Thewholein- 
 cident remains obscure at several points, but it is certain 
 that about this time (circa 626 B.C.) Palestine suffered 
 heavily from such a robber raid. Zephaniah sketches 
 their advance in lively terms. Ezekiel borrows from it 
 the colours in which he pourtrays his vision of the last 
 Judgment. Bethshan, north of Gilboa, and in the very 
 heart of Palestine, was known to the Greeks as Scjrtho- 
 poUs. And here, from Jeremiah, we learn how great 
 was the panic they inspired and the devastation they 
 wrought throughout Syria. 
 
 In chap, iv we have five poems which refer to this 
 Scjrthian invasion ; probably the earliest effort of the 
 prophet's genius. They throb with passionate emo- 
 tion, and that intense sympathy with his native land 
 which drew him out of his privacy and constituted for 
 him, as we have seen in chap, i, the Divine call to his 
 ministry. The hand of later Editors has been at work 
 here, marring the poetic form of these priceless frag- 
 ments, and introducing elements of thought which 
 were quite certainly alien to the prophet at this time. 
 For example, the whole scenery of these early Syrian 
 poems proves that they were written by the prophet 
 while he was in Anathoth, before his removal to the 
 capital. It is the desolation of the country, rather than 
 the sin of the city, that bi^dens his heart and is reflected 
 by them. Yet they are introduced by a brief oracle 
 (verses 3-5) which refers directly to the capital, and 
 therefore belongs to a later period ; while repeated 
 
 ' 8u>pOL(ri T£ KoX \lTJj<Tt, 
 
THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 65 
 
 attempts are made to keep Jerusalem to the front (verses 
 14, 16, 29). Again, there is a disposition to appeal 
 from the narrow public with which the prophet 
 was as yet familiar, to the gentile nations (e.g. verse 
 16). Such an appeal was natural enough after the 
 Fall of Jerusalem, when the one way in which Judah 
 could make history was by influencing other nations 
 more powerful and progressive than herself. Jeremiah 
 had no such temptation to appeal " to the gallery." 
 During a great crisis in history of the nation, his one 
 aim was to rouse the conscience of his,.£wn country- 
 men. And again, there is a tendency here — it is 
 characteristic of these later Editors, and our own age, 
 more than any other, can sympathize with it — 
 to utilize a great Teacher like our prophet, for 
 purposes of edification. As if he had not clearly 
 enough pointed the moral, his verse is burdened, often 
 broken, by a mass of homiletic matter which, however 
 excellent, blunts the edge of his appeal and often 
 obscures his meaning (verses 9, 10, 14, 18, 22). He 
 himself is always direct and strenuous. If we grasp 
 these points and are prepared, with perfect reverence 
 but fearlessly, to apply common-sense to the interpre- 
 tation of Scripture, even the simplest reader will be 
 able to appreciate and justify many of the omissions 
 and emendations which are necessary to restore the 
 text. 
 
 I 
 
 Verse 56. Blow ye the trumpet in the land,. 
 Cry aloud ! 
 Gather yourselves together, and let us enter 
 Into the strong cities. 
 
 Verse 6. Lift up a standard towards Zion, 
 Pack up ! stay not. 
 For calamity is coming from the North, 
 And utter luin. 
 1. S 
 
66 THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 
 
 Verse 7. The. lion hath gone up from his lair, 
 Destro5ring the nations. 
 He hath roused him, and gone up from his place, 
 To lay waste the land. 
 Verse 8. For this, gird you with sack-cloth. 
 Weep ye, and howl. 
 For there is no turning away from us 
 Of Jahveh's fierce anger. 
 
 We are plunged at once into a scene of widespread 
 panic. The trumpet peals ; the peasantry, rescuing 
 what they can of personal property, betake themselves 
 to the capital ; here and there a banner, uplifted, 
 serves to rally the fugitives, and lead them to their 
 place of safety. The enemy is compared to a lion coming 
 up from the Jungle of the Jordan. The figure is con- 
 ventional ; nearer acquaintance with the foe makes 
 the prophet's language much more vivid and realistic. 
 In verse 6, instead of " For I am bringing calamity , 
 from the North," ^ we must restore the text as above. ,5t 
 is not Jahveh, but the prophet, who speaks throughout. 
 
 Verse 11. A wind from the hot heights in the desert. 
 Toward the daughter of my people ; 
 
 Verse 12. Not to sift, nor yet to cleanse ; 
 A full wind, it bloweth up. 
 
 Verse 13. Behold, he cometh up like storm clouds. 
 His chariots are like a whirlwind. 
 Swift as an eagle are his horses. 
 Alas for us, we are undone. 
 
 Verse 15. Hearken ! one publisheth from Dan, 
 
 Proclaiming disaster ; 
 
 From Mount Ephraim 
 
 Verse. 16. Behold, watchmen are coming 
 From a far country ; 
 
 ' So in the A.V. 
 
THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 67 
 
 Verse 17. Like keepers of a field, are they 
 Against her round about. 
 
 Here the figure for Judgment is the wind — not the 
 light breeze that sifts the farmer's corn, but the search- 
 ing hot wind that withers his crops. On the horizon, 
 the dust raised by the Scythian horses hangs like a 
 storm cloud ; they sweep the land as into the vortex 
 of a whirlwind ; their advance is swifter than an eagle's 
 flight. From Dan comes the rumble of their chariot 
 wheels, like the muttering of distant thunder. The 
 " disaster proclaimed " (verse 15) is the havoc wrought 
 by the storm.^ And now (verse 17) they seem to encircle 
 the land, holding it in their grip ; camping here and 
 there, on hill sides, like vineyard keepers. The 
 verse is based on Isaiah i, 8. The reference (" Against 
 her, round about ") is not, as the reader of the present 
 text might imagine, to Jerusalem, but to the Daughter 
 of my People (see verse 11) i.e., the country folk. The 
 second half of verse 15 has disappeared ; the scribe 
 being much more anxious to insert his own appeal to 
 the nations, than to preserve the prophet's text. 
 Duhm's conjecture (" From Mount Ephraim they 
 give warning. Crying with full voice ") is plausible. 
 
 Verse 19. My bowels, my bowels, I am pained 
 
 Within my heart. 
 My heart moaneth unto me ; 
 
 I keep not silence. 
 For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, 
 
 The alarm of war. 
 
 Verse 20. " Ruin upon ruin," is the cry ; 
 
 For the whole land is desolate. 
 Suddenly is my tent laid desolate ; 
 
 In a moment, my curtains. 
 Verse 21. How long shall I see the standard, and hear 
 
 The sound of the trumpet ! 
 
 * Cf . Hab. iii, 7, where the same word, 'Aven, is used, also 
 of a. storm. 
 
68 THE SCYTfflAN INVASION 
 
 The lyric is one long en- of agony. The prophet is 
 pained " %vithin his heart " (Lit. " The walls of his 
 heart "). The storm at length has broken. The 
 tumult of battle, ruin upon ruin, is on ever\- side. 
 
 IV 
 
 Verse 23. I beheld the land, and lo ! 
 
 It was OTthout form and void ; 
 .\nd the heavens, and there was no light there. 
 
 Verse 24. I beheld the mountains, and lo ! 
 (They were) trembling. 
 And all the hills swayed themselves lightly. 
 
 Verse 25. I beheld (the earth), and lo ! 
 There was no man there 
 And all the birds of heaven were fled (away).* 
 
 Verse 26. I beheld the fruitful land, and lo ! 
 (It was) a desert. 
 And all the cities were razed 'fore Jahveh's face. 
 
 Here are the effects of the storm on Natiure ; desola- 
 tion of the landscape. The measure changes. We 
 have stni a quartett ; but the third line is abbreviated, 
 and consists of only two beats, or accented syllables. 
 Or, the third and fourth Hnes maj- be read, as above, 
 in one long line of four accented syllables. A slight 
 transposition in ^•erse 26 is required to restore the 
 rhjiihm ; also, the insertion, twice, of the personal 
 pronoun ; of " the earth," in verse 25a ; and 
 " away " in verse 256. The passage is one of great 
 descriptive power. It is a " Vision of the Last 
 Man." The prophet sees himself " survi^^ng the 
 judgment he predicts, and treading the ashes of 
 an extinct world." * AH the old landmarks ha^-e been 
 swept away, so that the land seems formless and 
 
 ' Read Infin. Absolute of the verb. 
 ' Dr. .\. B. Davidson, 
 
THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 69 
 
 void. To his dizzy brain, the very mountains seem 
 to tremble. On the hot, heavy air not a bird spreads 
 the wing. The earth, once blessed, withers under Jah- 
 veh's curse. Chaos returns again. 
 
 Verse 29. From the noise of the horse-man and bow-man 
 
 The whole land is in flight. 
 They are gone into the woods, and 'mong the rocks 
 
 They hide themselves. 
 AU the cities are forsaken, 
 
 Without inhabitant. 
 
 Verse 30. And thou, what wilt thou do ? 
 
 Though thou clothe thee in silk, 
 Though thou prick thine eyes with pigment, 
 
 In vain shalt thou beautify thyself. 
 Thy lovers reject thee. 
 
 They seek thy life. 
 
 Verse 31. For I have heard the voice of one in travail. 
 
 The cry of one bringing forth her first-born. 
 Hearken, the Daughter of Zion is in labour ; 
 She spreadeth forth her hands. 
 Alas for me, yea, weary 
 
 Is my soul because of murderers. 
 
 Here are the effects of the judgment on man ; dis- 
 solution of social life. Even the fenced cities are no 
 longer safe. The wretched inhabitants flee to the 
 woods and burrow like beasts of the earth. Jerusalem 
 alone remains. But what now of the splendour and 
 state she had affected ? These were no better than 
 the gaudy attire in which a harlot tricks herself out ; 
 and as vain. The great Powers to which she had paid 
 such servile court, her lovers, reject her, or seek her 
 only to take her life. Her hour of travail has come. 
 
 In verse 30 the text is corrupt. The word " Deso- 
 late " (Shadud) is quite unconstruable, and is omitted 
 
70 THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 
 
 in the LXX.i The phrase: "Though thou deck 
 thyself with golden ornaments," is a later addition 
 borrowed from Ezekiel xvi, 13. 
 
 There are three more of these Syrian poems that 
 have been preserved in the following chapters, embedded 
 in what is, in the main, an address to the capital. 
 From their contents, we judge that they belong to a 
 slightly later period than those we have yet examined, 
 and were written by the prophet after his removal 
 from Anathoth to Jerusalem. We give them in the 
 order in which they occur in the text. 
 
 Ch.v. verse 15. Behold, there cometh against you 
 ' A nation from afar ; 
 
 A nation whose speech thou knowest not. 
 They are aU mighty men. 
 
 Verse 17. They shall eat up thy corn and thy bread. 
 Thy flocks and thy herds. 
 They shall break down thy strong cities, 
 Wherein thou trustest. 
 
 [Unimportant in itself, this little poem is interesting as 
 showing how easily the text, when misunderstood or misap- 
 plied, became corrupt. By some copyists it was taken as a 
 reference, not to the Scythians, the memory of whom had 
 been effaced by later and heavier calamities, but to the Chal- 
 deans, and was amended, or at least strengthened, to suit this 
 application. In our present text it reads thus : "I am bring- 
 ing on you a nation from afar ; it is a mighty nation, it is an 
 ancient nation, whose speech thou knowest not, neither under- 
 standest thou what they say." The description here given, 
 excellent if understood of the Chaldeans, the " First of Em- 
 pires," is wholly inapplicable to the Scythians, who were now, 
 for the first time, appearing on the stage of history. The 
 phrase (A.V.) " Thy bread, which thy sons and daughters 
 should have eaten," is inadmissible. If retained, it must be 
 rendered : They shall eat up thy corn and thy bread ; they 
 
 1 In certain MSB. it is rendered by vaAatVwpos. 
 
THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 71 
 
 shall eat up thy sons and thy daughters. But it is doubtful 
 whether even the hungry Scythians had a maw for such a 
 meal. The introduction (A.V.) of " the vine and the fig 
 tree " after " the flocks and herds " is, in the same way, a 
 later interpolation. Whether the last lines may be retained, 
 whether they are admissible in a description of the Scythian 
 horde, may be doubtful. But in view of what we know of 
 the capture of Ascalon, it can hardly be regarded as impossible,] 
 
 Ch. vi. verse i. Pack up out of the midst of Jerusalem, 
 Ye children of Benjamin ! 
 
 Blow ye, blow the trumpet. 
 And light your beacon fires. 
 
 For an evil impendeth from the North, 
 Even utter ruin. 
 
 Verse 2. Behold, a pleasant meadow-land 
 
 Is the High-place of the Daughter of Zion . 
 
 Verse 3. The shepherds come with their flocks. 
 They pitch their tents. 
 They pasture, every one in his own quarter. 
 Encircling her round-about. 
 
 Verse 4. Proclaim ye war against her. 
 Up ye, at noon I 
 Alas for us, for the day dechneth ; 
 The shadows are drawn out. 
 
 Verse 5. Up, then, let us ascend by night 
 And destroy her palaces. 
 
 We have here one of the most graphic of these 
 Syrian poems. The approach of the enemy is sketched 
 under the figure of shepherds, leading their flocks to 
 pasture, and narrowing the circle in which they 
 move about their centre. But this is no peaceful 
 advance. Even the glare of noon-day does not deter 
 them ; they push on amid the lengthening shadows 
 of evening ; and make the night terrible with 
 their shouting. Prof. G. A. Smith disputes the refer- 
 ence of this poem, on the ground that the Scythians, 
 
72 THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 
 
 if they took towns at all, " did not raise mound 
 and ramp against them, but rushed them." He refers 
 the passage to some hypothetical advance of the 
 Egyptian army against Jerusalem, after the battle 
 of Megiddo. But verse 6, on which this objection is 
 based, is certainly not part of the poem — probably 
 not Jeremian at all. And the figure of the shepherds 
 is much more appUcable to a wandering horde of Scy- 
 thians, than to the regular army of Eg3rpt. It is, of 
 course, doubtful whether the Scythians ever regarded 
 Jerusalem as their objective. What is certain is that 
 the inhabitants of Jerusalem must have felt very 
 uncomfortable, till they were well away beyond the 
 Northern horizon. 
 
 [In verse i the cry, Blow ye, blow (TikC^ Takoa') has led, 
 not unnaturally, to the introduction of Tekoah, and, withit, 
 of Beth-Hakkerem. The interjection, " Behold " (verse 2), 
 may be recovered from a slightly corrupt text (Read ; n)3 njn 
 nwvp, Hinneh Naveh M'^cunnagah) . " The High Place of the 
 Daughter of Zion "is a rendering which follows the text of the 
 LXX. Inverses the prepositions, "Unto her," "Against her," 
 " About her," have been displaced. The first is a duplicate 
 of the second, which, with the third, must originally have 
 stood, as above, at the close of the verse.] 
 
 Ch. vi. verse 22. Behold, there cometh a nation 
 From the North country ; 
 And a strong people, it is roused up 
 From the sides of the eau'th. 
 Verse 23. Grasping bow and weapons of war. 
 They are cruel. 
 
 Their noise is a roaring like the sea ; 
 
 They ride on horses. 
 They are arrayed as one man for battle. 
 
 Against the Daughter of Zion. 
 Verse 24. We have heard the rumour of them ; 
 
 Our hands hang down. 
 
THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 73 
 
 Panic has taken hold of us 
 And pain as of a travailing woman. 
 Verse 25. Go not forth into the country, 
 Walk not by the way 
 
 For the enemy hath a sword. 
 Terror take thee round about. 
 
 Verse 26. Oh, daughter of my people, gird thee with sack- 
 cloth ; 
 Roll thee in the dust, 
 Make thee a mourning as of an only child. 
 
 Even bitter lamentation. 
 For, suddenly, he cometh. 
 The destroyer, upon thee. 
 
 [The last of the Syrian poems has the usual Editorial Intro- 
 duction, " Thus saith Jahveh." The phrase, " They have no 
 mercy " (A.V. verse 23) is exegetical of the succeeding, less 
 familiar, phrase, " A cruel nation." In verse 25, note the 
 phrase (a favourite with the poet), "Terror take thee"; 
 of which an explanation is offered in chap. 20, 1-6.] 
 
74 THE SCYTHIAN INVASION 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. IV-VI 
 (The Scythian Songs). 
 
 Ch. iv. verses 116-17. 
 
 Verse 12a. " A strong wind." A phrase is added (" From 
 these "), which is, however, a variant of the previous 
 word (Me'elleh for Male'). 
 
 Verse 14. Omit " Jerusalem." 
 
 The prophet, as we gather, is still in the open country. 
 (Compare verse 16a). The interpolations in these 
 verses are due to the editorial standpoint. See intro- 
 duction to chapter. 
 Verses 19-21. 
 
 Verse 20. " I have heard." Omit : " My soul." The 
 verb was pointed as if fem. participle, and so led 
 to this insertion. 
 Verses 23-26. 
 
 Verse 236. For : " To the heavens," read as above 
 Substitute 'eth (accus. particle) for 'el (prep.), and 
 insert it in verse 24c. 
 Verses 29-31. 
 
 Verse 29a. "The whole land" (LXX. Ilacraxtopa). The 
 M.T. reads : The whole city ; another reference to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Verse 296. Omit the second verb (Climb up), as a duplicate 
 of following word. 
 
 Verse 30. Shadud, if retained, must be construed adverb- 
 ially. (Cf. Job xii, 17 and xxii, 7 ; and see Ewald's 
 Syntax § 3, 16). "Thy lovers" — the pronom. sufl&x, 
 appears in the LXX. 
 
 Verse 31a. Read nn^V for iTIV ( = anguish). 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 
 Chapters V — VI 
 
 THE invasion of the Scythians did more than 
 momentarily impress the prophet's mind ; it per- 
 manently affected his career. The charm of the country 
 was gone ; anything in the nature of prophetic activity 
 was impossible, while the peasants were fleeing before 
 the rough soldiery. About this time then, we must think 
 of Jeremiah as leaving Anathoth for Jerusalem. Much, 
 no doubt, was lost by the change. The quiet of a 
 country life, the cultivation of his remarkable literary 
 gifts, the chance to follow out, in an orderly and 
 leisurely way, those lines of thought on which he had 
 already entered ; all this was sacrificed. When he 
 returned to Anathoth, some years later, it was as a 
 different man, into a wholly different atmosphere — 
 an atmosphere ruffled by controversy and heated by 
 passion. On the other hand, how much was gained ; 
 instead of an ideally simple life, a Titanic struggle 
 against the Inevitable ; instead of graceful lyrics, 
 passionate outbursts of thought and feeling which 
 light up the Infinite depths in Man ; instead of the 
 naive unfolding of a single gentle soul, the reflexion, 
 perplexing yet everywhere convincing, of an age, which, 
 beyond most, was big with rapid and eventful changes. 
 Into this life of storm and stress, of defeat and victory, 
 we are now to follow him. Duhm suggests an instruc- 
 tive parallel between Luther on his arrival at Rome, 
 
 76 
 
76 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 in 1510, and our prophet at this stage of his experience. 
 " If they had given me a hundred thousand florins," 
 says Luther, " I would not have missed seeing Rome." 
 Jeremiah must have felt so, as he recalled his advent 
 to Jerusalem. His soul was deeply stirred ; disen- 
 chantment was the immediate result, but it was his 
 introduction to Reality. In two strophes, each of seven 
 couplets or double lines, he gives us first impressions of 
 the Capital. 
 
 I (Chap. V.) 
 
 Verse i. Hurry through the streets of Jerusalem, 
 
 And see, now, and know. 
 Search diligently through her thoroughfares, 
 
 Whether ye can find a man, 
 Whether there be any one, doing justice 
 
 And seeking after truth. 
 
 Verse 2. For, though they swear by the life of Jahveh, 
 
 Their oath stands not. 
 Jahveh, hast thou an eye for falsehood. 
 
 And not for truth ? 
 Thou hast smitten them, yet they smarted not. 
 
 They refused to receive correction. 
 They hardened their faces more than the rock ; 
 
 They refused to repent. 
 
 He finds himself, like the Cynic philosopher, lighting 
 a candle and going through the streets of the city, in 
 search of a man ! Ten righteous men might have 
 saved Sodom, in Abraham's day. We have travelled 
 far since then ; and even one might save Jerusalem. 
 But even Jahveh's all-searching eyes cannot find one. 
 Profession of religion is everywhere ; the practice of it, 
 nowhere. Smitten and wasted by calamity, the mass 
 of the people remain indifferent— hard as the rock, 
 which the storm sweeps till it is bare of the thinnest 
 coating of soil. 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 77 
 
 Verse 4. Then I, I said, 
 
 Surely, these are the rabble ; 
 They are senselfcss, for they know not 
 Jahveh's way. 
 Verse 5. I will get me to the great, 
 And will speak with them. 
 For they know Jahveh's ways. 
 The judgment of their God. 
 
 Nay, they have altogether broken the yoke. 
 And burst the bands. 
 Verse 6. Therefore, a lion out of the forest hath smitten 
 them, 
 A wolf of the steppe. 
 A leopard watches over their cities. 
 He that goeth out is torn. 
 
 At first the prophet is incUned to blame himself for 
 failure. " These are the rabble " ; they may urge, 
 in their own defence, the plea of ignorance. They 
 have never known the " sweet influences which bind 
 the Pleiades." He turns to the leaders of the people, 
 the educated and privileged classes ; but here the result 
 is worse. They know Jahveh's way, only to break His 
 yoke and burst His bands. Such folly calls for the 
 utmost severity. In words which recall a famous 
 passage from the first canto of Dante's Inferno, the 
 prophet summons against them the lion to tear, the 
 wolf to waste, and the leopard to lie in wait at the 
 gates of the city. The genius of the medieval poet 
 betrays him into subtle analysis of character and 
 recondite allusions which have no place on the page 
 of prophecy. It is enough here, to see Nature's revolt 
 against an unworthy lord. 
 
 Verses 7-9. Jahveh's goodness has been wholly 
 abused. It has bred shameless wantonness in the 
 people. Home-life reflects a debased religious ideal. 
 The marriage bond is lightly broken ; domestic virtues, 
 are scorned. 
 
78 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 Verse 7. How shall I pardon thee for this ? 
 Thy children have forsaken me. 
 And though I made them swear, yet sware they 
 By gods that are not. 
 Verse 8. They did lewdly in the harlot's house, 
 Thronging together. 
 Itching stalhons, they neigh 
 
 Each after his neighbour's wife. 
 
 [Probably here (verse 7) as in Malachi (chap, ii, 10) ' the 
 "oath" may convey a reference to the marriage- vow, the force 
 of which they evaded by giving a religious sanction to their 
 lust.] 
 
 Verses 10-13. The people are seen clinging, like 
 the tendrils of a vine, to the walls of their city ; but 
 with ruthless hand they are torn down and trailed in 
 the dust. By terrible things in righteousness, Jahveh 
 has taught them. But even Omnipotence cannot 
 enforce the simplest moral truth upon unwilling minds. 
 They do not deny the existence of Jahveh or dispute 
 His claims ; they merely refuse to recognize His hand. 
 Whatever happens they say, "It is not He." Their 
 challenge is accepted. Just what they regard as incred- 
 ible, shall actually take place. The text is in some 
 confusion ; but it is possible to re-arrange it in a 
 stanza whose close-knit force speaks for it, I think, 
 as original and prophetic. 
 
 Verse 14a. Therefore, because they speak this word. 
 Verse 136. Even so shall it happen to them. 
 Verse 146. Behold, I will put my word 
 Tn thy mouth as fire ; 
 
 And this people shall be as fuel. 
 And it shall consume them. 
 Verse 13a. And the prophets shall be as wind ; 
 My word is not in them. 
 
 * " The Covenant of thy youth." 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 79 
 
 In the last couplet there is an evident douhle- 
 entendre. The prophets are empty as wind, for there is 
 no true word in them. Yet, in their very emptiness, 
 like the wind, they feed the passions of the people, 
 and fan the flame that shall devour them. One thinks 
 of Milton's famous lines : 
 
 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed. 
 
 But, swollen with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
 
 Rot inwardly and foul contagion spread. 
 
 Verses 18-31. We have next to consider a long 
 prose passage, broken in style and calling for the 
 critical knife. In the main, it is an appeal to the 
 unwritten law, the Order of Nature. Nothing is more 
 magnificent as a demonstration of Freedom and 
 Force than the ocean ; and yet, with gentle sway and 
 absolute effect, it is controlled by a rope of sand. A 
 certain turgidity of style offends the ear in reading 
 verse 22. It may be well, therefore, to give it here, 
 in the briefer and more nervous form to which it can 
 be restored : " Will ye not fear me, saith Jahveh, or 
 tremble before me, who have set the sand as a bound 
 to the sea ? though the waves thereof roar, they shall 
 not overpass it ; though they toss themselves proudly, 
 they shall not prevail." In contrast with this sweet 
 reasonableness of what is mightiest in Nature, is set 
 the waywardness and passionate unrest of the heart 
 in man. These verses (21-22) have been rejected 
 by distinguished critics such as Stade and Comill 
 on account of a certain affinity with other doubtful 
 passages in this Book, and of a supposed dependence 
 on the second Isaiah and the Book of Job. But 
 Giesebrecht has pointed out the close connexion with 
 what follows. They form the basis of the emphatic 
 contrast suggested by verse 23. " But this people 
 hath a wayward and a rebellious heart." Unless we 
 
80 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 are prepared, with Duhm, to reject the whole passage, 
 it seems not only fair but needful to retain them. 
 
 This appeal from man to Nature is followed by an 
 inverse appeal from Nature to man. The greatest 
 thing in Nature, after all, is not well-ordered force, 
 but the evidence of Divine goodness which pervades 
 it. Not force, but love, compels the heart. " Let us 
 fear Jahveh, our God, who gives us showers, the early 
 and the latter rain in its season, and reserveth for us 
 the appointed weeks of harvest." The rainfall in 
 Palestine continues during the whole winter from 
 October to April in constant heavy showers.^ Of 
 particular importance to the husbandman, are the early 
 rains ^ falling in October, preparing the land for the 
 plough ; and the latter rain * falling in March or April, 
 swelling the ears of corn and enriching the harvest. 
 Under this genial ministry of Nature, regular and pro- 
 gressive in its methods, abundant in its measure, and 
 manifestly Divine in its source, the earth is softened 
 and made fruitful ; but the heart of man remains 
 untouched. The result of this crass insensibility is 
 recorded in a saying which, however we may judge of 
 it from the scientific point of view, gives expression 
 to that sense of the community between Nature and 
 man which we have already noticed in our prophet : 
 " Your sins have disturbed the order of Nature * and 
 robbed you of good." Far other order holds, far other 
 harvests ripen, where man has sway ; craft and cruelty, 
 sleek self-content of the prosperous worldling, coupled 
 with indifference to the suffering of others — the widow 
 and the orphan. " The prophets prophesy falsely, and 
 the priests enforce judgment in their interest ; and my 
 people loved to have it so." 
 
 ' Geshim. « Yoreh. ' Malkosh. 
 
 * Literally : Deflected these, i.e. the seasons.. 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 81 
 
 Chap. vi. verses 6-7. Into the heart of the city, the 
 prophet had carried with him the gracious impressions 
 of his early life. Very different were the impressions 
 made by his new surroundings. 
 
 Verse 66. Alas, for the city of plunder. 
 
 Wholly oppression within ! 
 Verse 7. As a cistern cooleth its waters. 
 
 So she cooleth her evil (heart). 
 " Murder and Damnation " is the cry within her ; 
 
 It is continually before me. 
 
 In the East, with its long dry summer, cisterns are 
 a necessity of civilization. Hewn out of the rock, and 
 covered over so as to be protected from the heat, they 
 drain to themselves the surface water from ridge and 
 roof. Never reached by the sun, or ruffled by a breeze, 
 the water stagnates in its artificial bed, as cool in the 
 heat of summer as in the depth of winter. If not kept 
 clean, they breed disease and death — a persistent 
 menace to the civilization which requires them. Cities 
 are the cisterns of the moral world, drawing to them- 
 selves the floating population of a country side. Nothing 
 is more startling than the self-absorption of city life. 
 Conventionality lays its chilly hand on freedom, 
 and we sink rapidly to the dull level of those about us. 
 In spite of telegrams and a daily press, the city is 
 strangely isolated. Strangers who come to London dis- 
 cover that nowhere else is public opinion so provincial. 
 Londoners know little of what the rest of the world 
 thinks ; they care less. Even divine judgments, 
 earthquake and fire, reach them with muffled sounds, 
 and waken scarcely an echo in the heart of the great 
 city. The prophet stands amazed before the sluggish 
 tide of tears and blood, that stifles so many a cry. 
 Only one thought reheves the|oppression of the scene. 
 The city may refuse to hear God ; but God sees the 
 
 J- 6 
 
82 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 city. Her black depths, her dread secrets, are all 
 " before Him." 
 
 Verses 8-14. Again a note of warning is sounded 
 out. The Gentries are summoned to complete the work 
 of devastation. Like the dressers of a vineyard, they 
 gather the rich clusters, and then, turning their hand 
 upon the branches, glean them lest they miss a grape. 
 The prophet himself is filled with the fury of Jahveh 
 as a man with wine ; he can no longer restrain himself. 
 Judgment is poured out on the guilty nation, and their 
 land is handed over to others. Twice in these chapters 
 the prophet strikes the note of final judgment (cf. verse 
 19). It has seemed to some impossible that, so early 
 in his career, the prophet could contemplate such an 
 issue. I do not suppose that, for some years after 
 this, he regarded it as the inevitable. Still, for a 
 century the Ten Tribes had been in exile, and a thought- 
 ful mind could not well escape the suggestion that 
 a similar penalty might follow the greater guilt of 
 Judah. The influence of foreign customs had tainted 
 the springs of national life. Judah had rejected 
 Jahveh ; what should hinder Jahveh from rejecting 
 Judah ? It is no hterary artifice but rather an 
 intuition, rapid and startling — the intuition of a great 
 moral law, that lends crispness to his style, when he 
 says : Like as ye have forsaken Me and served 
 alien gods in your own land, so shall ye serve aliens 
 in a land that is not yours. 
 
 In a passage fuU of fine analysis and dramatic 
 power the prophet sums up the characteristics of his 
 age. 
 
 (a) It is a superficial age. 
 
 Verse 14. They have healed the hurt of the Daughter of 
 my people. 
 With a Ught hand. 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 83 
 
 Saying, Peace, Peace, 
 And Peace was not. 
 
 There have always been poUticians who, on the eve 
 of catastrophe, preached this agreeable doctrine of 
 peace, and denounced as pessimistic and unpatriotic 
 those who ventured to take a graver view of the situa- 
 tion. Gibbon tells how — in Imperial Rome — ^while the 
 Gauls were thundering at her gates. Votes of Thanks 
 were passed to her favourite generals, and medals 
 struck in commemoration of imaginary victories. 
 We ourselves know what it is gaily to fling down 
 the gage of battle, never dreaming that it will be 
 lifted, and to find ourselves ere we are aware in the 
 heart of a mortal agony. 
 
 (6) It is an inconsistent age. 
 
 Verse i6. Stand in the way, and ask ye 
 For the ancient paths. 
 Where is the good way, that ye may find 
 Refreshment for your souls ? 
 Verse 17. I have set watchmen over you. 
 Saying, Hearken ye, 
 But ye said. We will not hearken 
 To the sound of the trumpet. 
 
 Living upon their past, they had broken with all 
 that was essential in it. They scorned as antiquated 
 the good old simple ways, trodden by patriots and 
 saints, and aspired to retain the protection of 
 Jahveh while they invoked the patronage of heathen 
 gods. Only the exile which scattered them among 
 the nations, convinced them that it is vain to pour new 
 wine into old bottles, and hope to preserve either. It 
 lies near one's heart to point out how impossible it is 
 for ourselves to discredit the Puritan Faith which made 
 England an Imperial power, and hope to retain the 
 Imperial ideals, so justly held in honour to-day. 
 
84 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 (c) It was a theatrical age. They loved a show ; and 
 cultivated the ritual, at the expense of the ethical 
 in rehgion. Denying Jahveh, they crowded His courts, 
 and burned costly incense on the altars of One, to 
 whom a broken and contrite heart is the only pleasing 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Verse 20. Wlierefore do ye offer incense 
 
 That is brought from Sheba, 
 And calamus from a far country ? 
 
 I \vill not accept it. 
 Your burnt offerings and your sacrifices — 
 
 There is no pleasure in them. 
 
 Finally, in a pathetic passage (verses 27-29), the 
 prophet confesses disappointment, the apparent failure 
 of his work. He describes himself under the figure of 
 a trier or assayer of precious metals. A confusion of 
 two words, even more alike in the original than they are 
 in their EngUsh equivalents (Bahon a Trier, and BShfln 
 a Tower) , has led some copyists to introduce a reference 
 to chap, i, 18, with its original definition of the pro- 
 phet's work. (" I have made thee a tower and a fenced 
 city.") In this way the meaning of verse 27 is whoUy 
 lost. Some slight acquaintance with metallurgy, as 
 pursued by the ancients, is necessary if we are to under- 
 stand the way in which the prophet works out his figure. 
 Lead was used as a fusing agent on account of its power 
 to take up silver, and form with it an aUoy. This 
 alloy or argentiferous lead, was then subjected to 
 a second process known as cupeUation. The cakes 
 were melted on an open hearth and the lead, when thor- 
 oughly oxidized, was skimmed off as litharge. It often 
 happened that the silver ore contained a large admixture 
 of zinc or copper. In such cases, the baser metal 
 would go, to some extent, with the silver into the alloy ; 
 and, after cupellation, would be left on the hearth. 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 85 
 
 Then, as in our prophet's case, the result would be 
 impure or reprobate silver. 
 
 In verse 28 the prophet receives the raw material with 
 which he is to work — base metal, with scarcely an 
 impregnation of silver. In verse 29 we see him at 
 work. The bellows are scorched by the heat of the 
 furnace ; the lead is consumed — i.e. oxidized and 
 skimmed from the molten mass. No effort has been 
 spared ; but the result is worthless. It is impossible 
 to separate the people from their sin. 
 
 Verse 27. I have set thee among my people as a trier, 
 That thou may est try their ways. 
 
 Verse 28. They are all grievous revolters, 
 Iron and brass. 
 
 Verse 29. The bellows are scorched in the fire, 
 The lead is consumed. 
 In vain is the smelting process ; 
 The wicked are not taken away. 
 
 Verse 30. Reprobate silver shall men call them. 
 For Jahveh hath rejected them. 
 
 It is probable that with this sorrowful admission of 
 failure the prophet ended his first issue of the RoU, 
 which met with so ungracious a reception at royal 
 hands.i 
 
 ' See chap, xxxvi. 
 
86 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. V-VI 
 ("Within the City") 
 
 Ch. V. verses 1-3. 
 
 Verse i . Omit the closing words : That I may pardon 
 them. They are borrowed from verse 7. The LXX 
 add ; Saith Jahveh. 
 
 Verse 2. " Their oath stands not." The M.T. reads • 
 Surely (lakSn) they swear falsely. But the LXX. 
 have found a negative in their text {ovk ev i/^cuSta-tv) . 
 LakSn is therefore (according to Duhm's excellent 
 suggestion) to be read : L6 Ken. The word " falsely " 
 must originally have stood after the verb, and belongs 
 to the next sentence. 
 Verses 4-60. 
 
 Verse 4a. Read longer form of pronoun (cf. chap, ii, 19). 
 
 Verse 46. " The judgment of their God " is borrowed 
 from verse 5. 
 
 Verse 6a. The second verb (" shall spoil them ") must 
 be omitted. It is more suggestive of the ravages of 
 an army than of the depredations of a wolf. 
 Verses 7-9 are very corrupt. 
 
 Verse 7. The phrase : I made them swear, must be 
 transposed. 
 
 Verse 8. " Itching stallions." The word translated 
 " Fed " must, I think, be derived from 'azen (a weapon). 
 The word may have been used (like " yad," in Isa. Ivii. 
 8) in an obscene sense of the membrum virile. In 
 that case, the following words : Mashklm Hayu, may 
 have been proposed as more decent. Mashkim must 
 be derived from 'Eshek (Hiph. Part, of cognate verb ; 
 see Driver's note). The verb has thus been displaced, 
 and must be recovered from the end of the verse 
 ("They neigh ").i 
 
 1 For the use of ]l<f suggested above, cf. the phrase TY\i\ti 
 "'^^O (Joshua xix. 34), of the conical peaks, fastigia vel ver- 
 tices Taboris. 
 
WITHIN THE CITY 87 
 
 Verses 18-23. " Calling for the critical knife." I can only 
 refer to Duhm's clever handling of the text, by which 
 it is reUeved of burdensome phrases. These, in turn, 
 are arranged into a marginal note. They are all 
 omitted in the LXX. The passage thus stands : 
 
 Text. Marginal Note. 
 
 Verse 26. For among my people 
 are found wicked men 
 They set snares ^ (They lift cattle I) 
 
 They take men in pits. 
 Verse 27 (as in the text). 
 
 Verse 28. Also they are fat (They are gross !) 
 
 They do not justice to (They devise wicked 
 
 the orphan devices. 
 
 Nor judge the Widow. That they may not 
 
 prosper.) 
 The idea of verse 31 is that of power abused, rather than of 
 lawful authority. 
 Ch. vi. verse 6a. An Editorial note meant as transition from 
 the preceding Scythian song. Jahveh chimes in, and 
 Himself becomes generalissimo of the Scythian host, 
 directing the siege ! 
 Verse 6b. " Alas ! " reading Hoi. Instead of the verb : 
 To be visited, read : Of plunder (Hap-perSk), and 
 compare Nahum, verse 31. See LXX (& 3ro'A.ts i/^cuS^s; 
 Aquila, fj ttoXis aSiKos). 
 Verse 7. The figure is not that of a fountain welling up ; 
 but of a cistern cooUng. So the Greek translators 
 (LXX, it's ijjv)(ei XoLKKO'i vSoip) . 
 The closing words of the verse (" sickness and wounds ") 
 are a comment on the text, borrowed from chap, x, 
 20. 
 Verses 16-17. The usual editorial introduction : Thus saith 
 Jahveh. 
 For verse 16, read : Derek-tobh, and omit : And walk 
 therein. Also omit : But they said, we wiU not walk 
 therein. This has been suggested by verse 17. 
 Verse 17. Transpose : To the sound of the trumpet ; and 
 insert : Saying. 
 
 1 Reading : : >il'sh\ Q'<p:^ nri^3 itTlir!! D*?'ipio (B'pl -IB".). 
 
88 WITHIN THE CITY 
 
 Verses 18-19 are editorial. Instead of : " And know, O 
 
 Congregation," we must (if we retain it) read : Learn 
 
 Knowledge. " What is among them," must be altered 
 
 to : What is coming. 
 Verse 20. Omit the adjective " sweet," and transpose the 
 
 phrase : L6 L'Racon. 
 Verses 27-29. 
 
 Verse 27. Omit : That thou mayest know. If it had been 
 
 original, it must have followed : " And try." 
 Verse 28. " Going about with slanders " is a (feeble) 
 
 comment on the previous difficult phrase. So also : 
 
 " They all of them deal corruptly.'' 
 Erbt proposes a different rendering of this passage ; but 
 
 not, as it seems to me, with great success. ^V^P (in 
 
 verse 27) may be altered to Piel Part, of IV?. But 
 
 then, it is redundant. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 Chapters VII-X 
 
 WE now commence our study of those sections of 
 the Book in which fragments from the prophet's 
 hps have been preserved and woven together by 
 Editorial hands. The section before us begins with 
 the heading of chap, vii and continues to the close of 
 chap. X. It carries us forward, in its survey of the 
 prophet's ministry, to the end of the reign of 
 Jehoiakim. We must not however suppose that it is 
 a sequel to the preceding section. It is rather an 
 independent survey from a standpoint, and with a 
 governing idea, of its own. In chaps, iv-vi the 
 standpoint was the Market ; here, it is the Temple. 
 There, the governing idea was ethical ; here, it is 
 ritual. The section is loosely put together, and 
 contains insertions of a later age. We may divide 
 it thus : Chaps, vii, i-vii, 4 ; chap, viii, 5-22 ; chap, ix, 
 1-22 with chap. x. 17-23 ; chap. ix. 13-26 ; chap. x. 
 1-16. We shall discuss each of these divisions in turn. 
 Chaps, vii, i-viii, 4. Let us first of all, and without 
 critical presupposition, review the chapter as it lies 
 before us. It purports to be a summary of an address 
 delivered by the prophet in the Temple courts, of 
 which we shall hear more in chap. xxvi. Under 
 Divine orders, the prophet takes his stand at the 
 gates of the Temple on the occasion of a national 
 gathering — a festival or a fast day, according to the 
 interpretation put on a somewhat dubious phrase 
 in verse 10. He sees the people streaming in from 
 
90 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 all quarters of the city, and from the towns and 
 villages of Judah — a motley crew, many of them 
 seamed and scarred by gross excess, all of them in 
 just that mood of tremulous excitement which made 
 them open to appeal. He watches them as they 
 look round with satisfaction on the great piles of 
 masonry, and draw the pleasing inference that here, 
 within the precincts of Jahveh's house, no evil can 
 befall them. He hears them offer prayers, with a 
 passionate intensity which betrays the shallowness of 
 a religious experience that had no root in, or hold over 
 their moral nature. " Stealing, murdering, commit- 
 ting adultery, and swearing falsely, burning incense 
 to Baal and going after other gods whom ye know 
 not, will ye come and stand before Me in this place 
 which is called by my name, and say, ' Deliver us,' 
 to do all these abominations ? " They do not, as 
 our English version suggests, urge the plea of the 
 Fatalist, that they are " delivered," i.e. predestined, 
 to commit such sins, and therefore blameless. Rather 
 they pray for deliverance from some impending 
 calamity,^ and then, when a merciful heaven has 
 granted their prayers, they relapse into their old 
 sins. The phrase, " To do all these abominations," 
 suggests not the conscious aim but the actual issue.* 
 Thus the House of Jahveh has become, as it was in 
 our Lord's day, a den of robbers. Earnest and urgent 
 is the prophet's appeal for the one thing that could 
 improve the outlook — a genuine repentance. Stem 
 and relentless is the tone in which he declares the 
 inevitable issue of the present situation. " Go now 
 
 ' If we retain the present pointing in verse lo (we are 
 delivered), we must understand them to give thanks for prayers 
 already answered. The result is the same. 
 
 2 Compare New Testament use of iva ; and cf. Dr. Driver's 
 Note on Deut. xxix. i8. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 91 
 
 to my house in Shiloh . . . and see what I have 
 done to it for the wickedness of my people IsraeL" 
 It was a great object lesson. The past is index to 
 the future. The ruin that had befallen the first 
 Sanctuary in Shiloh could scarcely fail to overtake 
 the later and more splendid Temple in Jerusalem.^ 
 Having shown us the Temple courts, the prophet 
 is supposed to lead us through the city streets, pointing 
 out such a scene as might, any day, be witnessed 
 there. Here is a family party (Hogarth's pencil 
 might have sketched them !) — the children gathering 
 faggots, the men kindling and feeding a fire, the 
 women kneading dough and baking little horn-shaped 
 cakes ^ which they offer on way-side shrines or on the 
 roofs of their houses to Ashtoreth, the Moon Goddess, 
 whom they worship as the Queen of Heaven, and to 
 whom they pray for the blessings of a happy home and 
 a numerous progeny. Such heathen rites, practised 
 in the Holy City, and before the face of Jahveh, 
 made their Temple worship, solemn and stately as 
 
 1 Shiloh lay in Ephraim, north of Bethel in a valley, shut 
 in by low limestone hills. To Shiloh, the Ark that had led 
 the people through the Wilderness, was transferred from 
 Gilgal. After the conquest of the land, the Tribes returned 
 to Shiloh, to divide their inheritances. There, from time to 
 time, they gathered, after the vintage, with dance and song 
 and simple rites (Judges xxi. 19). Still later, when the 
 Tabernacle had been superseded by a permanent structure, we 
 see the aged Eli and the young Samuel there. The sanctuary 
 disappeared during the wars with the Philistines in the days 
 of Saul. When the history is resumed the priesthood is 
 supplanted by the monarchy ; and Jerusalem takes the place 
 of Shiloh as the political and religious capital. According to 
 chap, xli, 5, Shiloh was again inhabited in our prophet's time, 
 and ruins of the old sanctuary may still have been visible. 
 
 ' Compare the phrase i^^'VO^ in chap. xliv. 19. For a 
 similar custom in Athens, see Liddel and Scott imder crcXrjvrj. 
 
92 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 it was, utterly worthless. In Jahveh's name the 
 prophet rejects it all. 
 
 Ha\ang shown us the Temple courts and the city 
 streets, he leads us next through the gates of the cit>-. 
 From the Dead Sea up to the walls of Jerusalem runs 
 a valley which forks just at that point, forming, on 
 the East, the Valley of the Kedron, and, on the South 
 and West, the Valley of Hinnom. It is a curious 
 instance of the power of association, that the gloomy 
 gorge of Kedron, hallowed hy the presence of our 
 Sa^■iour, who must often have CTOSsed it on His wa\- to 
 Bethanj', has become a symbol of iUl that is sweet 
 and sacred ; while the other, shallow and sunny and 
 accurately described b}- Milton as " The pleasant 
 \'ale of Hinnom," has become imder the Greek form 
 of its name, Gehenna, ^ a symbol of Hell. It was 
 originally the place of pubhc sepulture. There, too, 
 the Furnaces, used by the potters for their work, 
 lit up the night with lurid glare. And there the 
 people had set up altsirs to Baal and Moloch, and 
 sacrificed their children in the fire. It was the last 
 effort of a despairing age to propitiate an angry 
 Heaven. As the smoke \\Teaths curled slo\\ly upward 
 into the sky, as men, with laiitted brows, and women, 
 with pitiful drawn faces, steeled themselves to make the 
 last surrender to a god they kne\\- not, all the passion 
 in the prophet's soul broke out, not on them, but on 
 those who misled them and on the system which held 
 them bound. In a passage, certainly not without a 
 gruesome vividness, the spot thus cursed, and with 
 it the whole city, is given over to desolation. " They 
 shall bury in Tophet till there be no more room for a 
 grave." The city is stricken with pestilence ; and the 
 
 ' Compare the French verb gSner (or mettre d. la gdne), 
 originally to torture. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 93 
 
 dead are flung out, without a prayer, to be food for 
 beasts and birds. War follows on the heels of pesti- 
 lence. Graves are desecrated, and the bones of kings 
 and priest and prophet are left to bleach under the 
 noonday sun, or to gleam white against the pale 
 moonlight in sight of all the Host of Heaven which 
 they had vainly worshipped (chap, viii, 1-4). In 
 such terrible times. Death might well seem a tender 
 grace, more to be desired than life. 
 
 The whole passage is marked by a certain unity, 
 and betrays a hand not unskilful in the selection and 
 arrangement of material. It is only on closer examina- 
 tion that we discover its real nature. Verses 1-15 
 are, without doubt, prophetic in substance. The tone 
 is strongly ethical ; the style vigorous and, in places, 
 epigrammatic. But, on comparing them with chap, 
 xxvi, we find ourselves obliged to presuppose an 
 earlier text, the common quarry from which both 
 passages have drawn. The Editorial hand is manifest 
 in the introduction (verses 1-3), which is more briefly 
 reildered in the LXX thus : Hear ye the word of 
 Jahveh, aU Judah. In verse 16 the prophet is for- 
 bidden to make further effort for the salvation of his 
 people. Such a command is alien to the whole spirit 
 of Jeremiah's ministry ; it reflects the judgment 
 passed by a later age on the hopelessness of his mission. 
 It recurs in chap, xiv, 11. Verses 17-19 are identical 
 with chap, xliv, 18-19 ; verses 32, 33 with chap, xix, 
 6-9 ; and verse 34 with xxv, 11. At various points, 
 the audience, whom the prophet is supposed to address, 
 is recalled to the reader's mind ; but repeatedly it is 
 allowed to fade into the distance. We drift along a 
 line of thought which, profitable and impressive 
 as we pursue it in private, precludes the idea of a 
 public address. All this conveys to our minds 
 
94 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 the impression that we are deahng here, not with 
 an actual incident, but with the Editorial setting pro- 
 vided for those prophetic oracles which accompany 
 and follow. 
 
 We come now to verses 21-29. The passage is 
 important, difficult and composite, and may be given 
 in full. 
 
 Verse 21. Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, 
 And eat ye flesh. 
 
 (22) For I spake not to your fathers, nor gave them com- 
 mandment in the day when I brought them out of Egjrpt 
 concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices ; (23) but this word I 
 commanded them saying. Hearken to my voice, and I will be 
 your God, and ye shall be my people ; and ye shall walk in 
 all the way that I shall command you, that it may be well 
 with you. (24) But they hearkened not, nor lent their ear, 
 but they walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness 
 of their wicked heart ; they went backward and not forward. 
 (25) From the day when your fathers went out of the Land of 
 Egypt until this day, I have sent you all my servants, the 
 prophets, daily rising up early and sending them ; (26) but 
 they hearkened not to me, nor incUned their ear, and they 
 hardened their neck and did worse than their fathers. (27) 
 And thou shalt speak to them all these words, and they will 
 not hearken to thee, and thou shalt call unto them, and they 
 will not answer. (28) And thou shalt say unto them : 
 
 Verse 28. This is the people that have not hearkened 
 To the voice of Jahveh, their God, 
 They received not correction ; perished 
 Is truth from their mouth. 
 
 Verse 29. Shave thy locks, and cast them from thee. 
 Raise a coronach ; 
 For Jahveh hath rejected and renounced 
 The generation of his indignation. 
 
 In verse 21 we recognize the stamp of the true prophet. 
 The verse is original in thought, and poetic in form. 
 In Israel, sacrifices were of two kinds ; the burnt offer- 
 ing wholly consumed on the altar, and the peace offer- 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 95 
 
 ing of which only a part was burned, while the rest 
 was eaten at a sacrificial meal by the offerer and his 
 friends. The people were as pointed in reserving 
 the former, as they were lavish in their enjoy- 
 ment of the latter. Yet the prophet intimates that 
 they are welcome to retain both, thus greatly adding 
 to the good cheer of the sacrificial meals. Ritual 
 distinctions have no value in Jahveh's sight. Wholly 
 burned or in part eaten, the victim is still what it was 
 at the first — mere flesh ! The force of this bold utter- 
 ance is heightened if, passing by the intervening verses, 
 we bring it into immediate connexion with verse 28. 
 Jahveh's heart is set only on obedience, and that 
 they refuse Him. Hence the note of doom sounded 
 in verse 29. The growth of the hair is a natural index 
 of physical strength and vital energy. Accordingly, 
 among ourselves, the tonsure is the symbol of a dedi- 
 cated life. On the other hand, an Arab, if he dream 
 that his hair is shaven, takes it as an omen of death. 
 In the same way, when Jerusalem is bidden shave her 
 locks and cast them from her, it means that her life 
 is forfeit. 
 
 Between these fragments of a genuine oracle, the 
 intervening verses form an ample Editorial note, the 
 point of which is not by any means as clear as we could 
 wish. It is easy to imagine how a S3mipathetic 
 Editor, not appreciating the irony of verse 21, might 
 stumble over such a combination as verses 21 and 28 ; 
 the licence given by the one seeming to conflict with 
 the duty imposed by the other. It is not so easy to 
 see how he meant to soften the antinomy. The Rabbis 
 affirm that when he makes Jahveh say : "I spake not 
 to your fathers in the day when I brought them out 
 of Egypt, etc.," he distinguishes the actual day of the 
 Exodus from the period which followed. Others 
 
96 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 believe that the impHed contrast lies between the 
 subject of which, and the object with (or concerning) 
 which, Jahveh spake. Ewald distinguishes between 
 voluntary offerings and those imposed by statute. To 
 which, if any, of these interpretations of his words the 
 Editor would have adhered, it is impossible to say. 
 
 The verse has been much debated in the interest of 
 critical theories. The Pentateuchal legislation con- 
 tains at least three distinct elements. The first (which 
 is prophetic) deals with the simple rites common to all 
 Nature-religions.i The second (Deuteronomic) aims 
 at unifying the worship of Jahveh within Israel. The 
 third (so-called Priestly Code) elaborates the ritual 
 of the Temple, and rigidly enforces it. The result of 
 critical research has been to represent these elements, 
 not as interwoven strands, but as successive strata, 
 of which the third is post-exilic. In support of this, 
 appeal is made to the verse before us (verse 22). It 
 is affirmed, on the strength of it, that the Priestly 
 Code was manifestly unknown to Jeremiah, and must 
 therefore have been post-exilic.'^ To this it is replied 
 that, if these words imply the non-existence of the 
 Priestly Code in our prophet's day, they imply the 
 non-existence of Deuteronomy as well ; for there, 
 also, sacrifices are mentioned. That is to say, the 
 critics, by proving too much, have proved nothing. 
 When however a more conservative critic proceeds, 
 himself, to interpret this difficult verse ; when he treats 
 it as mere rhetoric, i.e., a large and loose way of 
 speaking or writing ; when e.g., Giesebrecht affirms, 
 on the ground of this verse, that Jeremiah cannot 
 have known the more detailed legislation of the 
 
 1 Known to critics as JE, from its use of the Divine name, 
 Jehovah and Elohim. 
 
 2 E.g. by OreUi. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 97 
 
 Priestly Code, but may have known the simpler regu- 
 lations of Deuteronomy and the Jehovist ; he is by 
 no means convincing. Rhetoric must have limits. I 
 have no right, in arguing a case, to affirm that I have 
 no money, as a rhetorical way of saying, I have only a 
 little ; or, I never saw a man, as a rhetorical way of 
 saying, I do not know him well ; or, I was never in 
 a particular place, meaning, It is not my regular resort. 
 If it is said here that Jahveh " spake not of sacrifices," 
 it cannot have been meant that He said a little about 
 them, but not so much as He said about something 
 else ! 
 
 I own that the objections to either interpretation 
 of this difficult verse are serious. What it really means, 
 and how it bears on conflicting critical theories, must, 
 I suspect, be left an open question till we discover 
 when, and by whom, it was written. The one thing 
 practically certain is that Jeremiah would never have 
 blunted the edge of his own appeal, or distracted 
 the attention of his hearers from a grave moral issue 
 raised, by the introduction of a side-issue like this. We 
 are dealing here with an Editor, rather than a prophet. 
 Having introduced the Exodus and " the Fathers," 
 he gives himself rein, and, for a time, seems to have 
 forgotten the conditions imder which he is supposed 
 to write. With a little difficulty he recovers himself 
 in verse 27, the close of which is a quotation from Isaiah.^ 
 
 If the Editorial note is of little critical value, the 
 Oracle in which it is embedded is of the greatest inter- 
 est, as indicating thfe rehgious pre-supposition which 
 lies behind all our prophet's utterance. His idea of 
 Jahveh is strongly ethical, as opposed to Baal and 
 Chemosh, who, so long as their altars streamed with 
 blood, cared for little else. Jahveh's heart is set on 
 
 1 Chap. 1, 2. 
 
98 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 goodness. Conduct and character are the goal toward 
 which He works. The cruel and inhuman rites which 
 shock even the heathen are elsewhere denounced 
 (verses 30, 31) ; here, even the innocent and beautiful 
 rites of popular religion are discounted as at best indif- 
 ferent. Religion in its essence is spiritual. Now the 
 spiritual is the free ; and freedom in worship is menaced 
 quite as much by the rites that burden it, as by the 
 rules that restrain it, in its approach to God. Evi- 
 dently the personal element in true religion, that great 
 idea which at a later period takes shape in the pro- 
 phet's mind, is already stirring there and prompts 
 him here. 
 
 Jeremiah finds a modern parallel in Milton. Never 
 was genius more intensely artistic, more responsive to 
 beauty ahke in form and sound ; no one has done more 
 to enrich and ennoble our religious phraseology ; and 
 yet, in the great controversy of his age, he ranges 
 himself, without hesitation, and in the interests of 
 Freedom and Spirituality, on the side of. Purism.^ 
 The same great question, as to the relation of the ritual 
 to the ethical, is still active, underljdng the Problem 
 of Faith and Freedom as it presses for solution, with 
 remarkable insistence and vitality, on the mind of the 
 Church to-day." 
 
 Chap. VI n. Having provided the needful setting, 
 and created the ecclesiastical atmosphere he desired, 
 the Editor presents a series of prophetic utterances 
 deaUng with the moral deterioration and impending 
 judgment of the people. The idea of a Temple-address 
 
 ' See a characteristic passage at the beginning of the 
 treatise on Religious Reformation in England ; too long to be 
 quoted here. 
 
 ' See Professor Oman's Ker Lectures, pp. 18, 19. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 99 
 
 scarcely influences the sequel, save through an occasional 
 insertion, such as chap, ix, 12-16. 
 
 Verses 4-9. The prophet dwells on the hopeless 
 and insensate stubbornness of the people. Even ex- 
 perience fails to teach them. It is with them a 
 perpetual backsliding. Like the horse maddened by 
 the noise of battle, they are past all control and rush 
 blindly on their fate. In one of those tender and 
 beautiful passages which light up the pages of this 
 sternest of all moralists, reason in man is contrasted 
 with instinct in birds, very much to the advantage of 
 the latter. Birds, observing Nature, fly before the 
 storm, and enjoy a perpetual summer ; man, blind to 
 the signs of the times, meets a relentless doom. 
 
 Verse 7. Even the stork in the heaven 
 
 Knows her appointed times. 
 And the turtle and the circUng swallow observe 
 
 The time of their coming. 
 But my people know not 
 
 The judgments of Jahveh. 
 
 In verse 8 a further contrast is drawn between the 
 boasted wisdom of an over-subtle age, and their real 
 folly in rejecting the only source of true wisdom in 
 Jahveh's word. 
 
 How can ye say we are wise, 
 
 Jahveh's law is with us ? 
 Surely unto falsehood hath wrought 
 
 The false pen of the scribe. 
 
 The reference to " the false pen " can scarcely be, as 
 Duhm supposes, pointed against the Deuteronomic 
 legislation, but only against those heathen innovations, 
 against which the prophet has so lately been inveigh- 
 ing.i The judgment falls with pitiless severity, stripping 
 
 ^ See chap, viii, 31. 
 
100 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 the nation bare, as vines when the clusters have been 
 gathered, or as trees whose leaves have fallen, nipped 
 by the winter's frost. 
 
 Verse 13. I will reap their harvest, saith Jahveh ; 
 There shall be no grapes on the vine, 
 And there shall be no figs on the fig-tree 
 And their leaf shall wither. 
 
 [The verse is followed by an enigmatic utterance, destined, 
 like verses 10-12, for exegetical purposes, and, like them. 
 Editorial in its origin : " The things that I have given them 
 (i.e. the fruits of the earth and the blessings of the covenant) 
 shall pass away." Such is the rendering of our A.V. But, 
 however suitable in itself to the context, it cannot possibly be 
 imposed on the text. A slight emendation enables us to read 
 as follows : " I will give them those who shall pass over them." 
 The people have rejected Jahveh, and He hands them over to 
 alien kings.] 
 
 Verses 14-17. We are thus prepared for the note 
 of judgment which sounds in the following passage. 
 Duhm believes it to be another of the Scythian Songs. 
 It seems to me to point rather to a later period and a 
 more acute crisis. Before the Sc37thians, the people 
 sought safety in flight ; now, Jahveh has given them 
 over, and they shut themselves in with Death. 
 
 Verse 14. Wherefore sit we still ? 
 
 Assemble ye yourselves. 
 Let us go into the fenced cities, 
 
 And let us perish there. 
 For Jahveh our God hath given us to perdition. 
 He hath given us gall to drink. 
 Verse 16. From Dan is heard a noise — 
 The snorting of his horses. 
 And the neighing of his chargers. 
 
 The whole land trembleth. 
 And they come, and devour the land, 
 The city and her inhabitants. 
 Verse 17. For behold, I send against you 
 Serpents and basilisks. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 101 
 
 There is no charming of them. 
 And they shall bite you. 
 
 The passage clearly is descriptive, not imaginative. 
 The reference can only be to the advance of the Chaldean 
 army in the later years of Jehoiakim's reign. Horses 
 were still to the Jews, like the elephants of Pyrrhus 
 to the Roman, a source of terror. As they shook their 
 manes and reared, they seemed like basilisks, i.e. 
 fabulous creatures of the serpent kind. In verse 15 
 we have an Editorial note, based on chap, xiv, verse 
 19. Here, where the situation is admittedly hopeless, 
 it is out of place.i 
 
 Verses 18-22. We have here one of the most 
 exquisite passages in the book. We make no apology 
 to the reader for transcribing it in full. 
 
 Verse 18. What comfort is there in my travail ? 
 
 My heart is sick in me. 
 Verse 19. Behold, the cry of the Daughter of my people 
 From a far country. 
 Is not Jahveh in Zion ? 
 
 Is not her king in her ? 
 Why have they provoked me with their graven 
 images, 
 With the vanities of strangers. 
 Verse 20. Harvest is passed, summer is ended. 
 
 And we are not saved. 
 Verse 21. For the hurt of the Daughter of niy people I go 
 mourning. 
 Desolation taketh hold on me. 
 Verse 22. Is there no balm in Gilead ? 
 Is no physician there ? 
 Why, then, have they not wrought 
 
 Healing for the Daughter of my people ? 
 
 From a far country the prophet hears the plaintive 
 cry of his countrymen already in exUe. The city is 
 still standing ; but it seems an empty shell, from which 
 
 1 " We wait for good peace, but no good cometh," etc. 
 
102 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 the life is gone out. The glory is departed, for Jahveh, 
 her King, has given her up. Behind her lay long cen- 
 turies of splendid privilege — a glorious summer, whose 
 every hour moved slowly overhead, burdened with 
 blessing. The ripened corn is cut ; the last sheaf 
 borne to the threshingfloor ; the fields stand bare and 
 comfortless, under dripping skies. But the people 
 are not saved ; they have no profit from the past, no 
 provision for the future. In this uttermost of distress, 
 the prophet can find no comfort for his own sick heart, 
 no healing for his wounded people. Balm was fovmd 
 in Gilead ; and where the balm is found, one might 
 expect to find the physician too — hands skilled to apply 
 it to the wound. The apphcation is plain. Salvation 
 was of the Jews ; the tree of life, whose leaves were 
 for the healing of the nations, was rooted in her soil. 
 Why then should her own children pine and perish ? 
 It is a cry which rises unbidden from many a heart in 
 our own land to-day, as we think of England, so richly 
 blessed, so highly honoured in the past. Her flag 
 means freedom wherever it is unfurled on the breeze ; 
 her white-winged ships bear the Word of Life to distant 
 shores. And yet how many of her own children hve 
 and die in a hopeless misery, worse than bondage ! 
 " Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there ? " 
 
 Chap, ix opens with a prolonged diagnosis of the 
 moral condition of the people (verses 1-9). This 
 is followed by two pieces, poetic in form, elegiac in 
 spirit, of great beauty and highly characteristic of our 
 prophet in his most impassioned moods (verse 10 and 
 verses 17-22). Between these two poetic pieces is 
 interposed a note of considerable dimensions manifestly 
 Editorial in origin (verses 11-16). The second poetic 
 passage is followed by two brief oracles, probably 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 103 
 
 Jeremian but of uncertain date. With chap, ix, 
 17-22, should be associated the closing verses of 
 Chap. X (verses 17-24). 
 
 Ch. ix. verse i. Oh, that my head were waters, 
 And mine eyes a fountain of tears ; 
 That I might weep, day and night. 
 
 For the slain of the Daughter of my people. 
 
 Verse 2. Oh, that I had in the Desert 
 Some far-off retreat. 
 That I might leave my people. 
 And go from them ! 
 
 Verse 3. For they are all adulterers. 
 
 An assembly of traitors ; 
 And they bend their tongue 
 
 As a deceitful bow. 
 For falsehood, and not for truth, 
 
 Are they mighty in the land ; 
 Yea, from evil tq evil they go forward. 
 
 And they know not Jahveh ! 
 
 Verse 4. Be ye ware, every one of his neighbour. 
 And trust not in a brother ; 
 For every brother doth utterly supplant, . 
 He goeth about to slander. 
 
 Verse 5. And every one deceiveth his neighbour ; 
 They speak not truth. 
 They 'custom their tongues to speak falsehood. 
 They act perversely and fail to repent. 
 
 Verse 6. Fraud on fraud, deceit on deceit. 
 
 They will not acknowledge Jahveh. 
 
 Verse 7. Therefore, thus saith Jahveh, 
 See, I will prove them, 
 And try them, for I will set my face 
 
 'Gainst the wickedness of the Daughter of my 
 people. 
 
 Verse 8. An arrow of Death is their tongue ; 
 It speaketh deceit ; 
 In their mouth is peace, but in their heart 
 They lay an ambush. 
 
104 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 Verse 9. ShaU I not visit them for these things ? 
 It is the oracle of Jahveh. 
 Or, on a people such as this. 
 
 Shall not my soul take vengeance ? 
 
 In verse i " a far-off retreat " is probably a better 
 rendering of the original than : " a lodge of wayfaring 
 men." It follows the LXX^ and can easily be justified 
 by a slight emendation of the Hebrew text. Wiat 
 the prophet seeks, is not shelter for the night, but 
 final escape from the presence and, if possible, the 
 memory of all the e\-il he can ne^er mend. The verse 
 suggests Cooper's weU known lines, which are little else 
 than a metrical version of the passage. 
 
 Oh, for a lodge in some blank wUdemess, 
 
 A boundless contiguity of space ! 
 
 Where rumour of oppression and deceit. 
 
 Of unsuccessful or successful war 
 
 flight never reach me more. My ear is pained, 
 
 Jly soul is sick with every day's report 
 
 Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fiUed. 
 
 There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart ; 
 
 It does not feel for man ; the natural bond 
 
 Of brotherhood is severed as the flax 
 
 That falls asunder at the touch of fire. 
 
 [The reader will notice how difierent are these fragments 
 from the prophet's hand, rugged and pregnant, often to the 
 point of obscuritj-. from those editorial passages which, from 
 time to time, interrupt them. The latter are always easy and 
 flowing, but usually commonplace in thought and conventional 
 in phraseology.] 
 
 Two fragments foUow in which the kneU of doom is 
 sounded over the city. 
 
 ' ecrxaTov a-raOfiov (Pinx ji?'?). See some excellent re- 
 marks on " an Abandoned Wish," by the Rev. Alex. Ramsay 
 in his Studies in Jeremiah. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 105 
 
 Verse lo. Over the mountains will I raise a wailing, 
 
 And over the pastures of the Desert ; 
 For they are waste ; no more is heard 
 
 The lowiiig of the cattle. 
 From the birds of the air even to the beast, 
 
 They are driven and fied. 
 Verse ii. And I will make Jerusalem a heap, 
 
 A den of jackals ; 
 And the cities of Judah a desolation. 
 
 None dwelling there. 
 
 Verse 17. Consider ye, and call 
 
 For the mourning women ; 
 And send for the wise women. 
 And let them come. 
 Verse 18. And let them make haste, and upraise 
 A wailing over us, 
 And let our eyes run down with tears, our Uds 
 O'erflow with water. 
 Verse 19. For list ! a wailing is heard from Zion : 
 How are we spoiled ! 
 We are greatly shamed, for they have laid low 
 Our dwelling places ; 
 Verse 20. Yea, hearken, ye women, to my word. 
 And let your ears hear ; 
 And teach your daughters a coronach. 
 And every woman her fellow. 
 Verse 21. For Death has come up by our windows. 
 He has entered our palaces. 
 Cutting off the child in the street 
 And the youths in the thoro'fares. 
 Verse 22. And the corpses of men shall fall 
 On the face of the field. 
 Even as sheaves after the reaper. 
 None gathering up. 
 
 In connexion with this Dirge, should be read the 
 closing verses of chap, x (verses 17-23). The passage 
 
106 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 is composite, containing some prophetic fragments 
 interspersed with Editorial notes. Thios : 
 
 Verse 17. Gather up thy bundle out of the land, 
 Inhabitant of the besieged city. 
 
 [Verse 18. For thus saith Jahveh, Behold I will fling out 
 the inhabitant of the land, this once ; and will bring on them 
 distress, that they may pay the penalty.] 
 
 Verse 19. Thus I ; Woe's me for my hurt i 
 
 Grievous is my wound ; 
 I said. Surely it is my trouble. 
 
 And I must bear it. 
 All my cords are broken ; 
 
 My flocks are gone ; 
 There is none to stretch out my tent. 
 
 To hang up my curtains ! 
 
 [Verse 21. For the shepherds are brutish ; they have not 
 sought Jahveh ; therefore they prosper not ; and all their 
 flock is scattered.] 
 
 Verse 22. Hearken ! a rumour and a great shaking 
 From the North country. 
 To make the cities of Judah a desolation, 
 A dwelling place of jackals ! 
 
 [Verse 23. Oh, Jahveh, I know that a man's way is not his 
 own. It is not in man to go and to establish his steps. (24) 
 Correct me, Jahveh, only let it be with judgment ; not in Thy 
 fury, lest Thou make me very few. (25) Pour out Thy fierce 
 anger on the nations who have not known Thee, and on the 
 famiUes that have not called on the name. For they have de- 
 voured Jacob and consumed him and laid waste his habitation.] 
 
 Chap, ix, 23, 24, contains a brief Mashd, or 
 proverbial utterance, from our prophet, in which the 
 various ideals of life, current in his own day, e.g. the 
 literary, the military, and the commercial, are con- 
 trasted with the true (the rehgious) ideal, which 
 includes them all. " He that glorieth, let him glory 
 in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 107 
 
 I am Jahveh, exercising lovingkindness, righteousness 
 and judgment in the earth, for in these do I delight." 
 Verses 25, 26 contain another Oracle, with Editorial 
 introduction (" Behold, the day is come, saith Jahveh ") 
 and notes, in which our prophet, disregarding the fact 
 that most; if not all, of the nations he mentions prac- 
 tised circumcision, regards them aU as uncircumcized 
 in Jahveh's sight, and degrades his own people to the 
 level of these uncovenanted and uncircumcized heathen. 
 In the present text verse 25 reads thus : "I will visit 
 on all the (circumcized with the) uncircumcized." ^ This 
 is, no doubt, an effort to modify an utterance which 
 seemed to conflict with facts. In verse 26, a note 
 is added, the aim of which seems to be, while preserv- 
 ing the original text, to blunt the edge of it, as far as 
 it is turned on Israel. They at least are " uncircum- 
 cized only in heart." 
 
 Chap. X, 1-16, must be kept quite distinct from the 
 context. The tone differs from that of the previous 
 chapters ; indeed, from anything that Jeremiah ever 
 wrote. Elsewhere the people are regarded as 
 sunk in gross idolatry, yet madly confiding in a God 
 whom they outrage to His face ; while the prophet's 
 message is one of rebuke and warning. Here, they are 
 represented as regarding the idolatrous customs of 
 the heathen with a certain reserve ; and turning a 
 distant and doubtful eye toward Jahveh ; while the 
 writer's tone is didactic and reassuring. The bantering 
 way in which he exposes the folly of idolatry, reminds 
 us of the Second Isaiah. 
 
 The writer warns the people against the moral 
 
 ^ I agree with Erbt in thinking that the itaUcized words are 
 an editorial interpolation. 
 
108 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 paralysis which is apt to creep over us in presence of 
 an ancient and overwheming superstition (verse 2). 
 Why should they fear what they do not understand ? 
 or worship that which can neither help nor hurt ? \A''hat 
 is an idol ? First felled, next fashioned, then fixed 
 up with nails lest it fall on its face, it must be carried, 
 because it cannot go. It is no better them a scarecrow 
 (verse 5), contrasting not only with its trappings — ^the 
 silver and gold, and purple and blue, in which it is 
 decked, but with the awe it is meant to inspire. This 
 doctrine of the idols, what is at the heart of it, but — 
 a stump ? (verse 8). On the other hand, the writer 
 dwells on the " aloneness " of Jahveh, the True and 
 Living God, as based (a) on His sovereignty in Nature 
 (verses 12, 13) and (b) on his covenant relation as the 
 Portion of Jacob (verse 16). In the heart of this 
 passage is inserted a single verse, written in Aramaic, 
 " Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not 
 made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the 
 earth and under these heavens." The whole passage is 
 probably an application of an old truth to new sur- 
 roundings by a disciple of the prophet living in Babylon. 
 Why it was inserted here, will always be a puzzle. 
 Possibly it was copied into the text by a scribe, who 
 meant it to serve as his comment on verses 23-25, in 
 which the penitence of the people finds expression. 
 The prophet's appeal has not been in vain. Jahveh, 
 He alone is God ! 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 109 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. VII-X 
 
 Ch. viii, verse 7. " The circling swallow " ; (R.V., the crane or 
 
 the swallow). The first of these words is an epithet 
 
 describing the familiar flight of the bird in rapid 
 
 circles — or, perhaps, the twittering sound it makes 
 
 Compare Isa. xxxviii, 14 when the copulative is absent 
 Verse 13a. " I Avill reap their harvests" ; reading DB'P^|I 
 
 and of. Exod. xxiii, 16. The LXX render thus 
 
 Koi cruvdiovcriv to. yiVvrj/jiaTa airuiv. 
 Verse 13c. Cornill suggests another reading of the editorial 
 
 insertion : Their fruit shall not ripen. See his Metrische 
 
 Stiicke. 
 Verses 14-17. 
 
 Verse 14. Closing phrase (For we have sinned v. 
 
 Jahve) is Editorial. 
 Verse i6a. The LXX have a <f)<!>vri, which entitles us to 
 
 insert the missing K61. In verse 16, the phrase ; 
 
 And all that is in it, is redundant in view of what 
 
 follows. 
 Verses 18-22. 
 
 Verse 18. " What comfort." A curious, composite phrase. 
 
 Duhm prefers to render : Incurable, and so the LXX. 
 
 avCara. In verse 20a, omit : " I am black " — absent 
 
 from the LXX. 
 Verse 22. The word Healing ('Arflkah) stands, not for 
 
 the long bandage which the surgeon winds about the 
 
 wound, but for the sound flesh which grows over it. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, it is used with the verb 'Alah. 
 
 The root occurs in another form in Ezra iv. 14 : "It 
 
 is not sound policy on our part." Cf. Delitzsch's 
 
 note on Isa. Iviii, 8. 
 
 Ch. ix, verses 1-9. 
 
 Verse 3a. The R.V. reads: They bend their tongue as 
 it were their bow. In this rendering, which correctly 
 
110 THE KNELL OF DOOM 
 
 represents the M.T., the point of comparison between 
 tlie tongue and the bow is not suggested. And why 
 " their bow " ? The final letter of Kashtam may 
 stand for an original Mirmah (deceit), which was 
 dropped from the text as a variant of the following 
 word. Then we have thought and rhythm at once 
 completed. 
 Verse 36, read : " They know not Jahveh," which has been 
 abbreviated into 'Oth-i ( = me). It. is not Jahve, but 
 the prophet who speaks. Verse 5 closes according to 
 the text of the LXX. 
 Verse 76. The LXX introduce : Wickedness. Read : 
 
 'JB DW ^I'K. The question is rhetorical. 
 Verse 8. "Arrow of death " — literally, arrow-hammered, 
 i.e. sharpened. 
 
 Verses lo-ii. 
 
 In verse 10 omit : " A weeping," and " a lamentation.'' 
 Also the phrase : So that none passeth through them. 
 It has become conventional. 
 
 Verses 11-16. A prosaic treatment of the same theme. 
 The passage may have been inserted as a preparation 
 for verses 23, 24. 
 
 Verses 17-22. 
 
 Verse 17. The first " Let them come " has been inserted 
 (originally as a marginal note), on account of the 
 defective pointing of the same word at the close. 
 Afterwards, it was introduced to^the text. The LXX, 
 objecting to its repetition, have rendered it, at the close 
 of the verse, by (jt^ey^atr^tocrav. See Streane's note. 
 Verse 18. A phrase has been inserted (" Because we have 
 forsaken the land ") which, if retained, can only be 
 understood as an hysterical anticipation of the inevit- 
 able. It is absent in the LXX ; and detracts from 
 the vivid, because restrained description of actual 
 facts. 
 Verse 20. " To my words " instead of : To Jahve's words. 
 Omit the repetition : The words of my mouth. 
 
 Ch. X, verses 17-25. 
 
 Verse 19. Transpose the first pars, pronoun 'JSil to the 
 beginning of the verse. 
 
THE KNELL OF DOOM 111 
 
 Verse 20. Omit : " My tents are spoiled " (which is 
 borrowed from chap, iv, 20). The tents are mentioned 
 immediately. Instead of : " My sons are gone out 
 from^me, and are no more " (0^^! ''5^V! '3?) read as 
 above. The LXX reads : " My sons and my flocks 
 arenot " {33'S ''JKS1. ^33) ; indicating at once the origi- 
 nal text and the process of transformation. 
 
 Verses 23-25. The passage is Editorial — put into the 
 mouth of the people (see verse 24), not of the prophet. 
 It is, however, full of deep feeling and anything rather 
 than conventional. 
 
 Verse 24. "Let it be with judgment" — i.e., as we say, 
 with discrimination. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 Chapters XI — XIII 
 
 ANEW section begins here, and continues to the 
 end of chap, xiii when a fresh start is made. It 
 is usually supposed that chap, xi and chap, xii are 
 closely related, while chap, xiii hangs loosely b}- them 
 as an appendix. On the contrary', chap, xi and chap, 
 xiii stand in immediate and logical relation. In the 
 former, we see the claims of Jahveh, as IsraeFs king, 
 repudiated by the people ; while, in the latter, we see 
 the ine\'itable result. The nation that had broken 
 the Covenant is itself broken and cast aside. Chap, 
 xii, on the other hand, forms an interlude. In the 
 most general terms, the question of the Moral Govern- 
 ment of the world is raised and considered from various 
 points of view. 
 
 [To what date shall we assign the prophetic fragments 
 which the section contains ? The qnestion is difficult, the 
 answer depending on the interpretation of several doubtful 
 passages. Briefly, the following results may be indicated. 
 The first half of chap, xi refers to the reign of Josiah, vdth 
 its reUgious reforms, in which, as we shall see, the prophet 
 bore his part. Then we ad\'ance into the reign of Jehoialdm, 
 with its relapse into idolatry, and the prophet's rejection by 
 his own townsmen of Anathoth. Chap, xii, verses 7-13, may 
 be either historical, i.e. a record of actual events, or prophetic, 
 i.e. an anticipation of the ine%'itable. With 2 Kings xxiv, 
 2, to guide us, we incline to the former ^■iew. Chap, xiii, 
 verses 15-17 and verses 20-27, certainly reflect the political 
 situation under Jehoialdm. Finally in chap, xiii, 18, we 
 have a reference to the first captivity under Jehoiachin 
 
 lis 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 113 
 
 Thus the section, as a whole, gives us another brief summary 
 of the first half of the prophet's ministry, complete in itself, 
 and inserted here at the central point of some later edition of 
 his works. We shall therefore consider chap, xi, and then 
 chap, xiii, reserving chap, xii for the close of our discussion of 
 this section.] 
 
 Chap. xii. The prophet receives a commission to 
 enforce on the people " all the words of this Covenant " 
 (verse 2). The phrase implies a definite transaction, 
 or document ; and there can be little doubt that it re- 
 fers to the new legislation of the Book of Deuteronomy. 
 Egypt is described as the Iron Furnace (verse 4 ; 
 cf.^Deut. iv, 20) ; Canaan is the land flowing with milk 
 and honey (verse 5, cf. Deut. vi, 3). The sum of man's 
 duty is obedience to the voice of Jahveh, his God, 
 (verse 4 ; cf. Deut. xiii, 4). The penalty of dis- 
 obedience is the curse (verse 3, cf. Deut. xxviii, 16 f£.). 
 The prophet's response : " Amen, Jahveh," may have 
 suggested the passage, Deut. xxvii, 25.^ We take it, 
 then, that we have here a record of Jeremiah's early 
 efforts in support of the new Movement. If it was 
 to be permanent and national, means must be taken to 
 explain and enforce its provisions beyond the capital ; 
 and it was natural that the young prophet should enhst 
 in an enterprise with which he was in hearty sympathy. 
 The fact that the historical Books of Scripture make 
 no mention of him in connexion with the Movement, 
 may be easily explained. The part that he, stiU a 
 young and unknown man, played in it may easily have 
 escaped his contemporaries. On the other hand it was 
 natural that it should bulk largely in those reminiscences 
 of his career, based on his personal testimony, which were 
 preserved by Baruch. On these, the Editor has drawn. 
 Verses 7, 8 correspond closely to chap, vii, 24-26. 
 
 ^ This passage, as indeed the whole of chap, xxvii, is of 
 later origin than the rest of the Book. SeeDrivei's Deuteronomy. 
 J- 8 
 
114 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 The LXX omit both verses, with the exception of the 
 last clause of verse 8 : " Yet they obeyed not." This 
 brevity is certainly impressive. 
 
 The prophet's success was small. The early death 
 of Josiah precipitated a reaction which, perhaps from 
 the first, had been inevitable. The prophet brands 
 this reaction, aimed, as it was, against the claims of 
 Jahveh, Israel's King, and the Covenant, or new Con- 
 stitution of the realm, as a conspiracy. Passing over 
 another Editorial insertion (verses 10-14), we come to 
 a genuine prophetic fragment, in the famihar measure, 
 marked by the directness and pregnancy which 
 characterize the utterances of the prophet. 
 
 Chap. xi. 
 
 Verse 15. Wherefore hath my Beloved, in my house, 
 Wrought lewdness ? 
 Shall prayers and sacrifices absolve 
 Thee of thy guilt ? 
 
 Verse 16. A wide spreading shapely olive 
 They have called thee. 
 With a swishing sound I have kindled a fire. 
 And thy branches are broken. 
 
 The attitude of the people, their reliance on Temple 
 services, prayers and sacrifices, to condone for the 
 evil of their lives, is famihar to us. Like a fair but 
 fruitless olive tree, the nation spreads out her leafy 
 branches. But the storm breaks ; the lightnings kindle ; 
 and, with the swish of a rushing wind, the fire is fanned 
 and her branches are broken. 
 
 It seems that most of the prophet's time was devoted, 
 just then, to his native place. Anathoth was a city 
 of priests ; and, if it could be won over, might become 
 a stronghold of progressive principles. But it was 
 intensely conservative, and proved impregnable. The 
 prophet narrates, with the utmost naivete, how he be- 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 115 
 
 gan his work, full of hope, feehng quite at home — 
 a child, amid the scenes of his childhood, little dreaming 
 of the detestation in which he, and his doctrines, were 
 held. He was like " a pet lamb," fallen into the hands 
 of robbers and led to slaughter. They said — 
 
 Verse 19. Let us destroy the tree with its fruit. 
 And let us cut him off ; 
 And his name shall be no more remembered 
 In the land of the Uving. 
 
 The word here rendered Fruit (Lehem = Bread) is 
 not elsewhere used of the fruit of the tree. Perhaps 
 we should read another word (Leh6 = His sap) in its 
 place. Any way, they made their meaning quite plain. 
 Root and branch, the prophet must be got rid of. From 
 his angry townsmen the prophet appeals to Jahveh, 
 " whotrieth the reins and heart," i.e. " themore delicate 
 organs of liie,"^ the inner as well as the outer man. 
 The phrase implies the thoroughness of the Divine 
 diagnosis ; and recalls to mind Milton's " all-judging 
 Jove." The bitterest drop in the prophet's cup was 
 yet to be tasted. Not only his townsmen, but his 
 own family, disapproved of his action. They preserved 
 the decencies of domestic life (xii, 6), but they incited 
 others to active opposition. The result seems to have 
 been a riot, in which, with hue and cry, he was hounded 
 out of the town, hke one of Wesley's Gospellers in later 
 days. The severance of natural ties is always painful ; 
 in this case it seems to have led to an interruption 
 of Jeremiah's prophetic activity. 
 
 Chap. xiii. K now we turn to chap, xiii, we shall 
 see how direct is the connexion. The nation has 
 rejected Jahveh, and are themselves in their turn 
 rejected by Him. In two parabolic actions the prophet 
 gives expression to this idea. 
 
 1 Schultz, Old Test. Theology. 
 
116 THE PEOBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 (A) He is bidden take a linen girdle and put it on his 
 loins. The fact that the girdle is of linen, scarcely 
 entitles us to see here a reference to the priestly voca- 
 tion of Israel. But it cannot have been without 
 significance that the prophet selected a girdle of the 
 finest texture, instead of a strip of coarse leather, such as 
 the peasant fastens round his waist. WTien it is soiled 
 by wear he is bidden take it to Perath, and hide it in a 
 hole of the rock ; thus exposing it to the action of the 
 water while ensuring that it should not be swept away 
 by the stream. If by Perath we understand, as most 
 interpreters do, the Euphrates, we must suppose that 
 the action thus recorded was visionary and idealistic ; 
 and there is no difficulty in doing so.^ On the other 
 hand, if we read Parah for Perath, and identify it with 
 the Wady Fara near to Anathoth,^ we may suppose 
 that the prophet actually did what he here describes. 
 The interpretation of the parable follows. A girdle 
 like this is only a strip of cloth. You may tear it in 
 shreds or twist it into any shape you please, and yet, 
 when it is wound again and again round the loins of 
 a man, the strength of the man passes into it ; he hangs 
 on it his keys of office, his sword of state. So it had 
 been with Israel. Jahveh had boimd them to Himself. 
 He had chosen them to be a name, and a praise, and 
 a glory to Him in the earth. Strength and beauty 
 had been in His sanctuary ; yet now — . At the point, 
 the figure fails. What was involimtary and inevitable 
 in the case of the girdle, was, in Israel's case, the conse- 
 quence of his sin : They hearkened not. 
 
 (B) This impressive lesson is followed by another. The 
 
 1 Erbt supports this interpretation of Perath, and yet 
 maintains the actual occurrence of what is narrated. But the 
 passage in which he unfolds his view is not nearly so convincing 
 as it is lively. ' See Joshua xviii, 23. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 117 
 
 prophet finds himself once more under orders. The 
 incident that follows (verses 12-14) ^^^Y have been 
 enacted neeir the Potter's Gate, where we shall find 
 the prophet again, watching the vessels as they came 
 from the wheel. Laying his hand on one, he turns to 
 the httle circle of disciples who followed him, and 
 quotes a familiar proverb : Every bottle shall be full 
 of wine. Half scornful, half mystified, they repUed 
 to this enigmatic utterance : " Do we not know that, 
 as a matter of course, every bottle shall be filled with 
 wine ? What else are they for ? " In an instant the 
 storm breaks, and the thunders of judgment roll over 
 their heads. " Thus shalt thou say unto them. Thus 
 saith Jahveh, Behold, I wUl fiU all the inhabitants 
 of this land, and the kings that sit on David's throne, 
 and the priests and the prophets and aU the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem with drunkenness ; and I will dash them 
 one against another, father against son together, saith 
 Jahveh." The transition of thought, from the intoxi- 
 cation of the people to the dissolution of their national 
 life, seems a Uttle abrupt. Indeed, we have an illus- 
 tration here of the fragmentary way in which the words 
 of the prophet, and the incidents of his hfe, have been 
 preserved. If we turn to chap, xix, we find another, 
 quite independent, record of the same incident, with 
 the missing link supphed : " Thus saith Jahveh, Go 
 and buy a potter's earthen vessel, and take the elders 
 of the people and of the priests. . . . Then shalt 
 thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go 
 with thee, and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jahveh 
 of Hosts, Even so will I break this people, and this 
 city, as one breaketh a potter's bottle that cannot 
 be mended again." ^ The bottle is first filled with 
 wine, then broken by the prophet's hand, and all the 
 * Chap, xix, 10. 
 
118 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 good wine is spUled. A profound spiritual truth 
 underlies his action and his words. The intoxication 
 of material prosperity leads to dissipation of moral 
 energy and dissolution of national Hfe. Disobedience 
 of the Divine Law is self-destruction on the sinner's 
 part. What is broken is not the Law, but the so-called 
 Law breaker. In solemn tones, and pathetic figures, 
 the prophet pours out his heart over the doomed 
 nation, and summons them, while yet there is time, 
 to repentance. The passage belongs to the later years 
 of Jehoiakim. 
 
 Verse 15. Hearken, lend the ear, and be ye not haughty. 
 
 For Jahveh hath spoken. 
 Verse 16. Give ye the glory to Jahveh, your God, 
 Before it darken. 
 And before that your feet stumble 
 
 On the mirk mountains. 
 And, while ye look for light, He send darkness. 
 And cause the clouds to fall. 
 Verse 17. And if ye will not hearken, then, in secret. 
 Must my soul weep, 
 And mine eyes run down with tears ; for captive 
 Is Jahveh's flock. 
 
 A brief fragment follows, of a later date, probably 
 from the reign of Jehoiachin. In favour of this later 
 date, note («) the reference to the Queen Mother 
 (cf. 2 Kings xxiv, 8, 15) ; and (&) the political 
 situation, more advanced than in the preceding 
 and following verses . The enemy is already in possession 
 of the land, and there is now no call to repentance. 
 Jerusalem lies on the southern edge of the central 
 plateau of Palestine, practically inaccessible to an 
 army save by the coast route. The foe, while advancing 
 from the North, must approach her by the South-West ; 
 and each city, as it falls, sounds a knell in the ears of 
 the capital. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 119 
 
 Verse i8. Say ye, to the king and the Queen Mother, 
 Lowly, sit ye down I 
 For, from your brows, hath fallen 
 Your beautiful crown. 
 
 Verse 19. The cities of the South are shut up, 
 None opening the doors. 
 And Judah is carried captive — 
 Captive every one. 
 
 The note of warning, already sounded in verse 17, 
 is repeated in verse 20. Judah is overrun by nations 
 whose friendships she had coveted, as she is now 
 doomed to bear their yoke. The condition of the 
 people is hopeless ; habit has become second nature ; 
 the day for Reformation has gone by. In this pro- 
 found diagnosis of the disease, in this conception of 
 moral evil as a radical perversion of human nature, 
 lay the necessity not only for the moral discipline 
 through which they were passing, but for that spiritual 
 Regeneration which was the prophet's burden in later 
 years. 
 
 Verse 20. Lift up your eyes, and see. 
 From Northward coming ; 
 Where is the flock that was given thee. 
 Thy beautiful flock ? 
 Verse 21. What wilt thou do, when He sets 
 Over thee, as head, 
 Those whom thou didst use 
 
 To be thy friends ? 
 Shall not pains take hold of thee. 
 As a woman in travail ? 
 Verse 22. And when thou shalt say in thy heart. 
 Why are these come on me ? 
 For the multitude of thy transgressions, thy skirts 
 are discovered. 
 And thy heels made bare. 
 Verse 23. Can the Ethiop change his skin. 
 Or the leopard his spots ? 
 
120 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 Then shalt thou, also, achieve to do well, 
 Who art inured to evil. 
 Verse 24. I will scatter thee as driven stubble 
 Before the desert blast. 
 
 Toward the close, the figures are conventional, and 
 more applicable to the East than to the West. We 
 see the stealthy hand of Justice, busy at the sinner's 
 heels, discovering the secret of his guilt. 
 
 Chap. xii. If now we revert to chap, xii, we shall 
 find the prophet raising, in the most general terms, the 
 whole question of the Divine government. 
 
 Verse i. Righteous Jahveh, how shall I strive ? 
 
 Yet of Thy judgments let me talk with Thee. 
 Why doth the way of the wicked prosper ? 
 Why are all they at ease that deal treacherously ? 
 
 Verse 2. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root. 
 They grow up, they also bear fruit. 
 Thou art near — in their mouth ; 
 But far — from their hearts. 
 
 Verse 3. But Thou, Jahveh, hast known me ; 
 
 Thou hast tried my heart toward Thee. 
 Pluck them up ; as sheep for the shambles. 
 Reserve them for the day of slaughter. 
 
 Verse 4. How long must the land mourn. 
 
 And all the grass of the field wither ? 
 
 Because of the wickedness of them that dwell in it. 
 
 Beast and bird are fled. 
 
 (We have here four stanzas of four lines, each with 
 three accented syllables.) 
 
 The prophet begins (verse i) by assuming the 
 Righteousness of Jahveh. German commentators say 
 that the positive degree of the adjective (Righteous) 
 here stands for the comparative. Jahveh is so righteous 
 in comparison with His creatures, that we dare not 
 call in question the justice of His awards. All that is 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 121 
 
 in our power is, in the spirit of reverent reserve, to 
 talk with Him, as friend to friend, of those points in 
 the Divine procedure that are obscure. It may 
 appear as if, in making this vast assumption, the pro- 
 phet were begging the question ; but, of course, it is 
 not so. Even when, as we say, " everything is thrown 
 into the crucible," the crucible itself is excepted. The 
 utmost freedom not only consists with, but imphes, 
 definite limitations. We cannot think at all, unless 
 we respect the laws of thought ; and no moral problem 
 can be raised, that does not necessarily imply pre- 
 suppositions and conditions. In thus assuming the 
 absolute Righteousness of Jahveh, the prophet anti- 
 cipates the conclusions of the modern Transcendental 
 Philosophy, for which God, Immortality, and Freedom 
 are Postulates of the Reason — Postulates which Reason 
 compels us to malve in the absence of any evidence, 
 simply because " the attitude towards the world, 
 which we take up when we regard ourselves as moral 
 agents, involves their objecti\'c reality." ^ Neither 
 Philosophy, nor Prophecy, undertalce to demonstrate 
 God. The function of the former is to correct our 
 conception of Him ; that of the latter, to " justify 
 His ways with men." The point is worth noting. In 
 our own age there is a risk lest, in the interests of 
 a frank and fuU discussion of fundamental questions, 
 we yield too much. If we ai^e not entitled to take 
 anything for granted ; if feeling, instinct, moral ideals, 
 great first principles whicli are beyond proof, are to 
 count for nothing, the result is, not that we come face 
 to face with the Problem of Life in its nakedness and 
 austerity, but that the Problem ceases to exist. Only 
 if God is there, need we raise the question at all, why 
 things are as they are. But the more keenly we reahze 
 ' Caird's Gifford Lectures. 
 
122 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 that God is. and what God is, the more urgently does 
 the Problem press. 
 
 Even with this assumption, and within the limits 
 thus laid down, the Problem is grave enough. Why 
 do the wicked prosper ? The question lay very near 
 to the roots of reUgious hfe, for an Old Testament saint. 
 No doubt, in early ages Ufe was simple enough. Men 
 got, on the whole, what they deserved — good or evil. 
 And when evil came, its incidence was direct and 
 personal, on the evil-doer. But as time passed, the 
 social system became more complex, whUe the awards 
 of Fortune were dispensed with a puzzling disregard 
 of moral distinctions. To any one with the sense of 
 right and wrong vigorous within him, it must often have 
 seemed as if the supreme Powers were passing under 
 a strange eclipse — Justice grown blind, and Jahveh 
 Himself suffering from premature senility. The in- 
 evitable perplexity was intensified by the influence of 
 foreign customs and ideals. It was open to the imgodly 
 to make terms with these ; and, on the whole, they had 
 a good time of it. The righteous had no such freedom ; 
 they stood by Jahveh for good or evil, and went to 
 the wall. It was this fact that imported a certain 
 bitterness of feeling into their discussion of a great 
 problem. They suffered for Jahveh ; and yet He 
 reserved His choicest blessings for the unfaithful. These 
 were not only planted, but watered and sunned, till 
 their boughs bent under the weight of their fruitful- 
 ness. " Pluck them up by the roots," cries the 
 prophet ; " as sheep for the shambles, reserve them 
 for the day of slaughter." 
 
 Indeed the day had long gone by, when it was 
 possible to paint Hfe as in Ps. xxiii, with roseate colours j 
 or to dismiss a real difficulty by the skilful use of a 
 poetic figure (Ps. xxx, 5). Nor was it competent to 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 123 
 
 appeal from the present to some impending readjust- 
 ment of the balance ; as if the wheel of Fortune, one 
 moment Hf ting the wicked to giddy heights of prosperity, 
 might, the next, fling them into the dust (Ps. v, 37). 
 On the contrary, " These have no bands in their death, 
 but their strength is firm " (Ps. Ixxii, 4). On the other 
 hand, men could not yet extricate themselves from 
 their social surroundings, so as to maintain a purely 
 personal fellowship with God. Nor was it possible, 
 with the imperfect knowledge of Him they possessed, 
 to penetrate to that innermost Sanctuary, where 
 Sorrow stands revealed, in her vicarious and priestly 
 function, as the crowning grace of human life. That 
 beautiful idea, which lights up the pages of the great 
 prophet of the Exile, may also be traced back to 
 Jeremiah. I cannot doubt that in a passage we have 
 just studied, we see in him the prototype of the Suffering 
 Servant — the " lamb led to slaughter." But we do not 
 always see in ourselves what others may yet see in us. 
 As a matter of fact, Jeremiah lived in the darkest 
 age of Jewish history ; when the old conditions were 
 strained to the breaking point, while the new and 
 higher conception of a spiritual religion had not yet 
 risen above the horizon. A contemporary of his, the 
 prophet Habakkuk, faces the same problem, makes the 
 same appeal, and makes it in almost the same language. 
 We see him climbing the narrow staircase that leads 
 to his watchtower, and looking out. The night is 
 dark, the sky is starless, the horizon lurid with fires 
 that tell of burning homesteads ; yet Heaven keeps 
 silence, or speaks only to enjoin the submission of 
 faith. More daring as a thinker, more expert in the 
 analysis of a difficult situation, Jeremiah carries us 
 
 1 Hab. ii, 1—4. 
 
124 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 further than that; probably as far as, under the 
 conditions, man could go. 
 
 One other point should be noted in the prophet's 
 statement of the Problem. By most critics verse 4 
 is omitted as a later interpolation— breaking the thread 
 of thought, and introducing into a personal question 
 considerations that seem quite irrelevant. But it_ 
 seems to me, that precisely this verse is requisite to' 
 the final, because abstract, statement of the great 
 Problem. The prophet no longer smarts under a 
 sense of personal injustice ; he thinks rather of the 
 land, Jahveh's inheritance, cursed by the malign 
 influence of evil men. We have therefore retained 
 it, as above. 
 
 {a) In Jahveh's reply we notice, first of aU, the 
 personal equation emphasized. 
 
 Verse 5. If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have 
 wearied thee, 
 How then wilt thou contend with horses ? 
 And if, in the open country, thou hast fled, 
 How wilt thou do in the Jungle of Jordan ? 
 
 Verse 6. For even thy brethren, and thy father's house, 
 Even they have betrayed thee, even they ; 
 They have raised after thee a hue and cry. 
 Trust them not, though they speak fair words. 
 
 The prophet has yielded to despondence and dis- 
 content, and thus unfitted himself for the discharge 
 of the highest moral function, the judgment of others. 
 There is something of softness and caressing in Jahveh's 
 opening words : They have wearied thee. He deals 
 with His servant, as with a tired child ; yet, while He 
 soothes him, the edge of the reproof is keenly felt. In 
 every act of vision there are three factors ; the organ, 
 the object, and the medium. The medium is always 
 the atmosphere ; in the case of distant objects, possibly 
 
THE PEOBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 125 
 
 a lens as well. Now if the atmosphere is suffused with 
 moisture, or if the lens be faulty, the impression con- 
 veyed to the brain must necessarily be erroneous. The 
 object looms dim and bulky, through a mist ; or, it 
 shows distorted by the glass. It is not less so with 
 mental vision. No act of judgment is ever pure ; 
 always there is the medium, physical and moral con- 
 ditions which modify it. If a man is physically unfit, 
 tired and jaded, it is impossible for him to take a sane 
 and truthful, i.e. a cheerful view of life. If he is 
 soured by disappointment, or warped by prejudice, 
 he sees everything awry. But perhaps nothing so 
 influences our judgment of others, as the sense of wrong- 
 doing in ourselves. The failure to apply this simple 
 principle, has been the spoUing of many lives. How 
 many force themselves to think, and act, and work, 
 under conditions which make good work impossible. 
 At a time when men and women have grown hysterical 
 with preternatural activity and morbid sensibility, 
 it were well to remember Hawthorne's wise words : 
 " What the world wants is to lay his weary head on 
 the first convenient pillow, and to take an age-long 
 nap." Then perhaps, blessed once more with a clear 
 eye and tranquil spirit, we might see things as they 
 are, and read off, at a glance, the enigma of life. 
 
 Another idea is interwoven with Jahveh's words, 
 which must not be overlooked. The reward of Virtue 
 is not the ease or indulgence we sometimes crave. It 
 is not greater facility in doing the same thing over 
 again ; but, rather, a fitness for some other and higher 
 task. It is by faithfulness in little things we qualify 
 for great. To have run with the footmen, is excellent 
 training ; but, if they have beaten you, and wearied 
 you, you are excluded, by the laws of the game, from 
 contending with horses. Compare the open country, i.e. 
 
126 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 level reaches, commanding an unbroken horizon,^ with 
 the Jungle of the Jordan, the narrow strip of under- 
 growth fringing the river's brink. If there, where a 
 child may walk alone and be safe, you have fled, startled 
 by a step, scared by the scream of a wild bird, how will 
 you do here ? To break through this, to breast wave 
 after wave of the tangled brushwood, to beard the 
 wild beast in his lair, and the lion foraging for his 
 young, that were a task to try the nerve of the bravest. 
 It is not easy to decide, what were the greater trials 
 which lay before the prophet. Scarcely (one thinks) 
 the treachery of his family, as distinct from the op- 
 position of his townsmen. Such an interpretation seems 
 inadequate. More probably, the contrast is drawn 
 between private and personal sorrows (verse 6) and 
 those impending national calamities which are unfolded 
 in the second half of the chapter. 
 
 To sum up under this head ; in every act of Faith, 
 the moral, not the mental, conditions are decisive. 
 We might have been made so as to act with mechani- 
 cal precision,' incapable of a blunder. The influences 
 that bear upon us and fashion us, might have been 
 always and only in the direction of good. The final 
 issue of life might have been discovered, a Heaven 
 above, a Hell beneath us, with such indisputable and 
 overwhelming clearness as practically to leave us no 
 choice. But then, what of Virtue ? If the moral 
 Problem implies Righteousness in God, not less does 
 it imply freedom in man ; and with freedom, the 
 necessity for decision. Faith is a conflict, a life-long 
 conflict, a conflict the issues of which depend, not so 
 much on the weight or volume of the brain, as upon 
 the tone and temper of the spirit. " Blessed are the 
 pure in heart, for they shall see God." As Browning 
 puts it : 
 
 ^ So I venture to translate the Hebrew 'Arec Shaldm. 
 
THE PEOBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 127 
 
 You call for faith. 
 I show you doubt to prove that faith exists, 
 Aye, when the fight begins within himself, 
 A man's worth something, God stoops o'er 's head. 
 Satan looks up between 's feet ; both tug ; 
 He's left, himself, i' the middle ; the soul wakes. 
 And grows. Prolong that battle throughout life ; 
 Never leave growing till the life to come.'^ 
 
 {b) Having emphasized the personal equation, Jahveh 
 condescends to defend His ovm action. 
 
 Verse 7. I have forsaken mine house, and deserted 
 This, mine inheritance. 
 I have given the Beloved of my Soul 
 Into the hands of her foes. 
 
 Verse 8. Mine inheritance hath been to Me 
 As a lion in the forest. 
 She hath lifted her voice against Me, 
 Therefore I hate her. ^ 
 
 Verse 9, A speckled bird is mine inheritance. 
 The birds are against her. 
 Gather ye all the beasts of the field. 
 Bring them to devour. 
 
 Verse 10. Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard. 
 They have trampled my heritage. 
 They have transformed my deUghtsome heritage 
 Into a desolate wilderness. 
 
 Rebuked and chastened, the prophet is led to 
 another standpoint. The sorrow and shame that press 
 so heavy on his heart, are traced outward rather than 
 upward, not to a Divine rescript, but to a human revolt. 
 When the conditions are disordered, the organism must 
 be diseased. Wild, angry, defiant, like a Hon in the 
 forest, the people have thrown off their allegiance to 
 Jahveh. Deprived of His protection, they have natu- 
 rally fallen a prey to their foes. A familiar fact in 
 
 1 "Bishop Blougram's Apology." 
 
128 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 Natural History is utilized to impress this idea. A bird 
 of bright plumage, a canary escaped from the cage, 
 fares ill in the forest, among birds of more sombre 
 hue. They gather round her, and pluck at her, as if 
 they would tear her to pieces. So it had been with 
 Israel. The blessing of the Covenant, a good land, 
 wide empire, spiritual worship, drew on her the envy 
 of her neighbours. They thought to strip her of these, 
 and to enrich themselves at her expense. The reaction 
 of the moral on the material conditions of labour 
 on the output, is expressed with proverbial pithiness. 
 
 Verse 13. They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns. 
 Much pain, Uttle profit. 
 
 And yet all through the passage there runs a note 
 of tenderness and solicitude. It is " My portion," 
 "My heritage," "the Beloved of My soul." "The 
 Lord doth not afflict willingly or grieve the children 
 of men." The sharpness of pain is like the edge of 
 a surgeon's knife. It cuts deep, to root out the disease 
 and restore health. 
 
 (c) In the end of the chapter (verses 14-17) a hint 
 is given of final issues. The passage is rejected by 
 many critics Hke Stade and Duhm, on the ground that 
 the ingathering of the Gentiles, anticipated here, lay 
 outside the prophet's ken. It certainly lay outside the 
 range of practical politics in his day ; but one hesitates 
 to say that, in moments of lofty and impassioned 
 thought, as here, it lay whoUy beyond his horizon. 
 Giesebrecht accepts the passage, with the exception 
 of the last clause of verse 14 : I will root out Judah 
 from among them. He regards this as a later inter- 
 polation, on the ground that it is ignored in verses 
 15-17, where the subject is the gentile world exclusively. 
 Certainly the clause is parenthetical ; but may not 
 this explain the fact that it does not influence the 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 129 
 
 grammatical structure of the following verses ? And 
 does it not serve as an anticipation of the close of verse 
 i6? 
 
 Jahveh is represented as dwelling in His own land, 
 like an Arab sheikh, anxious to be on friendly terms 
 with the humblest of His neighbours. But they are 
 evil neighbours — meddlesome and mischievous. In 
 the interests of His own household, He is forced to 
 interfere, and root them out. Every judgment, as 
 we have seen, has a side of mercy. The Exile broke 
 up those old associations which were unfavourable 
 to spiritual development. Then, when Judgment 
 has done its work, it yields to Mercy. New political 
 combinations ensue ; a spiritual commonwealth is 
 established, in which Judah, as the Covenant People, 
 is the predominant partner. " They shall be builded 
 up in the midst of my people." The Gentiles are 
 not, of course, absorbed, as proselytes, by the Jewish 
 nation ; but rather are settled, each in his own land, 
 on equal terms with these in Jahveh's sight. 
 
 It was a visionary hour, when the far-off goal toward 
 which all things are moving, stood revealed. The 
 controversy with Jahveh ends, for the Prophet, in 
 the silence of adoration. 
 
130 THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. XI-XIII 
 
 Ch. xi, verses 2, 3. The text is probably corrupt. In verse 2 
 the verbs are both in the plural (Hear ye, speak ye) ; 
 in verse 3, the verb is singular (Thou shalt say). Nagels- 
 bach suggests three concentric circles, each addressed : 
 viz., the people, the priests, and the prophet. But 
 there is no indication of this. The most probable 
 explanation is as follows — " Ye shall speak " was 
 originally pointed as 2nd pers. sing, with pro- 
 nominal suffix (Dibbartam : Thou shall speak them). 
 When the present pointing was introduced, the previous 
 verb was pointed in conformity with it (second plural) . 
 Erbt rejects verses 4, 5, on what seem to me insufficient 
 grounds. But even so, the argument advanced in our 
 text, holds. 
 Verses 15^16. 
 
 Verse 15. For the Infinitive (to work) read 3rd sing, 
 fem. of Kal ("Wrought"). For the construction, 
 cf, Isa. iii, 15. " Shall prayers " — read Ronnim or 
 Rinnoth. 
 The clause that follows in the M.T., " Then mightst thou 
 rejoice (or, following the LXX : So mightst thou 
 escape, 'PfSfl tK) is probably a variant of the preceding 
 phrases. 
 Verse i6a. Omit the reference to the fruit of the olive. 
 Verse 166. " With a swishing sound." The same word 
 occurs in Ezek. i, 24 with the same association, viz., 
 of a stormy wind (produced by the wings of the cheru- 
 bim). The adjective "great" has been inserted as 
 a variant of the previous, unfamiliar word. The LXX 
 have two renderings of this phrase. In the first 
 (ets tliu>v7jv TepLToixrj's) the adjective (great) does not 
 appear ; in the second (and no doubt later) rendering, 
 it does {fj.€yaXri ^XZi^ts). Omit " upon it." The 
 verb (To kindle) is construed with another preposition. 
 For : " He hath kindled," read : I will kindle. 
 Verses 21-23. If these verses are rejected as non-Jeremian, 
 we have no indication of the sphere of the prophet's 
 activity as referred to in the previous verses. If we 
 accept them as (substantially) Jeremian, the whole 
 passage is lighted up with a pathetic significance 
 
THE PROBLEM OF PROVIDENCE 131 
 
 (see also chap, xii, 6). This doubtless is Giesebrecht's 
 strong point in retaining them ; and I am inclined 
 to agree with him. 
 
 Ch. xiii, verses 15-17. "Cause the clouds to fall." The word 
 here used and rendered Darkness (A.V.), suggests not 
 merely privation of light but rather the gloom produced 
 by lowering thunder-clouds. It is frequent, in con- 
 nexion with Theophanies (Exod. xx, 21 and i Bangs 
 viii, 12), 
 
 Verse 17a. At the close, the M.T. reads : " Because of 
 pride." But this probably is a backward reference 
 to verse 15. 
 
 Verse 176. The second half is laden with repeated references 
 to the prophet's tears. The Unes are heavy enough, 
 as it is. 
 Verses 20-24. 
 
 Verse 21. The rhythm is obscured by the transposition 
 of a phrase (" as head "). 
 
 Verse 22a. For the use of the verb to suggest a hostile 
 invasion, see Deut. xxv, 18. 
 
 Verse 226. " Thy heels are discovered." The M.T. reads : 
 Thy heels suffer violence. This is not illuminating. 
 
 Ch. xii, verses 1-6. 
 
 Verse i. The Ki is not temporal, but consequential. 
 (See Davidson's Syn. § 150). Hitzig cites, by way 
 of analogy, a phrase from Plutarch : ypavs el, is 
 TTpdy/xaTa TrjXiKavra irpdcrcniv. Cf. Ps. cxvi. lo. 
 
 Verse i. "Let me talk of Thy judgments" — for the 
 later. Editorial, use of this phrase, see on chap, i, 
 15-16. 
 
 Verse 2a. Read (with Duhm) : V'gam, 
 
 Verse 3. Omit, with the LXX : Thou seest me. 
 
 Verse 5. Read Boreah instead of Boteah (Hitzig). 
 Verses 7-13. 
 
 Verse 7. " My house " — here, not of the Temple but of 
 the whole land. " The ideas of building and cultivating 
 are closely connected. The Arabic Amara and German 
 Bauen mean both ; and the word for house or home- 
 stead is extended so as to include the adjacent fields 
 or territory." (W. R. S., Religion of Semites.) 
 
 Verse 9- Omit the interrogation, also ^''3? and '3?, 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 Chapters XIV-XVII 
 
 THE unity of this new section wiU be manifest 
 to the reader, if he compare the following 
 passages : chap, xiv, 1-9, 22 ; chap, xv, 18 ; chap, 
 xvii, 5-8, 13. In scarcely any respect, however, does 
 it answer to the ordinary idea of a prophecy. The 
 elements of prediction and exposition are reduced to 
 a minimum ; and it is not possible to suppose that, 
 under any circumstances, it was a spoken address. 
 What we have here is a collection of prophetic frag- 
 ments of a miscellaneous character, descriptive, his- 
 torical, and devotional, sometimes poetic, sometimes 
 prosaic in form, held together, more or less loosely, by 
 a common background, the idea of a famine-stricken 
 land. There is a certain chronological sequence, here 
 as elsewhere, guiding the Editorial hand ; but this 
 must not be pressed. Omitting later insertions, the 
 following is a rendering of the prophetic passages. 
 
 Chap, xiv, 2-10. 
 
 Verse 2. The cry of Jerusalem is gone up ; 
 Judah mourneth. 
 Also her gates languish. 
 
 Clothed in mourning to the ground. 
 
 Verse 3. Their nobles sent their little ones ; 
 They came to the reservoirs. 
 They found no water, they returned 
 With empty pitchers. 
 
 132 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 133 
 
 Verse 4. Lying untilled, the earth is dismayed, 
 For there is no rain. 
 Because of the land, the husbandmen are ashamed, 
 They cover their heads. 
 
 Verse 5. Yea also, the hind in the field 
 
 Forsaketh her young. 
 Verse 6. The wild asses stand, they sniff the breeze ; 
 
 Their eyes fail. 
 
 Verse 7. Though our iniquities testify against us, 
 Jahveh, do Thou for us ! 
 For our backslidings are many. 
 Against Thee have we sinned. 
 
 Verse 8. The Hope of Israel, His Saviour 
 In troublous times ! 
 Why should'st thoti be a wayfarer, 
 Turning aside for a night ? 
 
 Verse 9. Why art thou as a man astonished ? 
 As one in whom is no help ? 
 Yet art Thou, Jahveh, in our midst ; 
 Leave us not ! 
 
 Verse 10. Thus saith Jahveh of this people : 
 They love to wander. 
 They have not stayed their steps. 
 I have no pleasure in them. 
 
 (a) Chap. XV, 5-9. 
 
 Verse 5. Yea, who shall pity thee, Jerusalem, 
 And who shall bemoan thee ? 
 And who shall turn aside, to ask 
 After thy health ? 
 
 Verse 6. Thou hast rejected Me, saith Jahveh, 
 And art gone backwards. 
 I have stretched out rny hand, and destroyed thee. 
 No longer can I forbear. 
 
 Verse 7. Also I winnowed thee with a sieve, 
 In the gates of the land. 
 I have widowed and wasted thy people. 
 They went forth, but returned not. 
 
134 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 Verse 8. Their widovfs are more in number, 
 Tlian the sand of the sea. 
 I have brought upon tlie Motlier of youth 
 A destroyer at noon. 
 
 Verse 9. I have made fall on her, suddenly, 
 Anguish and dismay. 
 She that had borne seven languisheth ; 
 She panteth heavily. 
 
 Verse 10. Her sun has set, while it is yet day, 
 She is shamed and confounded. 
 And their remnant will I give to the sword 
 Before their enemy. 
 
 (6) Chap, xiv, 176-18. 
 Verse 176. Let mine eyes run down with tears. 
 Day and night. 
 And let them not cease (from weeping). 
 
 For the ruin is great. 
 For the virgin daughter of my people is broken, 
 With a very grievous stroke. 
 
 Verse 18. If I go forth into the open country — 
 Behold those slain by the sword. 
 
 And if I go to the city — 
 
 Behold those wasted by famine. 
 
 For both prophet and priests go their rounds ; 
 But they have no knowledge. 
 
 (c) Chap, xiv, 19-22. 
 Verse 19. Hast thou, indeed, rejected Judah ? 
 Doth thy soul loathe Zion ? 
 Why hast thou smitten, and there is no healing ? 
 We wait for peace, but no good comes. 
 
 Verse 20. Thou, Jahveh, knowest our wickedness ; 
 
 For against Thee have we sinned. 
 Verse 21. Cause not Thy glorious throne to wither. 
 
 Remember, break not Thy Covenant, 
 
 Verse 22. Who of the Gentile-gods can make us rain ? 
 Or shall the heavens give us showers ? 
 Art not thou He, O Jahveh ? 
 And we wait on Thee, for Thou hast done it. 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 135 
 
 III 
 Chap. XV, 10-19. 
 Verse 10. Woe is me, my mother, for thou hast borne me 
 A man of strife to all the land. 
 I borrowed not, and they have not lent me ; 
 Every one of them curseth me. 
 
 Verse 11. By my troth, Jahveh, if I have slandered them 
 
 When they were in trouble — 
 Yea, I have interceded with Thee 
 
 On mine enemy's behalf ! — 
 Verse 12. Wilt Thou have more regard to my earnest prayers 
 
 Than to the brazen altar-shields ? 
 
 Verse 15. Jahveh, remember, and visit me, 
 And avenge my cause. 
 Because of my persecutors, tarry not, 
 
 Take Thou me away. 
 Yea, for Thy sake I have borne reproach 
 Of them that despise Thy word. 
 Verse 16. Consume them, so shall Thy word be 
 The rejoicing of my heart. 
 
 Verse 17. I have not sat, nor did I rejoice 
 In the council of sinners. 
 I sat alone, Thy hand upon me. 
 
 For Thou'st filled me with indignation. 
 Verse 18. Why is my grief perpetual ? 
 
 And doth my wound fester ? 
 Thou art become to me as a deceiver. 
 As streams that fail. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Verse 19. Thus saith Jahveh, If thou wilt return. 
 Thou shaft stand before Me. 
 And if thou wilt take forth the precious from the 
 vile, 
 Thou shalt be as My mouth. 
 
 Let us now review these prophetic fragments. 
 
 (I) In vivid language the prophet describes a drought. 
 In the gates of the city, where busy crowds were wont 
 to gather, one can see, here and there, a gaunt figure 
 clothed in sackcloth and bowed down in the attitude 
 
136 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 of prayer. " The cry of the city has gone up." The 
 Drought is spoken of in the plural — Droughts. It was, 
 as often happens in the East, recurrent, or rather pro- 
 longed through successive years. Again and again 
 the rainy season came and went, and men hoped against 
 hope, to be disappointed still. With each fresh failure 
 of the rains, the Drought hardened. At first only 
 the poor, latterly all classes, were affected by it. Even 
 the upland springs were dry ; the fields were bare as 
 the roadside. The hind calved in the open, and the 
 wild asses sniffed the breeze for the scent of water. 
 We notice the spiritual intuition of the prophet, which 
 finds the cause of a nation's suffering in its sin ; and the 
 intensely sympathetic spirit which led him, disowned 
 and discredited by the people, to cling to them still, 
 and confess as his own the sins he spent a lifetime in 
 combating. It is " our backsliding," " our sin." We 
 are carried a long way into the heart of things, by such 
 utterances. Thus deep, the Cross has struck its roots ; 
 thus far, it casts its shadow behind it. We begin to 
 realize that the sacrifice of Christ was not an isolated 
 event, but the flower and fruit, the highest expression, 
 of a great spiritual principle which runs all through 
 history, and is still, as it was in the beginning, the 
 saving salt of human life. 
 
 Meanwhile — What of J ahveh ? "A wayfaring man . " 
 When we post through a land, starting out at dawn 
 and pressing on till nightfall, we learn httle, and care 
 less, about what is happening around us. So Jahveh 
 seemed to stand aloof from His people (verse 8). Or 
 rather, though once swift to hear and strong to save, 
 He is now as one overwhelmed by His own impotence 
 in the face of dire calamity (verse 9«). And yet, 
 though He sleep while the boat seems to sink, there is 
 hope in the Saviour's presence : Leave us not ! (verse 96). 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 137 
 
 (II) From this point, the thought of the Drought 
 retires into the background ; the condition of the 
 people engages our attention. We are transported into 
 the heart of a great crisis in the nation's history (chap. 
 XV, 5-9). The passage reflects the panic that follows 
 on a sudden and hopeless defeat. We see the flower 
 of Judah's manhood gather ; we see them pass through 
 the city gates and through the pleasant land, full of 
 brave hopes, going to fight for their empire and their 
 God ; and there, in the gates, i.e. the borders of the 
 land, ere they have set foot on alien soil, the enemy 
 meets them. The Angel of Death shakes his wings 
 over them ; the breath of the Almighty sifts them 
 and winnows them, scattering them throughout the 
 lands. Bad news travel fast, and that night none 
 slept in the city. Wives waited for their husbands, 
 mothers for their sons, the young, the brave, who 
 returned no more. " She that had borne seven" sits 
 widowed by her childless hearth. So sudden and 
 terrible a reverse was, as if the sun should set at noon 
 or pass under an eclipse. Nor dared they hope the 
 worst was yet past. With the deepest sorrow the 
 prophet contemplates the sad opposite of all his heart 
 had dreamed (chap, xiv, 176, 18). Within the city, 
 famme and pestilence have done their work ; without 
 the gates, are the slain of the sword. Worst of all ; 
 priest and prophet " go about," ^ like pedlars, hawking 
 their wares, making a poor profit of the people's sin, 
 with no knowledge of Jahveh such as might have saved. 
 
 Again the question arises. What of Jahveh ? (chap, 
 xiv, ig-22). We see the people scanning the heavens 
 for the promise of rain that never came. If pity fail, 
 there is still the personal appeal. Zion is Jahveh's 
 
 * Cf. Sahar=a market. There is no idea here of going into 
 
 exile. 
 
138 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 throne ; will He see it wither like the parched fields 
 around and all its glory fade away ? Is He not pledged 
 to His people ; and, if He break His Covenant, however 
 He may justify His action to Himself, must He not seem 
 to others a deceiver ? With all the naivete of those 
 child-like times, and something of the skill that is 
 born of despair, the prophet seeks to move His heart. 
 If He will not help, who can ? Nay, if He fail His people 
 now, wherein does He differ from the false gods, who 
 can give no rain ? By many critics this particular 
 passage (xiv, 19-22) is rejected, but the phraseology 
 is Jeremian throughout ; and the peculiar use of the 
 word wither, in verse 21, with its unmistakable 
 reference to the Drought, speaks for its prophetic 
 origin.^ I am not at all so sure of verse 22, which 
 seems rather like a post-Exilic addition. 
 
 We have as yet made no attempt to fix the date of 
 these oracles, but at this point, a suggestion may be 
 offered. 
 
 From a passage which undoubtedly dates from 
 the reign of Josiah, we have learned that, more or less 
 throughout his reign, Judah suffered from drought 
 (chip, iii, 3) . The condition of the country, as described 
 here, recalls another passage from an only slightly later 
 date, in which the Egyptian soldiery, the children of Noph 
 and Tahpanhes are described as overrunning the land 
 (chap, ii, 16). Nor do we know of any defeat, suffered 
 by Judah on the field during the prophet's lifetime, 
 which was at all comparable for shame or sorrow 
 to what is pictured here, save one, the Battle of 
 
 ^ Nabal ; compare the word 'umlal in verse 2. The root is 
 the same (Bal, Mai, Pal) ; always with the idea of looseness — 
 physical or moral. Compare Nebel=a dried skin, and N'belah 
 =a corpse. See Hupfeld's note on Ps. vi, 3. The A.V. 
 (" Disgrace ") is very feeble. 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 139 
 
 Megiddo, that fatal Flodden Field of Jewish history, 
 where the young king and the flower of his chivalry 
 were mown down by the sword. If these indications 
 are accepted as fixing the date of the foregoing oracles, 
 then a peculiar emphasis is lent to the impassioned 
 appeal of chap, xiv, 21 : Break not Thy Covenant ! 
 The great event of Josiah's reign was, as we know, the 
 Solemn League and Covenant, which had promised 
 so much, and threatened now to end, with the king's 
 death, in heartbreaking failure. 
 
 (Ill) With chap, xv, 10, we pass over into the second 
 half of the section, reflecting a somewhat later stage, 
 and dealing with more personal relations. Smitten 
 by the desolation he sees around, and by the thought 
 of the part, however passive, he has played in it, the 
 prophet bewails his fate. Surely it were better to 
 be childless than to have borne such a son as he ! We 
 realize the complete isolation in which he finds himself, 
 the cessation of all friendly offices, and even of business 
 relations. The only recognition he meets, is the curse 
 flung after him as he moves along the street. 
 
 What follows is exceedingly difficult. The obscurity 
 of the English version is explained by the hopeless cor- 
 ruption of the Hebrew text. It would serve no good 
 purpose to recount the various efforts made to worry 
 some kind of sense out of sheer nonsense. The ren- 
 dering given above diverges from the received text at 
 many points ; if open to criticism on that account, it has" 
 one redeeming feature. It preserves a certain continuity 
 throughout the passage. Let us begin with the reference 
 in verse 12, to the " altar-shields." According to a tra- 
 dition, preserved for us only in the latest stratum of 
 the Pentateuch,^ but which must have been current in 
 
 '^ See Numbers xvi, 36-40 (Hebrew text, xvii. 1-5), and 
 compare Gray's Numbers (Internat. Critical Commentary). 
 
no THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 priestly circles at an early date, and was no doubt 
 familiar to the prophet, the great altar in the Temple 
 court was plated with brass taken from the censers 
 of Korah and those who perished with him before the 
 Lord. These brazen shields witnessed at once to the 
 sanctity of the altar and to the doom of those who 
 sought to violate it. So it is, thinks the prophet, with 
 the prayers of wicked men, which minister to their 
 own condemnation. With himself it was otherwise. 
 Cursed by men, he has blessed them in his heart ; 
 and the fact that he has prayed for others, lends 
 energy to the prayers he now offers for himself. He 
 has indeed no doubt that help will come, but he fears 
 lest it come too late (verse 15) . In a phrase, hallowed 
 by ancient and honoured use, he prays for an immediate, 
 effective, and miraculous intervention, such as may 
 extricate him from the desolation he sees around. Of 
 Enoch, who walked with God, it is recorded : God took 
 him. Twice in the Psalter we read, as the hope of 
 the righteous : Thou shalt take me.^ So here, on the 
 prophet's Ups. In pathetic language he pictures 
 himself seated alone among a crowd (the worst kind 
 of loneliness), having no taste for their mirth and no 
 share in their prosperity, with the terrible burden of 
 Jahveh's hand, the doom of a whole people, laid on 
 him (verses 17-18). And again the question arises, 
 What of Jahveh ? Why does He not send help ? 
 Why is He Hke waters that fail ? The Drought that 
 parched the land is reflected, once more, in the prophet's 
 embittered spirit, where the springs of feeling and 
 action are dried up. With all his splendid courage, 
 there is a vein of weakness in him stUl. Because men 
 have failed him, he attributes faithlessness to Jahveh 
 as well. 
 
 1 Psalm xlix, 15, and Ixiii, 24. 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 141 
 
 Chap, xvi, 1-13 is taken, in substance at least, from 
 the memorabilia of Baruch. The prophet is confirmed 
 in his attitude of aloofness toward the people. " Thou 
 shalt not take a wife, nor have son or daughter." Why 
 should he add to the childless widows in the land, or 
 to the long list of the slain ? He must not even enter 
 into the house of mourning or go to lament the dead. 
 Doubtless he felt the wisdom of such a course. Absolute 
 self-repression was his only safeguard in presence of 
 such boundless sorrow. Meantime, the process of 
 judgment went on, through the dark days that followed. 
 The dead were so many that there was no place to bury 
 them, nor any to mourn them. The decent rites of 
 sepulture were discontinued. Like England under a 
 Papal ban, without Bell or Book, Judah was cursed — 
 only under far higher sanction. Joy like sorrow is 
 forbidden : " Thou shalt not go to the house of 
 feasting" (verse 9). 
 
 There is no need to read into such words anything 
 of the nature of monastic celibacy. We have studied 
 the preceding chapters to little purpose if we are not 
 prepared to do justice to the genial humanity of the 
 prophet. It was the interest with which he threw 
 himself into the life of his people, that warned him, on 
 occasion, to refrain. His protest is aimed, not so 
 much against innocent and natural gaiety, as against 
 those heathen rites which were tainting the springs 
 of domestic and national life. The habit of tattooing 
 and of feasting in presence of the dead,^ were parts of 
 the ways of the Gentiles on which loyalty to Jahveh 
 forbad him to enter. In this, as in other respects, 
 he finds his New Testament counterpart in the apostle 
 
 1 " Nor shall one break bread to the mourner," etc. (verse 
 7) . The preposition 'al (i.e. over) is used, because the mourner 
 sat on the ^ound while the celebrant stood over him. 
 
142 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 of the Gentiles. Beyond any other of the apostolic 
 writings, St. Paul's letters are pervaded by a quick 
 and expansive sympathy. Yet we know how, like 
 Jeremiah, and for the same reason, he abstained from 
 marriage — " for the present distress." He asserts his 
 freedom as a Christian man, and yet is careful never 
 to use it to the detriment of another : "I will not 
 eat flesh nor drink wine while the world lasts, lest I 
 cause my brother to offend." 
 
 [The second half of chap, xvi presents various critical 
 difficulties. Verses 14, 15 contain a promise of Restoration 
 which reads strangely at such a point, without any correspond- 
 ing change in the temper of the people. Again, in verse 18 
 we have a " First " without any " Second " to follow it. 
 Both difficulties disappear, if we transpose verses 14-15 and 
 read them after verse 18. The threat of judgment is then con- 
 tinued from verse 13 into verse 16 ; while the promise of verse 
 18 is confirmed in verses 14, 15. Inverses 19-21 contents and 
 style indicate a post-Exilic origin ; particularly the advent 
 of the Gentiles, who are heard knocking at the city gates— not 
 as foes, but as suppliants. Contrast chap, xii, 15, where they 
 serve Jahve — " each in his own land."] 
 
 5|l ^ Sp *|t Sp 
 
 Chap, xvii, 1-14 consists of a number of fragmentary 
 and disjointed oracles. It is hardly possible to divine 
 any principle of collocation in the Editors' mind. 
 
 Verses 1-4. 
 
 Verse i. The sin of Judah is written 
 With an iron pen ; 
 Graven on the table of their heart, 
 With the point of a diamond. 
 Verse 2. While their children bethink them of their altars. 
 And of their images, 
 Under the green tree and on hill-tops. 
 Ye woodland heights ! 
 Verse 3. Thy substance and all thy treasures 
 Will I give as spoil. 
 Thy high places, even for all thy sins 
 In all thy borders, 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 143 
 
 Verse 4. And thou shalt withdraw from mine heritage 
 Which I gave thee. 
 And I will make thee serve thine enemies 
 In a land thou hast not known. 
 
 For a fire is kindled in My fury 
 Which shall burn for ever. 
 
 Wrecked by the reforming zeal of Josiah's time, tiie 
 ruins of the local shrines remained, a menace to the 
 loyalty of a generation whose repentance was never 
 more than skin-deep. " How oft the chance to do ill 
 deeds makes ill deeds done ! " The prophet bids them, 
 in imagination, see their children climbing the grassy 
 heights and stretching themselves under the spreading 
 trees, while they recall the scenes they had witnessed 
 in their youth. But how ? With silent aversion — 
 anticipating the condemnation of heaven, or condoning, 
 and so confirming, the evil choice of their parents ? 
 Either way, the words have force. A man, if he has 
 any heart, is wounded when he sees the pained surprise 
 with which a child regards his wrong-doing. But 
 the deepest wound is dealt when he sees the follies 
 of his own youth reproduced and magnified in his 
 children. And now, Jahveh will purge the land. The 
 high places where the people had worshipped are 
 given over to the enemy, so as themselves to serve 
 as a kind of sin-offering within her borders. Mean- 
 time, the people shall go into exile. Every seventh 
 year, according to the law, debts were cancelled and 
 the fields lay fallow. But now the whole land shall 
 " keep her sabbaths, "'^ and return to her rightful owner. 
 The last divorce, as of soul from body, so of the people 
 from the land, shall clear off old scores, and end the 
 ancient controversy between Jahveh and Judah. 
 
 We must not too readily yield to despondence. By 
 ^ 2 Chron- xxxvi, 31. 
 
144 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 the help of a graceful and charming figure the prophet 
 invests with a semblance of reality his own ideal of 
 what should be. Slightly amending the text, and trans- 
 posing one or two of the clauses, we may render thus : 
 
 Verses 5-8. 
 
 Verse 5. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man 
 
 And maketh flesh his arm. 
 Verse 6. For he shall not see when good cometh. 
 But shall be as the heath in the desert. 
 And he shall dwell in a parched land in the wilder- 
 ness, 
 In a salt place not inhabited. 
 Verse 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jahveh ; 
 
 Jahveh is his confidence. 
 Verse 8. For he shall not see when heat cometh. 
 And his leaf shall be green. 
 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers, 
 Sending forth his roots by the water courses. 
 And, in the year of drought, he shall not wither, 
 Nor cease from bearing fruit. 
 
 In poetic language, the heath is credited with the 
 power of vision, wistful eyes that look for showers 
 that never come. With shrivelled roots that cling 
 to the barren rock, with leaves hke scales that droop 
 about its sapless stem — cut down for fuel, or cropped 
 close by the starving goat, it is a fit emblem of the 
 wicked. 1 On the other hand, the palm tree flourishes 
 even in the desert, where its roots strike deep through 
 the hot sand to the springs below. With stately 
 growth and luxuriant beauty, with spreading shade 
 and luscious fruits that tempt the hand and win the 
 thanks of the passer-by, it is a fit emblem of the right- 
 eous. But where shall we find a fact that corresponds 
 with this pious fancy. Not in man. 
 
 Verse 9. The heart is deceitful and diseased. 
 Who can know it ? 
 
 1 See Canon Tristram {Natural History of the Bible). 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 145 
 
 Verse lo. I, Jahveh, who search the heart, 
 And try the reins. 
 
 There is no scientific verification for the figure that 
 follows ; but popular fancy sanctions its use. 
 
 Verse 1 1 . As a partridge sitting on eggs it has not laid ; 
 So is a man maldng money but not in righteousness, 
 In the midst of his days he must leave it. 
 And in his latter end prove a fool. 
 
 From the thought of the sinner's end, the mind 
 reverts to the great Beginning — Jahveh, the eternal 
 defence of His people. The heights of Zion rise before 
 us, crowned with the Holy City, and starred with 
 Temple-towers. 
 
 Verse 12. A glorious throne ; an ancient high place, the 
 place of our Sanctuary. 
 
 Verse 13. Jahveh, the Hope of Israel ! 
 
 All that forsake Thee come to shame. 
 
 And they that turn from Thee are writ in dust. 
 
 Forsaking the Fountain of living waters. 
 
 From time to time, we have seen the prophet dealing 
 with his people, the stem censor of a corrupt age. 
 Like Moses, when he speaks with others, he puts a 
 veil over his face ; but here he is alone with Jahveh, 
 and shows us himself. What he had taught others, 
 often incidentally, 1 is seen to be of the essence of his 
 own spiritual life. At the roots of his intensely ethical 
 teaching, feeding the springs of his human sympathies 
 and prophetic activities, we find this faith in a Hving 
 God. 
 
 Jahveh is the " Fountain of living waters." To our 
 Western mind it may seem as if justice had been done 
 to the prophet's words, when we treat'them as a figure ; 
 as if he meant, by an analogy from Nature, to shew us 
 
 J' ^ Cf. chap, ii, 13. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 what God is in the Spiritual world. But the whole 
 context, and, indeed, all we know of the working of 
 the Eastern mind, forbids this shallow interpretation. 
 When a Hebrew began to think about the world, he 
 started with a broad and simple contrast between 
 matter and spirit. " In the beginning God created 
 the heavens and the earth. And the Spirit of Jahveh 
 moved on the face of the waters." All forms of energy, 
 light, order, motion, physical and moral life, were 
 Spiritual, i.e. manifestations of the one Divine Spirit, 
 which moved alike on the face of the deep and in the 
 soul of man. To plunge into a cool stream in summer, 
 to wander through the harvest fields, to look into the 
 glowing heart of a sunset, to taste the sweetness and 
 joy of human love, was to be brought face to face with 
 God. So, when the rains failed and the rivers shrank 
 within their bhstered channels, it was not merely the 
 loss of so much vital energy ; it was as if men saw 
 Jahveh visibly withdrawing from the land. And when 
 the wind rose and the showers fell, when the earth 
 rejoiced once more, when the heart of man was stirred 
 to penitence and praise ; then, in the flowing tide of 
 vital energy which swept through all, they saw His 
 return. Nature was not merely a symbol, but rather 
 a sacrament, of that Hfe which, one in all its many 
 forms, centres, silent and never failing, in the heart of 
 God. From this point of view a new light was shot 
 athwart the sad experience of those parched and 
 pulseless days. Drought on the land. Defeat on the 
 field. Desolation in the heart, were so many steps that 
 led men in on Life's fullness as it dwells in God. Cer- 
 tainly illusions are not delusions, if they land us thus 
 with ultimate Reality in God. The stream may fail ; 
 the Fountain, never. 
 One summer morning, years ago, a restless Spirit 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 147 
 
 from Jahveh came on the present writer, and he started 
 out for a long day among the hills. Leaving the valley 
 behind him with its little homesteads nestling among 
 cultured fields, he dived through a belt of larches where 
 the deer lay couched, and emerged on the bare hill- 
 side. Hour after hour he tramped the heather, starting 
 again and again a covey of grouse that rose with a 
 whirr and a cry that blended perfectly with the silence 
 around. As he rose, the shoulder of the hill broke 
 off suddenly, and dropped some hundreds of feet into 
 what might have been the moraine of an ancient glacier. 
 A patch of vivid green on the black front of the rock 
 drew him like a magnet. As he approached, he heard 
 that most musical of all sounds, the gurgling of water, 
 and, pushing aside the thick grass that sheltered it, 
 drank of the clearest and coolest of springs. All the 
 vital energy of Nature seemed to be distilled into each 
 crystal drop. The loneliness of the scene, the contrast 
 between the surrounding desolation and the verdure 
 and beauty, the intense life, which seemed to reign 
 within the charmed circle, has made it for ever memor- 
 able. So are men like our prophet driven by sorrow, 
 and drawn by love, to find in God the Fountain of life. 
 
 Matthew Arnold, in a beautiful little poem,i deals 
 with an experience such as that described in these vivid 
 chapters. He speaks of " the unregarded river of our 
 life," that flows on through the deep recesses of the 
 soul, hidden from others and pften from ourselves. 
 We think, we speak, we act, bravely and well — yet 
 never wholly with success ; never grasping the ultimate 
 truth about our Life, never seeming to face our real 
 selves. And then a moment comes — ^the touch of a 
 hand, the glance of an eye will do it — when a bolt seems 
 to be shot back, 
 
 1 "The Buried Life." 
 
148 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 And what we mean we say, and what we would we know. 
 The man becomes aware of his hfe's flow, , 
 
 And hears its winding murmur ; and he sees 
 The meadow where it ghdes, the sun, the breeze. 
 And there arrives a lull in the hot race. 
 Wherein he doth for ever chase 
 That flying and illusive shadow, rest. 
 An air of coolness plays upon his face, 
 
 And an unwonted calm pervades his breast ; 
 And then he thinks he knows 
 The hills where his life rose. 
 And the sea where it goes. 
 
 Such a moment of discovery came to the prophet, 
 no doubt, when, turning from the parched fields and 
 his own desolate hearth, he faced God and found him- 
 self, saw the meaning of things, and tasted for one 
 intense moment the blessedness of life. 
 
 ***** 
 
 What follows (verses 14-18) is apparentlv a post- 
 script. 
 
 Verse 14. Heal me, Oh, Thou Jahveh ; 
 So shall I be healed. 
 Save me, so shall I be saved ; 
 For Thou art my praise. 
 Verse 15. Behold, they keep sa5dng to me, 
 
 Where is Jahveh's word ? 
 Verse 16. Yet I, I have not hasted 
 After evil at Thy hand 
 The direful day desired il 
 
 Thou knowest it. 
 What I have spoken, I 
 As in Thy sight. 
 
 Verse 17. Be not to me as a Terror ; 
 
 Thou art my hope In th' evil day. 
 Verse i8. Let my persecutors be shamed, but not I ; 
 
 Let them be scared, but not I. 
 
 Bring on them the evil day. 
 
 Destroy them with double destruction. 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 149 
 
 In the English version verse i6 is rendered thus : 
 I have not hasted from being a shepherd, to follow 
 Thee. But we have no reason to believe that Jeremiah 
 ever was a shepherd ; and the word is figuratively 
 applied rather to the civil rulers of the people than to 
 their teachers, so that we cannot understand it of his 
 prophetic office. The verb in the original may be 
 used actively or intransitively, i.e. of the shepherd or 
 of the sheep. In this latter sense it is taken here by 
 Hitzig. Though a pastor of the people, the prophet 
 is himself one of Jahveh's sheep ; nor will he cease 
 from following the true and only Shepherd, whatever 
 men may say or do. But a glance at the original and 
 a comparison of verse i6 with the close of verse 17 
 (" The evil day") suggests the interpretation given 
 above. The verb to haste ('ug) is used of pressing a 
 claim, either legal (as in Exod. v, 13) or moral (as in 
 Gen. xix, 13). Here, of course, the claim is moral. 
 The meaning then is ; I have not used my influence 
 with Thee, to hasten the judgment with which Thou 
 hast threatened them. So in the parallel clause ; I 
 have not desired the direful day. 
 
 The rest of the chapter deals with the question of 
 Sabbath observance. Matter and style alike indicate 
 its later post-Exilic origin. 
 
150 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. XIV-XVII 
 
 Ch. xiv, verses i-io. 
 
 Verse 2. The clause that stands last in the M.T. must be 
 transposed to the beginning. 
 
 Verse 3a. Omit D)'??, in the first line, as anticipating the 
 next couplet. 
 
 Verse 36. Read Rekim, in appos. to Vessels. The close 
 of the verse (" They are ashamed," etc.) is an anti- 
 cipation of verse 4. 
 
 Verse 4a. " Lying untilled." Read iTlb^D, the preposi- 
 tion being privative ; and compare LXX : xai ra epya, 
 etc. 
 
 Verse 46. Read H'JP!? ; the preposition being causal. 
 
 Verse 5. " Forsaketh her young " ; hterally," " Calveth 
 and leaveth." Omit the phrase : " Because there is 
 no grass," both here and in the following verse. It is 
 merely explanatory. 
 
 Verse 6. Omit : " Like jackals." There is no force in the 
 comparison of a wild ass to a jackal. 
 
 Verse 7. " Do Thou for us." The phrase has been 
 amplified. First, in the LXX ("Do Thou for Thine 
 own sake ") and then in the M.T. (" Do Thou for Thy 
 name's sake "). 
 
 Verse 86. Duhm objects to Ger {" a stranger "), with right. 
 But Ger Ba'arec is probably a variant for the following 
 niS?, and to be omitted. 
 
 Verse 96. Omit : " We are called by Thy name "—purely 
 exegetical. 
 
 Verse 106. " I have no pleasure, etc." — so the text must 
 originally have read. It has been altered to suit the 
 close of the verse, which is a qn^-^ation from Hos. viii. 
 15- 
 Ch. XV, verses 5-9. 
 
 Verse 7. " They went forth, but returned not " ; literally, 
 " From their way, they return not." There is no 
 ethical suggestion here. 
 
 Verse 8. " Anguish and dismay." See Driver's note. 
 
THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 151 
 
 Ch. xiv, verses 176, 18. 
 
 Verse 176. " Let them cease from weeping." The line 
 
 in the original is defective, and may be supplemented 
 
 so. 
 Verse i8c. Omit : " Into a land." 
 Verses 19-22. 
 
 Verse 20. Omit : " And of our fathers." To confess the 
 
 sins of the fathers seems to have been the peculiar 
 
 delight of post-Exilic writers. 
 Verse 19. The verse has been expanded. The original 
 
 text can hardly be settled ; at best a suggestion is 
 
 made. 
 
 Ch. XV, verses 10-19. 
 
 Verse loa. Omit: "And of strife"; and read : "To all 
 the land," instead of (with our A.V.), "To all the 
 earth." The egoism of the prophet was not so sublime 
 as the Translators suppose. 
 
 Verse 106. " Everyone of them curseth me." See Driver 
 in his Notes on Samuel (Introduction, p. 30), also 
 G. K. § 6ih. 
 Verses 11-12. 
 
 Verse 11. For : " Thus saith Jahve," read (with the LXX) : 
 " Amen, Jahve." For : inntJ' nb, I propose to read 
 Loshantlm (cf. Ps. ci. 5, and cf. Prov. xxx, 10). Bring 
 forward from next clause the phrase : "In an evil 
 time " (omit the duplication of it, produced by un- 
 certainty as to which of the two clauses it belongs to) , 
 and let LHob (read Latob) go to the second clause ; 
 (cf . LXX : (eis ayaOov irpbi tov i\6p6v) . Thus the 
 verse will read : 
 
 :a'Kb 3in'? in 'nraan n*? dx hut nva D^rutyi"? ds nin* tD^? 
 
 "T r 1; ■;-:* * tt .•; ";- t:'""t 
 
 For a similar parenthesis, compare Ps. vii. 4 and 5. 
 
 Verse 12. Most commentators agree that the LXX 
 irepi^oXtuov xakKovv represents an original H^nj *1B^D 
 at the close of the verse. Compare Exod. xxvii, 2, 
 and Num. xvii, 1-4. (See Gray's Numbers ; the- 
 passage belongs to P'). We might have expected 
 a mention of the altar ; but the reference is, on the 
 prophet's part, tacit and understood. He was himself 
 a priest. 
 
152 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS 
 
 And now, for the enigmatic : " Shall iron break iron ? " 
 I propose to read : n3"i3 nS") nv"]nn — an easy 
 alteration— which may be compared with chap, xiy, 
 12, a verse which, apparently, is based on it. For em- 
 phasis expressed by duplication, compare chap, ix, 5. 
 
 Verses 13-14. A later insertion fromxvii, 1-4. They refer 
 to the people, and break the train of thought. 
 
 Verse 15a!. The opening words : " Thou knowest " have 
 been inserted by a later hand to restore the connexion 
 with verse 12, broken by verses 13-14. 
 
 Verse 156. Instead of " In Thy longsuffering," read a verbal 
 form, followed by the 2nd personal pronoun (al-ta'arek, 
 attah) . Read also : Ki Nasa'ti. 
 
 Verse 16. "Of those that despise Thy word " — recognized 
 by all as the original text (following the LXX). Read 
 also : Kallem V'hayah [" Destroy them, and (thy 
 word) shall be"]. 
 
 Verse 19. " If thou wilt return," etc. The phrase may 
 have been interpreted of the exile, and led to the 
 insertion of the phrase : I will bring thee again. 
 
 Ch. xvii, verses 1-4. 
 
 Verse 16. " And the horns of their altars " is a later 
 addition — suggested by verse 2. 
 
 Verse 3. " Woodland heights " cannot be a reference to 
 Jerusalem, but only to the hills, where the idolatrous 
 worship was carried on. 
 
 Verse 3. " Even for all thy sins " ; cf. the text, as given 
 in chap, xv, 13, 14 ; and also the LXX. 
 
 Verse 4. In the A.V. this verse reads : '* And thou, even 
 thyself Shalt continue." ^?-1 is a corruption of '"'IJ 
 based on Deut. xv, 2, where however ilj is to be 
 connected not with the verb, but with the noun im- 
 mediately preceding it (see Driver in loco). It is to be 
 omitted here. 
 
 Verses 5-8. 
 
 Verse 5. Omit : " Whose heart turneth from Jahve." 
 What is thus said, has already been said in the previous 
 clause. 
 
 Verse 6. Insert 'arec before "parched." 
 Verse 13. " All that forsake Thee " — altering the suffix, 
 
THE FOUNTAINOF LIVING WATERS 153 
 
 if indeed, that is necessary (cf. G. K. § 87c). With 
 " Writ in dust " compare : " Make dust our paper, and 
 with rainy eyes write sorrow on the bosom of the 
 earth." Many prefer to read : " Shall be ashamed 
 on the earth." 
 Verse i6c. Transpose the subst. verb to the first half of the 
 couplet. 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 Chapters XVIII-XX 
 
 IT is evident on the surface, that these chapters 
 must be grouped together ; but we must go 
 below the surface to learn how they are related, and 
 what precisely is the message that they bring. In chap, 
 xviii the prophet tells his own story, drawing his 
 inspiration from the up-turned faces gathered round 
 him, and making his appeal with passionate intensity 
 and directness to the God who sent him. Chap, 
 xix, on the other hand, is Editorial. The narrative 
 is disjointed, and important points are overlooked or 
 left to the imagination of the reader. ^ But at one 
 place the narrative becomes pointed and significant. 
 Verses lo and ii are confirmed by chap, xiii, 12-14, 
 and, in turn, throw a fuller Ught on that passage, 
 as also on a difficult phrase in chap, xxii, 28. In 
 chap. XX Jeremiah is spoken of as " the prophet," and 
 his sufferings at the hands of the people are narrated 
 evidently by an onlooker. Yet at its close the note 
 of direct and personal to Jahveh recurs. 
 
 Only one explanation is possible. Another hand 
 than the prophet's has been at work, rescuing from 
 oblivion some of his hitherto unpubUshed utterances, 
 and, with the help of Baruch's Memorabilia, weaving 
 
 ' E.g., the prophet's compliance with the Divine command 
 (verse 3) ; so also, the filling of the bottle which is to be 
 emptied (verse 7). 
 
 164 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 155 
 
 them loosely into connexion with their supposed 
 origins and results. 
 
 Again, the tone of these chapters varies. Chap, 
 xviii is largely hortatory — a call to repentance. In 
 chaps, xix and xx, the tone is that of severe and 
 uncompromising denunciation. Evidently the call 
 to repentance has been in vara. In other words, 
 chaps, xix and xx refer to a later date than chap, 
 xviii. But how much later ? The question is diffi- 
 cult. In the case of an individual, a single hour may 
 witness a great spiritual crisis. The call comes ; the 
 temptation faces us ; the same day that found us 
 unformed and untried, leaves us with character fixed 
 for life. But in the case of a people, such decisions 
 are slowly formed. Truth must spread ; the social 
 conscience must be stirred ; and that can be only with 
 time. We are dealing here with a nation ; and the 
 difference between chaps, xviii and xix suggests an 
 interval of years, from five to ten. This is borne 
 out by a closer scrutiny of the chapters. In chap, 
 xviii, where the call to repentance is emphasized, 
 the coming judgment is sketched in language familiar 
 to us, indefinite and ^figurative.^ In chap, xx, all is 
 swift, concise, and realistic ; the Babylonian captivity 
 is foretold. That is to say, chap, xviii dates, probably, 
 from the reign of Jehoahaz ; chaps, xix and xx belong 
 to the later years of Jehoiakim. 
 
 Along two lines of thought the prophet has been 
 moving slowly but surely, toward results, each in its 
 own way indisputable and final, and yet apparently 
 irreconcilable. In the first place, he has been forced 
 to admit that the tendency to evil in his people is 
 
 ' See verses 13-17. 
 
156 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 not only deeply rooted, but ineradicable. * On the 
 other hand, his experience of life confirms him in the 
 faith of Jahveh as all-sufficient for man's spiritual 
 need.2 But how these conclusions stand related; 
 how He can suffice for all, who fails for any ; how, 
 face to face with the facts of life and history, one 
 can still think of Him as infinitely great and good, 
 the prophet might well find it hard to say. Yet a man 
 has this misfortune, in which of all God's creatures 
 he stands alone, that he is intolerant of contradictions, 
 cannot rest in that which is assuredly good, so long 
 as it is menaced by that which as certainly is evil. 
 Sometime, somehow, the question must be faced, 
 and, if possible, answered. According to the temper 
 of the man and the age, it is raised here, not in the 
 abstract, but in the concrete ; and receives such 
 solution as is possible, not by way of formal con- 
 clusion but of suggestion, in a figure — ^that of the 
 potter and the clay. 
 
 The prophet is bidden to go down into the valley 
 of Hinnom, to the Potter's House, i.e. the great 
 factory of earthenware vessels, with the promise 
 that the word of Jahveh shall meet him there. He is 
 not disappoiated. As he moves along, his eye rests 
 upon a potter busy at his work. A handful of clay 
 is taken from the bed and laid on the wheel, and 
 swiftly the outline of a vessel appears. But the 
 clay is knotted. It refuses to yield to the pressure 
 of his hand. The vessel is broken on the wheel.' 
 Arrested by this sight, the prophet awaits the result. 
 
 » Compare xiii, 23 and xvii, 9. 
 
 * Compare xvii, 13. 
 
 ^ In verse 4 the text reads : " The vessel which he made 
 was marred as clay in the hands of the potter. The italicized 
 words are borrowed from verse 6. They are not in the LXX. 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 157 
 
 The potter takes the lump of clay and, thrusting 
 it back into the bed, kneads it again, smoothing out 
 the knots, and then, replacing it on the swift revolving 
 wheel, fashions a vessel, " as it seemed good to the 
 potter," i.e. satisfactory to the eye of a professional 
 artist. It was the triumph of mind over matter, 
 of patience and skill over unfavourable conditions. 
 In a moment, light dawns on the prophet's mind. In 
 that commonplace event, he has found his philosophy 
 of life. " The word of Jahveh " had come to him. 
 God is sovereign in history ; more so than the potter 
 over his clay. For, while the latter accepts his ma- 
 terial, the former creates it. Yet the sovereignty of 
 God is subject to limits which He has Himself imposed. 
 He has given to man the mysterious gift of freedom, 
 the power to negative the proposals of Omniscience. 
 If man will not, God cannot. What then of sovereignty 
 in God ? Much ; infinite patience and boundless 
 resource, the power to bear and forbear, to make 
 and unmake, to apply all possible considerations 
 and expedients so as to soften the heart and subdue 
 the will. And then ? Frankly and fearlessly, let us 
 face the conclusion as the prophet does. The issue 
 rests with man. 
 
 The Jewish nation had been dominated by a strange 
 and fatal delusion. They thought that, as they 
 were the Covenant people, their future was secure. 
 They might do as they pleased, be what they liked ; 
 Jahveh was bound to them. His honour was involved 
 with the fortunes of the city and the people that were 
 called by His name. What the prophet impresses 
 on them is this, that the relation in which they stood 
 to Jahveh was moral ; that the blessings of the 
 Covenant, while in themselves secure, were conditioned 
 by man's fitness to receive them ; in other words, 
 
158 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 by conformity to Jahveh's will. On this truth he 
 bases the appeal of verse ii : " Turn ye now, every 
 one, from his evil way." ^ The call to repentance is 
 enforced by a brief and charming passage, poetic in 
 form, in which, after his wont, the prophet draws on 
 Nature to rouse all that is best in man, contrasting the 
 permanence of the one with the fickleness of the other. 
 
 Verse 13. Ask now among the nations, and see, 
 
 Who hath heard such things as these ? 
 A very horrible thing hath been done 
 By the Virgin of Israel. 
 
 Verse 14. Fails from the lofty peak, 
 The snow of Lebanon ? 
 Or do the wet winds from the sea dry up. 
 That blow in coldly ? 
 Verse 15. For my people hath forgotten Me, 
 Burning incense to no-gods. 
 And they have stumbled out of ancient paths, 
 In ways not traversed ; 
 
 Verse 16. To lay utterly waste their land, 
 A perpetual hissing. 
 All that pass by are amazed at it. 
 And shake their heads. 
 
 Verse 17. As with an east wind will I scatter them 
 Before the enemy. 
 I will turn them my back and not my face. 
 In the day of their calamity. 
 
 In a hot climate like that of Palestine, snow is 
 seldom seen, and never lies save in the highlands. 
 Only on the ^heights of Lebanon do you reach the 
 line beyond which the snow never melts. The brooks 
 
 ^ Verses 7-1 1 are a later addition, in which the principle 
 of the Divine Sovereignty is extended beyond Judah to the 
 Gentile nations. Here, it serves rather to blunt the edge of 
 the warning. Connect verse 6 directly with verse 11. Also 
 Editorial is verse 12. For the incident, Baruch is no doubt 
 the authority. 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 159 
 
 and wadys of the desert, fed by uncertain showers, 
 are dried up by the summer's heat ; but the great 
 rivers, whose springs are among the mountains and 
 fed by eternal snows, flow on without intermission. 
 It might have been so with Jahveh's people. God 
 entered the people's life as a mountain pierces the 
 cloud, to make all the good that was latent in them 
 conscious and articulate. As the mist and the snow 
 wreathe the sides of the mountain that gave them 
 birth. He had drawn them to Himself, that they might 
 rest in Him. Fed by the springs of His perennial 
 goodness, the stream of their national life need never 
 have failed. But they had forgotten Him, and burned 
 incense to Baal. Again, no feature of the Syrian 
 climate is more remarkable than the part played 
 by the West Wind. Blowing in from the sea, and 
 laden with moisture, it tempers the burning heat and 
 scatters showers over the thirsty land. " Those 
 who have not travelled through a Syrian summer 
 can scarcely realize how welcome, how unfailing 
 a friend is the forenoon wind from the sea ; how he 
 is strongest just after noon, and does not leave you 
 till the need for his freshness passes away with the 
 sunset." 1 Unlike the West Wind, so constant and 
 beneficent in its action, the people had veered round, 
 and turned away from Jahveh. Fitful and passionate, 
 their breath was like the sirocco, the dry wind blowing 
 from the East, and the land withered under it (verse 17). 
 In the close of the chapter this is brought out, not 
 subjectively, in the judgment of the prophet, but 
 objectively, and by definite action on the part of the 
 people. To such appeals they have no answer to make, 
 but a scornful silence. They will strike at the man, 
 so as to silence his message. 
 
 » G. A. Smith, Hist. Geography. 
 
160 
 
 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 Ch. xviii, ver. i8. And they said, Come, and let us devise 
 Devices against him. 
 
 For the law shall not perish from tho priest. 
 Nor counsel from the wise. 
 
 Verse 19. Hearken unto me, O Jahveh, 
 And hear my pleading cry 
 
 Verse 20. Shall evil be repaid for good ? 
 
 Remember my standing before Thee, 
 To speak good on their behalf, 
 To turn away Thy wrath. 
 
 Verge 20. Give their sons to the famine. 
 
 Deliver them to the power of the sword. 
 Let their wives be widowed. 
 
 And their men slain of the sword. 
 
 Verse 22. Let a cry be heard in their dwellings, 
 
 When Thou bringest on them, sudden, the 
 
 foe. 
 For they have digged a pit to take me. 
 And hidden snares to catch my feet. 
 
 Verse 23. But Thou, Jahveh, knowest 
 
 All how they plot to slay me. 
 
 Forgive not their transgressions. 
 
 Nor blot out their sins from before Thee. 
 
 Let them be cast out from Thy presence. 
 
 Deal Thou with them in Thy time of fury. 
 
 In chap, xix the situation is materially altered. 
 Once again the prophet finds himself in the valley, 
 not now where the potters are at work, but a little 
 aside, at the Sherd Gate, where the waste fragments 
 of pottery and the rubbish of the city were shot out. 
 This change of place subtilely reflects itself in a 
 change of tone. 
 
 Instead of a call to repentance, there is a note, 
 solemn and impressive, of impending doom. The 
 element of Freedom disappears. There is now no 
 thought of patient toil, triumphing over difficulties. 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 161 
 
 The work is done ; the formative process is over. 
 We are dealing with results, finished for good or evil. 
 All relations between Jahveh and His people are broken 
 off, but one — the last. Taking a vessel in his hand, 
 and filling it, the prophet tilts it over and empties it 
 with a gulping noise. " So will I empty (i.e. pour out) 
 and confound the counsel of Judah." Here, where 
 He would have fashioned them to some noble end, had 
 they not refused, Jahveh will cause them to fall. Then, 
 breaking the bottle and scattering the fragments 
 among the rubbish at his feet, he foretells a time, 
 close at hand, when the valley, now a scene of cheerful 
 industry, shall be a vast burial ground.^ 
 
 It is probable that by this time the prophet's 
 influence was largely gone. Few followed him or 
 waited for his word, as of old. He has to procure 
 his own slender audience,^ who listen to him listlessly 
 and without any comment. With a terrible tenacity 
 he finds his way back to the city and the Temple 
 courts, and there in the hearing of all, repeats his 
 message. For a second time, ^ and more acutely 
 
 1 Duhm rejects xix, i-xx, 6. From this condemnation, 
 Erbt excepts xix, 1-2, and verse 11 ; also xix, 14-xx, 6. 
 It is, of course, certain that, in its present form the text is 
 Editorial ; but I am disposed to regard it as, like chap, 
 xviii, substantially a reproduction of some narrative from 
 Baruch. For example, I note the play on the noun (Bakbuk=: 
 a bottle), and the verb Bakak (to pour) in verse 7. That 
 there was something in the original documents to correspond 
 with this, is indicated by a passage already commented on 
 (xiii, 12-14) — evidently another version of the same incident. 
 In the same way, I take it that an original record is reproduced 
 here, in its original connexion if not in its original form, in 
 verses 12,13. On this, as we know, is based the Editorial passage, 
 vii, 32-34- 
 
 ^ " Take with thee the elders of the people,'' etc. 
 
 ' See chap. xxvi. 
 
 J- 11 
 
162 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 than before, he finds himself in conflict with the Temple 
 authorities. Offended by his freedom, Pashhur, son 
 of Immer.i chief of&cer of the Temple, an arrogant and 
 high-minded ecclesiastic, has him laid up in the stocks. 
 Night passes in bitter silence over the angry prophet ; 
 but, with the morning, when, they release him from 
 his painful and undignified confinement, all the vials 
 of his wrath are broken over the haughty priest. 
 No more shall he be called Pashhur but Magor-Missabib 
 — " Terror take thee " ; ^ Jahveh shall make thee a 
 terror to thyself and to all thy friends. This sharp 
 conflict, with one of the highest ecclesiastical 
 
 ' Pashhur is designated as chief overseer (Pakid Nagid) of 
 the Temple. In Hi, 24 the officials of the Temple are enumer- 
 ated thus : The High Priest, the Deputy High Priest, and three 
 Keepers of the Threshold. These last were probably the same 
 as the Pekidim of whom one was NagId, or Chief. This was 
 the office held by Pashhur. Zephaniah, mentioned in xxix, 
 26 as also a Pakid, may have been a colleague of Pashhur. 
 The alternative is to suppose that the Pakid Nagtd was the 
 same as the Deputy High Priest ; in which case, after Pash- 
 hur's transference to Babylon, Zephaniah may have succeeded 
 him in this high office (lii, 24). But of course this is problem- 
 atic. There seems, however, no ground for Duhm's assertion 
 that there is no room for Pashhur in the Temple records of the 
 time. See Erbt's Note. 
 
 ^ The meaning of the name Pashhur is doubtful. Gesenius 
 derives it from Arabic roots meaning (a) prosperity and (6) 
 around. Ewald connects it rather with the Hebrew root Push, 
 in the sense of joy (cf. Malach. iv, 2). Erbt, on the other 
 hand, connects it with the root (Pasach (s interchanging with 
 sh). In Magor-Missabib — (LXX -rrapoiKOv) — he rejects the 
 Missabib entirely, and connects Magor (read, Magur) with 
 Magar=to hand over. The meaning then is that, instead of 
 being one over whom trouble passes, he shall find himself one 
 " given over " to it. Against this (ingenious) explanation, is 
 the fact that Magor-Missabib seems a recurring phrase with 
 our prophet, and that this passage seems meant to explain its 
 origin. 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 163 
 
 authorities in the city, meant much for the prophet, 
 who was himself a priest. Political events, too, had 
 been developing rapidly of late. A great battle on 
 the Euphrates had wrecked the military power of 
 Egypt, and the star of Nebuchadrezzar, the young 
 Babylonian king, was in the ascendant. Yielding 
 to these indications of Providence, he speaks out with 
 a startling clearness. " Thus saith Jahveh, I will 
 give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, 
 and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall 
 slay them with the sword. Moreover I will give all 
 the riches of this city and all the gains thereof, and 
 all the precious things thereof, yea, all the treasures 
 of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies, 
 who shall spoil them and take them and carry them 
 to Babylon. And thou Passhur, and all that dwell 
 in thy house, shall go into captivity, and thou 
 shalt come to Babylon, and thou shalt die there, 
 and be buried there." Babylon ! The name of 
 evil omen flashes from the prophet's burning lips, 
 while every face grows pale with terror. At last, 
 they know the meaning of all those solemn warnings 
 which, for a quarter of a century, have invested their 
 city with vague terrors. At last, they are face to face 
 with final issues. ^ 
 
 1 Erbt (as of course, Duhm) rejects verses 4-6, chiefly on the 
 idea that the incident belongs to an eariier period, before the 
 fourth year of Jehoiakim, and was indeed the cause of the 
 prophet's exclusion from the Temple Courts (see xxxvi, 5). 
 He thinks that, during Jehoiakim's reign, the prophet lived in 
 retirement. But this is to assume too much— ;;^specially in 
 face of xiii, 20-27 which belongs to the later years of Jehoia- 
 kim. His exclusion from the Temple was probably only tem- 
 porary. If the passage before us belongs to the period after 
 the fourth year of Jehoiakim — as the treatment meted out to 
 the prophet leads us to believe, then there is no reason why it 
 may not be, in substance, authentic. 
 
164 
 
 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 Exhausted by the nervous strain of such a conflict, 
 the prophet is supposed to relapse into a despondent 
 and pathetic mood. Far behind him Ues his youth, 
 the sweet spring morning with its bright promise, when 
 the almond blossomed, and he went forth full of hope, 
 to speak for Jahveh. The glow of summer, and the 
 wealth of autumn, that then tempted him forward, 
 have given place to this bitter isolation that lies like 
 winter on his soul. He utters a cry, as of one who 
 suffers violence. It is impossible with any certainty 
 to date the passage. We give it, as in the original 
 omitting those verses which are probably Editorial. 
 
 Verse 7. Jahveh, Thou hast enticed me, and I yielded. 
 
 Thou art mightier than I, and hast prevailed. 
 I have been a jest all the day long. 
 
 Every one of them mocketh me. 
 For, as often as I speak, it is to cry : 
 
 " Murder ! Damnation ! " 
 
 Verse 8. For the word of Jahveh is become to me 
 
 A reproach and a taunt. 
 Verse 9. Then I said, I will not mention it, 
 Nor any longer speak. 
 But it was in my heart as a fire burning, 
 Shut up in my bones. 
 Verse 10. For I heard the whispering of many ; 
 
 " Inform ! Let us inform against him." 
 For all my friends watch at my side ; 
 
 " Perchance we may entice- him, 
 And so prevail against him, taking 
 Our revenge on him." 
 
 Verse 11. But Jahveh shall be on my side 
 A dread-inspiring champion. 
 Therefore my persecutors shall stumble, 
 And shall not prevail. 
 
 Greatly shamed, they shall have endless confusion, 
 For they deal not wisely. 
 
 Thus, hke a stream, chafed by rocks, but swelled 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 165 
 
 by rains that feed the mountain springs, rising in its 
 bed till, calm and unbroken, it sweeps every hindrance 
 before it, all the manhood of the prophet is roused, 
 and his faith in God triumphs. But again there is a 
 relapse (verses 14-18). Critics have rejected this 
 closing stanza, or at least transposed it,^ as being 
 in its present position psychologically improbable. 
 But it is hard to follow the heart in its wild wandering, 
 or to say what may, and what may not, be expected of 
 it. We have endeavoured to reproduce the measure 
 of this short piece, irregular as it is. Undoubtedly 
 we see the prophet at his lowest here. 
 
 Verse 14. Woe worth the day 
 
 On which my life began 
 The day my mother bore me, 
 No good betide it. 
 Verse 15. Woe worth the man, 
 
 Who brought my father tidings. 
 Saying, a man-child is born thee. 
 
 Gladd'ning him greatly. 
 
 Verse 16. For he shall be as the cities destroyed. 
 Without pity, by Jahveh. 
 And shall hear an alarm at morn. 
 And the din of battle at noon. 
 
 Verse 17. Because he stifled me not in the womb. 
 So had my mother been my grave. 
 And her womb ever big with me. 
 
 Verse 18. Why thus did I come forth from the womb, 
 To find travail and toil ? 
 So that my days take end in shame ? 
 
 Looking back on these chapters we realize, not only 
 the supreme importance of the theme, but the consum- 
 mate wisdom of the treatment it receives. If you 
 wish to know the peculiar temper which is at once 
 
 ' So Ewald, who inserts it before verses 7-13. 
 
166 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 the product and the proof of inspiration, you have 
 only to read these chapters, and compare the wise 
 restraint and fine balance of opposing truths which 
 they discover, with the extravagant and absolute 
 conclusions as to our relations with the Divine to 
 which, unaided and uncontrolled, the mind of man has 
 arrived. Few of us have room within our mental 
 horizon, for more than one side of a complex truth. 
 Either we regard God as the highest creation of the 
 human intellect, necessary to the aesthetic completeness 
 of life, but with an influence which is only reflex and 
 subjective, or we invest Him with a sole reality, and 
 discount ourselves as mere puppets — vanishing shadows, 
 cast by the eternal substance on the screen of Time. 
 In the one case, we have no appeal from life's failures ; 
 in the other case, the motive power of action is largely 
 gone. Here, on the contrary, we have Sovereignty — 
 but moral Sovereignty, conserving the freedom which 
 itself has given. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that this great 
 question should be viewed from the right point of 
 view. We cannot, in our thoughtful hours, wholly 
 dismiss the idea of divine sovereignty. In Nature 
 the Reign of Law is absolute. Social science gains in 
 importance every day, as our experience of human 
 nature grows. A man is largely the product of his 
 physical antecedents. One man is bom to be an 
 artist ; another man, to be a criminal. Each man 
 has his doom stamped on his brow. If there be any 
 uncertainty as to the issue, it is due to the action of 
 environment, which may retard or accelerate what 
 still remains as inevitable. Whether we speak of 
 Fortune, with a smile, or of Fate, with a shudder, 
 we mean the same thing — the element of necessity 
 which pervades our hves ; blind, irrational, inevitable 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 167 
 
 necessity, gripping us as in a vice, and grimly negativing 
 all hope of resistance. We see the whirring wheel 
 to which our lives are bound ; we do not see the hand 
 that turns it, or stays it at our cry. We transfer 
 to the wheel the defects of the clay ; to God, the 
 failures for which we should blame ourselves. Dark 
 and hopeless, or at best sadly submissive, our lives lie 
 under the shadow projected by a fated misconception 
 of what is meant by sovereignty in God. It is other- 
 wise with the prophet. From the wheel, he looks up 
 into the Potter's face ; behind the hand that moves 
 all, he sees the heart that plans all. For him, divine 
 sovereignty means not iron system but the patient 
 goodness and boundless resource of One in whom, 
 whatever happens, he can trust. 
 
 It can never be an5rthing but stimulating to remem- 
 ber that there is One who, as the potter gives shape 
 and beauty to the clay, breathes into our souls His 
 eternal Spirit, makes us all we are not, and never can 
 be of ourselves ; One who takes the fragments of a 
 life into His hand, and refashions them to purpose and 
 use. In his speculative moods St. Paul could entangle 
 himself in the meshes of a Religious Philosophy of 
 which one of his brother-apostles plaintively remarks, 
 that " there are things in it hard to be understood 
 and easily wrested." But in moments of intense 
 personal experience, we know how he narrows the 
 issue to a single point of which he was well assured : 
 " I was before a persecutor and a blasphemer and 
 injurious ; but I obtained mercy because I did it 
 _ignorantly in unbelief." That was the triumph of 
 sovereign grace. Neither caii it be anything but 
 wholesome to realize that the sovereignty of God has its 
 own appointed limits ; that He has given us freedom, 
 and cannot ignore, or revoke, the supreme gift with 
 
168 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 which He has crowned our hves. He cannot sa\'e us 
 against our will. A man may be enriched with the 
 highest mental gifts; yet, if he will not work hard 
 and cultivate these, nothing will come of tliem. The 
 Gospel brings the possibility of eternal happiness 
 within reach of all ; but, if there is no response of 
 faith on our part, the possibilit}- wall ne\'er be realized. 
 Nay, we may be Christian men and women, \\ho 
 ha\-e put ourselves into God's hand that He ma>' 
 use us ; and >et a fault of temper, a little \N-ay wardness 
 of thought or speech, easily condoned by ourselx^es, 
 because, on the whole, we mean well, because, in fact, 
 we are Christians, may be the marring of God's purpose 
 for our lives. The history of the chosen people may 
 be a warning to us here. 
 
 We may, however, nay, we must, go a step further. 
 There is an element of finality in life. There is a 
 point when disciphne ends, and God takes a man, 
 as he is, not for probation but for judgment. \^'hen, 
 or where.i^that point is reached we dare not say of others, 
 seeing we scarcely know it of ourselves. But always 
 we must keep it in \-icw as a dread possibility which 
 may be nearer to us than we think. Now if, imder any 
 circumstances, it is concei\able that final failure 
 should be the result — what then of the divine 
 sovereignty ? Perhaps ^^■e are too sensitive in this 
 connexion. God is great enough to feiil. He has 
 failed in the past ; He is failing e\cry day. He cannot 
 escape the risk of failure, so long as He has to deal with 
 free intelligences in a state of probation. No passage 
 in Scripture is so pathetic as that which records onr 
 Lord's final departure from the Temple courts. 
 How often had He come there, as boy and man, to 
 worship and to work ! How often had He looked into 
 the wistful faces of the men and women that thronged 
 
THE POTTER'S WHEEL 169 
 
 past Him, and thought of the weary hearts that lay 
 behind, and would have gathered them ; but they 
 would not. Now, His work is done ; He will go His 
 way and leave them to themselves. Slowly the 
 sun sets ; the evening Hghts linger on the Temple 
 towers ; the solemn hush of twilight falls over the 
 busy city, as He moves away into the deepening 
 gloom, into the shadow of the cross. " I would, and 
 ye would not." It was the greatest failure in history ; 
 but we know what came of it. For it was Love that 
 failed ; and Love's failures are Life's triumphs. 
 
170 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE ON CHAPS. XVIII-XX 
 
 Ch. xviii. verses 13-17. 
 
 Verse 13. "Ask now among the nations (and see)." 
 The hne is defective, and may be supplemented thus. 
 
 Verse 14. " The lofty peak." Literally, Rock of the 
 plain. Cornill, Duhm, and others prefer to alter the 
 text and read : " Sirion," one of the peaks of Lebanon ; 
 but, so closely followed by the more general Lebanon, 
 this is not probable. " The wet winds from the sea " ; 
 reading (with Cornill) , Miyyam ; and then, instead 
 of Zarim, reading M'zartm (cf. Job xxxvii, 9) used of 
 the winds that scatter rain. " That blow in coldly " ; 
 for this use of Noz'llm compare Canticles iv, 6, where 
 the same verb is used of flowers breathing fragrance. 
 
 Verse 15. " They have stumbled " ; read Niph'al. Onait : 
 " From their ways," as exegetical of the unfamiliar 
 (Aramaic) phrase which follows (2?'V 'r??'). Omit 
 also : Laleketh Nethiboth. 
 Verses 18-20. 
 
 Verse 18. Read : Against him, instead of : Against Jere- 
 miah. 
 
 Verse 19. " Thy pleading cry " instead of : My adversary. 
 
 Verse 20. Omit the clause : " For they have digged a pit 
 for my soul " ; borrowed from v. 22. A single clause 
 is omitted at the close of verse 21 as a repetition of 
 verse 21a. 
 
 Ch. XX, verses 7-12. 
 
 Verse 8. Omit : I cry out ; also, at the close of the verse : 
 
 All the day. 
 Verse 9. "I will not mention it " ; the suffix refers to 
 
 Jahveh's word. 
 In verse 10 omit the phrase : " Terror take thee on every 
 
 side," which suggests that the prophet's words to 
 
 Pashhur are now flung back on himself ! 
 Verse 11. "For they deal not wisely." The phrase 
 
 must originally have stood at the close of the verse. 
 
 When " Never to be forgotten " was introduced as 
 
 exegetical of : Everlasting confusion, it was displaced. 
 Verses 12 and 13 are Editorial. 
 
 For the Tenses in vv. 17-18 see Drivex's Hebrew Tenses, 
 
 § 74- 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 
 Chapters XXI-XXIII 
 
 PASSING over chap, xxi which, in the main, 
 belongs to a later period, and will be considered 
 in connexion with the Fall of Jerusalem, we come 
 to a new section, which may be divided thus : chpp. 
 xxii-xxiii, 8 ; and chap, xxiii, 9-39. 
 
 Chap, xxii, i- chap, xxiii, 8. Concerning the Kings ; 
 actual kings, known to the prophet, and the true 
 ideal King, as conceived, not indeed by him, but 
 by those influenced by him, who carried on his work ; 
 such is the theme of this half of the section. It 
 contains a considerable Editorial element, but, em- 
 bedded in it, are several Jeremian oracles of great 
 interest and importance. 
 
 Chap, xxii, 1-5. An address to the King's House. 
 Judging by its tone, and by the call to repentance 
 which it sounds, this oracle, if Jeremian, must date from 
 early in the reign of Josiah. It was, no doubt, accepted 
 by the Editor as an appeal to the Royal Household 
 to support the young king in the admiilistration of 
 justice according to the new Constitution. But the 
 style makes its origin doubtful. 
 
 Chap, xxii, 6-7. This is certainly a Jeremian 
 oracle, the severity of which obliges us to date it some- 
 what late — certainly later than the reign of Josiah. 
 
 Ch. xxii, verse 6. As Gilead art Thou to me,. 
 And as the top of Lebanon. 
 I will surely make thee a wilderness. 
 Cities not inhabited. 
 
172 KINGS AND PEOPHETS 
 
 Verse 7. And I will enrol against thee destroyers. 
 The man and his weapon ; 
 And they shall fell the choicest of the cedars. 
 Flinging them on the fire. 
 Ch. xxi, V. 13. Behold, I am against thee, saith Jahveh, 
 Inhabitress of the valley ! 
 Who sayest, Who shall come down against us ? 
 Who shall come into our dwellings ? 
 
 Verse 14. And I will visit you, saith Jahveh, 
 
 According to the fruit of your deeds. 
 And will kindle fire on the forest. 
 Which shall devour all about her. 
 
 [We have ventured to add to the oracle, as given above, the 
 closing verses of chap. xxi. In their present position, the figur- 
 ative language in which they are expressed is scarcely intelligi- 
 ble. Particularly, the reference, in verse 14, to the firing of 
 the forest seems meaningless in connexion with the King's 
 house, to which they are addressed. Here, on the other hand, 
 they find some sort of justification in xxii, 6, where the Royal 
 House is compared to Gilead and Lebanon, with their stately 
 oaks and cedars. Falling from this, their original, connexion, 
 the verses were inserted at the close of chap, xxi, an intro- 
 duction being borrowed from chap, xxii, 1-5 . But this is of 
 course conjectural.] 
 
 Chap, xxii, 10-12. Concerning Shallum. We have 
 here the first of the oracles of the Kings ; and from . 
 this point forward, the chronological order is main- 
 tained. 
 
 Ch. xxii. V, 10. Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him. 
 For the exile, rather, weep. 
 For he shall no more return, nor see 
 The land of his nativity. 
 
 Instead of mourning the untimely death of Josiah, 
 the prophet feels inclined to mourn the harder fate 
 of his exiled son Shallum, or Jehoahaz, who held the 
 throne of Judah for three critical months after his 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 173 
 
 father's death. Preferred by the people to his elder 
 brother, either because of his more genial disposition 
 or because of his anti-Egyptian leanings, he was 
 speedily deposed by the victorious Necho, and brought 
 down to Egypt where he died. A lingering hope of 
 his return seems to have been cherished by some, 
 who would still have preferred him to the despotic 
 Jehoiakim. But the prophet gives no countenance to 
 this fond hope. 
 
 Chap, xxii, 13-19. Concerning Jehoiakim, elder 
 brother of Shallum. The eleven years of this reign 
 were marked by a steady relapse into idolatry. The 
 king's relations with our prophet were unfriendly 
 from the first. Affecting " le grand Monarque," 
 Jehoiakim lived- in a style far above his means. It 
 is probable that the artistic revival which marked 
 his reign (verse 14), was widely noised abroad. But 
 there was another side to this. The land was under 
 tribute to Egypt ; a heavy yearly impost drained the 
 Treasury and burdened the people, already poor 
 enough. Forced labour, loans not repaid, judicial 
 murders, and the confiscation of goods which followed 
 eked out a diminished exchequer. The prophet pro- 
 tests against this abuse of power. With a touch of 
 grim humour, he contrasts the superficial splendour 
 of Jehoiakim, seen against a dark background of 
 famine and pestilence, with the solid comfort and 
 homely virtues of Josiah's reign (verse 15). 
 
 Verse 13. Woe to him who builds a house unrighteously. 
 And chambers by injustice. 
 Who makes his subjects toil for nought, 
 Withholding their hire ; 
 Verse 14. Who saith, I will build me a spacious mansion, 
 And roomy chambers, 
 With wide windows and panelled with cedar. 
 Staining it with vermilion. 
 
174 KINGS AND PROPHETS 
 
 Verse 15. Wilt play the king, because thou viest 
 With thy father in cedar work ? 
 Did not he eat and drink ? 
 Then was it well with him. 
 
 Verse 16. He judged the poor and the needy ; was not this 
 To know Jahveh ? 
 
 Verse 17. But thou hast no eyes nor any heart 
 Save for thy gains ; 
 And for the blood of the innocent, to shed it ; 
 And for oppression, to do it, 
 * * * * 
 
 Verse 18. They shall not mourn for him, alas, my brother ! 
 
 And, alas, my sister ! 
 They shall not mourn for him, alas, my lord ! 
 
 And, alas, his glory ! 
 Verse 19. With burial of an ass thou shalt be buried — 
 
 Torn and thrown out. 
 
 Chap, xxii, 22-23. Concerning the Land. At the 
 time of Jehoiakim's death, Syria was overrun by the 
 Chaldeans. The prophet, addressing Judah, bids 
 her dimb the loftiest heights within her reach, and 
 there bewail the friends and lovers of her youth, i.e. 
 the neighbouring nations, already reaping the bitter 
 fruit of their restless efforts after independence. Instead 
 of " friends " (Re'im) the M.T. reads : " Shepherds " 
 (Ro'im) ; and this has led to the application of the 
 oracle to the Rulers of Judah. But they could not 
 well be described as " Lovers " of the Land that 
 gave them birth ; and the wailing on Lebanon and 
 Abarim, far beyond the borders of Judah, must refer 
 to calamities descending, not on her, but on the 
 neighbouring nations. 
 
 Verse 20. Get thee up on Lebanon, and cry ; 
 On Bashan raise thy voice. 
 And cry from Abarim ; for ruined 
 Are all thy lovers. 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 175 
 
 Verse 21. I spake to thee in thy prosperity, 
 But thou saidst, I will not hear. 
 So hath it been, even from thy youth up ; 
 Thou hast not heg,rkened to my voice. 
 Verse 22. The wind shall shepherd all thy friends, and thy 
 lovers 
 Shall go into captivity. 
 Yea, then thou shalt be ashamed and confounded 
 Because of all thy wickedness. 
 Verse 23. Oh, thou that dwellest on Lebanon, 
 Making thy nest 'mong the cedars, 
 How shalt thou groan, when pangs come on thee ; 
 The pangs of a woman in travail. 
 
 Chap, xxii, 24-30. In the close of the chapter are 
 preserved two fragments of an oracle concerning 
 Coniah (Jehoiachin), the son of Jehoiakim, whose 
 brief reign has already been alluded to ; ^ with certain 
 insertions and additions from an Editorial hand. 
 
 Verse 24. As I live, it is the oracle of Jahveh, 
 Even if Coniah were 
 A signet upon my right arm. 
 From thence would I pluck him. 
 
 Verse 28. Is he a broken bottle, or a vessel 
 That none desireth ? 
 Why is he tossed, and thrown out 
 On a land he knoweth not ? 
 
 Coming to the throne as a minor, Jehoiachin was 
 dominated by the Queen-Mother during his brief 
 and tragic reign. It was natural that, after the 
 intolerable despotism of Jehoiakim, the people should 
 welcome any change. The youth and noble carriage 
 of Jehoiachin seem to have fascinated them. They 
 took him to their hearts, proud of him, as a man is 
 proud of the costly jewel he wears. But he followed 
 in his father's steps, and shared his fate. The storm 
 which Jehoiakim had conjured up, broke over his 
 
 • Chap, xiii, 18. 
 
176 KTNCxS AND PROPHETS 
 
 son. The young king and the Queen-Mother were 
 swept away in a whirlwind of ruin. 
 
 [We have here another example of the way in which Edi- 
 torial notes blend with the original prophetic text. Between 
 verse 24 and verse 28 is inserted the following prose passage, 
 manifestly an amplification of verse 28 : " And I will give thee 
 into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of 
 them of whom thou art afraid, and into the hand of Nebuchad- 
 rezzar, King of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And 
 I will toss thee, and the mother that bare thee, on to another 
 land where ye were not born, and ye shall die there ; and they 
 shall notreturn to the land whither their soul desireth to return." 
 
 And again at the close of verse 28, the following passage has 
 been added : " Oh, earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jahveh. 
 Thus saith Jahveh, Write this man childless, a man who shall 
 not prosper in his days. For no man of his seed shall prosper, 
 sitting on the throne of David and ruling still in Judah." As 
 far as our prophet is concerned, Jehoiachin disappears from 
 history when he goes into exile. It remained for a later gener- 
 tion, interested possibly in dynastic questions and royal 
 pedigrees, to perpetuate the curse on the unfortunate king, even 
 after death ; and to write him, thus, " childless on the earth."] 
 
 Chap, xxii, 1-8. This passage contains fragments 
 depicting the ideal king, and the age of prosperity 
 which should begin for Judah with his reign. In 
 substance there is nothing here which our prophet 
 might not have written ; and the play on the royal 
 names might be regarded as evidence of its pre- 
 Exilic and prophetic authorship. All that the actual 
 king (Zedekiah) had not been, the ideal king (Jahveh- 
 Zidkenu,) should be. But, on the whole, the evidence 
 is in favour of a later post-Exihc age. 
 
 In verses 1-4 Jahveh deals with the faithless shepherds 
 or rulers. These men were the prototypes of Milton's 
 " Blind mouths, that scarce know how to hold a 
 sheep-hook " ; only Milton, with less than his usual 
 accvuracy, apphes the phrase to the clergy of his day. 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 177 
 
 According to the oracle, Jahveh Himself shall supersede 
 these unworthy hirelings, and take into His own hands 
 the government of the flock. There are references 
 here to iii, 15-16, which is, as we have seen, a post-Exihc 
 passage. In verses 5, 6, the true king is sketched, the 
 righteous Branch. In Hebrew the word used (Cemah = 
 Branch) is usually collective (Fruitage) ; ^ and so 
 Graf takes it here, i.e. of the whole company of the 
 faithful shepherds. But if so, we should expect 
 the verbs which follow to be plural instead of singular. 
 The collective term has already received an individual 
 and personal reference.^ The name of the Messianic 
 King shall be " Jahveh, oiu: Righteousness." Right- 
 eousness is often, particularly in "the later books of 
 the Old Testament, combined with such ideas as Peace, 
 Blessing, or, as here. Salvation. Hence Graf identifies 
 the idea of Righteousness with that of Salvation.^ But 
 while they are clearly connected, the former gives 
 prominence to ethical conditions of which the latter 
 is the natural outcome. What we have here is a 
 promise of material prosperity, dehvered from a 
 foreign yoke, and a free development of their national 
 hfe, to be wrought out for the people by the ideal King, 
 in whom the will of God shall be perfectly realized. 
 
 Verses 7-9. Here, the restoration of the scattered 
 members of the body poUtic is the theme. The 
 passage has already been met with in a connexion 
 which confirms our judgment in favour of its post- 
 Exilic origin.* 
 
 Chap, xxiii, 9-39. The rest of chap, xxiii is an 
 
 • Cf. Isa. iv. 3. ' No doubt based on Zech. iii. 8. 
 ^ Stehend einfach als gleichbedeutend. 
 
 * Chap, xvi, 14-15. 
 
 J. 12 
 
178 
 
 KINGS AND PROPHETS 
 
 Oracle concerning the Prophets, partly in poetic 
 form and partly in prose. The long prose passage 
 (verses 15-39) is of uncertain origin. There is nothing 
 to definitely connect it with Jeremiah. On the other 
 hand, the level of thought is much higher than that 
 of the ordinary Editorial insertion ; and, indeed, 
 nothing in the whole book is more worthy of careful 
 consideration than this. 
 
 The following are two poetic fragments, evidently 
 Jeremian. 
 
 (Concerning the Prophets.) 
 
 Verse 9. My heart is broken within mc. 
 
 All my bones shake. 
 I am as a man who is drunk, 
 
 O'ercome with wine. 
 
 Verse 10. For the land mourneth because of them ; 
 The desert pastures wither. 
 And the way they take is evil. 
 Their course is not right. 
 
 Verse 11. For both prophet and also priest 
 
 Are utterly profane. 
 And also in my house I have seen 
 
 Their wickedness, saith Jahveh. 
 Verse 12. Therefore shall their way be, to them, 
 
 As slippery places. 
 In darkness shall they be driven on, 
 
 And fall therein. 
 For I will bring calamity upon them 
 
 The year of their visitation. 
 
 Verse 13. I have seen folly in the prophets ; 
 They prophesy by Baal. 
 I have seen an horrible thing in the prophets 
 
 They move in falsehood. 
 They strengthen the hands of evil doers. 
 
 So that none repent. 
 All of them are become as Sodom, 
 As the inhabitants of Gomorrah. 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 179 
 
 There is nothing in Old Testament history more 
 interesting than the gradual development of prophecy. 
 Before there were any kings, and long before the 
 Priesthood had attained the importance of its later 
 days, the prophets were at work. They were, as a 
 matter of fact, the Makers of Israel. The deepest 
 instinct of man's heart is a craving for light — light 
 from heaven upon the path of duty, quite as much in 
 the search for lost asses as in the disposition of a king- 
 dom.i Nor was the Hght ever, for long, denied. In the 
 stillness of the Sanctuary, beneath some spreading 
 oak, or behind the plough, men were found to whom 
 the Eternal was intensely real, and the meaning 
 of life plain. As a spiritual phenomenon. Prophecy 
 is not entirely isolated. It has much in common with 
 wizardry and soothsaying among the heathen nations, 
 being at first largely dependent for stimulus on physical 
 conditions, such as darkness or music, and, as a rule, 
 ecstatic in its manifestations. Indeed, what strikes 
 us at this early stage of its development is the almost 
 entire absence of the ethical element. Moments of 
 highest inspiration break in on lives whose ordinary 
 level is very low and earthly. ^ In time, under the 
 guidance of the Divine Spirit this changed. Inspira- 
 ation became less spasmodic and superficial ; the 
 prophetic state tended to become a fixed and conscious 
 attitude of the whole man to God. 
 
 With this important change in the nature of Pro- 
 phecy, went a corresponding change in its methods. 
 At first the prophets did not scruple to use ^'iolence 
 to achieve their ends. Kings were anointed and 
 deposed ; the political machinery worked almost 
 entirely at their will. In later days such direct inter- 
 
 » See I Samuel ix. 
 
 ' E.g., Balaam, and Saul. 
 
180 KINGS AND PEOPHETS 
 
 position was forbidden. The prophet's r61e was to 
 admonish and advise ; his appeal was no longer to 
 brute force but to the Divine judgments impending 
 on Israel. What was thus lost in the way of political 
 influence, was more than compensated by the increase 
 of spiritual power. Under this wise self-restraint, 
 prophecy became conscious of itself, and of the infinite 
 resource at its command in Jahveh's word. It is 
 remarkable that, while Samuel and Elijah are little 
 more than names to us, we owe to the writings of 
 Joel and Amos and Jeremiah, and others like them, 
 the highest inspiration of our own day. 
 
 But while prophecy changed in many ways, it 
 remained unchanged in one important point. It 
 was always a social force. As early as the time of 
 Samuel, young men of gifts and promise gathered 
 together in what were called Schools of the prophets, 
 the universities of those days, where they underwent 
 such intellectual and spiritual discipline as might 
 fit them for their life's work. Such Schools, guilds 
 of the prophets, survived to a very late date, even 
 when overshadowed by the Temple in Jerusalem. 
 In this social element lay at once the strength and 
 weakness of prophecy. The presence of large bodies 
 of young men, united by a common aim and owning one 
 central authority, lent it whatever political influence 
 it still retained. On the other hand, when a society 
 exists, traditions are sure to be formed which tend 
 first to depress, and then to forbid, the exercise of 
 personal freedom. It was natural, too, that, as the 
 Prophetic Order became privileged, as it drew to 
 itself the homage of the people and the patronage 
 of the crown, its members should be more anxious 
 to guard their own interests than to further those of 
 the Kingdom of God. Men joined their ranks simply 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 181 
 
 to secure an easy and honourable maintenance. 
 Costume, rather than character, came to distinguish 
 them in the public eye.^ Originally the expression 
 of the freedom and spirituality of religion, Prophecy 
 identified itself with what was most exclusive and 
 official in the age. " But the word of the Lord was not 
 bound " ; the inevitable recoil came at last. When 
 the spirit of God stirred in the heart of a man like 
 Amos, his first step was to dissociate himself from 
 these prophetic schools. " I am no prophet, nor the 
 son of a prophet, but a herdsman, and a gatherer of 
 sycamore fruits from my youth." The most persis- 
 tent opposition Jeremiah had to encounter came from 
 the same quarter. They disliked his imconventional 
 ways ; they dreaded his uncompromising integrity. 
 They had the ear of the people, and meant to keep it 
 if they could. It is against these men, the professional 
 preachers, the accredited religious leaders of the day, 
 that this chapter is directed. 
 
 In the most solemn way they are warned of the 
 serious danger they incur. 
 
 " Their way shall be, to them. 
 In slippery places. 
 
 In darkness shall they be driven on, 
 And fall therein." 
 
 What is meant is made plain by verses which occur 
 later in the chapter (verses 30-32), in which is given 
 what we may describe as the Natural History of a False 
 Prophet. We venture to modernize the passage as 
 follows. A young man joins one of these prophetic 
 schools, or colleges. After the usual training, he is 
 licensed as a spiritual guide or Director, a preacher 
 of Eternal Truths. Of these, however, his personal 
 experience is very small. What he really knows 
 ' Cf. Zech. xiii, 4. 
 
182 KINGS AND PEOPHETS 
 
 is the religious literature of the day, the works of 
 the great Masters of thought and style. He studies a 
 passage from one of these, appropriates its ideas and 
 expressions, and reproduces them as his own. He 
 struts about in borrowed feathers, and, with a charm- 
 ing modesty, receives the admiration of his hearers. 
 The first downward step has been taken ; he has 
 "stolen" his message (verse 30). But he has still a 
 literary conscience. He recognizes that there are 
 limits to lawful borrowing. If he cannot be original, 
 he must at least be independent. Certainly it is not 
 easier to control the Spirit than it is to command the 
 Muse ; but he can always work hard. Instead of 
 borrowing feathers, he beats his brains, very much as 
 a sportsman beats a cover, and seldom without result. 
 He acquires a dangerous faciUty in the treatment 
 of religious themes. There is, moreover, a certain 
 intoxication in all intense mental effort, which is 
 easily mistaken for inspiration. He " takes his tongue," 
 and reels off his oracles (verse 31). Thus the second 
 downward stage is reached. But mechanical facility 
 leads to worse. The proverb : " Quod semper, quod 
 ubique, quod ab omnibus," obtains a tragic application 
 in the case of one whose Ufe is spent in teaching others. 
 He hears his own voice, till he can hear no other. 
 He sees hfe from his own standpoint, till he is incapable 
 of seeing it from any other. The frothy utterances of 
 his own shallow soul are given forth with great unction, 
 in the name of the Eternal, and as eternal truth. He 
 ends by posing as the infallible Pope of a country 
 parish. " Behold, I am against them that prophesy 
 lying dreams and do teU them, and cause my people 
 to err by their lies and by their froth " (verse 32). 
 ^The test of Ministerial faithfulness which is appUed 
 here is satisfactory in its simplicity. The author 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 183 
 
 has no hesitation in discrediting these professional 
 prophets, because he finds in them no moral enthusiasm, 
 no indignation against social wrong, no travail of 
 soul for a higher national Ufe. They do not " turn 
 the people from their wickedness" (verse 14). They 
 " speak peace to men who walk in the stubbornness 
 of their hearts saying, No evil shall be to you " (verse 
 17). We have heard Jeremiah inveigh against them as 
 " pedlars," ^ going their rounds and making their poor 
 profit out of the people's sin ; and indeed they were 
 more careful to pocket a fee than to produce a whole- 
 some and lasting impression. 2 They throve on the 
 religious indifference which tolerated them. There 
 have been such men in every age. Our Lord foimd 
 them in the Pharisees of His day : " Woe unto you, 
 that tithe mint and anise and cummin, and neglect 
 the weightier matters of the law ; that devour widows' 
 houses and for a pretence make long prayers." 
 
 Religion is hopelessly discredited when any other 
 interest is preferred in her name to that of Righteous- 
 ness. And yet how often the Church has condoned 
 Inefficiency, and even Immorality, in consideration of 
 Orthodoxy. How many a preacher, to-day, finds 
 himself arguing this : " If I take pohtics to the 
 pulpit, if I preach a strong Temperance Sermon, if I 
 apply an abstract idea like National Righteousness to 
 the burning questions of the day, I shall offend some 
 of my people and destroy my influence ; better be 
 silent. Make them love their Church, rather than 
 hate their Sin ! " That way lies death ! " They 
 shall be driven on, and fall therein." 
 
 If such risks attend an Ordained Ministry, were 
 it not better to have none ? It is always easy to 
 pass from one extreme to the other ; the wise and 
 1 See chap, xiv, 18. "See Hoshea iv, 8. 
 
184 KINGS AND PROPHETS 
 
 safe path lies between. The author believes, not 
 in Revolution, but in Reform. Here is his remedy 
 for a very real and' persistent evil. 
 
 " For who hath stood in the Council of Jahveh and 
 seen and heard His word, who hath hearkened, let 
 him make it heard (verse i8) ." ^ It matters not how we 
 apprehend Truth, by the eye or by the ear, in concrete 
 or abstract ; only there must be personal experience 
 of its power. The true prophet must know God. He 
 must be one of the inner circle, into whose ear Jahveh 
 whispers His secrets. He must find his way into 
 the immediate Presence, so that when he comes forth 
 he may speak with authority to men. More than 
 most men, as we know, Jeremiah lived up to this 
 high ideal. We have seen how, on every page, his 
 utterance is broken by swift flashes, jets of upward 
 thought, direct and passionate appeals to Jahveh, 
 to make clear His meaning, to confirm His word. Such 
 sudden breaks, the despair of the mere grammarian, 
 were the prophet's life. They discover the secret 
 springs of certainty and power from which he drew. 
 It has often been very different with his successors. 
 The modern preacher has so many books to read, so 
 many visits to pay, so many meetings to attend, that 
 he can command neither the time nor the strength, 
 with which to wait on God. After ten or fifteen 
 years of such incessant activity, he wakens up with 
 shame to the fact that he has been crowding 
 God out of his life, that the one thing which he pro- 
 fesses to know is the one thing of which he is utterly 
 ignorant. The measure of power and success in 
 Christian work is not, of course, the time we give 
 to prayer ; it is rather the personal relation in which 
 we stand to God. 
 
 1 Slightly altering the text. 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 185 
 
 This thought is expanded in two brief fragments 
 of great interest. 
 
 (a) " Am I a God near at hand, and not a God 
 afar off ? saith Jahveh. Can any hide himself in secret 
 places that I shall not see him ? saith Jahveh. Do 
 not I fill heaven and earth ? " (verses 23, 24). 
 
 " Am I a God near at hand, and not afar off ? " 
 As they stand, the words imply that Jahveh's range 
 of vision is not, like ours, narrow and limited ; but 
 that He sees and knows what goes on not only in 
 His Heavenly Temple, but throughout the universe, 
 even the secret thought of man's heart. The Greek 
 version, omitting the interrogative particle, reads : 
 " I am a God near at hand, and not afar off " ; i.e. 
 it is impossible for us to banish Him into remote 
 space and then, paying Him a distant homage, to live 
 as if He were not. However we take the words, the 
 inference that follows holds good; there is neither 
 far nor near with God. He searches the heart, so 
 that none can hide from Him ; He fills heaven and 
 earth, so that all Ufe is the immediate inspiration 
 of His Spirit. We may involve ourselves in a maze 
 of subtle and impressive speech, hiding the nakedness 
 of our souls from others — but never from God, nor 
 long from ourselves. On the other hand, there must 
 be no attempt to limit the Spirit. He who thinks 
 to distinguish between Nature and Grace, proves 
 that he does not know what Grace is. " Earth's 
 crammed with Heaven, and every common bush aflame 
 with God." If we are not always, and everywhere, 
 serving Him, we shall serve Him nowhere. 
 
 (6) " What is the straw to the wheat ? saith Jahveh. 
 Is not My word like a fire, saith Jahveh, and like a 
 hammer breaking the rock in pieces ? " (verses 28, 29). 
 
 It is the self-evidencing and self-achieving power 
 
186 KINGS AND PROPHETS 
 
 of Truth, that is in the writer's mind. The History of 
 the Church triumphantly demonstrates the fact that 
 wherever the word of God finds utterance, it works 
 both inwardly and outwardly — destroying error as 
 fire consumes chaff, and overcoming opposition as a 
 hammer breaks the rock. For centuries Christ's 
 Evangel was overlaid by Romish superstitions ; the 
 forces of civilization were enUsted to repress and 
 enslave the soul. It was a great day for the Church 
 when, amid the gloom of a Convent Library, the 
 light from heaven shone on the sacred page, and the 
 young monk of Wittemberg, for the first time, read 
 those words, The Just shall live by faith. A fire was 
 kindled which is burning still. The chains of darkness 
 fell from his soul ; Europe was thrilled by his message ; 
 and to-day the forces of civilization are on the side of 
 Freedom and Progress. 
 
 The closing paragraph of the section (verses 33-39) 
 is difficult. The key to it lies in the phrase : The 
 Burden of Jahveh. The Hebrew word Massah (i.e. 
 a Burden) became the technical expression for a 
 prophet's message, a message too often of doul and 
 woe, such as broke the heart of him who bore it. But, 
 as prophecy became vain, the phrase lost much of 
 its import. It was passed hghtly from lip to lip, by 
 men who had no sense of its awful meaning. They said, 
 What is the Burden, just as we say. How are you, 
 to the man we meet at the comer of a street ; chatter- 
 ing cheerily around the central Mystery of life, like 
 sparrows in the oaks about Dodona. " Ye are the 
 Burden " (verse 33) ^ is the answer Jahveh puts into 
 his servant's mouth ; " Therefore, I will lift you 
 
 ? Reading, ni^ipn DJJN, for niJTI^. 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 187 
 
 and cast you forth ^ from My presence, and the city 
 that I gave unto you and unto your fathers " (verse 39). 
 If men will still inquire of Jahveh, let them be simple 
 and straightforward in their speech ; let them say 
 what they mean, and, above all, let them not say 
 more than they mean. " Thus shall ye say, every 
 man to his neighbour and, every man to his friend. 
 What answer hath Jahveh given ? and, What hath He 
 said ? And ye shall no more mention the Burden of 
 Jahveh." The author is too earnest a soul to trifle 
 with us. He is not the man, one thinks, to make us 
 offenders because of a word. But words are the 
 nests in which ideas breed. Under the shelter of an 
 ancient and venerable phraseology, we may disguise 
 from ourselves and others the meagreness and insin- 
 cerity of our religious experience. " PuU down the 
 nests, and the rooks will fly," is an old adage ; but 
 the truth it contains is older still. 
 
 Every age has its pet phrases, meaning much as 
 they spring fresh from hearts that strive to give 
 expression to their sense of wonder and new joy ; 
 yet tending, with time, to become a mere fafon 
 de parley — " vacant chaff well meant for grain." On such 
 food religion starves. We hear a great deal in our 
 own day about the Higher Life, the Baptism of the 
 Spirit, Entire Consecration. One is tempted some- 
 times, like the writer, to forbid the phrase, lest we 
 grow strange to the reality it suggests. 
 
 1 Slightly altering the text. 
 
188 KINGS AND PROPHETS 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. XXII— XXIII 
 
 Ch. xxii, verses 13-19. 
 
 Verse 13. Read : Boneh-Bait (building a house) ; and 
 omit the pronom. suf&x also in " chambers." 
 
 Verse 136. I venture to suggest " subjects " as the render- 
 ing of J?!, rather than the usual, but here less suit- 
 able, rendering, " Neighbours." Compare the Arabic 
 Ra'iyya-t (plural, Ra'aya) for which Steingass in his 
 Lexicon assigns the following meanings : (a) pasturing 
 flock, (6) subjects, (c) parish. I am aware that the 
 newer Lexicons distinguish the roots. But the question 
 is still open ; and a final decision must be influenced by 
 the use of VI in this, among other passages. 
 
 Verse 146. " With wide windows " ; following the LXX, 
 and reading as our text : K"riia'-Chall6nav. " And 
 panelled in cedar " ; again the pass, participle. 
 
 Verse 15a. " With thy father in cedar " ; altering the 
 pause, so as to combine these words. 
 
 Verse 156. Omit the phrase : " And do justice and judg- 
 ment." The Editor shrinks from the materialism of 
 a prophet I 
 
 Verse i5. " He judged the poor," instead of : "He judged 
 the judgment of the poor " ; omit the repetition of : 
 Then was it well. 
 
 Verse 176. Omit : " Beyond the gates of Jerusalem." 
 Verses 20-23. 
 
 Verse 23a. Insert the 2nd personal pronoun (feminine). 
 
 Verse 236. " How shalt thou groan ? " — Niph'al of 'anah. 
 Verses 24, 28. 
 
 Verse 24. Omit the (needless) epithets. 
 
 Verse 28. In the M.T. we read : " Is this man, Coniah, 
 a despised and broken vessel ? " The LXX reject 
 the figure, and read : Coniah is despised. Erbt accepts 
 this. Duhm and Giesebrecht, on stylistic grounds, 
 retain 'eceb. Duhm rightly thinks the two participles 
 following each other suspicious, and rejects : Broken. 
 But surely we should retain : Broken, as more in keeping 
 
KINGS AND PROPHETS 189 
 
 with the noun. In this phrase (a broken vessel) we 
 have the prophetic foundation of the Editorial passage 
 (chap, xix, lo). 
 Ch. xxiii, verses 9-12. 
 
 Verse 96. Omit : " As a strong man " ; and " Because of 
 Jaliveh and His holy words." 
 
 Verse 10. The text is corrupt. In the M.T. we read : 
 For the land is full of adulterers ; for because of swear- 
 ing the land moumeth. But these two clauses are 
 variants of one original. They suggest an extravagance 
 alien to the prophet. Perhaps we may read : Ki 
 Mip-pen6hem 'ab'lah ha-'arec. 
 
 Verse 11. "Are utterly profane." The line is defective. 
 Duhm supplies the Infin. absol. 
 Verses 13-14. One is struck, in the M.T., by the reference 
 to the prophets of Samaria, of whom (if there were 
 any) our prophet can have known little ; also by their 
 summary condemnation. So new a theme, if intro- 
 duced at all, must have been more fully dealt with. 
 On the other hand, the (rhetorical) repetition of the 
 formula ; " I have seen," disposed tiie copyist to 
 distinguish, and thus to insert Samaria in verse 13, 
 and Jeruseilem in verse 14. 
 
 In verse 14 " They commit adultery " is evidently a reference 
 to the editorial text of verse 13, and must be rejected 
 %vith it. In 14c, instead of : The inhabitants of 
 Gomorrah, the M.T. reads : Her inhabitants are as 
 Gomorrah. But this was subsequent to the insertion 
 of Jerusalem into the text. 
 
THE TURNING POINT 
 Chapter XXV ^ 
 
 HITHERTO we have had to deal almost exclusively 
 with events confined in their interest to the 
 narrow circle of Jewish politics. At this point the 
 interest widens out, and it becomes necessary to take 
 a more general survey of the situation, as it affected 
 all the East, during the prophet's lifetime. 
 
 (a) And, first of all, we must dwell for a moment 
 on an event of great importance, the Renaissance of 
 Egypt. For long that country had been a mere 
 shadow of her former self, a prey to Ethiopia, on the 
 one hand, and Assyria on the other. But a change 
 had come at last. Psammetichus, the founder of the 
 Saitic dynasty, an Assyrian satrap — though an Eg5^tian 
 by birth — had asserted his independence and been 
 crowned by an old title as Lord of the Two Egypts. 
 The story tells^how, whUe stiU only an adventurer, he 
 had been advised by an oracle that he should sit on 
 the throne of Egypt when a man of brass, from out 
 the sea, should fight for him. Musing on this strange 
 prediction, he invited Ionian and Carian mercenaries, 
 hardy warriors of the Greek race, to land on his shores, 
 and with them swept the field. Having proved the 
 efiiciency of the Greeks on the field, he sought their 
 alliance in commerce as well. Egypt, the most 
 conservative of countries, the Celestial Empire of the 
 Old World, was thrown open, and a revival of all the 
 
 * For chap. xxiv. see page 214, 
 
 180 
 
THE TURNING POINT 191 
 
 peaceful arts was the result. The characteristics of 
 Egyptian sculpture, its massive strength, and vigorous 
 originaUty, yield at this period to "[a gentle and almost 
 feminine tenderness," which students have no diffi- 
 culty in tracing to the Greek element then predominant 
 in the national life.^ This Renaissance of Egypt 
 was rendered possible by the gradual decline of the 
 hitherto dominant power in Asia. But Assyria was 
 still a formidable rival, and Psammetichus prepared for 
 the chastisement he had reason to expect. He made 
 war on the Philistines, conquered Gaza, Ascalon, and 
 Ashdod, the latter after a siege of twenty-nine years, 
 and converted them into a line of defence for his own 
 kingdom. But his success seems to have been doubtful 
 and temporary. Ashdod quickly arose from its ruins ; 
 while we find his immediate successor obliged to recon- 
 quer Gaza. Nor were gther elements of weakness 
 wanting in the New Eg5^t created by the genius of 
 Psammetichus. The mercenaries who had expelled the 
 Ass5T:ian remained to repress domestic troubles. 
 Greek soldiers held the place of honour in the Egyptian 
 army. Greek traders received allotments of land in the 
 richest of Egyptian soil. The seeds of discord were thus 
 sown, the fruit of which it was for other hands to reap. 
 Psammetichus was followed by Necho, a great ruler, 
 who aspired still further to revive the ancient glories of 
 Egypt. Having circumnavigated Africa, he stretched 
 out his hand to recover his empire as far as the Euph- 
 rates. It was at this point (608 B.C.) that Egypt came 
 into coUision with Judah. Relying on the religious 
 enthusiasm which had galvanized Judah into a sem- 
 blance of life, Josiah presumed to interpose ; and paid 
 the penalty on the field of Megiddo. Naturally there 
 are traces of a strong Egyptian party in Jerusalem 
 » See Brugsch's Egypt. 
 
192 THE TURNING POINT 
 
 at this time. It was to Egypt many looked for deliver- 
 ance, during the siege ; and down to Egypt the little 
 band, left after the Fall of the City, turned their steps. 
 Of the later relations of Egypt with Judah something 
 may be said afterwards ^ but these later developments 
 scarcely come within the scope of the student of 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 (6) We turn now to the North. For centuries 
 Assyria had dominated the East. But the old lion was 
 no longer able to hunt his prey, or to make the earth 
 tremble with his roar. Younger and more vigorous 
 nations had gathered round, eager to divide the spoil. 
 We have seen how, as early as the reign of Assur-bani- 
 pal, Psammetichus recovered Egypt ; East of the Tigris 
 Media was in revolt ; to the South, Babylon was in 
 constant unrest. Elam was always an uncertain 
 factor, now submissive, now defiant ; while Westward, 
 toward the Levant, stretched the powerful Lydian 
 kingdom. The Scythian invasion, repressing these 
 restless factors, had only succeeded in delaying the 
 inevitable. Assur-banipal was succeeded by Assur- 
 idil-iti (the Sarakos of Greek history) ; with whom, 
 so far as we can tell, the long list of Assyrian kings 
 came to an end. Those must have been stirring days ; 
 more stirring even than our own. The latest develop- 
 ment in the political world was a Triple Alliance 
 between Media, Lydia, and Babylon, cemented by 
 royal marriages. The King of Media married the 
 daughter of the Lydian King, and gave his daughter 
 as wife to the son of the King of Babylon. This latter 
 marriage between Nebuchadrezzar and Amytis, the 
 Median princess, must have been no mere manage 
 de convenance but an affaire de cosur, if we are to 
 believe the pretty story, told by Herodotus, that it 
 ^ See under chap, xliv. 
 
THE TURNING POINT 193 
 
 was for his Highland Queen that Nebuchadrezzar 
 built those Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were 
 the wonder of the world. The result of this redress 
 of the Balance of Power was the Fall of Nineveh (607 
 B.C.) Nothing in history is more amazing than the 
 sudden and silent collapse of what had been the greatest 
 city of the world. Only Nahum, watching from a 
 distance, celebrates, with grim satisfaction, the venge- 
 ance meted out to the guilty city which had so long 
 oppressed the earth. 
 
 (c) The year 604 B.C., the fourth year of Jehoiakim, 
 was a turning point in the history, not only of Jeremiah, 
 but of the East. Four years earlier, as we have seen, 
 Egypt had been the dominant power in Syria ; dream- 
 ing, under the inspiration of a new and powerful 
 dynasty, of an empire which should reach Northward 
 to the Euphrates. Since then her army had swept 
 all before it, and was still prosecuting one of those 
 protracted campaigns, lasting over years, which were 
 the landmarks of history in those heroic days. But 
 the situation in the North had changed rapidly. 
 The Assyrian empire, overgrown and undermined by 
 success, after repeated efforts to recover itself, had 
 fallen at last, and its vast provinces had been parti- 
 tioned among its enemies. The King of Babylon, 
 Nabopollassar, to whose amazing pertinacity and poli- 
 tical adroitness the altered situation was largely due, 
 was already an old man, and died soon after the suc- 
 cessful issue of his scheme. But his place was taken, 
 by a son, still more gifted, and destined to play one of. 
 the great rdles in universal history. TTie real glory of 
 Nebuchadrezzar was his domestic policy ; the reorgan- 
 ization of an empire after ages of decadence, and the 
 virtual creation of a new city. Yet he is better known 
 in history as a soldier. Even before his father's death, 
 h 1.3 
 
194 THE TURXIXG POINT 
 
 he was practically King of Babylon, leading her armies 
 and inaugurating fresh schemes of distant conquest. 
 Thus it was no longer with Nineveh that EgA-pt had 
 to do, but with a young and aggressive power. In- 
 stead of the feeble protests of age, the energy and 
 insolence of youth were opposed to her. The two 
 armies met at Carchemish, on the Euphrates {604 
 B.C.) ; one laden with spoil and glutted with success, 
 the other spurred on by hope and h\mgr\- for battle. 
 The result could not be doubtful. The remains of the 
 Eg^-ptian army dribbled southwards through the 
 mountain passes of Bashan,^ and Nebuchadrezzar 
 was lord of all S^Tia. Like a flash of hghtning, the 
 news passed through Jerusalem, bringing with it the 
 \\ider outlook and that clearness of conception which 
 marked the prophet's later daj-s. On the people, 
 too, the effect was immediate and lasting. They could 
 no longer make men-j- over the prophet as a bird of 
 e^il omen. Jah^•eh had spoken by him ; and, for good 
 or e\il, they must reckon with him as one of the chief 
 pohtical factors of the day. Under these circmn- 
 stances he determines to address to them a new and 
 emphatic appeal. 
 
 We are already famOiar, to some extent, with the 
 origin and growth of the Book we axe studying, and 
 can realize the nature of the critical problems it presents. 
 In front of it, we ha^•e found a series of oracles of un- 
 doubted authenticity, dehvered by the prophet during 
 the early days of his ministry. Shortly after the date 
 now reached, he received Di^ine directions to commit 
 these to writing, so as to widen and perpetuate their 
 influence. This he did with the help of Baruch, the 
 scribe, as we shall further learn from chap, xxxvi. It 
 
 ' See chap, xlvi, 11. 
 
THE TURNING POINT 195 
 
 would, however, be a great mistake to suppose that 
 the prophet's interest and energy were, even for a 
 time, absorbed in this new literary undertaking. He 
 was always, first and foremost, the preacher. Even 
 while Baruch's pen is busy, the city and the palace 
 are ringing with news of another important utterance 
 from his lips. The record of this, preserved for us in 
 chap. XXV, was apparently appended to the Roll, 
 and, as we shall see, proved decisive of its fate.^ Like 
 the previous oracles, it discovers traces of frequent 
 manipulation, and certainly cannot have left the 
 prophet's lips as it reaches us to-day. Let us see what 
 we can make of it. 
 
 Verses i-8. The first eight verses contain a brief 
 review of the past. One can see at a glance that, 
 brief as it is, it must be still further abbreviated. The 
 double dating of verse i is certainly the result of 
 calculation, and the work of a later hand. Then, in 
 idea and phraseology, verse 3 repeats itself in verse 4 ; 
 as does verse 6 in verse 7. At a glance, too, we can see 
 that verse 5 should follow verse 3, verse 4 breaking the 
 connexion. Throughout the passage there is an evident 
 reduplication of agencies. Divine and human. The 
 history of the passage may be traced thus : First 
 of all, the prophet reviews his ministry, la5mig stress 
 on the call to Repentance (verses 3, 5, 6). At a later 
 period a desire is felt to emphasize the fact that what 
 the prophet had said, Jahveh had said through him ; 
 and this led to the insertion of verses 4 and 7. The 
 needful grammatical alterations were then made, to 
 secure the sequence of the narrative.^ Last of all, 
 the final issue, adequately and impressively stated in 
 verse 7, was anticipated in verse 3, and rehearsed in 
 
 * See on xxxvi, 29. 
 
 * Thus, in verse 6, read 'Eth-Jahve. for 'othi. 
 
196 THE TURNING POINT 
 
 verse 4, with an evident impatience of delay. The 
 passage may be restored thus : 
 
 Verse 3. " From the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of 
 Amos, King of Judah, unto this day, these three and 
 twenty years, the word of Jahveh has come to me ; 
 and I have spoken to you rising early and speaking. 
 (Verse 5) This was the burden of my message, Turn ye 
 now every man from his evil ways, and from the evil 
 of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jahveh hath 
 given to you and to your fathers, from the days of 
 old and in perpetuity. (Verse 6) And go ye not after 
 other gods, to serve them and to worship them, lest 
 ye provoke Jahveh to anger ^ with the work of your 
 hands to your hurt. (Verse 7) Yet ye have not 
 hearkened unto me." 
 
 There is something startling in the brevity with 
 which the results of a quarter of a century of teaching 
 and preaching are thus summed up. If we pass 
 fifty faces rapidly before a camera, what is peculiar 
 to each is rejected, what is common to aU is retained. 
 The resultant impression gives the essential features 
 of the human face. So it is with the mental camera. 
 The various prophetic utterances we have studied, the 
 arguments enforced,^the appeals made, each in turn 
 forgotten, have left behind them a single permanent 
 impression, — ^that of a God infinitely patient, yet 
 inexorably just ; of a Gospel which puts the best within 
 reach of every man, yet conditions all on the response 
 made, and the obedience of faith. " God requires 
 that which is past." The clang of the horse's hoofs, 
 as they carried tidings of a great battle through the 
 heart of the city, stirred not only the dust of her streets, 
 but, like ghosts, the memories of her past ; and brought 
 the people face to face with a direct and solemn issue. 
 1 Driver renders the verb uniformly by Vex^ 
 
THE TURNING POINT 197 
 
 Verses 8-14. The people have rejected the prophet's 
 message, and now they shall hear their doom. In 
 picturesque and suggestive language he indicates the 
 utter desolation coming on the land. No more shall 
 be heard the sound of mirth and gladness. No more, 
 where the fig tree blossoms, shall men whisper their 
 loves and women breathe their vows. No more at 
 evening shall be heard the grinding of the mill stones, 
 in preparation for the evening meal — so sweet a sound 
 to the traveller as he nears his home ; and, should you 
 pass through the deserted streets after sundown, not a 
 candle set in a window shall betray the presence of life 
 within. For seventy years, not Jerusalem only, but the 
 surrounding nations shall serve the King of Babylon. 
 
 The mention of the King of Babylon in verse 9 must, 
 on purely grammatical grounds, be rejected; but I 
 can see no reason to reject it in verse 11. It would 
 be strange if no echo were to reach us here of a name 
 which must have been on everybody's Hps ; if across 
 these pages, so full of contemporary interest and 
 action, no shadow were to fall of that commanding 
 figure which, for half acentury, was to dominate the East. 
 On the other hand, when it is written : " They shall 
 serve the King of Babylon seventy years," we must not 
 twist the prophet's words into a promise of restoration 
 from Babylon when seventy years have passed. A round 
 number is used here, as often, to suggest an indefinitely 
 prolonged period. If we were assured by a voice 
 from Heaven that within a year's time London would 
 be overthrown by an earthquake and lie in ruins for 
 half a century, we should feel no temptation to antici- 
 pate its possible restoration thereafter. For ourselves 
 and for our children, such a sentence would be one of 
 immediate and final doom. No doubt it was so, with 
 the prophet's contemporaries. What he says is, in 
 
198 THE TURNING POINT 
 
 effect, that for two entire generations, till all who heard 
 him speak should sink into the grave, from the old man 
 leaning on his staff to the babe in its cradle, God's 
 heavy judgment should rest on the land. 
 
 Some very difficult verses meet us just here (verses 
 12-14) of which it is enough to say that they bear 
 every trace of a post-Exihc origin, and were inserted 
 at a later period to comfort the exiles when the Fall 
 of Babylon was imminent.^ 
 
 Verses 15-29. The prophet is directed still further 
 to emphasize the nature and extent of the coming 
 judgment. He is to take a cup, full of the wine 
 of the wrath of God, and to make the nations drink. 
 It is scarcely needful to warn the reader at this point, 
 that the prophet's language is figurative, and the whole 
 transaction purely idealistic. The mere suggestion of it 
 is as impressive as the actual performance would have 
 been grotesque, and, indeed, physically impossible. 
 It is only if we bear this in mind that the passage is 
 freed from serious inconsistency. In verse 17, the 
 prophet reports progress : " I took the cup and made 
 them drink." Yet in verse 27, further communications 
 are received which imply that the task is yet to be 
 undertaken : " Thou shalt say unto them. Thus saith 
 Jahveh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Drink ye, indeed, 
 and be drunken, and fall and rise no more, because 
 of the sword that I am sending among you." The 
 contradiction is only apparent. As the prophet con- 
 ceives the pirrpose of Jahveh toward the nations, and 
 the part he is himself to play in it, his faith sees it 
 already accompUshed ; but, as he reflects on it, and 
 perceives all that is impHed in it — the difficulties at- 
 tending it, and the objections that are sure to be raised, 
 1 See Critical Note at end of chapter, verses 15-29. 
 
THE TURNING POINT 199 
 
 the whole question is re-opened in his mind. How 
 shall he state it so as to make plain, at once, the 
 severity and the justice of the judgment that is to 
 come ? The answer is given in verses 28-29. 
 
 The following list of the Nations on which the judg- 
 ment is to fall, may not have escaped the pen of " the 
 ready writer " ; but we cannot regard it as other than 
 substantially authentic. The prophet begins with his 
 own people and passes at once to Egypt, associating 
 with it " the mingled people," i.e., the foreigners who 
 had settled in it for purposes of trade. ^ The list then 
 proceeds in the usual prophetic order, starting with 
 the neighbouring tribes, the cities of the Philistines, 
 Gaza, Ascalon, and " the remnant of Ashdod." Out- 
 lying Edom, and Moab, and Ammon, follow. Further 
 North, the eye rests on Tyre ; and, Eastward, on 
 the wandering Arab tribes. It is probable that 
 Uz, associated with Egypt in verse 20, should be 
 transposed, and entered with Edom and Moab in 
 verse 21. In Lamentations iv, 2, the Daughter of 
 Edom is described as " dwelling in Uz " ; a phrase 
 which suggests that Edom had lately conquered 
 Uz, so that the two would naturally be linked 
 together in this catalogue of the Nations." The 
 -phrase which recurs so often, "All the kings," is 
 a vague expression, betraying the hand of one who 
 lived long after the period with which he is dealing. It 
 is doubtful whether verses 25 and 26 may be retained 
 as belonging, entirely or in part, to the original oracle, 
 or whether they must be rejected. Zimri is unknown ; 
 
 1 It is necessary to distinguish the " mingled people " 
 ('ereb) or Traders in Egypt at this time, from the Saklr or 
 mercenaries (see chap, xlvi, 21). 
 
 " See Fries in Studien u Kritiken, 1854. In the LXX 
 of Job, Uz is located "in the borders of Idumea." 
 
200 THE TURNING POINT 
 
 Elam was notorious for its policy of shift, now yielding 
 to Assyria, now in league with Babylon. The Medes 
 had already reached the zenith of their short-lived 
 empire. There is therefore nothing in verse 25 to 
 compel its rejection. In verse 26, on the other hand, 
 the mention of " the Northern kingdoms " is suspicious. 
 In verse 8 they are cited as the agents and executors 
 of the Divine judgment, and cannot well be its objects 
 at the same time. 
 
 The one thing that is certain is that the close of verse 
 26 ("And the King of Sheshach shall drink after 
 them ") was inserted by a later hand. Sheshach must 
 be accepted as a cypher for Babylon. According to 
 a familiar figure, known as Athbash, the first letter of 
 the alphabet might be represented by the last, and 
 the second by the second last, and so forth. Thus, 
 Babel is read as Sheshach. But it is impossible 
 to believe that Jeremiah would have insinuated an 
 unpalatable and dangerous truth under such a disguise. 
 If he had meant Babylon he would have said so. Here 
 again, as in connexion with verse 12 we must believe 
 that, when the Fall of Babylon was imminent, this entry 
 was added to the list, just as we might add the names 
 of Constantinople and Athens and Rome, thus bringing 
 up to date this Book of Doom. No exemption is made ; 
 no protest allowed. " And it shall be, if they refuse 
 to take the cup from thine hand to drink, that thou 
 shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jahveh of Hosts, Ye 
 shall surely drink." 
 
 The symbolism of the Vision, with its stern and 
 imlovely realism, needs no interpretation. \ For a 
 century Judah and the surrounding nations had been 
 in a state of perpetual ferment. Intoxicated by 
 momentary success, they had staked all on what proved 
 to be a losing game. Jhey had dreamed, each in turn, 
 
THE TURNING POINT 201 
 
 of independence and supremacy ; and now, divided 
 and debauched, they fell an easy prey to the virile 
 and united North. Like Saxon heroes in their dim 
 Valhalla, they had held high revels ; but the wine was 
 drugged. The sword of the conqueror was the magician's 
 wand ; and, like Circe's swine, they must wallow in 
 their own vomit. 
 
 Verses 30-38. What follows consists of various 
 oracles from unknown hands. The style closely 
 resembles that of Jeremiah, but the treatment 
 suggests imitation rather than originality. They are 
 meant to depict the opening and progress of the judg- 
 ment scene as already foretold. 
 
202 THE TURNING POINT 
 
 CRITICAL NOTE ON CHAP. XXV 
 
 Verses 8-14. The distinguished scholar Schwally, as the result 
 of a careful scrutiny of the text, has narrowed the 
 scope of the judgment predicted by the prophet, to 
 Judah alone, omitting all reference to the surroundmg 
 nations. He reads thus : 
 
 Verse 9. " Behold, I will send and take all the famihes of 
 the North, saith Jahveh, and bring them against this 
 land and against the inhabitants thereof; (v. 11) 
 and the whole land shall be waste and a desolation, 
 and they shall serve the nations seventy years." 
 This, of course, simplifies the text and is not without 
 support from the LXX (Kat SouXeuwtn iv rots idvecnv). 
 Giesebrecht, however, has. suggested another explana- 
 tion of the Greek text ; ^'M^ -ll^Jt ; i.e. The famihes 
 of the North (verse 9) shall enslave these nations). 
 It seems improbable that, at a crisis like this, any 
 man, with the outlook of our prophet, should confine 
 his attention to one people, even if that one were his 
 own ; and particularly that, in an oracle, the motif of 
 which is the advance of Nebuchadrezzar, he should 
 content himself any longer with vague predictions of 
 subjection to " the nations." 
 
 Verses 12-14. It is quite evident that these verses were 
 inserted later. In verse 13 every mark of an Editorial 
 hand is found. The phrases hang loosely together. 
 " Crescit eundo." It is an excellent example of a 
 " snowball " sentence. Every scribe, as he copies it, 
 adds to it. With verse 12, verse 14 stands or falls. 
 In verse 13 reference is made to a Book from the hand of 
 Jeremiah which, of course, did not exist when this 
 oracle was uttered. Streane suggests that tlie words 
 may have served as an introduction to the Oracles 
 concerning the Nations, which are embedded here in 
 the Greek version of Jeremiah ; and that, when these 
 were transferred to the position they now hold in the 
 Hebrew (and our English) Bible, at the close of the 
 Book (chaps, xlvi-li), this verse was left, Uke Brown- 
 ing's Sea-jelly,^ to tell " dry sea-beach gazers how it 
 fared, when there was mid-sea and the mighty things " 
 in this now depleted comer. But even if any number 
 of these Oracles of the Nations once found a place in the 
 immediate sequel, still this verse, which refers to them 
 as already written, must have been from a later hand. 
 
 ' See 2~he Death in the Desert. 
 
A TEMPLE ADDRESS 
 Chapter XXVI 
 
 IN chap, xxvi we have a brief summary of a notable 
 appeal made by the prophet, early in the reign 
 of Jehoiakim ; with a more detailed account of its 
 results, and the first conflict between him and the 
 Temple authorities. The chapter is based, no doubt, 
 on the Memorabilia of Baruch, who probably wit- 
 nessed what is here narrated. 
 
 [a) The appeal (verses i-6). The Summary is 
 unfortunately very defective. In verse 2 the prophet 
 is bidden stand in the Temple court and speak " all 
 the words " which Jahveh has commanded him. We 
 are not told what these words were. No doubt the 
 original document contained information on this point 
 which has been omitted here. At the close of verse 
 6 we expect some notice of the circumstances under 
 which the prophet fulfilled this charge ; but, again, 
 we are disappointed. It is true that chap, vii, 1-16, 
 is based on the same original document, and contains 
 a somewhat fuller summary of the prophet's argument ; 
 but even so, our information is of the most meagre 
 kind. What we are sure of is, that the ethical and 
 evangelical factors, never absent from the utterance 
 of a true prophet, were in full force. The heart of 
 grace which hides behind the gloomiest vaticinations 
 shines out here with the warmth of sunlight, tempting 
 the people to return. " It may be they wUl hearken and 
 turn every man from his evil way" (verses). On the 
 
204 A TEMPLE ADDRESS 
 
 other hand, in the absence of true repentance, they are 
 warned that there must be no reliance on the mere 
 externals of worship : " If ye will not hearken, then 
 will I make this house hke Shiloh, and I will make this 
 city a curse to all the nations of the earth " (verse 6). 
 
 (6) The Result. At this point the text becomes 
 fuller and much more vivid. Skilfully his enemies 
 ignore the point of the prophet's appeal, and concen- 
 trate attention on what was undoubtedly the weak 
 point in his armour. Scarcely had he ended when the 
 priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold 
 on him, saying : " Thou shalt surely die ; why hast 
 thou prophesied in Jahveh's name, saying, This 
 house shall be as Shiloh and this city desolate ? " They 
 admit his claim to be a prophet ; but they insinuate 
 that he has abused his commission, speaking treason 
 against Jahveh's city and the Temple, in Jahveh's 
 name. The tumult that ensued brought the Princes 
 from the palace, where no doubt they were engaged 
 in the discharge of public business, on the scene. An 
 informal Tribunal was improvised in the New Gate 
 of the Temple, and the prophet was put on his trial. 
 At this point the narrative is once more disjointed. In 
 verse i6 judgment is given in his favour ; while, in 
 verse 17 ff., the pleading is summarized on which, no 
 doubt, his acquittal was based. The plea urged in 
 his defence was that of Precedent. Some of the older 
 men recalled the bold stand made by Micah in the 
 days of Hezekiah ; how he prophesied that Zion 
 should be ploughed like a field and Jerusalem left in 
 heaps ; and how the King, instead of silencing the 
 fearless monitor, laid his warning to heart and, by 
 prompt repentance, saved the city (verses 18-19). 
 The appKcation to Jeremiah's case was easy. " Then 
 all the princes and all the people said to the priests. 
 
A TEMPLE ADDRESS 205 
 
 This man is not worthy of death, for he hath spoken 
 to us in the name of Jahveh, our God" (verse i6). 
 As a matter of fact, the prophet owed his safety, in the 
 long run, rather to the friendly offices of an individual, 
 than to the judgment of the Court. The people seem 
 to have been overawed, rather than convinced. A 
 tumult ensued, stirred up by the priests, during which 
 the prophet was removed to friendly quarters by 
 Ahikam (verse 24). 
 
 It is interesting to study the various groups as 
 depicted in this lively chapter. The Priests and the 
 Prophets, that is, the Ecclesiastics of the day, are 
 ranged solidly against Jeremiah. Their authority 
 and prestige are at stake ; and they fight for their 
 lives. They are the IrreconcUables. The Laity, as 
 represented by the Princes, are, for the time at least, 
 friendly to the prophet. To them, the whole affair is 
 a question about words ; and they are glad to dismiss 
 it under any decent pretext — Precedent, or otherwise. 
 The people are consistently unstable ; easily excited 
 against the prophet (verse 8), amenable to lawful 
 authority (verse 12), responsive to a manly appeal 
 from the prophet's own lips (verse 16), but re- 
 lapsing, with fatal facility, into the bull-dog showing 
 his teeth (verse 24). Jeremiah himself is worthy of 
 all admiration. He exhibits the most perfect self- 
 control, pleads his commission, urges on the people 
 the necessity for repentance, and is apparently much 
 more anxious -e-about their salvation than about his 
 own. " But as for me, behold, I am in your hands ; 
 do to me as ye think well and fair. Only ye must 
 certainly understand that, if ye kill me, ye will bring 
 innocent blood upon yourselves, and on this city, 
 and on its inhabitants ; for, of a truth, Jahveh hath 
 sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears." 
 
206 A TEMPLE ADDRESS 
 
 The mention, in \ei-5e 20, of Urijah, tiie son of 
 Shemaiah, as one who prophesied against the cit\' and 
 against the land "according to all the words of 
 Jeremiah," deser\es a passing notice. It proves that, if 
 Elijalihad his seven thousand secret \vell-\\ishers, who 
 had not bowed the knee to Baal, Jeremiah, more for- 
 tunate ui this respect, had at least one \\-ho stood openly 
 by his side and confirmed the truth of his message. A 
 momentar\- \\eakness proved fatal to Urijah. Fearing 
 the anger of the King, he tied to Egj-pt. but was fetched 
 thence and paid the penalty- A\ith his life. Jeremiah, 
 on the other hand, inspired fear in othei^s by his own 
 fearlessness, and outhved his enemies. 
 
 Interesting, too, is the mention in \erso 24 of Ahikam, 
 the son of Shaphan, as the patron and protector of 
 the prophet. Shaphan, the father of Ahikam. held 
 high office under Josiah, and introduced to the notice of 
 the young king the new Torah, or Law, as discovered in 
 the Temple.^ To Ahikam, witli others, was entrusted 
 tlie duty of further inquiries, and the inauguration of 
 ecclesiastic.d Reforms.* The fact that he is here found 
 in close and friendh' relation with Jeremiah, is one 
 of many incidental proofs of the attitude assimred by 
 tlie latter to the Deuteronomic mo\-ement. Gemariah, 
 a brother of Ahikam, plays an equalK- friendly part, 
 at a somewhat later stage in the prophet's life. Still 
 another brother, Elasah, is honourably mentioned in 
 connexion with a royal Embassy to Babylon in cliap, 
 x.xi.x. Credaliah, the son of Ahikam, is the one heroic 
 figure which stands, side by side with our prophet, 
 amid the gloom of the last days ; and to him, in that 
 great crisis, Jeremiah, owed liis liberty, if not his life. 
 Such is the record of a noble famih- whicli, for three 
 successive generations, held high office wthin the 
 * i Kings xxii, 10. i" >' Ivings xxii. 12, 
 
A TEMPLE ADDRESS 207 
 
 State. It is a pity that there should be one exception. 
 Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, is mentioned by Ezekiel 
 as one of those who defiled the Temple court with 
 idolatry.! 
 
 The incident here recorded marks the first crisis 
 in the prophet's life. He had thrown down the 
 gauntlet, and it had been taken up. He might reckon 
 henceforth on determined and organized opposition. 
 There remained only one alternative, victory or death. 
 
 [The New Gate (verse lo). This gate may have been that 
 built by Jotham (2 Kings xv, 35). Apparently (from chap, 
 xxxvi, 10) it led from the upper or inner court of the Temple 
 into the outer Court which included the Public Offices and the 
 Palace, the wall of which ran round the hill at a lower level. 
 
 The Palace stood on the Temple Hill, behind the Temple and 
 on a slightly lower elevation. There was direct communica- 
 tion from one to other.] 
 
 ! Ezekiel viii, it. 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
 Chapters XXVII, XXVIII 
 
 A WIDE gap of eleven years separates chap, xxv 
 from the chapters now before us ; and it is neces- 
 sary briefly to supply the intervening links. After the 
 Battle of Carchemish (604 B.C.) and the rout of the 
 Egyptian army, Syria was overrun by the Chaldeans. 
 For'^three years Jehoiakim paid tribute to their King, 
 but afterwards grew restive and reverted to his original 
 dependence on Egypt. As a consequence, Nebuchad- 
 rezzar sent " bands of the Chaldeans against him," ^ 
 and stirred up the Moabites and Ammonites who were 
 not unwilling to score against an ancient rival, even at 
 the risk of playinginto the hands of a common foe. The 
 last days of Jehoiakim must have been full of sore 
 travail. In his eleventh year the Chaldean King took 
 the field against him, and the end came quickly. 
 Jehoiakim was succeeded by Jehoiachin, who held the 
 throne for three months, and was then deported to 
 Babylon, with the flower of his nobility and the treasures 
 of his city. The last king of the House of David was 
 Zedekiah. For four years he was subject to Babylon ; 
 then the same old story of intrigue and defection began 
 again," plunging the city into a fatal conflict with the 
 Chaldeans. 
 
 The fourth year of Zedekiah was nearly as memorable 
 as the fourth year of J ehoiakim . Embassies had already 
 been passing to and from Babylon, no doubt to do 
 homage to the great King. In this year (if we may 
 
 ' a Kings xxLv, 2. 
 ssoa 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 209 
 
 trust a note appended to chap. 11),^ Zedekiah himself 
 made the long journey, for reasons which may be 
 conjectured later on. It must have been a strange 
 experience for this scion of the House of David, to 
 find himself in the spacious streets of the great city, 
 with its temples and towers, its network of canals and 
 its wide spreading cornfields around ; Jewish majesty, 
 wholly eclipsed by the splendour "of a heathen capital. 
 Meantime Jerusalem itself had been the scene of un- 
 wonted activity. It is evidence of the severity of the 
 Chaldean yoke, that the very tribes which, ten years 
 before, had been intensely hostile to Judah, were eager 
 now, la5dng aside aU differences, to unite in a determined 
 effort, to recover their freedom. Edom, too, burying an 
 ancient feud, joined in ; while Tyre, forgetting the pride 
 of her wealth, made common cause with her humbler 
 neighbours. The geographical position of Judah, as 
 the central point of Syria and the objective of any 
 advance on the part of the Chaldean army, made it 
 of importance to secure the adhesion of Zedekiah ; 
 and, no doubt, it was with this aim that an International 
 Congress was held in Jerusalem, in the spring of 593 B.C. 
 Kgypt, indeed, was not represented ; but the assurance 
 that she was at their back, more deeply pledged than 
 any of them to resistance and revolt, lent weight to their 
 deliberations. It was at this point that Jeremiah, 
 hitherto a silent but observant spectator, struck in. 
 With the grim humour which he could affect on occa- 
 sion, he appeared in the streets of the city and at the 
 doors of the Council room, wearing a yoke such as oxen 
 plough with. Any disposition to treat his action as 
 an unmannerly jest, must have been checked by the 
 emphasis and evident earnestness with which he 
 interpreted it. What, in effect, he said, was this. 
 
 1 Chap. li. vv. 59-64. 
 J. 14 
 
210 AN INTERNATIONAL CONGEESS 
 
 " Jahveh is Lord of all. He has appointed Nebuchad- 
 rezzar as his vicegerent over the nations. In the 
 present political situation of Syria, the Chaldean 
 supremacy must be regarded as a merciful dispensa- 
 tion. The one strong power in the East, Babylon can 
 offer the blessings of a permanent and peaceful rule 
 to others, torn by internal dissensions. In submission, 
 there is hope ; in resistance, there is none. The nations 
 that will not serve Nebuchadrezzar, shall perish ; the 
 nation that will bend its neck and accept the yoke, 
 shaU live." 
 
 [Duhm thinks that the prophet's message was as follows : 
 So shall all the nations bear the yoke of the King of Babylon. 
 Erbt sums it up thus : Thus saith Jahveh, God of Israel, Put 
 your necks under, and serve the King of Babylon. It is, of 
 course, impossible to say just how far the Editor has retained 
 the ipsissima verba of the prophet ; how far he has amplified.] 
 
 With what feelings this manifesto was received, what 
 answer or no-answer was returned to it, we are not told. 
 The result of this intervention, of this application of 
 moral dynamite, is certain enough — a whole Congress 
 blown into thin air ; Excellencies filing out of the city 
 gates into dim distance, some of them to reappear six 
 years later, no longer as ambassadors of peace. ^ It 
 may have been to cover these treasonable proceedings 
 that, as we have seen, Zedekiah travelled to Baylon, 
 and paid homage to the Babylonian king. 
 
 Having dismissed the representatives of Foreign 
 Powers, the prophet turns to his own people. Of 
 Zedekiah, the King, we shall have more to say by and 
 by ; a well-meaning but weak man, not indisposed 
 to a religious view of life, but under the heel of the 
 disorderly and ungodly crew that now ruled within 
 the city. Toward him, Jeremiah's attitude is con- 
 ' Cf. Obad., verse ii. 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 211 
 
 sistently that of patient strength, as of one who would 
 fain save him from his evil surroundings (verses 
 12-15). It is not really with the King, but with the 
 priests and prophets who control him, that Jeremiah 
 has to deal. These men, still confident in the results 
 of their political machinations, were feeding the people 
 with vain hopes. They assured them, that there was 
 nothing to fear from Babylon. The tide of, Jewish 
 fortunes had already reached its lowest ebb ; very soon, 
 on a flowing tide, the spoil which had been sucked 
 through the gates of the city and swept away to Babylon 
 would be restored. " The vessels of the Lord's House 
 shall now shortly be brought back from Babylon." 
 The prophet's reply is extremely caustic. He makes 
 no attempt to refute their inveterate optimism. He 
 merely suggests that, if they are true prophets and have 
 the mind of Jahveh in what they say, then, instead of 
 painting bright pictures of the future, they ought to 
 bend their energies to the present emergency, so as at 
 least to stay the progress of the conquering Power. 
 " Let them intercede with Jahveh, that no more of the 
 sacred vessels be carried away." In other words, as 
 against their prophecies of speedy restoration, he places 
 his own, of the city's final doom. 
 
 Chap, xxviii. Such direct and emphatic contradiction 
 of popular religious ideas, could not be allowed to pass 
 unchallenged by the prophets. The champion of his 
 Order was Hananiah, a man with as bold a front and 
 as stately a style as Jeremiah himself could affect, and 
 with a message much more congenial to the popular 
 taste. " And it came to pass that Hananiah, the son of 
 Azzur, the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake to Jere- 
 miah 1 in Jahveh's House, in the presence of the priests 
 
 * So we must read, instead of the present text (" unto me "). 
 Cf. verse 5, 
 
212 AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
 
 and of all the people, saying : Thus saith Jahveh of 
 Hosts,' the God of Israel, I have broken the yoke of the 
 King of Babylon. Within two years will I bring back 
 to this place all the vessels of Jahveh's house which 
 Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, took away from 
 this place and carried them to Babylon ; and Jeconiah, 
 the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, and all the exiles 
 of Judah that went to Babylon, will I bring back to 
 this place, saith Jahveh. For I will break the yoke 
 of the King of Babylon." 
 
 A notable advance is made here in the definiteness 
 of the prophecy (" Within two years'/' ), and the extent 
 of the promise {" I will bring again Jeconiah, and all 
 the exiles of Judah"). Hearken, Jeremiah, thou 
 son of Hilkiah, thus speaks the man who loves his 
 country, and in whom the spirit of Jahveh dwells ! 
 Jeremiah's answer is prompt and emphatic. " Amen, 
 so be it ! But is it certainly so ? Others have pro- 
 phesied before me and thee, men inspired by the spirit 
 of Jahveh. If they spoke of peace, it was not like 
 thee, with jaunty air, but with a wise reserve, appealing 
 to the judgment of the Future. Art thou then so 
 sure ? " (verses 5-9). But Hananiah is troubled with 
 no doubts. Taking the yoke from Jeremiah's neck, he 
 breaks it in pieces, saying : Thus shall be broken the 
 yoke of the Chaldeans. Jahveh's people shall be free 
 (verse 10). 
 
 It is not difficult to understand Jeremiah's attitude 
 toward Hananiah. When he said, " Amen, so be it," 
 there was no irony in his tone. It was the Amen of 
 his whole soul. It was no Hght thing to denounce 
 ruin on the land of his fathers and the home of his 
 birth. Had he not prayed for this people, and pro- 
 tested on their behalf ? And now, confronted by one 
 who claimed an equal inspiration, and possessed an 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 213 
 
 assurance that he himself could not always boast, must 
 he not falter ? Clearly we may admit that Jeremiah 
 was not less inspired, because he was conscious of 
 his own limits. He was not less true to J ahveh, because 
 he doubted sometimes of himself. He was one in whom 
 the spirit of St. Paul was already stirring, " willing to 
 be accursed from God for his people's sake whom he 
 loved." How gladly would he be proved to be in 
 the wrong : and yet could that be ? " J ahveh is 
 righteous. That is the fundamental idea, the axiom 
 of prophecy in Israel. Can He then ignore facts ? 
 Can he spare the city, being still impenitent ? Can 
 He confirm a people in its evil ways, by an exercise of 
 unconditioned mercy ? Who can by searching find 
 out God ? All things are possible ! " So, we fancy 
 the prophet reasoning within himself, as he went his 
 way, silent, troubled, to seek by prayer and meditation 
 that moral certainty which had been shaken, for the 
 moment, by Hananiah's blatant self-assertion. Nor 
 does he seek in vain. That night the word of J ahveh 
 came to him ; as we should say. The truth breaks in 
 on him. Es leuchtet mir ein ! Mercy shown to Judah 
 as she is, would be treason to the eternal principles of 
 Righteousness. Next morning he reappears, his spirit 
 once more invested with its radiant serenity, moving 
 among the people like a star amid a drifting wrack of 
 storm-cloud. " Go and teU Hananiah, Thus saith 
 J ahveh. Thou hast broken the bars of wood, but I will 
 make in their stead bars of iron. For thus saith Jah- 
 veh of Hosts, I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck 
 of all tiiese nations that they may serve Nebuchadrez- 
 zar, King of Babylon, and they shaU serve him. Hear 
 now, Hananiah. Jahveh hath not sent thee, yet thou 
 makest this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus 
 saith Jahveh, Behold I will send thee (no other sending, 
 
214 AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
 
 for thee !) from off the face of the earth. This year 
 shalt thou die, because thou hast spoken treason against 
 Jahveh." 
 
 It is not so easy to understand Hananiah. Some 
 have found in the vehemence of the man, too much 
 protesting, the marks of a bad conscience. ^ Others 
 have discovered in him nothing unworthy a true 
 servant of God, a good but narrow-minded man, sincere 
 if mistaken. 2 We may safely grant that he was not 
 consciously a deceiver. If he was, others, who sided 
 with him, were not. It is more doubtful whether he 
 had any deep conviction or spiritual experience, such 
 as entitled him to speak thus in the name of God. 
 Perhaps he was one of those of whom our Lord uttered 
 those enigmatic words : " If ye were blind, ye should 
 have no sin ; but now ye say, we see, therefore your 
 sin remaineth." With characteristic acumen. Dr. 
 A. B. Davidson notes that the Old Testament never 
 speaks of False Prophets, but only of men " who pro- 
 phesied falsely." Men like Hananiah represented the 
 Past. Theirs was a crude and naturalistic conception 
 of Religious Truth, already outgrown by the higher 
 spirits of the age. They believed in Jahveh as the 
 National Deity, bound up with the fortunes of the 
 people. It was natural for them to assume an opti- 
 mistic tone, to assert that all was well, till others, and 
 perhaps they themselves, beUeved it. It was the irony 
 of fate that these men, being true to the Past, proved 
 false to the Present ; that, clinging to the outer form 
 of things, they missed that spirit of freedom and pro- 
 gress which is the essence of true prophecy. Men like 
 Jeremiah, on the other hand, believed in Jahveh, first 
 of all, as an ethical force. They despaired of things 
 as they were, but they never lost heart or hope for the 
 
 '■ So Giesebrecht. * So Bennett (Expositor's Bible). 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 215 
 
 Future. What seemed their pessimism, was the ex- 
 pression of a vital, but undeveloped, Faith. This 
 scanty justice let us do to Hananiah ; he knew when 
 he was beaten. Face to face, not with hesitancy and 
 suppositions, but with a great moral certainty fearlessly 
 applied, he, in his turn, is silent and goes his way. Not 
 yet stone blind ; with yet some poor receptivity for 
 spiritual truth ; beyond redemption as a prophet, he 
 was not yet beyond hope as a man. 
 
 The incident just reviewed raises two questions ; one 
 speculative, the other practical. 
 
 {a) First of all, as to Jeremiah's attitude towards 
 his country. It is quite evident that, to the great 
 majority, to men with no spiritual insight and Uttle 
 outlook on life, Jeremiah, with such a message as he 
 bore, must have seemed no better than the ill bird that 
 fouls its own nest — a traitor to his country. It is 
 quite as evident that others, who knew better, but no 
 less disHked his uncompromising fidelity, found in it 
 an easy handle by which to hold him up to scorn and 
 hate. Nor has he wholly escaped the censure of later 
 days. Reviewing his career in the light of its issues, 
 some have denounced his conduct as unpatriotic, and 
 therefor^ immoral. Now it may fairly be urged that 
 a quarter of a century spent in service disinterested 
 and ungrudging, should absolve him from such a charge. 
 It may further be urged, that his bearing at this crisis, 
 the evident sincerity of his tone, the way in which he 
 sides with Hananiah against himself (" Amen, so be 
 it ! ") is such as no political adventurer, no charlatan, 
 would naturally assume. Kuenen's remarks are worth 
 quoting : " The man whose toil and zeal for the true 
 good of his people never flagged throughout his life, 
 and who, at last, esteemed a share in his people's 
 
216 AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
 
 reproach more highly than the treasures of Nebuchad- 
 rezzar and the luxury of the Chaldean court, this man 
 was not wanting in love of his people." But for his full 
 defence, we must go deeper. We must distinguish 
 between the shallow, seeming Patriotism which consists 
 in " crying up" one's own country, whatever she is, 
 and " seeing her through " an emergency, however 
 false and foolish the position she has assumed, and that 
 real Patriotism which dreads no temporary eclipse of 
 fortune so much as a permanent loss of moral force 
 and fair fame. Mazzini, in a stirring address to the 
 Italians of his day, reminds them that a country is not 
 a mere zone of territory, but the idea to which it gives 
 birth — an idea implying not only Brotherhood and 
 Progress, but sacrifice of the material and accidental, 
 of the mere form, for the essential and ideal good. As 
 a matter of fact the State (in this respect like the Church) 
 is of secondary importance. It exists for the more 
 perfect development of the individual. Whenever so- 
 cial restraints threaten to repress the freedom of the 
 spirit, we are face to face with Revolution — Peasants' 
 Wars and Reign of Terror. Old forms, no longer ade- 
 quate to man's growing needs, perish, and a new age 
 of higher ideals sets in. The ideal State, as conceived 
 by the individual, is always in advance of the actual 
 State ; and on the interval between them, depends 
 the intensity of the conflict, and the rate of the progress 
 made. No man ever loved Italy as Dante did — but 
 it was Italy as he himself conceived her, enHghtened 
 and free. Through an Italy rent by strife and ruled 
 by passion, he was content to move, sadly and proudly, 
 as an exile. No man ever loved the Church as Luther 
 did— but it was the Church that could offer peace of 
 conscience and purity of heart to sinful men. Of 
 these he found nothing, but only abstract truths and 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 217 
 
 empty forms, in the Church of Rome ; from which, 
 therefore, he broke away, the arch-heretic of his day. 
 To-day, the Italy of his dreams reveres the one, as 
 EvangeUcal Christendom reveres the other. It is a 
 cheap and easy way of discrediting a political rival, 
 to brand him as " unpatriotic." There is always a 
 presumption against those who raise such a cry. Every 
 man whose patriotism is not shallow and spurious must, 
 at times, recognize his country's faults, and do homage 
 to the heroism and piety which seeks not to cover, but 
 to amend them. 
 
 Jeremiah was the first of the Martyrs of Progress ; 
 Posterity has amply vindicated his fame. 
 
 (b) " Thus saith Jahveh, Thou hast broken the 
 bars of wood, but I have made them bars of iron." 
 In giving Judah over to the King of Babylon, Jahveh's 
 purpose was to chasten them for their sin, and so to 
 draw them back to Himself. Heavy as were the 
 calamities which had overtaken them, much might 
 yet have been saved from the wreck of their fortunes, 
 e.g. national existence, and, in the end, even national 
 independence. But in resisting the decree of Heaven, 
 and provoking the anger of a conquering race, they 
 brought on themselves a judgment incomparably more 
 severe, the ruin of their city and the extinction of their 
 national life. They had broken the yoke of wood and 
 it was replaced by a yoke of iron. It is ever so. In 
 resisting discipline, we invite chastisement. In re- 
 sisting chastisement, we invite judgment. In resisting 
 judgment, we invite doom. 
 
 It is according to a gracious Providence, that our 
 early years are spent amid the gentle restraints of 
 home life. Where else is so kindly an eye turned on 
 us, such generous allowance made for our infirmities, 
 such care taken to temper severity with mercy, that 
 
218 AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
 
 we may grow better by what we suffer ? Yet, im- 
 patient of these silken cords, we appeal from the narrow 
 circle of home life to the World, with its wider scope 
 and higher standards. Alas, the World makes no 
 allowance for circumstances, never accepts good in- 
 tentions for hard cash, never stays her steps to cheer 
 the fainting or to raise the fallen from her path. We 
 have broken the yoke of wood, and must bear the yoke 
 of iron ! Every man has a conscience of which, with 
 curious irony. Bishop Butler has said : Had it might, 
 as it has right, had it power as it has manifest authority, 
 it would govern the world. It is easy to resist the 
 lofty but ideal sway of conscience, to stifle the still 
 small voice. Is not conscience something of which 
 a man should be ashamed — childish scruples surviving 
 into maturer years ? We appeal from conscience to 
 the unrestrained freedom of Nature. But Nature 
 proves inexorably moral at heart ; physical suffering 
 pursues wrong-doing. The still small voice has been 
 silenced, and now the heavy hand of Necessity is laid 
 on us. We have broken the yoke of wood and must 
 bear the yoke of iron ! Even when the restraints of 
 home and the voice of conscience are escaped, we have 
 still to reckon with the Holy Spirit, mightily convinc- 
 ing us of sin and warning us of judgment to come. 
 No one who has seen a strong man under deep convic- 
 tion, bowed down under a sense of sin, will easily forget 
 it. And yet how gentle is God's Spirit, leading us by 
 repentance into a richer and fuUer life. It is possible 
 to quench the Spirit, to resist conviction, to sin away 
 the day of grace ; and then, profound and impenetrable 
 as of death, is the silence that falls upon the soul. 
 " Ephraim is joined to his idols ; let him alone." We 
 have broken the yoke of wood, and must bear the yoke 
 of iron ! 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 219 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAPS. XXVII. and XXVIII. 
 
 Throughout chap, xxvii there are evident traces of original 
 documents (see verses 2 and 12) ; on the other hand the Edito- 
 rial hand is evident (a) in the inaccurate heading, and (6) the 
 later forms of such names as Jeremiah and Nebuchadrezzar. 
 The process of re-casting has been imperfectly carried through. 
 Theversion of the LXX is simpler and more forcible. Professor 
 W. R. Smith (in his Jewish Church) gives it the preference 
 throughout. At points, on the other hand, there seem to be 
 indications of a fuller text as represented by the M.T. 
 
 Verse i. The reading is erroneous. Jehoiakim's name 
 has been inserted instead of Zedekiah's (verse 12). 
 In an amended, but stiU erroneous, form the heading 
 reappears in chap, xxviii i. The original heading 
 of the whole section may still be recovered from xxviii 
 I : "In the fourth year, in the fifth month (i.e. of 
 Zedekiah.") 
 Verse 2. " Bands and yokes." We should read : Bands 
 and bars, i.e. a yoke. Motah may be used in the 
 plural of the upper and lower bars, or in the singular 
 (part for whole) of the whole yoke (xxviii, 10). This 
 indifferent usage led to the misleading translation of 
 our A.V. The meaning is not that the prophet made 
 a number of yokes and forwarded them to high con- 
 tracting Powers ; but that he sent a formal message 
 enforced by a reference to the yoke he himself wore. 
 Verse 6. Nebuchadnezzar. In chaps, xxvii, xxviii., 
 xxxiv and xxxix, this later form of the name occurs. 
 Nabu-Kuduri-uzur, i.e, O Nebo, defend the land mark. 
 " My servant." The LXX have found the word in 
 their text, though they render it differently. It 
 represents correctly enough the prophetic estimate 
 of the brilliant career just opening. Cf. " Cyrus, 
 mine anointed," in Isa. xl, 66. 
 Verse 7 is wholly absent from the LXX. Verse 8 is mani- 
 festly corrupt. It should read : And it shall come to 
 pass that the nation that will not serve him and (his 
 Son), that will not put their neck, etc. But even this 
 is an attempt to confirm verse 7 in its place in the 
 text by a reference to it in verse 8. The LXX read 
 
220 AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
 
 verse 8 thus : And it shall come to pass that the nation 
 that will not put their neck under the yoke of the King 
 of Babylon, I will visit them, etc. 
 
 Verses 13, 14 are omitted in the LXX, except the close 
 of verse 1 4 : For they speak a lie unto you . W. R. Smith 
 attaches oratorical value to the emphatic pronoun. 
 They. He imagines the words " accompanied by a 
 gesture, pointing to the false prophets." This seems 
 to leave too much to the reader's imagination. 
 
 Verse 16. " Now shortly."' Omitted in the LXX. On 
 this, W. R. Smith remarks : It does not require these 
 words to prove the prophets to have been false. For, 
 taken ^vith the context, they plainly meant to say that 
 the alliance should defeat Nebuchadrezzar and recover 
 the spoil." (Jewish Church, p. 118.) Butcf. xxviii, 3. 
 
A LETTER TO BABYLON 
 Chapters XXIV and XXIX 
 
 AFTER a brief reign of three months, Jehoiachin 
 was carried captive to Babylon. With him 
 went the Queen-Mother, the nobles and all the skilled 
 workmen, smiths and wrights, leaving only the scum 
 of the people to infest the streets of the capital. We 
 shall have occasion in subsequent chapters, to note 
 the altered relations between the prophet and those 
 nouveaux hommes, who usurped the place of the old 
 aristocracy, men with no religion, and with no self- 
 restraint. For a time it seemed as if the interest of 
 life, for the prophet, lay not in Jerusalem, but in 
 Babylon. The kernel of the nation was there. There, 
 if anywhere, might yet be found the stuff with which 
 Jahveh might work deliverance for His people. This 
 feeling, which no doubt was only temporary, explains 
 the chapters we have now to consider. 
 
 In chap, xxiv, we have the record of a vision which 
 came to the prophet early in the reign of Zedekiah. 
 In form, it recalls chap, i ; in substance, it is evidently 
 based on Amos' vision of the basket of summer fruits. 
 The prophet sees two baskets of figs, the free-will 
 offering, we may suppose, of two countrymen, placed 
 before the Temple of Jahveh. The figs in the one 
 basket were good, the first ripe figs, tender and juicy ; 
 those in the other were naughty, i.e. nasty, mildewed 
 and uneatable. In the former, the prophet sees the 
 
222 A LETTER TO BABYLON 
 
 exiles in Babylon ; in the latter, the rump of the nation 
 left in Jerusalem. 
 
 [The first part of the chapter is, no doubt, based on some 
 entry in the MemorabiUa ; toward the close, the Editorial 
 hand is manifest. Duhm finds here " an historical puzzle," 
 which he confesses himself unable to solve. But the difficulty 
 is largely of his own creation, and the solution he proposes 
 seems, on the face of it, unsatisfactory. The racial distinc- 
 tions, so acutely emphasized at a later date, between the Jews 
 who returned from Babylon and those who never left the Holy 
 Land, but intermingled in marriage with the Samaritans, and 
 degenerated there, could scarcely be supposed to find an 
 historic basis in the distinction between those Jews who went 
 to Babylon under Jehoiakim, and those who went to Babylon, 
 ten years later, under Zedekiah. It is more probable that the 
 chapter was meant to indicate the moral difference between 
 those Jews who returned from Babylon and the great majority 
 who preferred to remain there ; the former being identified, 
 perhaps on good grounds, with the descendants of the first 
 Captivity and the latter with those of the second. 
 
 Erbt believes that the chapter belongs to the last period 
 of our prophet's career, when he was in Egypt. But a com- 
 parison of this chapter with chap, xliv is not favourable to 
 this view.] 
 
 It was to the exiles in Babylon that Jeremiah wrote 
 the letter preserved for us in chap. xxix. A careful 
 perusal of it, discovers the fact that the text has under- 
 gone important modifications in the process of trans- 
 mission. The heading (verses 1-3) has been added. 
 Verses 8-9 have been inserted, in anticipation of 
 Verses 20-23. In verse 10, reference is made to " a 
 good word of Jahveh" (see chap. xxiv. 6), with which 
 the exiles cannot possibly have been familiar when this 
 letter was written. Verse 15 connects, not with verse 
 16, but with verse 21. The intervening verses refer 
 not to the exiles, but to the people in Jerusalem ; and 
 the directness and emphasis with which they treat 
 
A LETTER TO BABYLON 223 
 
 of domestic affairs, suggest that the letter has been 
 edited for circulation there. Verses 20-23 contain 
 notes concerning two false prophets in Babylon, and 
 the judgment to come on them. Finally, in verses 
 24-32 we have information as to the reception of the 
 letter and a correspondence which ensued. If this 
 analysis of the text is accepted, the letter originally 
 ran thus : 
 
 Verse 4. " Thus saith Jahveh of Hosts, the God 
 of Israel, unto all the Captivity which I have carried 
 away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. (5) Build 
 ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and 
 eat the fruit of them. (6) Take ye wives, and beget 
 sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, 
 and give your daughters to husbands, that they may 
 bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and be 
 not diminished. (7) And seek the welfare of the city, 
 whither I have carried you captive, and pray for it 
 to Jahveh, for in the prosperity of the city ye shall 
 prosper. (11) For I know the thoughts that I think 
 about you, saith Jahveh, thoughts of peace and not 
 of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And ye shall 
 caU on Me and go and pray to Me, and I will hearken 
 to you. (12) And ye shall seek Me and find Me, when 
 ye shall seek Me with all your heart. And I shall 
 be fotmd of you,^ saith Jahveh." 
 
 A perusal of this chapter, with a reference to the 
 prophecy of Ezekiel, enables us to form an idea of the 
 circumstances of these exiles in Babylon. They 
 lived apart, forming a separate community, and main- 
 taining, as far as it was possible, their national institu- 
 tions. They still had among them the shadow of 
 royalty, in the person of the deposed Jehoiachin. 
 
 1 Or, as Driver renders it : I will let Myself be found of you. 
 So the force of the Niph'al may be conveyed. 
 
224 A LETTER TO BABYLON 
 
 They were governed by their own elders. They could 
 boast of prophets raised up in Babylon, as in Judah. 
 They increased rapidly, not only in numbers, but in 
 wealth ; and counted for something in the politics 
 of Babylon. Meanwhile they followed, with deepest 
 interest, the course of events that transpired in Judah, 
 and expected a speedy return. Of the prophets in 
 Babylon some, like Ezekiel, were heaven-sent ; others, 
 like Ahab and Zedekiah, mentioned here, had quite 
 other origin, and scandalized even the heathen among 
 whom they lived. There is a word-play, a touch of 
 grim humour, in the short, sharp sentence which dis- 
 poses of them (verse 22), " Ahab is the son of Koliah ; 
 he and his companions shall be a curse (Kelala) to 
 their countrymen ; because of their misdeeds Nebu- 
 chadrezzar shall roast them (V'Kalam). The tone 
 throughout is savage ; and one ite glad to feel free to 
 regard the passage as being, like much else in this 
 chapter, non-Jeremian. The impression made by the 
 prophet's letter on the majority of the exiles appears 
 from the closing verses. He seemed to them a " mad 
 fellow," an impostor ; ^ one whose proper place was 
 in the stocks. To this effect Shemaiah wrote to the 
 Temple authorities in Jerusalem. But Zephaniah 
 was not Passhur ; and the prophet escaped a second 
 infliction of the degrading punishment. 
 
 Had we the slightest disposition to regard Jeremiah 
 as a brainsick enthusiast, we should be disabused by 
 a perusal of this letter. No advice could be imagined 
 more sane or more wholesome than that here addressed 
 to his exiled compatriots. He urges them to lay aside 
 all expectation of a speedy return, and to reckon, 
 neither on a speedy reversal of Fortune, nor on a 
 • Note the Hithpa'el ; one who makes himself a prophet. 
 
A LETTER TO BABYLON 225 
 
 miraculous intervention of Providence on their behalf. 
 Let them rather commend their religion to the heathen, 
 by the peaceable fruits of good living, and themselves 
 to Jahveh, by a cheerful submission to His will. An 
 interesting parallel might be drawn between these Jews 
 in Babylon and the primitive Christians of the Diaspora, 
 also Jews, living under the shadow of what seemed to 
 them an impending Second Advent. There was the 
 same tendency to unrest and agitation. New spiritual 
 forces came into conflict with old social relations and 
 ideals, not without temporary dislocation of the machin- 
 ery of life. So Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, 
 bids them " study to be quiet, and to do their business, 
 and to work with their own hands as he had com- 
 manded them." He reminds them that the Lord's 
 Advent may not be so near as they fondly imagine, 
 and closes with the prayer that they may be " directed 
 into the love of God and the patient waiting for Christ." 
 Such a view of the Christian's duty in regard to life, 
 sanctioned by the double authority of the Old and 
 New Testament, deserves our best attention. 
 
 The Church of Christ is still in exile ; and no 
 attempt to fuse the Church and the World, to resolve 
 religion into culture or Humanity, can ever succeed. 
 But the opposite extreme is just as dangerous. There 
 is a tendency to look with indifference, if not with dis- 
 approval, on whatever is not distinctly religious ; as 
 if the line of duty and safety for the Church lay in 
 the direction of aloofness from the world. There are 
 Christians who are much more at home in the study 
 of prophecy than in that of history ; who take a 
 keener interest in deciphering the Number of the 
 Beast than in ridding the. world of a single actual 
 ,evil. In support of such a view of Christian duty, 
 it is easy to plead apostolic example. But, while 
 J. 15 
 
226 A LETTER TO BABYLON 
 
 a special vocation justifies the line of action it requires, 
 it is surely plain that for the great majority of us, 
 who have no special vocation, the path of duty lies 
 in the direction of general principles applicable to 
 all, such as are here enforced. It is not wise, in the 
 enthusiasm of a first love, to frown on innocent pleas- 
 ures and healthful sport as dangerous to Spirituality. 
 It is not wise, in the interests of Sanctity, to impose 
 monastic vows on men and women destined by nature 
 for the married Ufe. It is not wise, because our 
 citizenship is in Heaven, to turn our backs on earth, 
 and leave politics and great social problems for solu- 
 tion to the Devil. It is not wise in the interests 
 either of the Church or of the World. Christianity 
 is the Religion of Reconciliation ; and it is in the 
 reaction of the material on the spiritual, of the secular 
 on the sacred, that the Christian finds himself, and 
 discovers the open secret of the Universe. The mystics 
 speak of life " the Soul's passage through the Vanities 
 of Time into the Treasures of Eternity." ^ The phrase, 
 exquisite as it is, misses the moral meaning of life. 
 " The Kingdom of Heaven is as a man taking his 
 journey into a far country who called his servants 
 and gave them tenpounds and said, Occupy till I come." 
 Not merely as men, but as Christians, we have a stake 
 m the world. Its moral and social conditions interest 
 us profoundly ; and the interest is not less real 
 because it is temporary. It has a direct bearing on 
 the formation of Christian character ; it is the scaffold- 
 ing within which the Temple is reared. The rails 
 of progress always run along the lines of Providence ; 
 and it is at our peril that we leave them. 
 
 Were we, however, to stop at this point, it is easy 
 to see the possible result. Many of the Jews who, 
 ^ See Law's Spirit of Prayer. 
 
A LETTER TO BABYLON 227 
 
 acting on the prophet's advice, threw themselves into 
 the life of the great city, sank into heathendom, so 
 that, when the time came for them to return, they 
 preferred to remain. If it is needful to grasp the 
 right relations of the Church to the World, it is quite 
 as needful to grasp that which is distinctive and 
 essential in religion — the introduction of a Divine 
 and eternal element into Life. " I know my thoughts 
 toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to 
 give you a Future and a Hope." 
 
 A Future and a Hope. The phrase is striking in its 
 intentional vagueness. No attempt is made by the 
 prophet to fill in the outline or define the prospect. 
 In all hope there is something subtle and elastic, 
 something that baffles thought and eludes expression. 
 It is a pervasive atmosphere, at once near and far. 
 It quickens the slumbering instincts in the soul, while 
 it softens the distant horizon of life and history. Jahveh 
 Himself is His people's Hope, and prepares them, by 
 His presence, for the Future, of which He is the pledge. 
 In the same way St. Paul, writing to the Christians 
 of his day, mainly Jews, living in the great Babylon 
 of the West, says : " We are saved by hope," and 
 again : " Hope maketh not ashamed, because the 
 love of God is shed abroad in our hearts." Certainly 
 our aim as Christians is not to narrow down the 
 interests of life, shutting out of it everything that 
 might compete with Religion ; it is rather to introduce 
 Christ, so that everything may find its proper place 
 and value in relation to Him. The premier problem 
 of the Christian life is not one of Proportion, More or 
 Less ; it is one of intuition, how to grasp the Divine 
 in the human, and, by the thought of the Eternal, 
 once for all to do justice to the things of time. 
 
 But must not the introduction of the Eternal dwarf 
 
228 A LETTER TO BABYLON 
 
 the things of time, and so rehabilitate the false spirit- 
 uality we have sought to discredit ? Not necessarily. 
 It is true you cannot build with any effect against the 
 sky ; nor, as Mr. Ruskin says, contend with masonry 
 against a mountain. " It would not be well to buUd 
 pyramids in the valley of Chamounix ; and St. Peter's, 
 among its many other errors, counts for not the least 
 injurious, its position on the slope of an inconsiderable 
 hill." But see how a village nestles in the lap of a 
 mountain, whose summit is lost among the clouds ; 
 while these, in turn, blend softly and quite imper- 
 ceptibly with the sky. Here is neither conflict nor 
 contrast, but concession easy and natural, of less to 
 greater, in which, at every step, it is the less that 
 gains. So it is in life. So long as we set the things 
 of time in sharp contrast to the Eternal, they are 
 bound to suffer ; but when we grasp the thought 
 of history as the Evolution of a Divine Purpose with 
 dim far-reaching and eternal issues, the smallest 
 detail becomes significant. What is needed, to save 
 us from the besetting littleness of Life, is just that 
 which religion gives, a Futureand a Hope. What Back- 
 ground is to a picture, Outlook is to life. 
 
 This conception of Life, according to which the 
 value of the Present depends on its outlook into the 
 Future, receives abundant confirmation in daily life. 
 A child lives intensely in the Present. " Heaven 
 lies about him in his infancy," and the light reflected 
 from the distant hills lends a charm to every simple 
 joy. But as we grow older, the gates of the morning 
 close on us ; narrowing prison walls shut us in. 
 Sometimes it seems a merciful providence that a 
 man's interest in hfe declines with his share in it ; till, 
 as the one touches zero, the other becomes a minus 
 quantity, and he sinks into the grave with scarcely 
 
A LETTER TO BABYLON 229 
 
 a regret. There is just one escape from this process 
 of gradual extinction. Bom of the Spirit, we reahze 
 that we are the children of God. As earth shrinks 
 about us. Eternity unfolds within. With less of 
 the old passionate clinging to life, we come to look on 
 it more kindly, to handle it more reverently, to question 
 it more hopefully. Others may talk despondingly 
 of a decadent age ; to him who has seen God, the 
 future is always bright. What seems failure is only 
 the retreat of the wave, while all the time the tide 
 is rising ; an eddy in the stream, whose current sets, 
 swift and strong, from the heights behind to the great 
 Deep before. God has given him a Future and a Hope. 
 
A HYMN OF PRAISE 
 Chapters XXX-XXXIII 
 
 WE come now to what is perhaps the most inter- 
 esting and important section in the whole book. 
 The chapters before us have been described by Ewald as 
 a Book of Consolation ; but they are more. Full 
 as they are of poetry, patriotism, and reUgious feeling, 
 we may describe them as a great Hymn of Praise, 
 an Anthem of Redemption. No doubt the reader 
 will be disappointed to learn that these beautiful 
 chapters, instead of lying open to the foot of Faith, 
 are shut in by a thorny fence of critical questions, 
 through which he must fight his way, if he will enjoy 
 this Eden of delight ; that each chapter and verse, 
 in turn, must be examined, while we sift the original, 
 and prophetic, from the later. Editorial, matter. He 
 will be further disappointed to learn that considerable 
 diversity of opinion prevails among some of the 
 most competent critics on many of the issues that must 
 be raised. It is only approximately that results can 
 be reached. It may prepare us for a dispassionate 
 and impartial discussion of the questions before us, 
 if we bear the following points in mind. 
 
 {a) Let us consider what it is natural to expect 
 from one in the circumstances in which Jeremiah is 
 supposed to write. A national catastrophe is impend- 
 ing ; the city is already invested by the Chaldeans ; 
 the people are wasted by famine and disease. He 
 
A HYMN OF PRAISE 231 
 
 himself is shut up in a prison, in daily peril of his 
 life. These are not the circumstances in which one 
 expects elaborate and ornate diction, honeyed rhetoric 
 such as we find here. Rather we expect a bare state- 
 ment of simple elementary truths, flashes of thought, 
 jets of feeling, with occasional visions of a brighter 
 future melting away into the surrounding gloom. Now 
 if the critical method, eliminating here and there a 
 purple passage, washing out some of the vivid colour- 
 ing with which these pages glow, leaves us just what 
 we had expected to find, let us do it justice, and own 
 it as the friend of truth. After all, what remains, 
 if less in bulk, less briUiant in colouring, may yet pre- 
 serve all that is essential in these chapters. We sweep 
 away the over-soil, but the rock remains with its 
 veins of precious metal and its springs of living water. 
 (b) Let us further consider that what we may no 
 longer regard as part of the original prophetic text, 
 is not on that account lost to us, nor does it cease 
 to form part of the Sacred Record. What we discover 
 — and surely we lose nothing by admitting it — is, 
 that the ground we are traversing has already been 
 traversed by men and women like ourselves, who 
 have mingled their tears with the pure water of this 
 well of life, and woven the luxuriance of their own 
 religious experience, their doubts and fears, their 
 hopes and triumphs, about this monumental record 
 of an earlier age. From a literary point of view the 
 merit of these insertions may not be great ; but 
 their spiritual value alone concerns us here. We do 
 not reject silver because it is not gold ; nor water, 
 because it is not wine. To some, an echo may convey 
 more than the voice itself. Some may be cheered 
 by the reflection, who might have been blinded if 
 they had faced the sim. There may be some who will 
 
232 A HYMN OF PRAISE 
 
 find in the commonplaces of a later age that familiar 
 tone, that touch of kindness and sympathy, they 
 might have missed in the bolder utterance of an 
 earlier and more heroic age. 
 
THE PRELUDE 
 Chapter XXX 
 
 CHAP. XXX forms the Prelude of the Hymn of 
 Praise ; and, like all preludes, was written after 
 the work it is meant to introduce. It aims at gather- 
 ing up, in an easy tentative way, the various themes 
 which are elaborated, with more of fullness and 
 dramatic intensity, in chaps, xxxi-xxxiii. A few 
 remarks must here sufifice. 
 
 Verses 1-5. The author cannot possibly imagine 
 that he has made a complete collection of the prophet's 
 works.i Probably he claims to have given here a fair 
 statement of the prophet's many-sided message ; and 
 in this, on the whole, he is justified. But evidently 
 it was not anticipated that these chapters should 
 lie alongside of chaps xxv. and xxxvi. Originally 
 the Hymn of Praise was meant to stand alone. 
 The key-note to the whole piece is sifruck at once, 
 viz., the Reunion of the Tribes. For long divided, 
 scattered, alienated, Israel and Judah were again to 
 be one, as the Covenant people ; the memory of earlier 
 and superficial divisions being lost in the sense of a 
 common redemption. Along with the Reunion of the 
 Tribes, goes the Restoration of the Land as the seal 
 and symbol of the Covenant between them and Jahveh. 
 
 Verses 5-7. A brief poetic piece follows, in the 
 familiar Jeremian measure, though not from Jeremiah's 
 hand. 
 
 1 " Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee 
 in a book " (v6rse 3). 
 
 233 
 
234 THE PRELUDE 
 
 Verse 5. We have heard the sound of a tremor. 
 
 Panic, and no peace. 
 Verse 6. Ask, now, among the nations and see. 
 
 Can a male be with child ? 
 Wherefore do I see every man 
 
 With hands on loins ? 
 And why are all faces turned 
 
 To deadly pallor ? 
 Verse 7. Alas, for great is that day. 
 
 Whence any Uke it ? 
 
 :ic ijc * 4: ifE 
 
 Yea, 'tis a time of sore travail for Jacob, 
 But he shall be saved from it. 
 
 The poem describes an age of unrest and confusion. 
 It has been thought that we have here a reflection 
 of the Persian age, on the eve of Xerxes' expedition 
 against Greece. ^ " The gathering of tremendous armies 
 from all the lands for a decisive conflict, may well 
 have struck terror into the hearts of the Jews." That 
 is quite probable, and indeed nearly certain, in the 
 light of later verses. The point is that the features 
 of that later Persian age are reflected on the earlier 
 pre-Exilic age, without much thought of historic truth. 
 For example ; the captivity of the North began a 
 century before that of the South ; yet, as the writer 
 looks back on these great events, through the vista 
 of history, the intervening century disappears, and 
 they seem to coincide, " a day of sore travail for Jacob," 
 i.e., for the whole nation. 
 
 Verses 8-1 1. The passage is a mosaic of quotations. 
 Thus, verse 8 is borrowed from Isaiah x, 27, little pains 
 having been taken to fit it into the context ; hence 
 the perplexing changes from the second to the third 
 person in the verse. From " Hosea comes verse 9. 
 The phrase, " David his King," does not, of course, 
 
 • Schmidt, Encyclopaedia Biblica. 
 
THE PRELUDE 235 
 
 anticipate a resurrection of the founder of his d5masty. 
 The words merely imply one of David's house, and, 
 perhaps, one cast in the same heroic mould. They 
 suggest the age of Zechariah, when hopes of a revival 
 of the monarchy in the person of Zerubbabel were rife. 
 But such language was current at a much later date. 
 Compare Ps. cxxxii, Zech. xii, (which belongs to 
 the Maccabean age), and the popular emeute in our 
 Lord's day, as recorded by St. Matthew xxi, 9. 
 
 Verses 12-17. Another poetic fragment strongly 
 impregnated with Jeremian phrases, but without his 
 directness or originality ; meant to emphasize the 
 fact that the sufferings of the people are the result 
 of their sins. 
 
 Verse 12. Woe is me, for thy ruin is hopeless ; 
 
 Grievous is thy wound. 
 Verse 13. There is no healing for thy sore. 
 
 No soundness in thee. 
 Verse 14. All thy lovers have forgotten thee, ' 
 
 They seek thee not. 
 For I have smitten thee as a foe smiteth, 
 
 And chastised thee cruelly. 
 Verse 15. Yea, for the multitude of the transgressions 
 
 Have I done these things to thee. 
 
 The style has been vitiated by insertions. For 
 example ; in the original, verse 13 reads : " There 
 is none to plead thy cause, there are no medicines 
 for thy sore, there is no plaister for thee." ^ The in- 
 troduction of a judicial phrase (" to plead thy cause ") 
 into the heart of this diagnosis of the moral condition 
 of the people, is quite inappropriate. On the other 
 hcind, in a prose note at the close of verse 17, we find 
 a phrase, a simple artless touch, which as exactly 
 reflects the condition of Jerusalem during the captivity, 
 
 * See Driver's translation. 
 
236 THE PRELUDE 
 
 and for long after it, as it is inappropriate to the pre- 
 Exilic age when Jerusalem was a bone of contention 
 to her neighbours, and the theatre, as we have seen, 
 of a great international struggle : " They have called 
 thee Zion whom no man seeketh after." 
 
 Verses 18-22. This is undoubtedly the most im- 
 portant fragment of the chapter. It consists of three 
 stanzas of-four lines, each with three accented syllables ; 
 and a brief addition in prose. 
 
 Verse 18. See, I will restore Jacob's captivity. 
 
 And have compassion on his dwelling places. 
 And the city shall be builded on her site, 
 And the palace duly tenanted. 
 
 Verse 19. And merry voices shall sound from out them. 
 I will multiply, and not 'minish them. 
 I will honour them, nor lay them low. 
 And I will visit all her oppressors. 
 
 Verse 20. And their sons shall be as of old. 
 
 And their congregation established before Me. 
 Verse 21. And their leader shall be of their own stock. 
 
 And their ruler hail from their own border. 
 
 The points to be noted are as follows : First, the 
 ecclesiastical constitution of the State, which is now, 
 like Scotland during the Reformation period, a Con- 
 gregation (verse 20). Again, instead of King or 
 Princes, we have leaders and rulers ; ^ and these are 
 no more aUen by birth, but of her own sons. Most 
 important of all is the brief prose addition (verse 21), 
 which indicates that, at the time this chapter was 
 written, Judah was under priestly rule : " I will 
 cause him, i.e. the ruler, to draw near, and he shall 
 approach unto me." The hard and fast line between 
 the civil and ecclesiastical is no more. It was at 
 
 1 Both words occur frequently in Nehemiah, post-Exilic 
 phrases. 
 
THE PRELUDE 237 
 
 his peril, " pawning his life," that a king like Uzziah 
 presumed to invade the Sanctuary. But after the 
 Exile, the civil and secular were combined. Owing 
 to a certain ambiguity as to the reference of the pro- 
 nominal suffixes, the LXX render thus : I will cause 
 them to approach, and they shall draw near to me ; 
 referring the promise to the whole people. The 
 meaning would then be that the theocratic ideal was 
 at last to be realized in a priestly nation. But this 
 is not grammatically defensible. 
 
 The Reunion of the Tribes, the Restoration of the 
 Land, and the Reorganization of the National Life ; 
 such are the leading ideas stirring in the writer's 
 mind. To these we may add a fourth, underlying 
 all the rest, implied rather than expressed here, the 
 re-affirmation of the old and gracious relations between 
 Jahveh and His people which, if not ended, were sus- 
 pended during the exile ; in other words, the Renewal 
 of the Covenant. These four we may regard as the 
 leading motifs in the great Hymn of Praise which we 
 are now to study. 
 
 [Critical note on verse 19, " Thanksgiving and the voice," 
 etc. ; so, in the M.T. But if " Thanksgiving " had belonged 
 to the original text, it must have followed K61 (the voice) . We 
 omit it. The last line of verse 19 may be recovered from verse 
 18. 
 
 Verse 19. " Nor lay them low " ; literally, nor shall they 
 be of small account (see Driver's translation). "I'Vy is used 
 of the younger son, but also in a more general sense (Cf. Psalm 
 cxix, 141 ; andcf. Job xiv, 21) of any one fallen from greatness. 
 
THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 
 
 ChapterXXXI, 1-26 
 
 A SINGLE verse of prose serves as a link between 
 the Prelude and the first Movement of the 
 Hymn of Praise, of which the theme is the Reunion 
 of the Tribes. " At that time, saith Jahveh, I will 
 be the God of all the famihes of Israel, and they 
 shall be My people." 
 
 Graf and Ewald believe that in chap, xxxi we have 
 one of the earhest utterances of Jeremiah, and compare 
 it, in matter and form, with chap. iii. The correspond- 
 ence is striking, but not less so is the difference. In 
 his early years the prophet addressed himself to the 
 North with a gospel of forgiveness which was definitely 
 conditioned, while his whole soul was thrown rather 
 into the caU to Repentance than into the promise of 
 Restoration. We recognize in him at that time a 
 practical Reformer, dealing with hard facts, particularly 
 with the stubborn heart of unbelief in Israel, which 
 had proved a persistent and hopeless hindrance to 
 the grace of God. Now he is shut up in his prison, 
 dealing no more as a practical Reformer with an 
 impenitent people, but directly and personally, as a 
 Believer, with the promises of God. The springs of 
 fancy are loosed, and he wanders at will in a dream- 
 land of his own creation. Shadowy forms and sweet 
 childish faces gather round the old man. Voices 
 mingle with his dreams, now tuned to triumph and 
 joyful praise, now low and broken, like a child's voice 
 sobbing out his confession at his father's knee. What 
 
 238 
 
THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 239 
 
 might have been, what must yet be, is realized, and 
 grace reigns over all. 
 
 Verse 2. For this is Jahveh's oracle ; 
 
 I found them in the wilderness — 
 A people reserved from the sword. 
 Up, lead him into rest ! 
 
 Verse 3. From far off Jahveh hath appeared 
 In's kindness to me. 
 Yea, with an ancient love I have loved thee. 
 And therefore drawn thee. 
 
 Verse 4. Again I'll build thee, and thou shalt be built, 
 Oh, Israel's virgin ! 
 With tabrets deck thee, and go forth 
 In dance of merry makers. 
 Verse 5. And yet again thou'lt plant with vines 
 Samaria's hill. 
 The planters plant, they gather grapes, 
 In praise of Jahveh. 
 Verse 6. Comes a day when the watchnien cry 
 On Ephrairn's Mount : 
 Arise, and let's go up to Zion, 
 To Jahveh, our God. 
 
 Jeremiah's conception of the history of the North, 
 is original in the highest degree. What to the historian 
 seemed the punishment of Israel's sin,^ the prophet 
 regards as a merciful dispensation of Providence. 
 The Northern tribes, " reserved from the sword," had 
 escaped the far heavier calamities which fell on Judah, 
 and were now prepared to enter afresh into the Cove- 
 nant Bond. The Divine purpose realizes itself : " Up, 
 lead him into rest." The prophet sees among them 
 the stir of a new departure. A sense of distance 
 oppresses the exile's heart, as he turns toward home. 
 Hope revives, for Jahveh appears ; but it is, as yet, 
 like day-break on distant mountains. To Jahveh, 
 
 '■ See 2 Kings xviii, 6-18. 
 
240 THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 
 
 on the other hand, is neither near nor far. In the 
 greatness of His ancient love, which links the past of 
 the people with their present. He is ever near. They 
 speak of Him as far off ; but, from the depths of their 
 own heart, directly and as one close at hand. He answers 
 them : " Yea, I have loved thee." After such an 
 experience as they had passed through, a sense 
 of uneasiness and uncertainty might naturally infect 
 their religious life ; but permanence is always the mark 
 of a work of grace. Their tenure of the land to which 
 they returned, shall be fixed and undisputed. Accord- 
 ing to Lev. xix, 23, the fruitage of the first three 
 years was considered unclean ; only in the fourth 
 year was it consecrated and rendered fit for food. 
 According to an earlier and simpler code.^ Nature, in 
 her virgin state, is holy ; only under certain conditions 
 and after a certain interval, was it lawful to profane 
 her, i.e. to rob her of her fruits. Our prophet takes 
 the latter view, and in the promise : " The planters 
 plant, and gather grapes (literally, " plant and pro- 
 fane"), he thus ensures to them a quiet and uninter- 
 rupted possession of their land. In verse 6 the 
 Northern tribes are seen going up in pilgrim bands to 
 the capital to keep the yearly feast. They return to 
 the ancient fold and fellowship of the Faith. In the 
 dim morning light, the vyatchman's voice is heard 
 rousing the camp. 
 
 Verses 7-14. In the next piece, also poetic, the 
 measure varies. We have a succession of massive 
 stanzas, each of six lines, with three accented syllables 
 in each line. The outlook widens ; the theme is the 
 return of the exiles. North and South alike, from 
 captivity. The passage is quite in the style of the 
 great post-Exilic prophet, and has been largely influ- 
 ^ Deut. XX, 6, and 28-30. 
 
THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 241 
 
 enced by him. Thus, compare verse 8 with Isa. 
 xlii, i6 ; verse 9 with Isa. xli, 10, Ix, 10, Ixiii, 13 ; 
 verse 10 with Isa. xUx, i, and xl, 11 ; verse 12 with 
 Isa. li, II, and Iviii, 11. In addition to these parallels, 
 the prominence given the priesthood (verse 14), the 
 absence of any reference to the royal House, and 
 the introduction of a distinctly liturgical element (verse 
 7), point in the direction of a post-Exilic origin. The 
 author is unknown ; evidently a diligent student of 
 contemporary literature, and not without powers of 
 sympathetic apprehension and graceful reproduction. 
 
 Verse 7. For this is Jahveh's oracle ; 
 Sing ye with joy for Jacob, 
 And shout for the chief of the nations. 
 Spread the tidings, raise the paean, say : 
 
 Jahveh hath saved His people, 
 
 Even the remnant of Israel. 
 
 Verse 8. Behold, I bring them from the North, 
 
 And gather them from the earth's ends. 
 
 The blind and the lame are with them. 
 
 The child-bearing and travailing together. 
 
 A great company, they shall return 
 
 (And shall seek Jahveh, their God). 
 
 Verse 9. Behold they come with weeping, 
 
 And with supplications will I lead them. 
 I will lead them by the rivers of water, 
 In a straight way where they shall not stumble. 
 For I am to Israel a Father, 
 And Ephraim is my first-born. 
 
 Verse 10. Hear the word of Jahveh, ye nations. 
 
 And publish it afar off 'mong the islands : 
 He that scattered Israel shall gather him, 
 And tend him as a shepherd doth his flock. 
 
 Verse 11. For Jahveh hath redeemed Jacob 
 
 From the hand of one stronger than he. 
 
 Verse 12. They shall come and sing on Zion's heights. 
 And shall flow to the goodness of Jahveh, 
 For corn and wine, and for the oil. 
 J. 16 
 
242 THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 
 
 The yeanlings of the flocks and herds. 
 Their soul is a garden well-watered, 
 Nor shall they languish any more. 
 Verse 13. The virgin, then, shall rejoice in the dance. 
 
 The young men and the ancients shall be glad. 
 
 I will turn their sadness into singing. 
 
 And for mourning I will give them mirth. 
 I'll steep in fat the souls of priests, 
 And satisfy my folk with goodness. 
 
 Verses 15-20. Another Jeremian fragment meets 
 us. Again the outlook narrows ; the interest centres 
 on the North. 
 
 Verse 15. Hearken, a mourning is heard at Ramah, 
 A passion of tears. 
 Rachel, weeping for her children, 
 Refuseth to be comforted. 
 Verse 16. Refrain thy voice from weeping. 
 And thine eyes from tears. 
 Not all in vain shall be thy travail. 
 Verse 17. They'll come again from th' enemy's land. 
 
 Verse 18. Have I not certainly heard 
 
 Ephraim bemoan himself ? 
 " Thou did'st chastise me, and I was chastised. 
 
 As an untamed bullock. 
 Oh, fetch me home, that so I may return ; 
 
 For Thou'rt my God. 
 
 Verse 19. See now, grown wise, I did repent. 
 And smote upon my thigh. 
 I also was ashamed, in bearing 
 My youth's reproach." 
 
 Verse 20. Is Ephraim a darUng son ? 
 
 A precious child ? 
 For, often as I speak against him, 
 
 I yet remember him. 
 So, then. My heart is stirred for him, 
 
 I'll surely pity him. 
 
 More than any other figure in Hebrew history, that 
 of Rachel was honoured and loved. The seven years 
 
THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 243 
 
 during which her sweet face shone down, like a star, 
 on the tent of the lonely herdsman could never be 
 forgotten. Her youth, her beauty, the keenness of her 
 wit, lent her a peculiar charm ; and aU was hallowed 
 by her early death. She died near Bethel at Ephrath.^ 
 Her grave must have been near the road which leads 
 Southward from Bethel, where it is crossed by that 
 which leads Eastward from Ramah to Gibea.^ It 
 was identified so late as the time of the Judges ; 
 and, no doubt, was pointed out in the prophet's day. 
 It is a stately and mournful figure he sees, hovering 
 over that wayside grave — Rachel weeping for her 
 children, renewing the sore travail of which she died, 
 while she waits for their return. Nor does she wait 
 in vain : " They'll come again from th' enemy's land." 
 From Rachel, the mother, the prophet turns in thought 
 to the children, naming Ephraim as leader and repre- 
 sentative of the Northern tribes. The rapid develop- 
 ment of the Northern kingdom had been too early 
 arrested. Hence the prophet regards Ephraim as 
 " bearing the reproach (or penalty) of his youth." 
 Affliction has done its work, and, in imagination, he 
 hears the penitent appeal of the people ; then Jahveh 
 responds. Thus in the very heart of the Old Testa- 
 ment we meet the parable of the Prodigal Son. Pro- 
 phecy and parable alike find their inspiration in the 
 spiritual history of the race, man's experience of 
 God's grace. 
 In the history of Israel the Northern kingdom very 
 
 1 See Genesis xxxv, 19. What follows (" Which is Bethle- 
 hem ") is a later and erroneous insertion. 
 
 " Cf. I Sam. X, 2. What follows in verse 3 (" In the plain 
 of Tabor ") should be read : By the oak of Deborah. Cf. 
 Genesis xxxv, 8. See Graf's paper, in Studien ii Kritiken, 
 1854. 
 
244 THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 
 
 soon reached a point of greatness which Judah never 
 regained after the days of Solomon. Indeed, in point 
 of literature and art, of commerce and empire, there 
 could be no comparison between the two. For a 
 century under the House of Omri, and again through 
 the long and brilliant reign of Jeroboam II, Ephraim 
 was the predominant partner in the national Ufe. 
 Even the strong hold of the House of David on the 
 hearts of the people could not prevail against it. It 
 is probable that in the political forces, the prejudices 
 and presumptions, which centred round this Hegemony 
 of Ephraim, the prophets found the one insuperable 
 barrier in the way of their poUcy of reunion. It was 
 always part of their programme that, when the Spirit 
 was poured out from on high, this barrier should be 
 removed. " Ephraim shall no more vex Judah, nor 
 Judah vex Ephraim." By birth a Benjamite, our 
 prophet belonged to the North, though his working days 
 had been spent in the capital ; and, while on Deutero- 
 nomic grounds, he regards Jerusalem as the religious 
 centre of the nation, he willingly accords to Ephraim a 
 premier place not only in the councils of the nation 
 but in the Covenant of their God. How infectious 
 this wise and generous spirit proved, we may see 
 from an echo and confirmation of the prophet's ideal in a 
 poem, already studied, by an Exihc poet : " Ephraim is 
 my first-bom" (verse 9). 
 
 It is not needful to ask whether, or how far, this 
 programme was actually carried through in Jewish 
 history. The spirit of it is the very essence of Chris- 
 tianity. Christ died at Jerusalem ; and Christian 
 theology centres in the city, and the Temple, and the 
 altar. But His youth was spent in GaUlee ; and the 
 Galilean spirit, simple and free, artistic and progress 
 sive, has given its distinctive note to the Ethics of the 
 
THE REUNION OP THE TRIBES 245 
 
 Gospel. When, on the persecution which rose after 
 Stephen's death, the apostles were driven from Jeru- 
 salem, it was to Samaria they turned their steps, and 
 there the Gospel won her earliest trophies. Thus 
 again the prophet's words came true : Ephraim is my 
 first-born. 
 
 Another short extract (verses 2i, 22) refers, like 
 verses 7-14, to the return of the Exiles from Babylon. 
 
 Verse 21. Set up the way-marks, 
 Erect the sign-post. 
 Turn thy heart to the high way, 
 The way thou wentest. 
 Return, O virgin of Israel, 
 Unto these thy cities. 
 Verse 22. How long wilt thou gad about, 
 Apostate daughter ? 
 
 The idealism of the prophet is absent here' ; and the 
 erection of sign-posts to mark the way, indicates one 
 more familiar with the physical difficulties than with 
 the moral significance of the Return. This is followed 
 by a brief enigmatic oracle couched in prose : " For 
 Jahveh hath created a new thing in the earth ; the 
 woman compasseth the man." If we put aside the 
 fanciful explanation of Hitzig, who regards Israel as 
 the maid, and Jahveh himself as the man to whom 
 she clings with the fond endearment of a true and 
 humble penitent, the words can only mean that the 
 Messianic age shall be one of profound and unbroken 
 peace. Just as in Saxon England it was said, that a 
 woman with a babe at her breast might pass scatheless 
 from sea to sea ; so the writer foresees a time when, 
 in Judah, a woman, with distaff in hand, shall keep 
 the house and so protect the man.^ 
 
 ' Cf. Deut. xxxii, 10. 
 
246 THE REUNION OF THE TRIBES 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 Verse 2. "For thus saith Jahveh." The Ki has dropped 
 
 out. Cf. verse 7. " I found them." In the M.T. : 
 
 " The people found grace (Hen)." ButtheLXX. read : 
 
 evpov dep/iov (Horn) ; and suggest the reading adopted : 
 
 Verse 26. " Up, lead them into rest " ; Infin. absol. for 
 Imperative ^i'?"). The last word (Israel) is borrowed 
 from verses 4 and 9. 
 
 Verse 3. " In's kindness to me." The word Hesed 
 (kindness), which is found at the close of the verse, 
 where it is syntactically di£6cult, belongs to the first 
 half of the verse : Hesed Li (LXX L6). 
 
 Verse 56. " In praise of Jahve " ; based on the LXX 
 ((^i)T£U(raT€ Kal aiviuaTe). So Duhm. 
 
 Verse 8a. " I bring them " ; reading Hiph'il participle 
 with suffix. The verse lacks a line, which may be 
 supplied (cf. chap. 1, 4). The last word belongs to 
 verse 9. 
 
 Verse 136. " The young men and ancients shall be glad." 
 Ancients do not " join together " in the dance, as the 
 present text suggests. The verb is Chadah = to rejoice. 
 
 Verse 166. " Not all in vain," etc. ; literally, There shall 
 be a wage for thy work. But the word for work means, 
 rather, the fruit of work. In the second Isaiah it is 
 always associated with wage, and both are referred 
 to the Return of the Exiles as the fruit of Jahveh's 
 redemptive agency (xl, 10, and Ixii, 11). So here, 
 reading nW?-1 laB-. 
 
 Verse 18. Insert the interrogative particle. 
 
 Verse 19. The M.T. read : " Surely, after I was turned, I 
 repented ; after I was instructed, I smote on my 
 thigh." But the LXX read : Surely after my cap- 
 tivity, I repented. This, as Duhm suggests, may have 
 been a gloss on the following phrase. Thus the verse 
 is simplified. "See now, grown wise " = After I was 
 instructed. The verb is used of the knowledge gained 
 by experience. (Cf. Job xxi, 19, and Hos. ix, 7, Prov. 
 X, 9-) 
 
 Verse 196. Omit Boshti. 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 
 Chapter XXXI, 27-38 
 
 Chap. xxxi. 
 
 Verse 316. And I will make, with the House of Israel, 
 
 A new Covenant. 
 Verse 336. And I will put My law in their mind. 
 And write it on their heart. 
 And I will be to them a God, 
 And they to Me a people. 
 Verse 34. Nor shall they any longer teach 
 Each man his brother. 
 For all of them shall know Me, 
 
 From their least to their greatest. 
 For I will forgive their transgression, 
 And will remember it no more. 
 
 The outstanding feature in Jeremiah's programme 
 of the Future is his doctrine of the New Covenant. 
 All the rest depends on this. In point of style and 
 phraseology, the passage is distinctly Editorial. We 
 note particularly the phrase, the day is come, which 
 occurs practically three times, and is usually the mark 
 of later insertions ; also the purely negative, curiously 
 conditioned and cumbrous, character of verse 33, quite 
 unlike the direct and simple style of the prophet. On 
 the other hand, the main idea is original and has proved 
 its vitality by powerfully influencing the current of 
 religious thought ever since. And though, as a whole, 
 the passage is prosaic in form, there are rhythmic strains 
 running through it which suggest that we have here the 
 ruins of a prophetic oracle buried under the accretions 
 
248 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 of centuries. So far as possible, I have indicated these 
 above. It is, perhaps, not wonderful that an utter- 
 ance, in itself so remarkable, should have attracted 
 notice, and challenged the comments of later ages, 
 and suffered from them. A parallel may be found in 
 vii, 21-26. 
 
 I 
 In the old Hebrew days a Covenant was made " with 
 sacrifice." The victim was divided, and the principals 
 passed together between the bleeding parts, imprecating 
 a similar fate on themselves, should they prove unfaith- 
 ful to their Covenant engagements. Hence " to 
 cut a Covenant," is a lamihar phrase. ^ It is prob- 
 able that the word Berith should be derived from 
 an Assyrian root which yields such other words as 
 Birtu, a fetter, and Beritu, a fold ; in which case the 
 original idea of a Covenant is simply that of a Bond.^ 
 Covenants were made under various circumstances. 
 As a rule they were made between two persons who 
 contracted freely, e.g. Jacob and Laban. Sometimes 
 a covenant was imposed by a greater on a less, as 
 by a conqueror on a conquered city or people.' A 
 man might make, on the other hand, a covenant with 
 himself, as Job says : I made a covenant with mine 
 eyes. When the covenant relation is transferred 
 to the Divine, a certain indefiniteness invests it. In 
 so far as God is the Universal {to TrSi/), the covenant, 
 like everything else He does, not only originates but 
 
 1 Mainly on this account, Berith has been derived from 
 Bara' (to hew or cut out) . " But the symbohc act must follow, 
 not precede, the actual relation ; and covenants must have 
 been made and broken many times before the need was felt to 
 give them sacramental sanction." (A. B. Davidson, Diot. of 
 Bible.) 2 Ibid. ' 
 
 * e.g., Joshua ix. and i Sam. xi. 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 249 
 
 terminates with Himself. This seems to be the mean- 
 ing of an obscure passage in the epistle to the Galatians : 
 " Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is 
 One." On the other hand, as Creator and King of 
 Israel, Jahveh has the right to impose terms and con- 
 ditions on His people ; and, from this point of view, 
 the Law and the Covenant are one. ^ So far, however, 
 as men retain their freedom even in dealing with 
 Heaven, the Covenant relation is mutual. This is 
 naturally the view of the matter which prevails in the 
 Old Testament. The point to be noted is, that, within 
 the Covenant, freedom ceases on both sides, and 
 mutual obligation begins. Jahveh undertakes to 
 deliver His people and to dwell among them ; Israel, 
 on their part, are bound to hearken to His voice and 
 walk in His ways. 
 
 Such covenants were frequently made by God with 
 men, as with Abraham, Levi, David. Each of these 
 marks a fresh stage in the history of Revelation ; the 
 gift of the land, the institution of the Priesthood and 
 the Monarchy. On the other hand, they are all aspects, 
 anticipations or developments, of the one Covenant 
 made by Jahveh with Israel at Mount Sinai. Now, 
 of course, some unambiguous declaration of the Divine 
 purpose, some adequate demonstration of the Divine 
 power, was required as the ground of the confidence 
 which the Covenant implied. And, on the other hand, 
 some startling and attractive display of the Divine 
 character was needful to engage the affections of the 
 people and dispose them to respond and to enter 
 freely into the Covenant obligation. It is thus we 
 explain the prominence given to the Exodus in the 
 Covenant History. " The Lord Thy God made with 
 us a covenant at Horeb." " He fed thee in the wilder- 
 1 See Exod. xxiv, 7. 
 
250 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 ness with manna which thy fathers knew not. . . . Thou 
 shalt remember thy God, and establish a Covenant." 
 As Jahveh not only brought His people out from 
 Egypt, but into Canaan, it was natural to regard that 
 land as a pledge of the Covenant bond. It was held 
 directly from Jahveh, on condition of loyalty to Him 
 and for the celebration of His worship. In this sense 
 it was the Holy Land. 
 
 The Covenant Relation is represented under various 
 aspects ; as that of a shepherd to his sheep, of a king 
 to his people, of a husband to his wife. But these 
 are all hints and shadows of a relation transcending 
 human thought. One formula alone gives adequate 
 expression to it : "I will be their God, and they shall 
 be My people." The subsequent history of Israel 
 was governed by this conception of her relation to 
 Jahveh. It underlies all that the earlier prophets 
 have to say by way of warning and promise ; for 
 Jeremiah, it was the ruling idea of his theological system. 
 
 But Israel had broken the Covenant. Like a faith- 
 less wife, she had forsaken Jahveh ; and, in so doing, 
 had forfeited all claim to His protection. When 
 therefore in her extremity she fled to Him, and fawned 
 on Him, like Vivian with Merlin in the storm, feigning 
 a sorrow she scarcely felt, it was easy for Him to 
 disengage Himself from her embrace, with the reply, 
 half scornful, half sad, " But where are the gods that 
 thou hast made ? Let them up, if they can save 
 thee." What Jahveh's relation was to the Coven- 
 ant thus broken ; whether He could ever with- 
 draw from engagements freely made, or resign to 
 others the people chosen and redeemed for Himself ; 
 these are questions our prophet never raises. When 
 he speaks of a New Covenant, no doubt he implies that 
 the old is obsolete. Yet the ground on which he builds 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 251 
 
 his hopes of the New, is that the Old can never be 
 wholly undone, that Jahveh cannot prove unmindful 
 of, or faithless to His own promise. What is certain 
 is, that the Covenant is in suspense ; Jahveh has with- 
 drawn from all friendly offices towards Israel. Hence 
 the ills heaped in dire succession on the ill-starred 
 people. Because of their sins the showers are with- 
 held and the parched land powders under the scorching 
 sun. Are they still impenitent ? The sword is added, 
 and all the horrors of a siege. Is even this not enough ? 
 Then the last divorce must follow. The people are 
 driven from the land ; the seal of the Covenant is 
 taken from them. Yet a remnant is left, a faithful 
 few. At the worst the prophet has himself, 'his own 
 religious experience, to fall back on. There is just 
 one passage where it seems as if he felt that all was 
 lost.^ But the phrase must not be pressed, represent- 
 ing as it does a passing mood rather than a fixed con- 
 viction. For always, on the other side, there is the 
 assurance that Jahveh cannot deny Himself, cannot 
 disown His people or dishonour the throne of His glory. 
 Again and again the plea is urged : " Remember, 
 break not the covenant." 
 
 Nothing could be more remarkable than the inde- 
 structible vitality of the prophet's faith. As an evid- 
 ence of the Supernatural in Jewish history, no so-called 
 miracle, no mere suspension of natural law, can com- 
 pare with this Survival. Alone among the people, 
 through the lingering agony of those last dark days, 
 amid the ruins of the Temple and the city which stood 
 for the existence of the nation, he held his own. With 
 a splendid courage and an invincible hope, he sets 
 
 ' Chap. V, 3. Phrases to the contrary effect, liberally 
 scattered through the book (e.g. iv, 27 ; v, 10 and 18), are 
 Editorial. 
 
252 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 himself to the task of reconstruction. All that is 
 essential in the Past is projected into the Future, to 
 reappear transfigured and spiritualized. Forms and 
 conditions vary ; but, in aim and essence, the New is 
 still the Old. " I will be their God and they shall be 
 My people." " Tempora variata sunt, non fides." ^ 
 
 II 
 
 We have now to see how the New Covenant differs 
 from the Old, first, in general principle, and then in 
 detail. 
 
 In verse 29 the prophet gives us a curious glimpse 
 of contemporary thought. He quotes a saying, evi- 
 dently proverbial among the people : " The fathers 
 have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are 
 set on edge." Ezekiel quotes the same proverb, as 
 current among the exiles in Babylon. Its meaning 
 is quite plain. If a man eat unripe fruit, he feels 
 the result immediately and in his own person. His 
 teeth are set on edge. But in the moral world it is 
 not so. One sins, and others suffer. The proverb 
 may be read as " a scornful gibe at the lameness and 
 inequality of Providence," ^ or as " a confession of sad 
 perplexity in presence of the daily miscarriage of 
 injustice." * One thing is certain. It implies a view 
 of Providence which was bound to yield under new 
 social forces, a view which must be replaced by some 
 generalization, at once simpler and more profound. 
 Hitherto Jahveh had dealt with Israel as a nation. It 
 was only through the nation that the individual could 
 realize himself as in relation to Jahveh. Perhaps it 
 would be more exact to say that the individual was 
 
 ^ St. Augustine. 
 
 ^ Prof. Skinner (Ezekiel ; Expositor's Bible) . 
 
 ' A. B. Davidson (Ezekiel ; Cambridge Bible) . 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 253 
 
 in that embryonic stage of development, when the 
 foetus is as yet inseparable from the parent organism ; 
 it had not yet come to birth. The social unit was the 
 family, the tribe, or the nation ; the unit of time, not 
 as with us the day, but a generation. Now Revelation 
 is never far in advance of human experience. Hence 
 the prophets, even when they scathe the sins of the 
 individual, draw their inference in the direction of 
 national responsibility ; and, when sin is visited, 
 punishment falls not directly on the sinner, but pre- 
 ferably (because more strikingly, i.e. on a larger scale), 
 on his children in successive generations. It seemed 
 as natural to the prophets that the seven sons of Rizpah 
 should die for Saul's breach of faith — seven black 
 crosses, casting their shadow across the sunny harvest 
 fields — as it seemed to Homer that the armies of Greece 
 shotild be plagued for the wrath of their kings ; or 
 to Sophocles, that the dutiful Antigone should expiate 
 in exile the crimes of her ill-fated house. 
 
 But as life became more complex as the distinc- 
 tion between good and evil was accentuated, as men 
 became conscious in themselves of the possibilities of 
 both, and of the need for personal decision between 
 them, some protest was inevitable. Because Manasseh 
 sinned, why should Josiah fall, and the hopes of a 
 nation perish with him ? " Wilt thou destroy the 
 righteous with the wicked ? " On the other hand, 
 how could their worship be acceptable, when the nation 
 was no longer a spiritual unity, but an aggregate of 
 opposite, and often contradictory, tendencies ? Thus 
 slowly but surely the Individual came to birth. 
 
 Meantime other forces, mainly political, were work- 
 ing in the same direction. National independence 
 had been lost ; the ten tribes were in exile ; the final 
 catastrophe impending over Judah. Men were within 
 
254 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 sight of a situation in which the first conditions of 
 national worship should be wanting. It was at this 
 critical point in Jewish history that the prophet found 
 himself. Others might yield to the spirit of the age ; 
 for him. Religion was already and necessarily a personal 
 affair, communion with Jahveh. Starting thus with 
 the Individual as his unit, it was possible to forecast 
 the Universalism of the Future. He takes the words of 
 mockery or despair from the lips of his contemporaries, 
 and reads a challenge into them. Then he responds 
 with a forward move : "In those days they shall 
 not say, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the 
 children's teeth are set on edge ; but every man shall 
 die for his own sins. The man that eateth sour grapes, 
 his teeth shaft be set on edge." The New Covenant 
 shall be no longer national, but personal. 
 
 Having made plain this very important point as 
 to principle, we may now consider how the New 
 Covenant differs from the Old in details. 
 
 {a) " This is the covenant which I will make with 
 you. ... I wiU put My laws in their inward parts 
 and write them on their hearts." The Old Covenant 
 was written on tables of stone. The most durable 
 material at their disposal was chosen, to indicate the 
 supposed permanence of the bond between Israel and 
 Jahveh. It was surely then the irony of Fate that, 
 ere they had reached the hands of the people, the tables 
 of stone were cast on the ground and broken in pieces 
 by the Law-giver. Such an incident is suggestive of 
 the inherent weakness of all law. The more absolute 
 its terms, the more hopelessly it alienates our sym- 
 pathies and defeats its own aims. " By the law is 
 the knowledge of sin." But the New Covenant is 
 written on the heart, where it is impossible to reach 
 behind it, so as either to defeat or depose it ; where it 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 255 
 
 acts no longer ab extra, by way of repression and re- 
 straint, but ab intra, as a motive power ; and where, 
 from its central position, it may command every 
 avenue of thought and feeling, and influence the life. 
 When Jahveh requires of a man his heart, it is not as if 
 religion were indifferent to all the rest ; as if it left 
 conduct, which is niae-tenths of life, to look after 
 itself. He will have the heart, that He may have 
 the hand as well, the whole man placed at His 
 disposal. 
 
 (b) " They shall not need to teach every man his 
 brother, for all shall know Me." No polemic against 
 the priesthood is intended here._ The prophet does 
 not mean, with a stroke of his pen, to abolish an ancient 
 Order to which he himself belongs. A much profounder 
 idea underKes his words. He will have us distinguish 
 between that knowledge of God which is esoteric and 
 technical, the possession of a class, and that which 
 is the instinct of every renewed nature, i.e. between 
 the ceremonial and the moral in religion. We 
 shall never be in a position to claim independence 
 of each other in our spiritual experience. It is " with 
 all saints," ^ i.e. in the communion of the Catholic 
 Church, we come to know the Love which passes know- 
 ledge. Moral sense must be trained ; even conscience 
 must be educated. But the education of conscience 
 is one thing, and the imposition of creed or code is 
 quite another. The one develops that individuality 
 which the other tends to repress. The latter is ex- 
 cluded here. When he says : " They shall all know 
 Me," it is probable that the prophet does not con- 
 sciously overlook the limits of his age. By " all men " 
 he means all Jews. But the relative Universahsm he 
 asserts, prepared for the absolute Universalism which 
 1 Ephesians iii, i8. 
 
256 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 is characteristic of the Gospel age. Christianity is 
 aggressive and world-subduing, because it is the re- 
 ligion not of the letter but of the spirit. English cus- 
 toms and ideals can hardly cross the Channel. They 
 can no more take root in Eastern lands than the 
 Mosaic law could domesticate itself in our West. But 
 the law of Truth is nowhere from home ; the thirst for 
 God is part of the heritage of the race ; and it is to 
 these the Gospel makes its appeal. As a revelation of 
 God to the soul of man, Christianity is the absolute 
 Truth, the universal Faith. 
 
 (c) A further note of the New Covenant is its finality. 
 The illative form of the clause which follows suggests 
 the fundamental condition of all that precedes it: 
 " For I will forgive their iniquities." The Old Covenant 
 was broken by the people's sin ; nor could a new cove- 
 nant be established unless some general act of amnesty 
 were passed, removing the hindrance. But the clause 
 does not refer only to the past. The Covenant relation 
 cannot be re-established with any hope of permanence 
 imless the act of amnesty be prospective as well ; 
 unless, once and for ever, men are delivered from those 
 guilty fears which paralyze the soul. " I will remember 
 their sins no more." Nowhere in the Old Testament 
 are we conscious of breathing the air of the Gospel, as 
 we are here. It is in Jesus Christ we pass from con- 
 demnation, i.e. from the sphere of Law where condem- 
 nation is possible, into that of Grace, i.e. of fellowship 
 with God based on forgiveness. Beneath the shadow 
 of the Cross, the conflict with sin may persist ; but 
 the sense of guilt is gone for ever. It is with interest 
 we note how, for the Old Testament saint, the last 
 appeal in the question of forgiveness, is not to the 
 altar but directly to the heart of God. Daily, yearly, 
 the altar reeked with blood ; yet man's conscience was 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 257 
 
 not purged from sin. With dull monotony and 
 deadening effect the consciousness of distance and 
 alienation recurred. From these he turns to God Him- 
 self ; to find in Him the mystery of atonement and the 
 ground of grace. 
 
 Spirituality, Universality and Finality ; such are 
 the three notes of the New Covenant. The formula 
 of the Old Covenant was : Thou shalt not. Those 
 great words, like a flash of lightning, discovered to man 
 what lies in the depth of his own being, moral obligation 
 along with a sense of utter impotence to meet it, dark- 
 ness and despair as of Chaos returning. The formula 
 of the New Covenant is ; I will ; still greater words, 
 that discover the heights above, as it were the body 
 of Heaven in its clearness, unruffled serenity and easy 
 self-achievement of the Grace of God. It would not 
 be possible to represent what is characteristic in each 
 dispensation more vividly than by these contrasted 
 formulas. On the one side, is a vain effort to attain ; 
 a strife between the law of the mind and the law of 
 the members ; a sense of hopeless duality that carries 
 unrest — noble if you will, but not less fatal — to the 
 centre of man's being. On the other side, is the rest 
 of Faith, a great reserve of spiritual power, the recon- 
 ciliation of Divine ideals with the practice of human 
 lives achieved by grace. Moral obligation persists 
 under the Gospel, but only as it is resolved into the 
 higher freedom of the new life. As Pascal says : " The 
 law demands what it cannot give ; grace gives all it 
 demands." 
 
 The verses which follow (35-37), whilst certainly not 
 prophetic, are interesting as the commentary of a 
 later age on the classic passage we have been studying. 
 To an Eastern mind, accustomed to cloudless noons 
 and the brilliance of the midnight sky, these are God's 
 
 J. 17 
 
258 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 speech, a natural sacrament or oath confirming the 
 covenant of His Grace. Nor are they wholly inaudible 
 even to us. Readers will remember the good Ahh6, 
 to whom Victor Hugo introduces us, whose custom it 
 was " to prepare for sleep by meditation in presence of 
 the grand spectacle of the starry heavens. He did 
 not seek to comprehend the incomprehensible ; he 
 gazed into it. He did not study God ; he was dazzled 
 by Him." ^ That is an experience we may all cultivate. 
 To be dazzled by the thought of God, is to be blinded 
 to the fear of man and much else in Hfe that is equally 
 shadowy and spectral. The sun still shines ; the moon 
 and stars still rule the night, and " by their mild per- 
 sistence urge men's thoughts to vaster issues." So,- at 
 least, believes the author of these verses. " Thus 
 saith Jahveh who giveth the sun for a light by day 
 and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by 
 night. If these ordinances depart from before me, saith 
 Jahveh, then the s^ed of Israel shall cease from being 
 a nation before me for ever " (verses 35, 36). But 
 doubt dies hard ; and, in verse 37, we see Faith still 
 fighting for her life. God is riot a man that He should 
 lie. Even the ordinary course of His providence tran- 
 scends our powers of comprehension ; and how much 
 more the mystery of His grace ? " Thus saith Jahveh, 
 if Heaven above can be measured, and the foundations 
 of the earth sought out, I will also cast off the seed of 
 Israel for all that they have done, saith Jahveh." 
 
 Verses 38-40. The covenant being renewed, the 
 city rises from her ashes once more. The topography 
 of Jerusalem is exceedingly difficult, and results are, at 
 best, inferential. If this is so of the actual Jersualem in 
 which the prophet lived, it is n aturally more so of the ideal 
 Jersualem which he sees rising before his eyes. From the 
 ^ Les Misirables. 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 259 
 
 Tower of Hananeel (i.e. N.E. point) to the Corner Gate 
 (N.W.) the wall is built.^ The measuring line continues 
 southward 2 over the hillGareb (an unknown point), then 
 turns Westward by Goah (also unknown), thus describing 
 the Southern border of the city. Finally it trends North- 
 ward by the brook Kedron. Not only the precincts 
 of the city, but its surroundings, " the whole valley," 
 accursed by the memory of its bloody rites and 
 desecrated by the symbols of death, is reclaimed as a 
 Sanctuary. When a mighty angel is deputed, rod in 
 hand, to be the architect of a city * we need not wonder 
 if a prophet consents to be the clerk of works. It must 
 however be confessed that the verses form an anti- 
 cUmax where they stand ; and that the probabilities 
 are in favour of their post-Exilic origin. 
 
 A passing notice of verse 27 must close our study of 
 this passage. The reference to chap, i, 10, is unmisr 
 takable. To the prophet himself, or to one of his 
 commentators, it seemed as if, in connexion with the 
 New Covenant, we might see a fulfilment of his youthful 
 visions and early hopes. It seemed as if already a 
 breath of Spring were passing over the land, and the 
 gracious purposes of Jahveh for Israel were blossoming. 
 " It shall come to pass that, as I waked over them to 
 pull down and root up, so I will wake over them to 
 build and to plant, saith Jahveh." 
 
 Ill 
 
 The reader scarcely needs to be reminded how power- 
 fully the passage before us has affected the development 
 of religious thought. When we speak of the Old and 
 New Testaments, we follow the prophet's lead, and 
 group the history of the race round two great centres, 
 
 1 Cf. Zech. xiv, 10. ^ Reading Negbo, for Negd6. So 
 Giesebrecht. ^ See Zech. ii. 
 
260 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 Mount Sinai and Mount Calvary, the deliverance from 
 Egypt and the Redemption from Sin. At three points 
 in the New Testament, this classic passage reappears. 
 
 (a) "On the night when He was betrayed, our Lord 
 took bread and brake it, and gave it to His disciples. In 
 like manner after supper, He took the cup, saying. This 
 cup is the New Covenant in My blood shed for many, 
 for the remission of sins." We might regard these words 
 as implying no more than the confirmation of God's 
 gracious purpose to His people. But the emphasis 
 laid on the Blood, on actual suffering rather than on 
 witness borne, seems to carry us further. It is prob- 
 ably inevitable that we should regard the passion of 
 our Lord, from the point of view of the Mosaic Law, 
 as a sacrifice, but it is all the more needful to remember 
 that such categories, borrowed from the Old Testament, 
 fall short of New Testament realities. We can never 
 unsay the solemn appeal made by our prophet, who 
 in this represents the Old Testament at its highest and 
 best, from the altar to God Himself. No mere fact 
 can be the final resting-place of Faith. The Spiritual 
 cannot be adequately expressed in terms of the Material. 
 What we see in the Cross is not so much physical suffer- 
 ing as redeeming love. It is the antinomy of good and 
 evil, which has marked the history of our race from the 
 first, carried up into the heart of God, and finding its 
 final solution there ; not a death, but the Conquest of 
 Life. 
 
 (b) In an interesting passage in 2 Corinthians, St. Paul 
 speaks of the believer as a living epistle written, not 
 like the first covenant, on tables of stone, but, like 
 the New Covenant, on the tables of the heart ; and, 
 from this contrast, deduces the characteristic features 
 of a Gospel ministry, its sincerity and spirituality and 
 permanence, (c) Again, the writer to the Hebrews, quot- 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 261 
 
 ing this Old Testament passage at length, teaches us 
 how, within the New Covenant and in virtue of the death 
 of Christ, we are already under the power of the world 
 to come and in possession of all spiritual blessings. 
 
 But it is not only the language and thought of the 
 New Testament that have been influenced by this 
 passage. There is no period in English history which 
 better repays study than the first half of the seventeenth 
 century. Whatever may be our theological and political 
 bias, we may well afford to do justice to the rugged 
 strength, intellectual alertness, and moral elevation 
 of Puritan England. Between that period and the age 
 when Jeremiah lived, it is not difficult to draw a 
 striking parallel. The discovery of the New World, 
 the Revival of Learning, the growth of Parliamentary 
 Institutions had revolutionized men's lives. The old 
 traditions of reUgious thought and social order had 
 gone hopelessly to pieces ; and men were left, groping 
 among the wreckage for something better to which 
 to entrust their souls. They had outgrown the political 
 ideals of the Feudal age, they found themselves outside 
 the Church, which claimed alone to offer acceptable 
 worship ; and yet they were burdened by obligations 
 which their own success entailed on them. What had 
 happened was this ; once again, after centuries of 
 political and intellectual nonage the Individual had 
 come to birth. Moreover, as M. Lowell has said, the 
 English translation of the Bible had to a large extent 
 "judaized" the temper of the age. Under such cir- 
 cumstances it was not wonderful that men should 
 revert to that conception of Religion which originated 
 in an age so like their own. The form of Religion to 
 which that strong, stern age most naturally wedded 
 itself was the Covenant Theology .^ 
 
 1 It is one of the great services which J. R. Green has ren- 
 
262 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 Puritan England has produced two writers unsur- 
 passed for originality of thought and majesty of style ; 
 both of whom were, if not made, at least strongly 
 marked by the Covenant Theology. Bunyan's Pil- 
 grim's Progress reflects on every page the loneliness of 
 the religious life as then experienced, and the sense of 
 tremendous issues involved in it. Apollyon straddles 
 across the Pilgrim's path ; the shadow of Death lies 
 darkly on his way ; Hell opens its mouth at his very 
 side ; while, from the Delectable Mountains, he catches 
 glimpses of the Celestial City which ravish his soul. 
 -Light and shadow are ahke intense. Meanwhile, as he 
 kneels by the Cross, he receives from the shining ones 
 a roll which contains no philosophic generalizations as 
 to the attributes of God or of the tendencies of history, 
 but the assurance of his personal salvation. In a beauti- 
 ful passage, the author describes the joys of the Land 
 of Beulah, where the Covenant of Peace was renewed. 
 
 Milton dedicates his stately and sonorous verse to 
 the same high theme. Milton's Satan is a magnificent 
 impersonation of the spirit of his own age, with its 
 abuse of new-found Freedom. On the other hand, 
 we see the " Trinal Unity at Heaven's High Council 
 Table " absorbed in those ineffable communings which 
 issue in the Covenant of Grace. It is true, as Pope 
 says, that Milton makes the Almighty " reason like a 
 schoolman." He charms his heavenly hierarchies with 
 what, as we read it, seems very like a metrical version of 
 Calvin's Institutes. Yet the choice of such a theme, 
 so utterly transcending human thought, witnesses to 
 
 dered to the student of English History that he has shown 
 the natural connexion between the Theology of Calvinism 
 and the Renaissance which preceded. See a remarkable 
 passage (too long to be quoted here) in vol. iii, pp. 12 fi. 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 263 
 
 the supremacy of the religious interest at the time, 
 and the particular line it followed. 
 
 Beside these two great writers, we may place the 
 Puritan General, the inarticulate soul of Oliver Crom- 
 well, never so incomprehensible as when he labours 
 to unburden himself in words, but drawing from the 
 same lofty theme the inspiration of a Hfe as great in 
 deeds as theirs in speech. I do not know a more 
 striking passage than that in which Carlyle describes 
 the Protector's death. " Oliver, we find, spoke much 
 of the Covenants, which were, indeed, the grand axis 
 of all in that Puritan Universe of his. Two Covenants, 
 one of works, with fearful judgments for our short- 
 comings therein, one of grace and unspeakable mercy ; 
 gracious engagements. Covenants which the Eternal 
 God has vouchsafed to make with His feeble creature, 
 man. Two, by Christ's death made one ; these were 
 for Oliver the Divine solution of this, our mystery of 
 life. They were two, he was heard to say ; two, but 
 put into one before the foundation of the world. And 
 again, It is holy and true, it is holy and true, it is holy 
 and true. Who made it holy and true ? The Mediator 
 of the Covenant. And again : The Covenant is but 
 one. Faith in the Covenant is my only support ; and 
 if I beUeve not, He abideth faithful. When his wife and 
 children stood weeping round him he said, Love not 
 the world ; I say to you, it is not good that ye should 
 love ^ the world. Children, Uve Hke Christians. I 
 leave you the Covenant." ^ A great legacy for children, 
 and children's children, of which happily, to this day 
 they have not utterly grown weary. It were hard to 
 teU what we owe to Puritan England thus, for one 
 brief hour, smitten into grim earnest, and confronting 
 the great problem of Hfe. It would be hard to tell 
 ^ Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, Vol. III. 
 
264 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 what we owe her in the way of poHtical and social 
 ideals. When a man once realizes himself thus related, 
 in covenant with the Eternal, be he the humblest of us 
 all, drummer or drummer-boy, he stands equal in faith 
 and hope to the Lord Protector himself, and to much 
 higher potentates than he, and is henceforth, with or 
 without a vote, no negligible quantity. 
 
 It is of course easy to point out the limits, nay, if 
 you will, the glaring defects, of the Puritan theology ; 
 how, in its desire to magnify the grace of God as it 
 comes along the Covenant channel, it has done scant 
 justice, sayrather gross injustice, to all that hes outside; 
 e.g. to natural instinct, to the ordinary course of Provi- 
 dence, and even to those merciful strivings of the Divine 
 spirit never wholly absent from the heart of man. All 
 these it persuades itself to pass by as common and 
 unclean.i And yet how attractive and inherently 
 noble is this Covenant Theology which, indeed, has a 
 way of reappearing and reassertiiig itself on every 
 occasion when the soul of man is deeply stirred, whenever 
 ReUgion becomes once more the great concern of Ufe. 
 The tendency, of Religious Thought is to lose itself 
 among the Immensities — Eternal Decrees, and such 
 imposing, but wholly impalpable, abstractions. The 
 Covenant Theology tempts it down to earth and gives 
 it an historic basis. Nay, it has been pointed out, that, 
 in its own way, the Covenant Theology anticipated 
 the scientific achievements of the nineteenth century, 
 and taught men, for the first time, to regard Life 
 from the germinal or evolutionary point of view, as part 
 of an Eternal Process. But most of all it affects our 
 spiritual experience. Religion is no longer a mere ideal, 
 
 1 See an interesting account of its developments in the 
 Cunningham Lectures by Dr. James Walker [Scottish Theology 
 and Theologians). 
 
THE NEW COVENANT 265 
 
 a snowy summit toward which we vainly pant, while it 
 remains silent to our appeals, inaccessible to our most 
 strenuous efforts. Instinct with life and sympathy, 
 the Divine stoops to us, comes into definite and personal 
 relation with us, assumes entire responsibility for us, 
 bidding us rely, without doubt or fear, upon the grace 
 of God. Quite indescribable is the change thus wrought. 
 At once, aspiration becomes attainment ; ReUgion, 
 experience ; while the soul, delivered from the dis- 
 traction of conflicting duties, passes into the simphcity 
 and freedom of a child-like fellowship with God. The 
 highest motives for holiness are adduced, while the 
 most gracious provision is made for possible failure. 
 The Past becomes prophetic, a pledge of the infinite 
 blessedness which awaits us in God. 
 
THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 
 
 THE Redemption of the Land follows naturally 
 on the Renewal of the Covenant ; and forms the 
 third motif in the Hymn of Praise. The connexion 
 between chap, xxxi, 27-36 and chap, xxxii is profound, 
 and touches the very heart of religion as conceived 
 by the Old Testament saint. 
 
 We must give up the idea of Hebrew Faith as being, 
 in any sense, a Metaphysical Monotheism. There 
 were gods many and lords many, each having a local 
 habitation and a sphere of influence. Jahveh was 
 Israel's God, and Salem was His dwelling place. And, 
 just as the peasants of medieval Europe gathered 
 round the person of their feudal lord, as they built 
 their huts and tiUed their fields and organized the first 
 rude beginnings of municipal life under the walls of 
 his castle, to which they appealed for justice in case 
 of a quarrel, and for protection in case of attack ; 
 and just as, in return for the protection thus secured, 
 they gave service in time of war and did homage in 
 time of peace ; so it was with Israel and Jahveh. Re- 
 deemed from Egypt, they entered Canaan and held 
 the land as His vassals on condition of homage and 
 service. The land was a sacrament of the relation in 
 which they stood to Him, and therefore, as we have 
 seen, it was holy. To live there, was to enjoy His 
 protecting care ; to be driven from it was to be forced 
 to worship other gods on whom they had no hereditary 
 
THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 267 
 
 claim. ^ The loss of the land meant exclusion from the 
 Covenant ; the Renewal of the Covenant involved the 
 Redemption of the land. Grasping this connexion, we 
 are now in a position to consider the incident brought 
 before us in chap, xxxii. 
 
 The prophet is now in prison. In chap.xxxvii we learn 
 the circumstances under which he came there.^ During 
 a momentary cessation of the siege, he had proposed 
 to leave the city so as to take possession of some land 
 at Anathoth. As he passed the gates, he was ap- 
 prehended by the guard, charged with treason as a 
 deserter, and thrown into a dungeon, from which, by 
 the intervention of the king, he was removed to the 
 comparative comfort and freedom of the guard-house. 
 It was under these circumstances that Hanameel, his 
 cousin, found him out. The prophet's knowledge of 
 human nature enabled him at once Ao divine the 
 purpose of the visit ; while the peculiar circumstances 
 gave it a religious significance in his eyes. " The 
 word of Jahveh came to me, saying, Behold Hanameel, 
 the son of Shallum, thy uncle, is coming to thee, saying. 
 Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of 
 redemption is thine to buy it." It is not difficult to 
 surmise the motive that brought Hanameel to the 
 guardhouse. The men of Anathoth, and particularly 
 
 ' See I Sam. xxvi, 19. 
 
 ^ The narrative of xxxii is based, no doubt, on the Memorabiha 
 of Baruch. But the first fiv; verses are Editorial. Note the 
 double dating in verse i (cf. xxv, i). The Editor combines 
 notices drawn from various sources (xxxvii, 21 ; xxxviii, 13 
 and 28), so as to create the necessary background for the story 
 that follows. He produces, I imagine, the impression on his 
 readers that the king, piqued by personal references to himself 
 in the prophet's preaching, meant to silence him by putting him 
 in ward. How far this impression is from representing the 
 actual facts, we shall see. 
 
268 THE EEDEMPTION OF THE LAND 
 
 the prophet's own family, were bitterly opposed to 
 him. They had hunted him, with hue and cry, out 
 of the town, and since then appear to have disowned 
 him. But no man will find himself friendless for 
 long, if he is in a position to do his neighbours a good 
 turn. At that time the land about Jerusalem must 
 have been practically worthless. It was at the peril 
 of his hfe a man went into the fields to till them, and 
 the harvests that might ripen there were sure to be 
 reaped by the Chaldean soldiery, wandering round. 
 On the other hand, money was of great value. Prices 
 were high, and the means of living difficult to secure. 
 Hanameel seems to have conceived the idea of playing 
 on the simpUcity of his cousin, by offering him the 
 purchase of some family lands. If he decUned, his 
 predictions of the future, and, indeed, his prophetic 
 character, would be discredited; if he accepted, Hanameel 
 would make a good bargain, and enjoy a hearty laugh 
 at his cousin's expense. So men act who, in the 
 imagined superiority of their worldly wisdom, are 
 mere fools compared to the babes whom God makes 
 wise. The offer was accepted, and the transfer of the 
 lands carried through. 
 
 An interesting side glance into legal procedure 
 among the Jews is given us here. A deed of purchase 
 was drawn out, sealed and signed by witnesses, 
 and then, for safety, buried in an earthen vessel. 
 According to the Hebrew text this deed of purchase 
 was double, sealed and open ; but the text is involved 
 and, at points, ungrammatical. Hitzig suggests that 
 the double deed may have been a single parchment 
 folded over, sealed at the upper end while the lower 
 end was left open. But this is hardly in agreement 
 with the text. In their version of verses 6-13, the 
 LXX know of only one deed, which is sealed in 
 
THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 269 
 
 proper legal fashion ; but, in verse 14, they allude to 
 an open letter or document accompanying it, evidently 
 meant to be retained in hand by the purchaser for 
 easy reference, although in this particular case, and for 
 very obvious reasons, it was buried with the legal deed. 
 Such a hint was probably enough for some later Editor 
 who, working back over the narrative, introduces the 
 open letter at every point, amends the context to 
 suit, and produces the present chaos in the Hebrew 
 text. For the reader's convenience, the Hebrew and 
 Greek versions may be reproduced side by side. 
 
 M.T. 
 
 Verse Q. And I bought 
 the field of Hanameel, my 
 uncle's son, and weighed him 
 the money, even seventeen 
 shekels of silver. 
 
 Verse 10. And I put it in 
 writing and sealed it, and 
 took witnesses and weighed 
 him the money in the bal- 
 ances. 
 
 Verse 11. Then I took the 
 deed of purchase, both that 
 which was sealed, the covenant 
 and the conditions, and that 
 which was open. 
 
 Verse 12. And I gave the 
 deed of purchase unto Baruch 
 the son of Neraiah, the son of 
 Maaseiah, in the sight of 
 Hanameel my uncle, and in 
 the sight of witnesses that 
 subscribed the deed of pur- 
 chase and in the sight of all 
 the Jews that sat in the 
 guard room. 
 
 LXX. 
 
 Verse 9. And I bought 
 the field of Hanamel, my 
 uncle's son, and weighed him 
 the money, even seventeen 
 shekels of silver. 
 
 Verse 10. And I put it in 
 writing and sealed it, and 
 took witnesses and weighed 
 the money in the balances. 
 
 Verse 11. Then I took the 
 deed of purchase which was 
 sealed. 
 
 Verse 12. And gave it to 
 Baruch, the son of Nereiah, 
 the son of Maasiah, in the 
 sight of Hanamel, mine un- 
 cle's son, and in the sight of 
 the men that stood by and 
 had signed the deed of pur- 
 chase, and in the sight of the 
 Jews that were in the guard 
 room. 
 
270 THE EEDEMPTION OF THE LAND 
 
 Verse 13. And I charged Verse 13. And I charged 
 
 Baruch in their sight, saying : Baruch in their sight, saying : 
 
 Verse 14. Thus saith Jah- Verse 14. Thus saith Jah- 
 
 veh of Hosts, saying. Take veh of Hosts, God of Israel, 
 
 these deeds, this deed of pur- saying, Take this deed of 
 
 chase which is sealed and this purchase with the open letter 
 
 open deed, and put them in and put it in an earthen vessel 
 
 an earthen vessel that they that it may continue many 
 
 may continue many days. days. 
 
 So Hanameel went his way, and Jeremiah was left 
 with his bad bargain. He follows the habit of his life 
 and refers the whole matter to Jahveh, under whose 
 directions he was acting. The prayer recorded in 
 verses 16-25 cannot be regarded as a literal reproduction 
 of the prophet's words. There is indeed at certain 
 points an abruptness of thought, a force and directness 
 of utterance, which are unmistakably original. But 
 elsewhere the language is conventional and diffuse. In its 
 present form the passage is the result of reflection. It 
 gives a sympathetic and suggestive, if not convincing, 
 analysis of the prophet's experience at this critical 
 hour. He appeals to Jahveh, first of all, as the maker 
 of Heaven and earth, and therefore as creating the 
 conditions under which he works ; to whose power, 
 therefore, there can be no limits. He appeals to Him, 
 next, as the God of Providence maintaining a certain 
 continuity in the moral government of the world 
 (" repaying the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom 
 of their children after them") and yet, according to 
 the regulative principle of the New Covenant, not 
 bound by any precedent or entangled amid the com- 
 plexities of social life, but " giving to every one accord- 
 ing to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." 
 He appeals to Him, still further, as the God of Redemp- 
 tion working great wonders in the land of Egypt and 
 
THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 271 
 
 bringing forth His people ; a God whose grace to Israel 
 is the more God-like because they have made so poor 
 a return. " They have not hearkened to Him nor 
 walked in His ways." Such is the background of the 
 picture conjured up. With a few swift strokes, in 
 which one seems to recognize the prophet's own hand, 
 the foreground is added ; the beleaguered city, famine 
 and pestilence wasting its streets, while the Chaldeans 
 heap up their mounds of earth against the wall and 
 prepare to take it. One word more, and he leaves 
 the matter in Jahveh's hands : " Thou hast said, 
 buy the land for silver, and take witnesses." It is true 
 that no such command has been recorded. But God 
 speaks to man not only in articulate utterance but 
 through Providence and by His Spirit. Hanameel's 
 visit was of the Lord. Behind the proposal of his 
 sly and self-seeking cousin Jeremiah could see Jahveh's 
 hand at work. The opportunity for self-sacrifice and 
 Christian service, the chance to do a good deed, is 
 itself a call from God ; a challenge and a command 
 to do it. 
 
 William Law, that diligent student not only of 
 human nature but of the art of Prayer, writes thus : 
 " When you begin your petitions, use such various 
 expressions of the attributes of God as may make 
 you most sensible of the greatness and power of the 
 Divine nature. For the representation of the Divine 
 attributes which show us, in some measure, the majesty 
 and the greatness of God, is an excellent means of 
 raising our hearts into lively acts of worship and 
 adoration." And again he puts these words into 
 the mouth of Paternus, instructing his little son. 
 " Conceive the magnificence of God, magnify His 
 Providence, adore His power." No doubt that was 
 the attitude which our prophet sought to maintain. 
 
272 THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 
 
 Instead of being overwhelmed by actual facts, he 
 struggles to reahze the ideal Order of the Universe, 
 to reach that point of vantage held by Faith from 
 which he may command the present hour. Jeremiah's 
 prayer as recorded here is like those petitions which 
 are sent up to the House of Commons by perplexed and 
 suffering members of the Commonwealth. It is aU 
 preamble, " Whereas." What should follow, what 
 steps are best to be taken, he leaves to Higher Powers 
 to decide. It is thus the saints have ever loved to pray. 
 As children of the Heavenly Father, we are permitted, 
 on occasion, to urge some particular request with 
 child-like pertinacity. But in more heroic moods, 
 Faith transcends the personal. Prayer, in its essence, 
 is not petition but adoration. 
 
 Another long passage follows (verses 26-41), which 
 is Editorial throughout. If Milton makes the Almighty 
 reason like a schoolman, our Editor makes him preach 
 like a Deuteronomist. Verse after verse, put into 
 Jahveh's mouth, recalls passages already familiar to 
 us. The outlook into the future with which the people 
 are credited (verse 36) is contradicted by the bhnd 
 optimism to which they themselves give utterance 
 elsewhere. 1 The city has already fallen ; and the 
 people are scattered among the nations. But Jahveh 
 is at work. He wiU restore them to their land ; give 
 them one heart to serve Him ; and rejoice over them to 
 do them good. The New Covenant becomes an Ever- 
 lasting Covenant (verse 40). What Jahveh had sent 
 the prophet to do, He does now with His own hand, 
 planting them in the land. The whole passage is 
 suffused with the cheerful glow of an easy, comfortable 
 Eudaemonism which is the reflection of a quite other, 
 
 * Cf. verses 3 and 4. 
 
THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 273 
 
 and much later, age than the prophet's own. Only 
 toward the close (verses 42-44) are we brought back to 
 the actual situation as Jeremiah had to face it. One 
 thing the author will impress on all his readers : We 
 never lose by trusting God. Point by point, perplexity 
 and doubt, as stated by the prophet (verse 25), are taken 
 up and removed : Men shall buy and sign, and seal 
 and take witnesses, not only in Jerusalem but in the 
 regions around, " for I will bring again their captivity, 
 saith Jahveh." 
 
 The transaction narrated in this chapter is certainly 
 not to be judged on what men call business principles. 
 The prophet made no mistake as to whkt he was 
 doing. He knew that the land would fetch no price in 
 the market just then. No speculative builder in Jeru- 
 salem would have looked at Hanameel's offer. Nor 
 was his action purely patriotic. Patriotism is a 
 natural virtue which has had a powerful influence on 
 history ; and nowhere has it inspired such a passion 
 of intense devotion as on the little plot of land set 
 between the mountains and the sea, and blossoming 
 into beauty over against the Syrian Desert. Still a 
 natural virtue cannot transcend the laws and limits 
 prescribed by Reason. It was the religious interest 
 that was supreme in the prophet's mind. The piece 
 of ground was small ; but it stood for all that was most 
 sacred in his own spiritual experience. Had he with- 
 drawn from Hanameel's offer, he would have confessed 
 himself to be as unbelieving as the great majority 
 aroimd him. In buying the field at Anathoth, he was 
 redeeming his own faith in the Future and in God. 
 In this light the transaction is most instructive. We 
 are all too ready to yield to what we call the spirit 
 of the age, or to' the trend of modern thought, or to 
 the pressure of actual circumstance. Little by little 
 J. 18 
 
274 THE KEDEMPTION OF THE LAND 
 
 Faith is elbowed out, till we think and speak and act 
 as if there were no God. In spite of ourselves, we 
 become Atheists. For we are bound to lose a Faith 
 that we never put in use ; and, if we will not risk a £5 
 note for God, it is in vain we speak of resting on Him 
 our hope of everlasting salvation. 
 
 At this point commentators are observed to consult 
 their Livy, jnarking the page which tells how, when 
 Rome was invested by Hannibal, the ground on 
 which the Carthaginian camp stood was sold at its 
 full price in the Roman Forum. The parallel is 
 striking. Yet at that time, Rome was sound to the 
 core and believed in her own future ; in Jeremiah's 
 day, Jerusalem was rotten, and believed in nothing. 
 Fortunately we do not need to travel so far back, for 
 interesting and instructive parallels. 
 
 What would the reader have given for an estate in 
 Hunnan, N.W. China, in the year when Pekin was in 
 the hands of the Boxers, and the mob moving round 
 with clubs and axes to root out and exterminate the 
 Foreign . Devilry ? Yet there were men and women 
 who, having given up all for China, sealed the deed of 
 purchase with their blood. To-day their souls rest in 
 peace, till the redemption of the purchased possession. 
 
 Fifty years ago Africa was still the Dark Continent, 
 from shore to shore a dense forest, tenanted by big 
 game and savage tribes, given over to sportsmen 
 and the slave-driver pursuing his nefarious trade in 
 human flesh. But God raised up a man, a factory 
 hand from the Lowlands of Scotland, who took the 
 vast continent to his heart and, first by a long life of 
 self-denial, and then by his lonely death on the Lake- 
 side, redeemed Africa for civilization and Christ. 
 To-day, roads are built and rails laid into the heart of 
 the continent. Steamers ply on her great inland 
 
THE EEDEMPTION OF THE LAND 275 
 
 seas, and the Union Jack is floating over trading 
 stations and Mission compounds. By the end of the 
 century, Africa will be the most profitable invest- 
 ment offered to European capital. But Faith led the 
 way. 
 
 Henry Martyn, senior wrangler for his year, sailed 
 to India as a missionary for the Cross, throwing his life 
 away, as his friends told him. In five years, to use 
 his own expression, he had " burned out for Christ." 
 Writing from Dinapore he says : " Respecting my 
 heart about which you ask, I must acknowledge that 
 Henry Martyn's heart in Dinapore is the same as Henry 
 Mart5m's heart in Cambridge. The tenor of my 
 prayer is nearly the same, except on one subject, 
 the conversion of the heathen. At a distance from 
 the scene of action, and trusting too much to the 
 highly coloured descriptions of missionaries, my heart 
 used to expand with rapture at the hope of seeing 
 thousands of natives melting under the word as soon 
 as it was preached to them. But I am called to 
 exercise faith, that so it shall be one day. My former 
 feelings on this point were more agreeable and, at 
 the same time, more in accordance with the truth. 
 For, if we believe the prophets, the scenes that Time 
 shall - unfold, though surpassing fable, are yet true. 
 Even as I write, hope and joy spring up in my heart. 
 Yes, it shall be. Yonder stream of Ganges shall one 
 day roll through tracts adorned with Christian churches 
 and cultivated by Christian husbandmen, and the 
 holy hymn be heard beneath the shade of the tamarind. 
 All things are working together to bring in that day, 
 and my part in this blessed plan, though not at first 
 exactly according to my wishes, is, I beheve, appointed 
 me by God." " Ask of me, and I will give thee the 
 heathen for thine inheritance " ; so runs the New 
 
276 THE REDEMPTION OF THE LAND 
 
 Covenant. But the Church must sign the deed with 
 tears and blood, before she enters on possession. 
 
 There is another application of this incident which 
 brings it still nearer home to our hearts. The reader 
 himself may have had occasion to make his first 
 purchase of land, under circumstances not whoUy dis- 
 similar from the prophet's. We have stood by many as 
 they signed the deed, and laid some dear one in his 
 quiet resting-place. We have hallowed the spot with 
 our prayers and tears. Why all this reverence for the 
 dead ? Why these plots railed o&, and kept with 
 such care, like the fields at Anathoth — God's Acre at 
 our city gates ? It is because in a world where Death 
 reigns, we believe in Life, and look to see its conquest. 
 It is because Christ lives, and we believe in Him. 
 " O grave, where is thy victory, O Death, where is 
 thy sting ? " 
 
THE REORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL 
 LIFE 
 
 Chapter XXXIII 
 
 FOLLOWING on the Re-union of the Tribes, 
 the Renewal of the Covenant, and the Restora- 
 tion of the land, comes the Reorganization of the 
 national life. The treatment is looser than elsewhere 
 in the great section ; ^ and the prophetic element is 
 reduced almost to zero. 
 
 Verses 4-9 are probably based on the Memorabilia 
 of Baruch, and are thus at least indirectly prophetic. 
 The earlier verses (1-3) are Editorial. They give 
 us the interpretation put on the prophet's experience by 
 a later age. The rest of the chapter (10-32) is also 
 Editorial, recording, in a fragmentary way, the ideals 
 of a later and post-Exilic age. 
 
 Verses 1-3. The language used, the unmistakable 
 influence of the second Isaiah, ^ compel us to attribute 
 these verses not to Jeremiah but to a sympathetic 
 disciple and exponent of his system. "And the 
 word of Jahveh came a second time to Jeremiah, 
 while he was still shut up in the court of the guard 
 room, saying : Thus saith Jahveh, who doeth it, 
 Jahveh who fashions it, to establish it, Jahveh is His 
 name. Call on Me and I will answer thee and show 
 thee great and inaccessible things which thou knowest 
 not." 
 
 1 Except perhaps in the Prelude, chap. xxx. 
 
 2 Cf. Isa. xUv, 2, xlv, 7, xlviii, i, xliii. 7, xliv. 2, 24; 
 xlv. 7, 18. 
 
278 THE REORGANIZATION OF 
 
 Objection has been taken to these verses on two 
 grounds. First, because they convey a summons to 
 prayer, which is apparently disregarded in the sequel ; 
 and, next, because they convey a promise of something 
 novel and startling in the way of Revelation to which 
 there is nothing that corresponds in the rest of the 
 chapter. But prayer is not necessarily audible or 
 articulate ; and the summons to prayer may be regarded 
 as sufficiently honoured by the spirit of dependence 
 and expectation which is implied in all that follows. 
 It is more difficult to deal with the second objection. 
 It is true that we find in what follows that which 
 seems to us a somewhat tame reiteration of promises 
 already made, a ringing of the changes on a few already 
 familiar notes ; yet it may be urged that truths in them- 
 selves old enough, trite and commonplace if you will, 
 may, under certain circumstances, be invested with all 
 the charm and splendour of a fresh revelation. When 
 the exiles returned to Palestine, though all that hap- 
 pened had been foretold by prophecy, they were " Uke 
 men that dreamed." Conversion is a commonplace of 
 Christian Theology, and yet, when we see a soul 
 emerge from darkness and pass into the freedom 
 and joy of the Gospel, we think of it, and speak of it, 
 as a miracle of grace. Such may well have been the 
 experience of the prophet. Shut up in prison amidst 
 depressing surroundings, seeing things go from bad to 
 worse within the city, and the circle of the humanly 
 possible narrow about himself and his people, he may 
 easily, like the Baptist under similar circumstances, 
 have felt his faith fail. And then, shooting down 
 from the open Heaven, piercing its way through 
 darkness to the soul, the Word of Jahveh came to 
 him a second time a gracious Presence, like the angel 
 that stood by Peter in the prison ; a beautiful vision, 
 
THE NATIONAL LIFE 279 
 
 like the Holy Grail, " rose-red with beatings in it, as 
 alive," that invaded the gloom of the convent cell. Nor 
 is the message thus conveyed by any means so turgid 
 and bombastic as commentators would make it. 
 The phrase : "I will show thee great and inaccessible 
 things which thou knowest not," calls for special notice. 
 It is famiUar to the students of the earlier Scriptures, 
 especially in the Book of Deuteronomy, where it is 
 used of the cities built by the Canaanites for their 
 defence. When the spies returned to Moses, they 
 reported favourably of the land. It was a good land, 
 flowing with milk and honey. But, they said, it is in 
 vain that we go up ; the inhabitants of the land are 
 great, they are sons of Anak, and their cities walled 
 to Heaven, " great and inaccessible." It required the 
 faith of Caleb to silence the people : If the Lord delight 
 in us. He will give us the land. Now, there is some- 
 thing subtle and suggestive in the reappearance of 
 that phrase just here, in connexion with what we may 
 describe as a second conquest of the land. Notice 
 how, in xxxii, 22, the prophet plays the part of spy, 
 surve5dng the land, not as it was, wasted by drought 
 and sword, but as it had been and should again be : 
 " A good land flowing with milk and honey." Notice 
 further how, xxxii, 41, Jahveh responds to the faith 
 of His servant, evidently with reference to the words 
 of Caleb, saying : " I will rejoice over them to do 
 them good, and will plant them in the land." Yet 
 the difficulties in the way were very great. The land 
 was in possession of an enemy, in comparison with 
 whom the Canaanites themselves were as grass- 
 hoppers. The camp of the Chaldeans lay close up 
 to the gates of the city. As he looked round, the 
 prophet's heart failed him. Once again the fate of 
 the true Israel tirembled in the balance. At this 
 
280 THE EEORGANIZATION OF 
 
 point J ahveh interposes and appeals to the past . Those 
 fortified cities, whose gates had opened, whose walls 
 had crumbled, before the advance of Faith, shall find 
 their counterpart in the great and inaccessible things 
 He will yet show.i i.e. summon as His witnesses, be- 
 fore His servants' eye. Let me repeat. On critical 
 grounds, the passage must be judged to be non- 
 Jeremian ; but the spiritual instincts of the reader 
 will always linger here, finding profound insight in 
 this record of a second conversion as experienced 
 by the lonely prophet in his cell. 
 
 Verses 4-9. The style, especially at first (4-6), is 
 involved and broken, and quite unlike the easy flow 
 of later Editors. There is no reason to doubt that 
 we are here in touch with original documents. We 
 see the city, as the prophet saw it through the narrow 
 grating of his prison, in the agony of a last despairing 
 struggle. We see the garrison emaciated by famine 
 and sickness hard at work, tearing down the houses, 
 both high and low, and, with the debris, building up 
 some sort of rude defence against the enemy. In 
 spite of all their efforts they lose ground daily. The 
 spaces cleared for defence are rapidly filled up with the 
 wounded and dying. Then, on the theatre thus defined, 
 a new, vitalizing and reconstructive force begins to 
 work. The breaches in the wall are healed ; a tide of 
 physical and moral health rolls ^ down the choked and 
 
 ' The phrase seems technical and legal ; of. chap, xx, 10, 
 and Job xvii, 5. 
 
 ^ Instead of : "I will reveal to thee the abundance," read as 
 above (TliPil). Compare Amos v, 24 and Isa. xlviii, 18. The word 
 translated " abundance " (A.V.) does not elsewhere occur. 
 The root is found in Prov. xxvii. 6 (to be rendered, Plentiful 
 or Profuse, instead of Deceitful ; see Toy on Proverbs) — 
 connected by Ewald with an Arabic root 'Athara=anstossen 
 
THE NATIONAL LIFE 281 
 
 fetid streets. From their distant homes the exiles 
 return, Jahveh's redeemed, till the city becomes 
 once more a praise in the earth. Toward the end of 
 the passage we detect the Editor's hand at work 
 again, grouping and linking, somewhat loosely, those 
 comfortable words that, from time to time, had fallen 
 from the Master's lips. 
 
 Verses 10-13. Here evidently we have left the 
 prophet far behind. The verses were written, one 
 feels sure, by an eye-witness of what he describes. 
 The Temple and the city are in ruins ; the tide of life 
 has ebbed away from the once crowded streets, which 
 are left without man and without beast. Once and again, 
 the mournful refrain, the note of penetrating pathos, 
 strikes on our ears. The very monotony is suggestive, 
 hke the wail of the wind about a ruined tenement, 
 or the cry of a wild bird on some lonely moor. Then 
 again, in delightful contrast, the ear of faith is quickened 
 to hear the hum of the distant fold, and all the stir of 
 happy human Hf e in days to come ; while the stately and 
 solemn anthem swells within the Temple courts, where 
 men gather once more to worship Jahveh and lay their 
 gifts upon His altar. " Praise Jahveh, for Jahveh is 
 good ; for His mercy endureth for ever." The intro- 
 duction of what is evidently a liturgical element, 
 based on some of the later psalms, is in favour of the 
 post-Exilic origin of the passage. It shows us how the 
 ritual gradually superseded the ethical in religion, 
 till the Temple and its worship took the place of great 
 social questions in the hearts of this Jewish people. 
 
 From the capital, the tide of prosperity sweeps out 
 over the whole land. The Hill Country with its 
 peasant folk, formerly despised by the city ; the 
 
 or fallen. Here, in the same way, the idea is probably that 
 of an impetuous torrent. 
 
282 THE REORGANIZATION OF 
 
 Shephelah, or Lowlands, " flung off from the central 
 ridge of Judah," ^ with its independent and practically 
 alien race ; the Negeb, or South, verging on the 
 Desert, with parched and barren soil ; each in its 
 turn shares in a blessing which is meant for all. If, 
 for the later Jew, Palestine meant Jerusalem, and 
 nothing more, it was not so in the happy, hearty days 
 which followed on the Restoration. The evangelistic 
 and missionary note is unmistakable there. 
 
 Verses 14-26. The entire passage is absent from the 
 LXX, and is probably of late origin. 
 
 Verses 14-16. An old oracle is confirmed with 
 new sanctions. What had been predicted of the 
 Messianic King ^ is here predicted of the Messianic 
 people : " This is the name whereby she shall be called, 
 Jehovah, our Righteousness." It is true that the 
 alteration is slight, and that a preference might fairly 
 be claimed, even here, for the earlier pointing, in 
 view of verse 17 which refers not to the city or the 
 nation, but to the king. Yet the alteration, slight 
 as it is, is suggestive. There is perhaps no Christian 
 doctrine to which more persistent and strenuous 
 objections have been taken than to the Doctrine 
 of Imputed Righteousness. Yet it is deeply rooted, 
 not only in Holy Scripture, but in the history of the 
 Covenant people. Nor is our own experience wanting 
 by way of confirmation. Our best friends are seldom 
 those we make for ourselves ; rather they transfer to us 
 the regard they cherished for those who went before us. 
 When an Englishman travels abroad, a certain dis- 
 tinction, to which he has no personal claim, invests 
 him as a member of an empire that rules the sea. A 
 solemn interest attaches to human life, due, not so much 
 to what it is, as to the possibilities it contains. Rightly 
 1 G. A. Smith. ^ gee chap, xxiii, 6. 
 
THE NATIONAL LIFE 283 
 
 we judge the humblest by the highest of its kind ; 
 and thus hfe is ennobled by association. But the 
 highest apphcation of this principle is reached when a 
 beheving man finds himself one with God by his union 
 with the god-man ; when, at a single step, he passes 
 from the past and all the limits of the human, into the 
 region of Divine Certainty and Completeness, and 
 realizes himself as the Righteousness of God in Christ. 
 On this relation of the individual to the universal, 
 of the believer through Christ to God as the Eternal 
 Father, depends, as we have already seen, the stability 
 of the New Covenant. 
 
 Verses 17-22. The new order is stamped with 
 perpetuity. In verses 17, 18 the writer affects an 
 archaic style, identifying the priests and Levites 
 after the manner of the Deuteronomist. The inde- 
 finite multiplication of priestly and royal personages, 
 which marks the future, might be regarded as a doubt- 
 ful boon. We may however pardon the exuberant 
 loyalty and enthusiasm which were due, perhaps, 
 to the absence of the coveted blessings ! 
 
 Verses 23-26. The closing verses are of doubtful 
 interpretation. " These two families whom the Lord 
 hath chosen " are clearly Israel and Judah ; but who 
 are " this people who despise them ? " The alternative 
 lies between the heathen in Babylon and the unbeUev- 
 ing Jews in Judah. Against the former view is the 
 phrase. This people (Ha' am Haz-zeh), which is not else- 
 where used of the Gentiles. Against the latter is the 
 difficulty of seeing how one section of the people 
 could disinherit another " from being a nation before 
 them." If we slightly alter the text and read : 
 From being a nation before Me, the meaning is plain. 
 Jahveh affirms that the unbelieving Jews who deny the 
 Covenant, and, with it, all that is distinctive in their 
 
284 THE NATIONAL LIFE 
 
 national life, have, in effect, disinherited themselves 
 and their brethren from being a nation before Him. 
 In spite of this, the Covenant stands ; the great 
 covenant of Nature, day and night, and sun and stars, 
 and the greater Covenant of His Grace, who will not 
 reject His people, but will " restore their captivity and 
 have mercy upon them." 
 
 It should be noticed how this great Hymn of Praise, as 
 it dies away, returns to its key-note (xxx, 3, xxxi, 2-6), 
 the Reunion of the scattered tribes : " These two 
 families whom Jahveh hath chosen." 
 
 CRITICAL NOTES 
 
 Verses. " Great and Inaccessible things." Ewald suggests 
 that B'curoth should be altered to N''cur6th, in keeping with 
 Isa. xlviii, 6. But the inverse process would be quite as 
 easy. 
 
 Verses 4-5. Verse 4, the text is difficult. If we adopt 
 Duhm's suggestion, based on the LXX, it may be read thus : 
 (verse 4): Concerning the houses . . . which are broken down 
 to form mounds and a rampart ; (verse 5 ) while they go to fight 
 with the Chaldeans. 
 
SIDE-LIGHTS 
 Chapter XXXV 
 
 CHAP. XXXIV narrates an incident belonging to 
 the reign of Zedekiah ; chap, xxxv, an incident 
 in the reign of Jehoiakim. An interval of ten years 
 separates the two events thus recorded. The chapters 
 are brought together because of a common idea, and 
 inserted here as illustrations, by way of contrast and ana- 
 logy, of the Doctrine of the Covenant just expounded, 
 side-lights from contemporary history, the Covenant 
 broken and kept. Reserving chap, xxxiv for consider- 
 ation in connexion with the siege of the city, we come 
 to chap. xxxv. (For the date of the incident narrated 
 here, cf. verse ii with 2 Kings xxix, 2). The narra- 
 tive may have been drawn from Baruch's Memorabilia. 
 Possibly we owe it rather to tradition ; but against 
 that idea is the pedigree furnished in verse 3. In v. i 
 Jeremiah is spoken of in the third person ; in vv. 2-5 
 he speaks in the first person. Thereafter the text 
 reverts to the original form, and the third person is 
 used. No doubt in verses 2-5 we may see the hand of 
 an Editor who endeavours to import life into Baruch's 
 narrative, where, so far as we can judge, the third 
 person was the rule. 
 
 The Rechabites, of whom the chapter speaks, were 
 Kenites, and therefore a branch of the Midianites. 
 It was probably through the influence of Jethro, the 
 father-in-law of Moses, himself a Kenite, that the 
 tribe was brought into friendly relations with Israel. 
 
 285 
 
286 SIDE-LIGHTS 
 
 Some of them, like these sons of Jonadab, had adopted 
 the religion of Israel/ and could enter as proselytes 
 into the Temple courts. Originally a nomad tribe, 
 there was not much cohesion among them. Kenites 
 were found in the North of Palestine in the period of 
 the Judges. At the tent door of Jael, the Kenite, 
 Sisera halted after his defeat. Others had settled near 
 Jericho.2 But their natural home was in the South 
 of Judah, on the verge of the Desert. The origin of 
 the pecuhar customs with which they are credited here 
 lay far back in their wandering life. To such a people, 
 there is always a temptation, after a successful foray, 
 to settle down on the conquered lands and, while 
 acquiring the arts of peace, and practising the virtues 
 of civilization, to lose the simplicity and strength of 
 the Desert. It was no doubt on this account that 
 they bound themselves never " to build houses, or sow 
 seed, or plant vineyards," but to dwell in tents. Under 
 pressure of circumstances, e.g. while the surround- 
 ing country was overrun by Chaldean soldiery, they 
 might retire into the city, but it was still to pitch 
 their tents on the waste land lying within the walls. 
 Such customs are not to be regarded as positive laws, 
 entered on a statute book. If they are associated 
 here with the name of Jonathan, it is only as all legisla- 
 tion in the East is associated with the name of some 
 honoured Urvater of the tribe. Rather, they represent 
 the traditions of a desert folk, impatient of restraint, 
 and scornful of a Ufe more stationary, and therefore 
 
 ' The names given in verse 3 indicate so much. Jahveh 
 enters into composition with the first and second — presumptive 
 proof of adhesion to the Jewish faith. The same might be said 
 of the third name — Habazziniah. But in the LXX, it is 
 abbreviated to Habazzin. 
 
 * See Judges i, 16. 
 
SIDE-LIGHTS 287 
 
 more dependent on its surroundings, than their 
 own. 
 
 For these sons of Jonadab the prophet had a not 
 unnatural admiration. He invites some of their 
 representatives ^ to a feast in one of the chambers, 
 or halls, within the Temple courts * and places before 
 them beakers of wine such as a seasoned toper might 
 assay. They had no need to excuse themselves to 
 the prophet, when they refused to drink. Would to 
 God that all were as faithful to their vows, as loyal 
 to the traditions of their past, as were these stalwart 
 sons of the Desert ; so thinks the prophet. " Thus 
 saith Jahveh of Hosts, God of Israel, go and say to 
 the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 Will ye not receive instruction and hearken to my 
 words ? saith Jahveh. The words of Jonadab, the son 
 of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink 
 wine are established ; and to this day they drink 
 none, for they obey their father's instruction. But I 
 have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking, 
 and ye have not hearkened unto me." The contrast 
 is striking. Jonadab, the son of Rechab, had been 
 dead for more than two centuries. He was a mere 
 name to these men ; he had done nothing for them ; 
 he had no power to enforce his commands. What he 
 required of them was, if wise and wholesome, still, 
 imder existing circumstances, an irksome restraint. 
 
 ^ In verse 3, instead of : And all his sons, read (with the 
 LXX) : and his sons. 
 
 * For the use of these Chambers (Lishakdth) compare 
 I Sam. ix, 22 ; also Ezek. xl, 17-45. I" J^'^- xxxvi, 10 we 
 read of such a Chamber used by Gemariah opening into 
 the Temple Court, from which Baruch could read to the 
 people. On the other hand, some were more private — reserved 
 for State officials (xxxvi, 20). The "Sons of Hanan " are 
 probably members of a Guild, of which Hanan was head. 
 
288 SIDE-LIGHTS 
 
 Yet they had established his words. Jahveh was the 
 living God, enforcing His laws by constant appeals 
 and solemn sanctions ; only good had ever come from 
 Him ; yet they had not incUned their ear, nor hearkened 
 to Him. 
 
 In verses i8, 19 follows a promise to the Rechabites : 
 " Thus saith Jahveh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Because 
 you have hearkened to the command of Jonadab, 
 your father, and kept all his commandments, and done 
 according to all he commanded you ; therefore thus 
 sayeth Jahveh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, 
 the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before 
 Me for ever." Commentators, with infinite pains, have 
 unearthed a passage from Eusebius, a Christian writer 
 of the third century, in which he speaks of a Rechabite 
 Priesthood as existing in his day ; another instance, 
 according to some, of the literal fulfilment of prophecy. 
 But in truth, unless we can prove that the Rechabites 
 remained faithful to their vows, we have no right to 
 speak of the fulfilment, literal or otherwise, of a promise 
 which, like all the promises of God, was conditional. 
 What we find here is a general principle : Given loyalty 
 to a cause and readiness to suffer for it, you must 
 reckon with that cause, as a factor in history. The 
 element of permanence is in it. On the other hand, 
 the best cause may be betrayed by faithless or half- 
 hearted supporters ; in such hands, even the cause 
 of God must fail. 
 
 An excellent analogy to this instance of Desert 
 Loyalty is furnished by Dean Stanley in his Sinai 
 and Palestine. "To-day occurred a curious instjince 
 of the tenacity with which the Bedouins maintain 
 their traditions. We passed a cairn said to be the 
 grave of the horse of Abu Zinneb, his horse killed in 
 battle. Who Abu Zinneb was, where he lived, and 
 
SIDE-LIGHTS 289 
 
 what the battle was, is not known, but he left an 
 ordinance that every Arab should throw sand on the 
 cairn, as if it were barley, and say. Eat, eat, O horse of 
 Abu Zinneb, as if the dead creature were stiU alive. So 
 said the Bedouin ; and accordingly, every man uttered 
 the words, and pushed the sand twice or thrice with 
 his foot as he passed. I could not help thinking of 
 the Rechabites as described by Jeremiah." 
 
 19 
 
THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 
 Chapter XXXVI 
 
 IN chap. XXV, we read that the word of Jahveh came 
 to Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakitn. 
 The great battle of Carchemish had been fought ; 
 Egyptian hopes of extended empire had received a 
 fatal blow ; a new and striking figure had emerged 
 on the stage of history. In this year the prophet 
 received directions to commit to writing the substance 
 of his previous teaching, and thus to make a fresh 
 appeal to the conscience of his people.'- The fact 
 that his ministerial activity was, even partially and 
 for a time, curtailed ^ may have inclined him to a 
 
 ' Erbt strikes out verse 3, principally on the ground that 
 the substance of it occurs in xxvi, 3. But it is only the sub- 
 stance ; and it is natural chat the hope, however faint, of 
 winning back his people, should find expression at every great 
 crisis in the prophet's life. In verse 2, instead of : " Concern- 
 ing Israel and concerning Judah," read (with the LXX) : 
 Concerning Jerusalem and concerning Judah. Duhm, of 
 course, omits : " And concerning the nations." 
 
 ' " lam shut up" ('Ac6r), I cannot go into Jahve's house." 
 The reason for this exclusion from the Temple is not given. It 
 may have been the result of the 6meute of which chap, xxvi 
 gives an account. So Giesebrecht. Duhm thinks such an idea 
 " ganz Willkuhrlich," and thinks rather of some temporary 
 ceremonial defilement. With this, one may compare the 
 phrase 'acur ve'azOtb (i.e. Taboo and Free) as probably indicat- 
 ing the two classes into which, from an ecclesiastical point of 
 view, the community was divided (W.R.S.) (Religion of Semites, 
 
 290 
 
THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 291 
 
 course by which he might not only maintain, but 
 extend his influence over the counsels of the nation. 
 The result of this important departure is narrated in 
 chap, xxxvi. There are indications at various points 
 of an eye-witness (see verses i6 and 22) ; and we cannot 
 doubt that we owe this important chapter to Baruch's 
 hand. For its bearing on the wider question of the 
 composition of the Book, the reader is referred back 
 to the General Introduction. The chapter is highly 
 interesting. Into very brief space is crowded quite 
 a large number of figures full of life and of conflicting 
 passions. 
 
 Verses 1-8. First of all, we see the prophet in his 
 own home. Baruch, the faithful friend and fellow 
 labourer, is at his side, pen in hand, ready to write. 
 On the table is spread a roll of parchment. The 
 prophet paces up and down the room, while he dic- 
 tates ; now pouring out a torrent of lava-like denun- 
 ciation, now softening into tender and passionate 
 appeal ; sometimes breaking off into silence, as one 
 who waits that Another may speak. One thinks of 
 St. Paul in his hired house at Rome, with Mark or 
 Luke by his side, his hand fettered, but his spirit 
 free, as he dictates one of those epistles which are 
 to this hour the precious heritage of the Church.^ 
 The first copy of the Prophet's Roll contained, as we 
 have seen, chaps, i-vi, with passages from chap. 
 XXV as postscript. The task of dictation, therefore, 
 was not heavy. Moreover, it was a task of absorbing 
 interest ; of interest that grew, as they recalled the 
 
 p. 456). Evidently, as we gather from chap. xxv. the pro- 
 phet's activity was only circumscribed. Shut out from the 
 Temple, he had still the ear of the people. 
 
 1 Erbt, in this connexion, finely speaks of our prophet as 
 Der EvsU Paulus. 
 
292 THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 
 
 events of many stirring years, inserting here and 
 there a word of explanation, or comment, or re- 
 monstrance, directed, as it might happen to the 
 people for whom, or to Jahveh in whose name, he 
 wrote.^ 
 
 Verses 9, 10. From the prophet's rooms we are 
 transported to the Temple. Roll in hand Baruch 
 takes his seat on a flight of steps, leading to the chamber 
 of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, from which he could 
 command the crowded court. Close to this spot 
 some months before, the prophet had spoken out. 
 On these very steps, was held the rough-and-ready 
 tribimal before which he stood his trial ; and up these 
 steps he had been borne by Ahikam into safety, out 
 of the reach of an angry mob. A national fast had 
 been proclaimed, that, if possible, the advance of the 
 Chaldeans might be stayed.* Such acts of national 
 humiliation have always been the favourite resort of 
 an ungodly and superstitious age. From towns and 
 villages the people gather in, once again in that 
 mood of tremulous expectation which fitted them 
 to receive his message. A written address never tells 
 as the spoken word does ; and the impression made 
 by Baruch's reading was by no means so lively as 
 
 ^ Compare chap, iv, 22 ; chap. v. 3, etc. In a curious note 
 (p. 7) Erbt combats the possibility of any such modifications, 
 as contrary to the prophetic conception of their own office. 
 I cannot myself accept such a statement of the prophets' idea 
 of their relation to Jahveh. 
 
 * The Roll was written toward the end of the fourth year of 
 Jehoiakim. The Fast was held early in the following, fifth, 
 year. The LXX read : The eighth year (mistaking n for n). 
 The ninth month fell in the winter (cf. verse 22) ; from which 
 we gather that Jeremiah or Baruch (like Ezekiel) follows the 
 Babylonian reckoning, according to which the year began 
 in Spring, not in autumn, as in the old reckoning. 
 
THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 293 
 
 when the prophet himself stood before them, with 
 flashing eye and outstretched arm. Besides, the 
 people were subdued by the fear of impending .cata- 
 strophe, and were not incUned to criticize or protest. 
 In solemn silence they seem to have heard the Word 
 of God. Gemariah himself was absent, on duty in 
 the palace ; but his son Micaiah was there. Deeply 
 impressed with the words he heard, and perhaps still 
 more so by the sight of that great multitude of up- 
 turned faces, the boy hurries through the Temple 
 court to the Council Hall to tell his father. Again 
 the scene changes as we follow him. 
 
 Verses 11-20. The Council of State was in session 
 under the presidency of Elishama, successor of Shaphan. 
 We recognize Gemariah, and Elnathan,i the rest are 
 mere names, or shadows, to us. Eagerly the boy tells 
 his tale, and pictures the scene he has just witnessed 
 in the Court. They recognize the need for prompt 
 action ; and despatch Jehudi, the ushei* or Black Rod 
 of the Council, to fetch Baruch. Jehudi's great- 
 great-grandfather was an Ethiopian proselyte ; he 
 himself, the first of his family to be naturalized within 
 the city, seems to have adopted the national, as his 
 proper name, the Jew. There is a touch of official 
 peremptoriness in the summons he conveys to Baruch : 
 " That Roll which thou readest in the ears of the 
 people, take it in thy hand, and come." Baruch's 
 reception by the Council is more courteous ; he is 
 invited to take his seat and read. With a select and 
 critical audience before him, we may be sure he did 
 his best ; and the impression produced was profound. 
 We detect the hand of an eye-witness, Baruch's 
 own, in the narrative at this point. " It came to 
 pass when they heard all the words, they trembled 
 
 1 See chap, xxvi, 22. 
 
294 THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 
 
 each to each " ; i.e., each man as he turned to look his 
 neighbour in the face, saw his own fears reflected there ;^ 
 But no word is spoken till Baruch ends. Then they 
 cross-question as to his authority : Tell us now, how 
 didst thou Write all these words ? Then Baruch said 
 unto them : " He spake all these words to me with his 
 mouth, and I wrote them with my hand." ^ A matter 
 of such importance must evidently be reported to the 
 king ; but the nobles take the wise precaution of laying 
 up the Roll in the chamber of Elishamah, and advise 
 Baruch to betake himself, with the prophet, to some 
 place of secrecy. 
 
 Verses 21-26. The scene shifts again, as we cross 
 the palace court, and enter the private apartments 
 of the King.i It is midwinter, and a fire of coal bums 
 beside him, in a brazier. After a brief consultation, 
 Jehudi is despatched to fetch the Roll which, for a 
 third time that day, is unrolled and read. Meantime, 
 all eyes are bent on the King. He asks no questions, 
 makes no comment, offers no remonstrance. In gloomy 
 
 ^ Compare Milton's Paradise Lost, Book ii, 420 : 
 But all sat mute, 
 
 Considering the danger with deep thoughts ; and each 
 
 In other's countenance read his own dismay. 
 
 Astonished. 
 
 ^ In the Hebrew : He spake all these words to me with 
 his mouth, and I wrote them with ink. The LXX omit ! 
 With his mouth. Erbt follows them ; considering the omitted 
 phrase to be a gloss. The LXX also omit : With ink. Duhm 
 believes ink was used only in preparation of permanent 
 records : so used here. But it is surely better, with a slight 
 alteration of the text, to read as above. Thus (a) Baruch 
 received the message direct from the prophet's own mouth ; 
 and (6) with his own hand, he committed it to writing. 
 
 * M.T. reads : They went in to the King into the court, 
 i.e. they passed through the court so as to reach the royal 
 apartments. But read n"i"jn (to his private room). 
 
THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 295 
 
 silence he listens ; then, suddenly bending forward 
 he snatches the Roll from the reader's hands, cuts it 
 in pieces with a knife, and flings it, page by page, upon 
 the fire. Remonstrance is vain. Imperturbably reso- 
 lute, he pursues his work of destruction till a heap 
 of ashes smouldering on the hearth is aU that is left 
 of the prophet's Roll. 
 
 It was undoubtedly a crisis in Jehoiakim's Ufe ; 
 and a brief recapitulation of his eventful career may 
 be ventured at this point, as the best possible setting 
 to this dramatic scene. He was the son of Josiah, 
 a good man and a good king, a king beloved by his 
 people, and mourned by them with passionate sorrow 
 when he fell. The traditions of Jehoiakim's home, the 
 influences of his youth were, therefore, of the very best ; 
 but neither heredity nor environment can eradicate 
 individuaUty. On the death of Josiah, a younger 
 son was preferred to the throne, a youth irresolute 
 as he was unprincipled, ^ whose brief and tragic career 
 stands in sharp contrast to that of his father. Few 
 men, indeed, have been so carefully schooled by Provi- 
 dence as Jehoiakim was. Both sides of life were shown 
 him, before he was called to live his own. He saw 
 how much might come of unselfish devotion and high 
 ideals, and what must come of indecision and folly. 
 His own choice was soon made. Naturally hard and 
 selfish, he was checked neither by the fear of God, nor 
 by the love of man. His own ambition seems to have 
 been to impress the popular imagination. This he 
 proceeded to do, in an age of financial exhaustion, by 
 indulging in wanton and childish excess. His mania 
 for building has already been referred to.^ The city 
 was builded in blood and founded in iniquity till 
 
 ^ 2 Kings xxiii, 32. ' See chap. xxii. 
 
296 THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 
 
 " the stone from the wall cried out against him, and 
 the rafter echoed its cry." ^ 
 
 Jehoiakim was not allowed to go on unwarned. 
 With the freedom of a countryman, Urijah, of Kirjath- 
 jearim, spoke out. Habakkuk, whose words we have 
 just quoted, heaped woe upon woe on his guilty head. 
 He silenced the one ; the other he could afford to 
 neglect. Jeremiah was not to be dealt with so lightly. 
 His long career, his lofty character, his impressive 
 personality forbade that. Moreover there was about 
 him a note of insistence which even a king could not 
 overcome. Nor was it only by the hving voice, that 
 Jahveh spoke. Heavy imposts levied by Egypt, the 
 suzerain power, as well as repeated visitations of 
 pestilence and drought, wasted the land. And now 
 a new and more terrible calamity impended, the 
 iavasion of the Chaldean host. It is probable that 
 Jehoiakim broke off all intercourse with Jeremiah 
 early in his reign. It is significant that no mention 
 is made of him in chap, xxv, a trumpet blast which 
 must have wakened echoes, even within the palace. 
 And now it was reported that the prophet's words 
 were being read within the Temple court, in the hearing 
 of aU the people. Jehoiakim's attitude to the prophet's 
 message was practically that of the African chief 
 to Moffat, when he preached about the Resurrection : 
 " I do not like this word about the dead rising ; the 
 dead must not rise ; the dead shall not rise." All 
 this endless talk about the North, about the necessity 
 for submission to the Chaldean yoke, was seditious 
 claptrap. Somehow, thinks the king, it must be 
 ended. And now his chance has come. Reaching 
 forward, he takes the Roll, and, cutting it up, flings 
 
 1 Hab. ii, according to Rothstein's interesting analysis 
 of the chapter. 
 
THE BUENING OF THE ROLL 297 
 
 it on the fire, and watches it as it bums. It was his 
 only comment ; the ultimatum of an angry king to a 
 seditious prophet, and to all those high Spiritual 
 Powers, which lay behind him. How much further 
 Jehoiakim might have gone, it is hard to say. There 
 are unseen hands which hinder us, at times, from the 
 evil we are fain to do. " The king commanded Jerah- 
 meel, the king's son, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, 
 and Shelemiah, the son of Abdiel, to fetch Baruch 
 the scribe, and Jeremiah the prophet ; but Jahveh 
 hid them." 
 
 Jeremiah was not the man imduly to consult '^his 
 safety, or to sit down under such an insult. He seems 
 to have sought out the king, apparently venturing 
 his head, like] a second EUjah, within the palace. 
 A stormy interview took place, in which the king, 
 ignoring much that was innocent in the Roll, fastens 
 on the prophet's latest and most treasonable utterance : 
 " Why hast thou written therein saying, The King of 
 Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, 
 and shall cause to cease from it man and beast ?"i 
 But the prophet was not there to reason or retract. 
 His real reply is a second copy of the RoU, already 
 in preparation, with additions not unworthy of royal 
 notice (verse 32). 
 
 So they parted, and probably never met again. 
 For three years the king, who would not yield to 
 reason, bent to force and paid tribute to the Chaldean. 
 
 ^ See chap, xxv, 8-10. Duhm rejects the entire passage xxxvi, 
 27-32. Erbt thinks that verses 29-31 are the comment of a 
 later hand. The style is undoubtedly involved ; but I can 
 hardly think that the most careless of Editors would follow 
 the preceding narrative with such a note, unless he had some 
 authority for a personal interview between the prophet and 
 the king. 
 
298 THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 
 
 After that, tempted by the hope of succour from 
 Egypt, he revolted. Then the land was overrun ; 
 and finally, Nebuchadrezzar, raising the siege of Tyre, 
 started southward to end the intolerable struggle 
 by the capture of Jerusalem. Ere he arrived on the 
 scene, Jehoiakim was no more. His end is wrapt in 
 obscurity. According to 2 Chronicles xxxvi, 6, he 
 was carried to Babylon in fetters ; according to 2 Kings 
 xxiv, 6, he was gathered to his fathers ; while 
 the LXX, in 2 Chronicles xxxvi, 8, says that he was 
 buried in the garden of Uzzah.^ It is easy to attempt 
 to harmonize these varying accounts, following Ewald's 
 lead ; but, in the absence of further information, results 
 must be purely conjectural. 
 
 In chap, xxxvi, we are brought face to face with 
 a soul in the crisis of its spiritual history. We know 
 that the prophet's Roll was written to move the 
 people to repentance ; and we cannot doubt that a 
 merciful Providence directed it thus strangely to the 
 palace, so as to make one last appeal to the conscience 
 of a king. Jehoiakim might have Hstened ; he might 
 have softened ; he might have yielded even then. 
 But it is not easy for any of us suddenly to alter the 
 standpoint from which we view things. The habits 
 of a life are the masters of a man. We make our choice 
 lightly, thoughtlessly ; but behind the choice we make 
 is the character that makes us ; and finality is an 
 important element in character. For a moment 
 the awful conflict is waged ; then, the die is cast. 
 The Roll is burned, and defiance hurled in the face 
 of the Eternal. We know what that meant. It was 
 easy to burn the Roll ; it was rewritten. It was easy 
 to stifle conscience ; it was impossible to stay the 
 progress of events. God has other ways of teaching 
 
THE BURNING OF THE ROLL 299 
 
 those who will not hear ; fetters that cut deep into 
 the flesh, and write truth upon the soul at last. 
 
 As a study in revelation, the chapter is full of inter- 
 est. " In the fourth year of Jehoiakim came the 
 word of Jahveh." So God speaks to men in the shock 
 of battle, and the fall of empires ; and every turn of 
 the political kaleidoscope witnesses some new and 
 impressive development of the Divine purpose. The 
 prophet dictates ; Baruch writes ; Jehudi carries the 
 Roll. The human agency is manifold. A single copy 
 of the Holy Scriptures represents almost every pos- 
 sible energy of the mind of man, from the highest 
 ititellectual effort in translation, to such simple arts 
 as typefounding and bookbinding. Yet the result is 
 always an unity, and declares itself with indisputable 
 force to be the Word of God. The effect varies with 
 the material on which it works ; but always it finds 
 what is central in a man, and appeals to that. Most 
 of all, we see here the indestructible vitality of the 
 Word of God. No book has had so wonderful a history 
 as the Bible. Mercilessly criticized, ludicrously tra- 
 vestied, deliberately refuted, it has been burned at 
 the stake a hundred times, and every time, like the 
 fabled Phoenix, has risen from its own ashes. How 
 many a subtle intellect has sharpened its weapons on 
 the Book. How many an idle dreamer has made merry 
 over the grave in which he has buried this symbol of 
 Superstition and Priesthood. They are all gone, 
 their names lost in oblivion ; but the Bible lives. A 
 few feet of earth cover the dust of her adversaries ; 
 but the wide earth awaits her coming and hastens to 
 own her sway. " Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
 but My word shall not pass away." " The word of 
 Jahveh endureth for ever." 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY ^ 
 
 WE come now to the Fall of the city, the last act 
 in the long tragedy which we have been 
 following. Jerusalem lies on the edge of the central 
 plateau of Palestine. Almost encircling it, are the 
 two great valleys, Kedron and Hinnom, which unite 
 and trend in a south-easterly direction toward the Dead 
 Sea. Seen from the Mount of Olives, with the inter- 
 vening valley in the foreground of the picture, the city 
 seems to lie like an eyrie perched on the crest of a rock, 
 a place of exceptional safety and strength. Thither 
 as on eagle's wings, Jahveh had borne His people from 
 the Desert ; and there, for four centuries, lofty and 
 lonely like the eagle's brood, a great nation had gathered 
 strength. Now the nest must be stirred, and the 
 brood fly away. 
 
 The natural situation of Jerusalem explains the two 
 most remarkable features in her history. First of all, 
 the fact that she enters so late into the life of the 
 Covenant people ; the other, the fact that, when at 
 last she is absorbed into it, she becomes at once its 
 heart and head. From that moment her history is 
 one long battle. The first glimpse we have of Jeru- 
 salem is characteristic. Four great kings, each with 
 an army at his back, have swept the fertile plain of 
 Jordan, passing within sight of the city, themselves 
 to fall a prey to the agile, light-armed band of Abram 
 
 ' See chaps, xxxiv, 1-7 ; xxi, 1-7 ; xxxvii, xxxviii, xxxix, 
 and lii. 
 
 300 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 301 
 
 the Hebrew. As he returns to his home on the heights 
 of Hebron, Abram halts under _the shadow of these 
 frowning crags, while Melchisedec, the King of Salem, 
 comes to meet him with what is, in spite of the sacra- 
 mental theories of modem theologians, a very simple 
 and human offering of bread and wine, refreshment 
 for his weary men. Thus, from the dawn of History, 
 the city smiles down on us, a home of peace amid a 
 scene of war. During the four centuries when Israel 
 was in Egypt, Palestine was annexed as a province 
 by the Pharaohs. An Egyptian Resident had his 
 seat in Jerusalem ; and letters are extant in which 
 his withdrawal is deprecated as throwing open the 
 floodgates of anarchy and civil strife throughout the 
 land. After the entrance of Israel into Canaan, 
 Jerusalem seems to have defied their assaults. It 
 remained in possession of the Jebusite, boasting that 
 " the blind and the lame " could garrison a city which 
 Nature herself had made impregnable to assault. After 
 it changed hands, Jerusalem became the City of David 
 and, with the advent of the Ark, the Sanctuary of the 
 national life. Again and again the tide of battle 
 washed up against her walls. For brief intervals she 
 fell into the hands of aliens ; but always to revert to her 
 normal condition of isolation and independence. Even 
 Sennacherib who, like a schoolboy, boasts that he has 
 harried the nests and stolen the eggs of every nation 
 under the sun,* fails here. The eagle's nest hangs 
 high out of. his reach ; and, with a flap of her wings, 
 the brooding bird strikes death to the aggressor's heart. 
 Times have changed since then. Let the reader 
 make one more valiant effort to realize the political 
 situation during the reign of the last king of David's 
 House. Zedekiah reigned eleven years — from 597 to 
 ^ Isa. X, 14. 
 
302 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 586 B.C. At first content to play the part of vassal 
 to the Chaldean king, he was sucked into the whirlpool 
 of Syrian politics and placed the city at the disposal 
 of the International Congress which met in 593. Of 
 that, as we have seen, nothing came. For some years 
 the King remained inactive, chafing under a yoke which 
 he did not venture to throw off ; but the Egyptian 
 party in Jerusalem grew stronger, and forced his 
 hand.i With 588 came the crisis. Psammetichus had 
 joined Osiris and the heroes beyond the river of 
 Death. Hophrah was now on the throne, a man of 
 restless, ambitious spirit, bent on high enterprise. 
 Relations between Egypt and Judah grew closer, and 
 resulted in a defensive alliance in which the Ammonites 
 seem to have joined. Meantime the Chaldean king 
 was prosecuting the hopeless siege of Tyre. There 
 seemed a fair chance of success ; at least there was 
 the certainty of a sharp and decisive conflict. So 
 formidable a coaUtion could not be neglected. Even 
 Tyre must be forfeited, rather than all Syria lost. A 
 large body of men was detached and sent South to 
 quell the mutinous tribes. In a lively passage Ezekiel 
 reflects the prevailing uncertainty as to its objective. 
 The army halts, and sacrifices are offered. Two 
 arrows, one with Rabath-Ammon inscribed on it, the 
 other with Jerusalem, are thrown into a helmet and 
 shaken in presence of the Teraphim. Then the King 
 pulls out that of Jerusalem, and the die is cast.^ This 
 is of course prophetic imagination. What really 
 decided Nebuchadrezzar to move against Jerusalem 
 was the timely submission of the Ammonites. 
 
 Meantime, within the city things had gone from 
 bad to worse. The best of the old aristocracy, the 
 blue blood of the land, had been drained away, and 
 1 See Ezek. xvii, 6. 2 See Ezek, xxi, 20. 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 303 
 
 men of a wild, irresponsible, and revolutionary spirit 
 had usurped their place. Moreover many of the vessels 
 of the Temple had been deported,^ and thus, while 
 the Temple service was shorn of its glory, the Priest- 
 hood lost much of its influence over the people, who were 
 more readily impressed by a solemn pageant than by 
 argument or appeal. Throughout the reign of Zede- 
 kiah the priests seem to have supported the king ; the 
 nobles, on the other hand, browbeat or ignored him. 
 A reed in their hand, they could make him play any 
 tune they pleased ; and were prepared, when it was 
 needful, to break their toy and fling it aside. Through 
 these dark days Jeremiah must have stood practi- 
 cally alone, a witness for the truth which could be 
 vindicated only by the rejection of his people. 
 
 Chap, xxxiv, 1-7. The Chaldean army advanced 
 along the coast line, subduing one by one the towns 
 of the Shepheleh, as Sennacherib had done a century 
 before. An invading army must travel light, unen- 
 cumbered either by baggage or captives ; and the 
 unfortunate inhabitants of these fallen towns were 
 despatched at once, no doubt in chains, to Baby Ion. ^ 
 
 ^ See chap, xxvii. 
 
 ^ See chap, lii, 28. In the original the passage reads : 
 " This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried captive 
 in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews ; in the eighteenth year of 
 Nebuchadrezzar, he carried captive from Jerusalem 832 
 persons ; in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, 
 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried captive 745 
 persons ; all the persons were 4,600." Now the seventh year 
 of Nebuchadrezzar coincides with the brief reign of Jehoiachin. 
 But, as the numbers here given do not agree with 2 Kings 
 xxiv, 14, Ewald proposes to read the seventeenth year. The 
 verse will then refer to the year preceding the Fall of the City ; 
 the eighteenth year of Nebucha drezzar to that of the Fall ; 
 and the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar to a subsequent 
 
304 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 Lachish and Azekah alone remained ; when these had 
 fallen, the capital stood full in view. At this time, late 
 in 598, the prophet received a message from Jahveh 
 for the King. The enemy was still distant. Egj^t was 
 strong ; and it was evident that Zedekiah did not realize 
 his danger. As to the final issue, there is no doubt 
 in the prophet's mind. By siege or surrender, the city 
 must fall. Yet if the king's eyes could be opened, 
 there was still time, by an unconditional surrender, 
 to avert the horrors of a siege. We note the concilia- 
 tory attitude Jeremiah adopts to Zedekiah, and the 
 reassuring words as to his personal fate with which he 
 comforts him — his personal fate with which he com- 
 forts him. {v. 2) " Thus saith Jahveh, Behold, I am 
 giving this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, 
 and he shall burn it with fire. [v. 3) And thou shalt 
 not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken 
 and delivered into his hand ; and thine eyes shall see 
 the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak 
 with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt come to 
 Babylon, {v. 4) Only hear the word of Jahveh, Zede- 
 kiah king of Judah : Thus saith Jahveh concerning 
 thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword, {v. 5) Thou 
 shalt die in peace ; and, as the burnings of thy fathers, 
 so shall they bum odours for thee, and they shall 
 lament for thee. Ah, lord ! for I have spoken the word, 
 saith Jahveh." 
 
 [Chap, xxxiv, i is Editorial, inflated in style, and worthless 
 alongside of verses 6-8, the original heading which it has dis- 
 placed. The phrase : He shall speak with thee mouth to 
 mouth (verse 3), is doubtful. The LXX omit it ; but it 
 occurs in another passage (xxxii, 1-5) which is evidently based 
 on this. Whether we accept or reject the phrase, it is not 
 
 incursion of which Josephus, Antiq. x, 9, 7, may be accepted 
 as confirmation . 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 305 
 
 meant to convey the idea of a kind and brotherly reception 
 on the part of the Chaldean king. Any words of comfort the 
 prophet has to speak begin with verse 4. Rather the emphasis 
 laid on this personal interview is meant to exclude all hope of 
 escape.] 
 
 Chap, xxxvii, 11. Early in the spring of 587 the 
 aspect of affairs changed for the better ; a relieving 
 force from Egypt moved Northward. We can easily 
 understand the wild joy with which the news was 
 received in the city, already beginning to feel the pinch 
 of hunger. The immediate result was undoubtedly 
 satisfactory. The Chaldean camp was struck, and 
 the army moved Southward to meet the foe. But 
 Egypt was still true to the description Isaiah gives of 
 her : a Sit-still, full of brag and bluster, prodigal 
 of promises, but chary of performance. Without 
 striking a blow, the relieving force retired into 
 quarters ; the Chaldeans reappeared before Jerusalem 
 and the cordon of Death was drawn closer about the 
 city. 
 
 Chap, xxxiv, 8-22. About the same time an event 
 occurred within the city which illustrates the temper 
 of the people, a curious blend of the superstitious and 
 irreligious. Realizing the desperate straits in which 
 they had placed themselves, yet not without hope 
 that Jahveh might interpose to dehver them, they 
 entered into a solemn league and covenant, which 
 must have vividly recalled the great Reformation of 
 Josiah's reign. The King himself appears to have 
 been the leader of the movement ; and whatever 
 vitality it had was probably due to him. According 
 to the Deuteronomic code,i every Hebrew who had 
 sold himself into bondage to one of his brethren 
 must be liberated at the expiry of six years, and 
 
 1 See Deut. xv, 12-18. 
 J. 20 
 
306 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 provided with means to make a fresh start in Hfe. 
 It is questionable whether this law Wcis ever put 
 into force. Certainly it was already a dead letter. 
 The city was crowded with slaves, men and women, 
 who, driven within the walls by the advance of the 
 enemy, and reduced to beggary by the high prices 
 common in those unsettled times, had sold themselves 
 to their more fortunate brethren. Face to face with 
 dire necessity, the people felt the prick of conscience ; 
 and a royal proclamation was made, conferring freedom 
 on all such bondmen. The matter was gone into with 
 all the formalities of a reUgious rite. Sacrifices were 
 offered, and representatives of all classes passed be- 
 between the bleeding parts, binding themselves to fulfil 
 their vow.^ The silence of the prophet in regard to 
 this transaction at the time, probably means that he 
 had little faith in it ; and his adverse judgment was 
 justified by results. Scarcely had the solemn engage- 
 ment been made than the Chaldean camp, for reasons 
 then unknown, broke up, and the siege ended. Had 
 there been a grain of sincerity in the people, such a 
 coincidence must have stirred them up to make good 
 their part of the bargain, and to inaugurate still larger 
 measures of reform. The result was very different. 
 No sooner was the immediate pressure relaxed, than 
 they repented of their repentance. It appeared to 
 them that they had acted rashly. They had incurred 
 a heavy financial responsibility. They had imperilled 
 the safety of the State by flooding their streets with 
 a multitude of irresponsible freedmen. Pretexts were 
 easily found or made ; and, without having tasted the 
 joy of freedom, and before they had time to reckon 
 their numbers or reaUze their power, the slaves were 
 
 1 See verses 17-22. 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 307 
 
 dragged back to a bondage all the more bitter because 
 of disappointed hopes. 
 
 It was at this point that the prophet interposed. 
 He assures them that, in rescinding the measure of 
 justice so lately passed, they were disowning the 
 authority under which they had acted. He pointed 
 out, in that passionless and almost cynical tone which 
 he could adopt toward evil-doers, the inevitable con- 
 sequence. " Thus saith Jahveh : Ye have profaned 
 My name in causing every man his bondman, and 
 every man his bondmaid, whom ye had let go at their 
 pleasure, to return " (verse i6). It is not possible to 
 mistake the meaning of so noble an utterance. The 
 cause of Humanity is the cause of God. The sin of 
 Judah lay, not in the breach of a formal promise, but 
 in the denial to their own flesh and blood of that free- 
 dom which is the birthright of all. And now, what they 
 had refused to do to others, Jahveh would do to them. 
 They had remanded their slaves to their tasks ; Jahveh, 
 on His part, retaliates: "Benold I give you your dis- 
 missal." Erewhile his servants, they are handed over 
 to famine and the sword (verse 17). The stem words 
 were speedily made good. Almost as the prophet 
 spoke, tidings reached them that the Egyptians had 
 gone home, and the Chaldeans were once more at their 
 gates. The siege was resumed, and pressed. Famine 
 played into the hands of the besiegers ; while the 
 slaves, who might have been their aUies in defence, 
 stood by, sullen and disaffected. 
 
 [In verse 8, the phrase, " To proclaim hberty unto them," 
 must, if retained, be rendered: To proclaim for them a 
 freedom. The pronoun refers, not to the slaves who were to be 
 set free ; for they have not yet been mentioned ; but to the 
 people in whose name (" for them ") the King acts. But the 
 phrase is absent in the LXX ; probably borrowed from verse 17. 
 
308 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 Verse g. Driver reads : That none should serve themselves 
 of him, to wit, of a Jew, his brother. Duhm and Erbt (follow- 
 ing the LXX) read : That no man from Judah should be in 
 bondage. Duhm thinks that slaves from the North (Shechem 
 or Shiloh) might have fared worse ! Giesebrecht reads : 
 That they should not, any longer, keep them in bondage. 
 
 Duhm rejects the entire passage, verses 12-22. Erbt 
 rescues a single phrase in verse 17. (Behold, I give you your 
 dismissal.) Duhm thinks the whole transaction was purely 
 political and prudential. Erbt allows it a religious colour in so 
 far as the people hoped by an act of spontaneous generosity 
 to others (Jahveh ein ubriges zu thun), to secure Jahve's 
 favour for themselves. Both critics reject all reference to the 
 Deuteronomic code and find in verses 12-22 the attempt of a 
 later Editor to introduce a theological significance which is base- 
 less. No doubt verses 13-16 are a thoroughgoing paraphrase in 
 approved Editorial style. But for verses 17-22 there must, I 
 think, be a base of fact. In its original form the text may have 
 read thus : verse 17 : "Therefore, thus saith Jahve, ye have 
 not hearkened to Me to give dismissal every man to his 
 brother, and every man to his neighbour. Behold, I give you 
 your dismissal, saith Jahve — to the sword, and to the pesti- 
 lence, and the famine. (Verse 18) And I will give the men who 
 have not kept the terms of the covenant which they made 
 before the calf, which they cut in twain when they passed 
 between the parts of it, (Verse 20) I will even give them into 
 the hands of their enemies, etc." 
 
 Offended by the phrase : " Before the calf," the Massoretes 
 have altered the pointing ("Before Me — the calf"). Gram- 
 mar is hopelessly wrecked ; but propriety and theology are 
 saved ! The LXX, pursuing an imaginary reference to the 
 golden calf in the wilderness (based on verse 13) read : The 
 calf which they made to worship it.] 
 
 Chaps, xxi, 1-7, xxxvii, i-io. Hitherto we have 
 seen the prophet waiting on the King. It was now 
 the King's turn to wait upon the prophet. During 
 the interval of the siege he sent Pashhur, the son of 
 Melcaiah, and Zephaniah, the priest, pressing Jeremiah 
 to inquire of Jahveh whether the temporary rehef 
 meant permanent deliverance. The prophet could 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 309 
 
 hold out no such hope ; already, and without a blow 
 struck, the Egyptians had retired. A demoniac energy 
 inspired the Chaldeans, so that, were they all wounded 
 and even dead men in their tents, they should yet rise 
 up, a phantom host, with fingers tipped with fire, and 
 burn the city (chap, xxxvii, lo). The asperity of the 
 prophet's tone, and the absence of the comfortable 
 words with which he has been used to encourage the 
 King, were no doubt due to the disapproval with which 
 he viewed the public breach of faith in connexion with 
 the slaves, and the King's part, however passive, in it. 
 
 [The two passages cited above are so much alike that the 
 question of their mutual relation is raised. Duhm regards the 
 former as a paraphrase of the latter. Giesebrecht, on the 
 other hand, emphasizes the indications of a slightly different 
 situation, and the absence in the former (xxi, 1-7, which he 
 regards as the earlier) of any reference to the Relieving Force 
 from Egypt. Stade endeavours to interweave the two narra- 
 tives. An examination of xxxvii, 1-5, leads to the following 
 conclusions : verses 1-2, which introduce Zedekiah as if for 
 the first time, are Editorial. So, and for the same reason, are 
 verses 4, 5. In verse 3, which remains, the King sends his 
 messengers to the prophet, inviting him to " intercede " for 
 them. But, according to verse 7, what they invite him to do is 
 " to inquire " for them. Evidently, the two verses were not 
 originally connected. On the other hand, in xxi, 1,2, we have 
 the notice of a Deputation sent to the prophet inviting him 
 " to inquire " of Jahveh, to which in the sequel (verses 3-7) 
 there is no adequate response. Combine xxi, 1-2, with 
 xxxvii, 6-7 (the latter read, according to the LXX : " Thus 
 saith Jahveh, Thus shalt thou say to the King of Judah which 
 hath sent to thee, that thou mayest inquire of Me," etc.), and 
 we have first a royal request, and then the prophet's response. 
 Some difiiculty occurs in connexion with the names of the 
 deputation. Erbt is probably correct in giving a prefer- 
 ence to xxi, I. Jehucal has been introduced into xxxvii, 3, 
 from xxxviii, i ; while Pashhur, the son of Malcaiah (con- 
 founded with Pash^iur, the son of Immer), is omitted from 
 
310 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 xxxvii, 3, and introduced into xxxviii, i as an enemy of Jere- 
 miah. 
 
 xxi, 3-7, is conventional and Editorial. It is otherwise with 
 xxi, 8-10.] 
 
 Chap, xxi, 8-10. It was not only with kings and 
 kings' envoys, our prophet had to do. Now, as always, 
 his first thought must have been for the people who, 
 blinded and misled, were still Jahveh's flock. His 
 appeal to them during the siege has been preserved for us 
 in a brief fragment. The style is almost epigrammatic 
 in its concise and antithetic brevity, and suggests a 
 repetition which must have made it familiar to all. 
 The issue is put before them with a merciful plainness, 
 which, however offensive to delicate ears, precluded 
 the possibility of mistake. With their leaders as they 
 are, the prophet assures them, it is impossible to save 
 the city ; what is yet possible for them, one and all, 
 is to save themselves : " Thus saith Jahveh, Behold 
 I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 
 He that abideth in the city shall die by the sword ; he 
 that goeth out and falleth to the Chaldeans shall live, 
 and his life shall be his spoil." Such an utterance was of 
 course open to various interpretations, according to the 
 standpoint of his audience. To what then did he summon 
 them ? To desertion, or secession ? To surrender of 
 a, sacred charge, or submission to the will of Heaven ? 
 One thing is certain, the prophet's words did not fall 
 on deaf ears. Quite a number left the city and formed 
 a Jewish party in the Chaldean camp. One of these, 
 Gedaliah, was destined to be the saviour of his people 
 and to add to the obligations under which the prophet 
 already lay to his noble house. 
 
 Chap, xxxvii, 11-16. Hitherto Jeremiah had pre- 
 served his freedom, moving up and down ^within 
 the city, receiving and returning official visits. But 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 311 
 
 this was soon to end. Taking advantage of the inter- 
 ruption of the siege, he starts for Anathoth to take 
 possession of some property which had fallen to him 
 there. At the gate of the city he is intercepted by the 
 officer in charge, Urijah, who, as "the grandson of Ha- 
 naniah," may have been a descendant of the prophet's 
 prot agonist during J ehoiakim's reign } Urij ah charges him 
 with treason as a deserter, and hurries him before the 
 authorities. It must be confessed that the prophet's 
 action, under the circumstances, was not wise. It was 
 open to misconstruction which a wise man should, if pos- 
 sible, avoid. On the other hand, the honest heat with 
 which he repels the insinuation is absolutely reassuring : 
 " Thou liest, I am not deserting." The evidence, 
 however, was against him, and the judges were pre- 
 judiced. He was roughly handled and thrust into a 
 dungeon, and there for many days he remained. 
 
 Chap, xxxvii, 17-21. Then occurred one of those 
 incidents which lend dramatic interest to the story, 
 a secret interview between Jeremiah and the King. 
 By stealth, probably under cover of night, he is brought 
 into the royal presence. Zedekiah cannot yet believe 
 that Jahveh has given up the city ; daily, hourly he 
 looks for some miraculous interposition. He asks the 
 prophet. Is there any word from Jahveh ? In a short, 
 sharp sentence his hopes are shattered : " Thou shalt 
 be delivered into the hands of the King of Babylon." 
 For a moment the prophet, unnerved by the loneliness 
 and privation of his prison life, breaks down. He asks 
 the King what he has done, that he should be treated 
 thus like a felon, and entreats that he may not be sent 
 back to the dungeon, where he must die of hunger. 
 It is the one trace of weakness he betrays through these 
 weary months. On the other hand, a gleam of unmis- 
 ^ See chap. xxix. 
 
312 THE FALL OF THE OITY 
 
 takable nobility lights up the bearing of the wretched 
 King. At the risk of his own life, he spares the man 
 who has just doomed him to a cruel fate. Risking 
 the resentment of the princes, he sends Jeremiah to 
 the comparative comfort of the guard-room, and 
 makes the needful provision for his wants. It was 
 there his cousin Hanameel found him out, and transacted 
 some family business of which the reader has heard. 
 Chap xxxviii. Jeremiah was no longer in a position 
 to harangue large audiences,^ but his friends were 
 admitted to his rooms, and on them, with the pertina- 
 city of intense conviction, he urges his policy of non- 
 resistance. Evidently his mouth must be' stopped. It 
 was now the turn of the princes to wait upon the King. 
 It was not their intention, in making this appeal, to 
 recognize the royal authority. They had not scrupled 
 to act without that, and even in defiance of it, on 
 previous occasions. Rather it was their purpose to 
 force the King's hand, and compel him openly to break 
 off all relations with the prophet. Were he to refuse, 
 were he still to befriend one who was so evidently 
 playing into the hands of the enemy, he himself would 
 be hopelessly discredited before the people. Zedekiah 
 felt his position keenly. He would fain have stood 
 by the man on whose word he had hung so often, but he 
 dared not. With a fretful, almost childish protest (" The 
 King is not he who can do anything against you ") 
 he lets them have their way. Once again Jeremiah 
 is immured, not now in the public prison, but in a 
 private dungeon, a damp and filthy place, where 
 the horrors of pestilence were added to the pangs of 
 famine. There he must have ended his days, but for 
 help from an unexpected quarter. 
 
 1 xxxviii, I ("All the people") is read by the LXX «Vt to 
 \a6v. 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 313 
 
 Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian eunuch, was one of an 
 unf orttmate class who paid with the loss of their manhood 
 for the safety and comfort they enjoyed, and owed to 
 the very limits which misfortune had imposed on them 
 the almost unlimited influence they possessed in the 
 wild and passionate life of an Eastern palace. The 
 story of Ebedmelech's relations with the prophet, is a 
 little idyll of simple human goodness amid the intrigues 
 of the Court ; it charms us with the sweetness and grace 
 of a wild flower. Evidently the two men had drawn 
 together, equally alone, though for different reasons ; 
 the one an alien, the other an outlaw ; the one, physi- 
 cally a dry tree, expanding, under the influence of the 
 other, into a beautiful summer of unselfish devotion. 
 When he heard of the prophet's imprisonment Ebed- 
 melech sought out the King, and roundly charged him 
 with a cruel outrage, taxing him with the guilt of a 
 crime he had not the courage to prevent ."^ His appeal 
 is successful ; and he obtains leave from the ever 
 irresolute King. Returning to his quarters in the 
 palace, he secures the help of able-bodied men, and 
 proceeds to the mouth of the dungeon. Lowering by 
 means of ropes a heap of rags, he bids the prophet put 
 them under his armpits, and draws him, thus delicately 
 cared for, into the light of day. " Inasmuch as ye did 
 it to one of the least of these my brethren ye did 
 it unto Me." Ebedmelech's kindly interposition did 
 not lose its reward. Softly, amid the crash of the 
 falling city, sounded the peaceful words of promise 
 which the prophet was commissioned to speak : " Thou 
 shalt not be given into the hands of the men thou 
 fearest. Thy life shall be a prey to thee because thou 
 
 1 So according to the LXX — implying an original text which 
 differed in form slightly, but in meaning greatly, from the 
 present M.T. 
 
314 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 hast put thy trust in Me, saith Jahveh " (chap, xxxix, 
 16-18). 
 
 For the last time King and prophet again met. 
 Of this last interview fuU particulars have been pre- 
 served. From the guard-room, the King causes the 
 prophet to be fetched by a secret passage.^ Even 
 yet it would appear the King has not quite given up 
 hope. Some sign from Jahveh there must be ; silence 
 on the prophet's part means no more than stubbornness. 
 Solemnly, he adjures him to speak out. But Jeremiah 
 was in no mood for this imposed interview. Why 
 waste his words on one who would not hear ? Why 
 commit himself to one who, perhaps, meant to betray 
 him to his enemies ? The King protests ; as himself 
 dependent on Jahveh for hfe, he will not lay a perjured 
 finger on a living thing.^ Moved by his evident 
 sincerity and pitiable distress, the prophet unbends. 
 Once more he pleads with him to take the only safe 
 and manly course, to save his people, if not himself, 
 by surrender. A curious side glance is given us here 
 into the mind of one of the strangest and unhappiest 
 of mortals. Even in this critical hour Zedekiah thinks 
 neither of the loss of his throne, nor of the sufferings 
 of his people, but of his own dignity. " I am afraid 
 
 1 " The Third entry " (A.V.). Probably we should read : The 
 gate of the Shalishtai. These were picked men who were in at- 
 tendance on a king and formed his body-guard (2 Kings vii, 2 and 
 ix, 25). Driver (on 2 Sam. xxiii, 8) renders the word : knights. 
 The origin of the term is obscure. Duhm points out that the 
 Temple was guarded by " a third part " (2 Kings xi, 5) ; but 
 that probably was only a temporary arrangement. We may 
 suppose that the entry here referred to was a secret passage by 
 which the officers of the guard might pass from their quarters 
 to the palace. 
 
 2 " As Jahveh liveth that hath made us this life '' — compare 
 the end of the verse (" Thy life "). 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 315 
 
 of the Jews that are fallen away to the Chaldeans, 
 lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock 
 me." Once again, the prophet speaks, doing his 
 uttermost to hearten the King to play the hard but 
 honourable part. He reminds him that the Chaldean 
 general will certainly not hand over a royal captive 
 to other and irresponsible hands. Even if he did, 
 what then ? Which is more to be feared, the gibes of 
 men who could only score off his misfortunes, or the 
 bitter reproaches of those, the women and children 
 of the palace, who must share his fate ? In long 
 sad line he sees them file past, going to face the horrors 
 of a captive's lot. " They shall say to thee : 
 
 They have seduced and prevailed against thee, 
 
 The men thou held'st friends. 
 When deep in mire thy feet were sunken, 
 
 Then drew they back." 
 
 [There is no mystery about these lines, such as Duhm 
 conjures up. The prophet does not profess to have received 
 them in vision, nor does he claim for them any prophetic 
 authority. They are a snatch of a popular song, setting forth, 
 in a homely and proverbial way, the Fortunes of a Fool. The 
 application to the King's case was plain enough ; those who 
 decoyed him, would be the first to desert him.] 
 
 What impression was made, we are left to gather 
 from the issue. Abruptly the King breaks off the 
 interview, with a parting request : " Let no man 
 know what we have said ; if they question you about 
 our interview, what I said, what you said ; say to 
 them, I presented my supplication to the King, that 
 he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house 
 to die there" (verse 26). That is Zedekiah's last 
 word, and it is characteristic of the man : Nothing 
 or anything, only do not give us away ! The prophet 
 does his best to screen him. In those days the sense 
 
316 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 of truth was as quick as it is to-day, but it was different. 
 Truth was not abstract or verbal, but concrete — truth 
 in action ; loyalty to others, particularly to those in 
 need, most of aU to one's king. So Jeremiah, being 
 a true man, told a he, and saved the King. 
 
 Chaps, xxxix and lii. With this ends our record 
 of the siege. After a struggle, which cannot have 
 lasted less than a full year, in the eleventh year of Zede- 
 kiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the 
 month, a breach was made in the wall of the city 
 through which the besiegers poured in. The Chaldean 
 officers, Nergal-Sharezar, the chief of the Magi, and 
 Nebu-shazban, the chief of the Eunuchs, set up their 
 seats of judgment in the market place,^ an open 
 ground near the gates ; and, amid wild confusion 
 and gross outrage, the work of destruction began.^ 
 Meantime, the King and his household had fled. The 
 wall of the city, running up into the Tyropean valley, 
 formed a narrow angle, near which must have stood 
 one of the city-gates, leading, through the King's 
 garden, toward the plain. By this gate they fled, 
 but were pursued and captured, and sent Northward 
 to Riblah, where Nebuchadrezzar was still lingering. 
 
 1 xxxix, 3. Instead of six officers, a closer scrutiny of the 
 text discovers the names of two. Nergal-Sharezar is twice 
 named. Sam-gar is the same (by inversion of letters) as 
 Rab-mag, Chief of the Magi, i.e. the name of an office, not of 
 a man. Nebo goes with Sarsachim (to be read here, as in 
 verse 13 ; Nebu-shazban). Rab-saris means Chief of the 
 Eunuchs, again the name of an office. Thus verse 3 corresponds 
 with verse 13. For the Magi (warriors, who, on the conquest 
 of Babylon, assumed the role of the Old Magi or Chaldean 
 priests), and the part they played in Babylonian history, parti- 
 cularly in the reign of Nebuchadrezzar (who practically owed 
 to them his throne), see Les Chaldeens, by Delattre. 
 
 * See Lam. v. 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 317 
 
 There the King's sons were slain before his eyes, and 
 then his eyes were put out. Thus in a horror of great 
 darkness ends a tragic career. 
 
 [Chap, xxxix is evidently composite ; an attempt from 
 various sources to sum up details as to the final scene. Verses 
 lb, 2 are borrowed from 2 Kings xxv, 1-3 ; and verses 4-10 
 are borrowed from the same source. Verses 11-13 are another 
 addition from quite a different source, the accuracy of which 
 can hardly be established, alongside of lii, 12. The original 
 text, as drawn from Baruch's narrative, is represented by 
 verse la, verse 3, and verses 14-18.] 
 
 From all that has gone before, it is not difficult to 
 form some conception of Zedekiah, the last king who 
 sat on the throne of David. He was one of those who 
 have the misfortune to be born out of due time. 
 Personally he was amiable and attractive, not with- 
 out an element of nobility, as we have seen, in his 
 composition. At almost any other time he might 
 have occupied the throne with an easy grace, as one 
 to the manner bom ; but he had not strength of 
 character, nor force of wUl to cope with such evil 
 times. A tool in the hands of the princes, he had just 
 enough of self-consciousness to make his position 
 intolerable. If not in the true sense of the word 
 religious, he was by no means without religious instincts. 
 He believed in Jahveh as Israel's God, and reverenced 
 the prophet as an oracle of Heaven. He had an insa- 
 tiable craving for ghostly advice ; unfortunately, he 
 had not the courage to act up to it when it was given. 
 We njotice as characteristic of the man an overween- 
 ing confidence in his own fortunes, in the inviolable 
 sanctity of his person, and in the safety of any cause 
 committed to his royal hands. He is always on the 
 outlook for some miraculous interposition to vindicate 
 
318 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 the authority by which he reigns. It is this combina- 
 tion of high ideaUsm and moral weakness, that lends 
 a subtle complexity to an otherwise shallow character, 
 and introduces an element of dramatic intensity into 
 his career. A parallel may be found in the character 
 of Richard II, as drawn by Shakespeare. 
 
 Oh, that I were as great as is my grief, 
 Or less than is my name ! 
 
 Jeremiah's relations with Zedekiah are markedly 
 different from his relations with Jehoiakim. One 
 cannot imagine the prophet stooping to ask a favour 
 of the latter, as he does of the former. At first, according 
 to chap, xxxiv, 5, he predicts a peaceful and honourable 
 end for Zedekiah ; and if, disappointed by his out- 
 come, he alters his tone, and speaks plain hard truth, 
 it is never without an undertone of kindly solicitude. 
 The note of personal antagonism is entirely absent. 
 Zedekiah is always at his best when with the prophet, 
 who, in his turn, does his best to make a man of him. 
 But one cannot build on sand or mould with water. 
 Zedekiah's career teaches us something of the perils 
 which surround, not the wicked, but the weak in daily 
 life, and of the worthlessness of religious convictions 
 which are not backed by the moral force that acts 
 up to them. 
 
 It is not easy for us to understand what the Fall 
 of Jerusalem meant to the Jew of that age. With 
 the city, went the home and the Temple. It was 
 domestic, national, and religious ruin, dealt at a single 
 blow. The whole system of things into which he had 
 been bom, and in which he had lived with absolute 
 assurance, dissolved before his eyes, and left him 
 with no landmarks and no aims in life. Far away. 
 
THE FALL OF THE CITY 319 
 
 from distant Babylon, reach us lingering echoes of the 
 crash.^ For two generations, lonely figures hovered 
 round the ruins, conveying to us, in broken and pathetic 
 utterance, a reflexion of the desolation on which they 
 gazed.'' For centuries the black days when the siege 
 began, when the first breach was made, when the 
 Temple was fired, were marked in the Jewish calendar 
 as national Fasts.^ And yet, looking back, we can 
 see that what seemed the end of aU was the beginning 
 of a new and higher stage in the nation's life. The 
 symbol was lost ; the scaffolding removed ; but the 
 inner meaning, the eternal truth came nearer to realiza- 
 tion. 
 
 In Babylon they breathed a freer air, saw life on 
 a larger scale, and came into touch with forces which 
 were shaping the world that was yet to be. The 
 past had been for their own training ; they were 
 now face to face with their appointed task. Six 
 centuries later, after another and even more terrible 
 catastrophe, St. John, writing from Patmos, tells 
 how, being in the spirit, he saw the new Jerusalem 
 descend from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride 
 for her husband. And we have seen how the prophet, 
 as he peered through his prison windows on the desola- 
 tion wrought by war and pestilence, had the same 
 great vision granted him. The eagle's nest was harried 
 at last. The Holy City lay in ruins. As an earthly 
 empire, Judah was no more ; but as 'a spiritual force, 
 a kingdom of Divine truths and ideals, her career 
 had just begun. 
 
 For Jeremiah the Fall of Jerusalem meant more 
 than it could mean for any other. Yet he had his 
 own religious experience behind him, a bridge between 
 
 1 See Ezekiel, passim. ^ See on chap, xxxiii, 10-13. 
 * Cf. Zechariah vii, 5. 
 
320 THE FALL OF THE CITY 
 
 the mournful past, and a brighter future. We have 
 seen how bravely he kept the bridge, and with it 
 a passage for himself and for his people, from the 
 narrow and national to the universal and spiritual, 
 from the Old Covenant to the New. 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 Chapters XL-XLIV 
 
 A FTER the Fall of Jerusalem, probably as the result 
 -^^ of a friendly interposition on the part of Geda- 
 liah, who had left the city for the Chaldean camp, 
 Jeremiah regained his freedom, and left the guard- 
 room for his own house. A month later Nebuzaradan, 
 the Chaldean generaHssimo, appeared on the scene. 
 In ignorance of what had happened, and, finding 
 the prophet, a person of consideration, moving about 
 at liberty, he carried him with the rest of the captives 
 northward on the way to Babylon. At Ramah a 
 halt was made, and on further investigation, and 
 possibly as the result of a second intervention on 
 Gedaliah's part, the prophet was again released. Sum- 
 moned into the presence of the General, he was allowed 
 to make his choice, either to remain in the land or to 
 go to Babylon under the escort of the Nebuzaradan 
 who undertook to look well after him.^ At this point 
 
 1 Verses i-6 is, in its present form. Editorial. It begins : 
 The Word of Jahve came to Jeremiah ; but no fresh revelation 
 is recorded. The phrase has become conventional, and is used 
 as the heading of a new section. In verse i Nebuzaradan is 
 said to have " taken him bound in chains." But that is 
 probably an anticipation of the original narrative as given in 
 verse 2 ; where however " to take the prophet " is merely to 
 fetch him. Non-combatants, like the prophet, would not be 
 thrown into chains. In verses 2, 3, the religious phraseology 
 of the prophet is put intp the mouth of the Chaldean soldier. 
 It was quite in accordance with the ideas of a later age that 
 
 h 321 21 
 
322 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 the English translation indicates a certain hesitance 
 on the prophet's part : " Now while he (Jeremiah) 
 was not yet gone back, he (Nebuzaradan) said to him, 
 Go back to Gedeliah " (verse 5). The prophet may 
 have been uncertain whether he could do better service 
 by remaining with the httle handful in the land, or 
 by casting in his lot with the exiles in Babylon. The 
 text is obscure.^ However we understand the difficult 
 phrase, we may be sure that Jeremiah felt no disiii- 
 clination to remain in the land of his birth, and 
 labour, with men like Gedaliah, for the future of his 
 people. 
 
 No man was better fitted than Gedaliah to assume 
 the reins of government at this critical time. The 
 representative of a noble family which, for two previous 
 generations had rendered distinguished service to the 
 State, he was known and respected by all his country- 
 men. Many of these gathered round him, " captains 
 of the forces that were in the fields," i.e. armed bands 
 of men who had escaped from the fortified cities of 
 Judah, and maintained a guerilla warfare in the open 
 country. No doubt, they were glad to capitulate on 
 the favourable terms which GedaHah could offer 
 them. Others came from beyond the Jordan, from 
 Ammon and Moab, to share the comparative prosperity 
 which the new regime ensured. Among these were 
 Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, a member of the royal 
 
 he should indicate to his prisoners that Jahveh, their national 
 God, had given them into his hands. 
 
 1 Another rendering of the phrase is as follows : There shall 
 be no return, said he, therefore go back ; implying that the 
 choice for Babylon, if once made, must be final. Another 
 rendering : He, i.e. the King of Babylon, shall not return ; 
 as if he would assure the prophet that no resumption of hostili- 
 ties was to be feared. 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 323 
 
 family,! Johanan, the son of Kareah,^ and Seraiah, 
 the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai, the 
 Netophathite ^ and Jezaniah, the son of Maacathite.* 
 Forsaking the ruins of the plague-stricken city, Gedaliah 
 removed to the breezy heights of Mizpah, where he 
 administered justice and maintained the semblance 
 of a Court. Autumn was near ; the vines, the summer 
 fruits, and the olives were ripening fast, and there 
 was every prospect of an abundant harvest.^ But 
 a dark cloud was already rising above the horizon. 
 It is probable that Ishmael was never sincere in the 
 support he gave to Gedaliah. He may have regarded 
 himself as, by his birthright, the legitimate leader 
 of the people ; he was certainly not unwilling to 
 intrigue in his own interest. Treating Gedaliah as 
 an upstart and a rival, he determined to put him out 
 of the way, and to carry the little colony across the 
 Jordan to the land of Ammon. There were those who 
 did not like Ishmael, who distrusted his lofty ways 
 and large utterance, and boded no good from his pres- 
 ence in the new settlement. The Governor was warned, 
 but discredited the warning and declined to take any 
 steps in self-defence. The forfeit was his life. With 
 ten men Ishmael feasted at the Governor's table, 
 and then slew him under his own roof tree. 
 One crime demands another, and Ishmael's hands 
 
 ! See chap, xli, i. 
 
 ^ Drop from the Ust the name of Jonathan, which appears 
 no more ; probably a variant of Johanan. 
 
 ^ For Netophah, apparently a town not far from Jerusalem, 
 see Neh. xii, 28. 
 
 * Maachah, an Aramean state. East of Jordan. 
 
 * See chap. xl. 10. Erbt notes, as an indication of the essen- 
 tial truthfulness of the story, that, in the sequel (verse 12) 
 only the grapes and the summer fruits were gathered in. The 
 olives ripened later. Ere they were ready for' the press, the 
 situation had changed. 
 
324 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 were soon full of work. The harvest festival, one of 
 the three great feasts of the year, fell on the seventh 
 month ; and was therefore already due. This year 
 the feast must be a fast ; for the Holy City and the 
 Sacred Place were in ruins. Still the pilgrims gathered 
 in, in little groups. One of these, men from Shiloh 
 and Shechem, were travelling South, their heads 
 shaven, with rent clothfes and all the signs of mourning 
 about them. The road from Shechem to Jerusalem 
 passed at a short distance from Mizpah, within sight 
 of its gates. Feigning a sorrow like their own, and 
 as if he too would join their pilgrimage,^ Ishmael 
 met them, inviting them to stay for a little, and share 
 the hospitality of the Governor. Sympathy is always 
 attractive, and Gedaliah's name was one to conjure 
 with. They were easily persuaded ; but no sooner 
 were they within the gates than they were slain, and 
 their bodies flung into a great pit which was either 
 the moat of an old fortress, built by Asa at Mizpah, 
 or a cistern within its walls. ^ The scale on which the 
 crime was conceived, and the thoroughness with which 
 it was executed, may have been meant by Ishmael 
 to bespeak him a person of force, and fit to be a leader 
 of men. It is difficult to suggest any other explanation. 
 The pilgrims did not know of the Governor's death, 
 and therefore could not have spread news of it ; while 
 the simple gifts they carried to the altar must have 
 
 1 So in the M.T. (" He went forth to meet them, weeping all 
 along as he went." Probably the participle is to be omitted as 
 redundant.) The LXX read : He went out to meet them 
 and they were weeping as they went. Thus Ishmael is relieved 
 of the charge of gross hypocrisy. But, following on verse s , 
 the reading seems burdensome and feeble. 
 
 2 " A great pit." So the LXX. Instead of : Because of 
 Gedaliah (B'yad Gedaliah), read as above (B6r Gad61). 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 325 
 
 been quite inconsiderable as spoil, especially in the 
 open country, and at harvest time. It is just as 
 difficult to explain the clemency which spared ten 
 of them, who promised to discover stores of wheat 
 and barley and oil and honey, buried in the earth. 
 It was such a mistake as the most astute may make. 
 The stores were not discovered ; but the men escaped, 
 and spread the tidings of a dastardly crime. Anxious 
 now for his own safety, Ishmael moved eastward 
 from Mizpah to Gibeon. On a site still known as 
 El Jib, near a large stone tank, or reservoir, supplied 
 by upland springs (the " great waters " of chap, 
 xli, 12), Gibeon lies on the watershed of central Pales- 
 tine, and commands the pass which leads, by way of 
 Michmash, to Gilgal and the Fords of Jordan. By this 
 route, no doubt, Ishmael meant to reach his destina- 
 tion. But his train was heavy, and his movements 
 necessarily slow. With a troop of light armed men, 
 Johanan overtook him at Gibeon. No battle was 
 fought, for the followers of Ishmael deserted on the 
 approach of the rescue party ; while he himself, with 
 eight men, escaped, and disappeared from history, 
 a right royal villain. 
 
 Recovering the captives, among whom were several 
 ladies of the Court, Johanan moved Southward to 
 the Inn of Chimham, near Bethlehem, on the road 
 to Egypt. His idea may have been that the Chaldeans 
 would hold him responsible for the murder of Gedaliah ; 
 or at least that, as the result of it, a more rigorous and 
 probably martial law would be imposed on the land. 
 Indeed a long succession of calamities had unnerved 
 the people. The soil they trod seemed drenched 
 with blood ; every wind blew " Treason and murder " 
 about their ears. All their cry was : Down to Egypt. 
 But such a step was without precedent in their history, 
 
326 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 and they hesitated to take it. Good fortune had 
 put into their hands the one man who, of all others, 
 was held in reputation as a prophet; and, with due 
 formalities, the question was referred to Jeremiah. 
 We infer from his words that the prophet was doubtful 
 of the wisdom of the step proposed ; but he acceded 
 to their request that he should inquire of Jahveh, 
 binding them over with solemn pa-omises to abide by 
 his decision. Every hour was precious ; yet, such 
 was the importance of the crisis, ten days were spent 
 in meditation and prayer. Then he spoke out. First 
 of all, he endeavoured to reassure their minds, placing 
 before them the manifest advantage of remaining 
 where they were, among surroundings fitted to stimulate 
 their activity and cement their union, and where they 
 might still enjoy the protection of the Chaldean King, 
 of whose friendly disposition toward them there could 
 be no reasonable doubt. But already, he could read 
 their reply in their sullen looks, and charged them 
 with insincerity, and denounced the course they meant 
 to take. 
 
 Chap. xlii. 10-12. (It is the Oracle of Jahveh :) 
 If only ye will stay in this land, 
 I will build you, and not puU down, 
 And will plant you, and not pluck up ; 
 For I repent of the evil that I have done unto 
 
 you ; 
 Fear not the King of Babel, of whom ye are 
 
 afraid ; 
 For I am with you, to succour and save you 
 
 from his hand ; 
 And he will show you pity, and 'stabUsh you 
 
 in your land. 
 
 Verses 13-14. But if so be ye say, 
 
 We will not stay in this land 
 But will go down to Egypt's land 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 327 
 
 Where we shall not see war, 
 Nor hear the trumpet's sound. 
 
 And dwell there ; 
 Verses 15, 20. Now then, be well assured 
 
 That ye are sinning against yourselves. 
 For ye sent me, saying, 
 Pray to Jahveh for us. 
 And all that Jahveh saith. 
 
 We will do. 
 
 Verses 21-22. But ye have not hearkened 
 To Jahveh's voice. 
 Who hath sent me to you. 
 And now by sword ye shall die 
 In the place where ye desire 
 
 To dwell there. 
 
 [Verses 10-12. A long strophe, each line with four accented 
 syllables. In verse 10, read Yashob for shob ; omit the repeti- 
 tion in verse 11 ("Fear him not, saith Jahve ") ; also the 
 clause : For I will have pity on you (verse 12), introduced as 
 exegetical of the following clause. The King of Babylon, in 
 pitying Judah, is Jahveh's organ. 
 
 Then follow three strophes each with five lines of three 
 accented syllables ; and a brief refrain. Certain slight omis- 
 sions have to be made, e.g. the mention of famine in verse 14. 
 This was so common an adjunct of war, that it slipped in 
 here ; but with a plentiful harvest, they could not at this time 
 feel the spur of famine. 
 
 Verse 15 begins with " and now." In the LXX this is 
 immediately connected with verse 20. The intervening verses 
 add nothing to the meaning of the passage. They are there- 
 fore omitted.] 
 
 It is not necessary to impute conscious hypocrisy 
 to the people or their leaders in their negotiations with 
 the prophet. Doubtless, they would have valued 
 his support. Certainly, they were willing to wait for 
 it ; and that, at a time in their history which called 
 for promptness of action. But they had made up 
 their minds that it was right to go to Egypt, and they 
 
328 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 were not prepared to recognize as the voice of Jahveh, 
 any that sought to hinder them. This is manifest 
 from their subsequent action. When the prophet's 
 judgment was given, they did not withdraw their 
 professions of loyalty or their promise of obedience. 
 At that stage, they showed themselves curiously 
 jealous of the prophet's honour ; perhaps rightly so. 
 They might require his services again, and his pro- 
 phetic reputation was one of the few valuable assets' 
 remaining to the nation. Even the needle may be 
 temporarily deflected from the pole ; so they indicate 
 that, in their opinion, some sinister influence has been 
 at work perverting the prophet's judgment. For 
 want of a better, they suggest that Baruch has misled 
 him. Nothing is more subtle than the mind of man, 
 especially when it sets itself to work on reUgious prob- 
 lems. How many of us there are who pray for guid- 
 ance, and persuade ourselves that we are waiting for 
 the Holy Spirit to enUghten us, when what we really 
 desire is permission to take our own way. At such 
 a time we can aU reason with admirable subtlety. Of 
 course the Bible is the Word of God ; but what about 
 its interpretation ? Of course we ought to pray ; but 
 how can we be sure that we have received the answer ? 
 Of course, if a thing is wrong we must not do it, we 
 do not wish to do it ; but is it wrong ? Here is a 
 hmitless field for debate. Meanwhile the tide of oppor- 
 tunity has turned, and swept us with it down to Egypt, 
 as we always meant it should. 
 
 Chap. xHii, 8-13. The little band of exiles were 
 now in Egypt at Tahpanhes, a royal city on the right 
 bank of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and on the old 
 caravan road for Syria. But in the heart of Egypt, 
 as on the heights of Mizpah, Jahveh was with them. 
 " The word of Jahveh came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes." 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 329 
 
 As he walked by the river side the prophet took some 
 loose stones, and buried them in the rich, loamy soil, 
 in full view of Pharaoh's palace, foretelling a time 
 when Nebuchadrezzar, whom the exiles hoped they 
 had left far behind, would follow them, and set his 
 throne upon these very stones, and array himself in 
 the wealth of Egypt " like a shepherd wrapping his 
 plaid about him." The figure is picturesque, and 
 highly original ; it speaks of the ease and completeness 
 of the conquest of the land. Not far from Tahpanhes, 
 on the verge of the Desert, lay the famous city of Beth- 
 Shemesh, or Heliopolis, with its vast Temple of the 
 Sun. It was not difficult to foresee that, lying as it did 
 right on the line of march, it must be the first to feel 
 the force of the advancing foe. " He shall break the 
 pillars of Beth-Shemesh, and the houses of the gods 
 of Egypt he shall burn with fire." To-day a single 
 obelisk marks the site of what was once a sacred city. 
 
 [There are various difficulties of a critical kind in con- 
 nexion with this passage. The literal translation of verse g 
 is as follows : Take great stones in thine hand, and bury them 
 in mortar (bam-melet) in the pavement (bam-malben) which 
 is at the entry of Pharaoh's house. This, of course, raises a 
 question, Was the exiled prophet permitted to enter the palace, 
 and break up its pavement ? The LXX give a much simpler 
 version of the incident : Take to thee great stones, and bury 
 them in the forecourt (tV ■Kpo6vpoi<s) in the gate of Pharaoh's 
 house. Giesebrecht's suggestion, followed by Erbt, is that 
 for Bam-malben originally stood Mil-lipene, or 'al-pene, which 
 the LXX rendered by their somewhat pompous iv irpoBvpoi^. 
 But what of Bam-malet, which nowhere else occurs ? Giese- 
 brecht proposes to read Bal-lat=in secret, following various 
 Greek versions ; and this is adopted by Erbt, who imagines 
 the whole transaction to have taken place by night. Against 
 this view is the phrase : "In sight of the men of Judah " ; 
 and indeed the whole conception of a sign, which excludes 
 that of secrecy. It seems to me probable that the text is due 
 to a slip of the cop5dst. He meant to write BM-MLBN, but 
 
330 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 wrote BM-MLT ; and, after the custom of Eastern cops^sts. 
 he let it stand, a nut for his readers to crack. The prophet's 
 sign, then, was given openly, within sight of Pharaoh's palace 
 but not within the palace court. 
 
 Verse 13 is rejected by many as a later insertion. It may be 
 so, but I can see no reason why it should not be prophetic. It 
 fits in with, and fills up, his representation of the future, leaving 
 it still sufficiently vague.] 
 
 Chap. xliv. A single glimpse is given us of the life 
 of the people in Egypt. They seem to have spread 
 Southward into Upper Egypt. Yet they retained 
 their identity as a separate community and seem to 
 have met, from time to time, for the celebration of 
 religious rites. The sufferings of the past decade 
 had not yet broken the pride of their heart, or rid them 
 of their deeply rooted tendency to idolatry. They 
 resumed the worship of the Queen of Heaven which, 
 apparently, had been suspended in Jerusalem during 
 the reign of Zedekiah. In Eg5rpt, as in the Temple 
 courts, it is the women who take the lead in celebrating 
 and defending these heathen rites. It is true they 
 assert that they have the consent of their husbandsi 
 (verse 19) ; but I imagine their husbands might have! 
 pleaded that they were scarcely free agents in thel 
 matter. The reading of their national history, given . 
 by these Hebrew matrons, is indeed curious. In their 
 judgment the various calamities from which they were 
 suffering were due, not to the nation's apostasy from 
 Jahveh, but to the interruption of those very rites 
 against which the prophet inveighs. They were due 
 to that isolation from the surrounding nations to which 
 the worship of Jahveh had condemned them. So 
 long as they had done as their fathers did before them, 
 worshipping the " genius loci," the ancestral gods of 
 the land in which they dwelt, they were comfortable 
 and lacked nothing ; but since the innovations of 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 331 
 
 Josiah's time all had been changed for the worse. 
 Religious controversy is always bitter ; never more so 
 than when, as here, it affects domestic life. Stung by the 
 loss of home and children, which they regarded as the 
 result of the mischievous policy championed by this 
 old dotard of a prophet, they turned on Jeremiah. 
 He, on his part, could only appeal from a past, which 
 could be so strangely misread, to a future which should 
 leave no doubt in any mind as to its meaning (verse 29) . 
 The following, rescued from a text which is largely 
 corrupt, may be offered as representing the prophet's 
 reply to these ladies : 
 
 Verse 25. Ye women who have spoken, 
 
 Saying, We will certainly do it, 
 Burning incense to the Queen of Heaven, 
 And pouring libations in her honour ; 
 By all means make good your vows. 
 
 Certainly do it. 
 
 Verse 26. Therefore hear ye Jahveh's word. 
 My name shall no more be heard 
 In the mouth of any Jew, 
 
 In Egypt's land. 
 
 Verse 27. Behold, I am waking over you 
 For evil and not. for good ; 
 And all of Israel left shall know 
 
 Whose word shall stand. 
 
 [Chap, xliv is another excellent exarhple of the Editorial 
 methods to which we owe so much of the Book of Jeremiah. 
 In verses 25-29 we have an oracle delivered by the prophet 
 after the flight into Egypt ; the rest of the chapter is the 
 setting provided for it. 
 
 Verses 1-14. The language is diffuse and conventional. 
 Nothing is said of moral and political degeneracy ; attention is 
 directed exclusively to the rituahstic practices of the country. 
 In verses 15-ig we come into closer touch with original docu- 
 ments. In verse 15 the Editor does his best to keep the men 
 to the front ; but, from what follows, it is quite evident that 
 the women did the talking. In verse 17 ("Every word that has 
 
332 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 gone out of our mouth ".) there is a reference to some previous 
 utterance, no doubt reported in the original documents, which 
 has given place to the editorial introduction. Verses 20-23. 
 The women had spoken ; but the prophet's reply is addressed, 
 according to the present text, to the whole nation. By this 
 time the reader is on the tiptoe of expectation, but again 
 (verse 24) arrest is laid on the narrative, and we have another 
 somewhat involved introductory note. In verse 25 we find 
 ourselves at last face to face with the prophet's audience. 
 A last attempt is made to obscure the pointed denunciation 
 of the women which follows, and which possibly seemed a 
 little unchivalrous to refined ears. Instead of : Ye and your 
 wives, read with the LXX, Ye women. 
 
 Erbt thinks that verse 26 is, like verse 25, irony, and renders 
 thus : " Ye women, certainly do so. Let no one of the Jews 
 in the land of Egypt, take My name into his mouth. Ye shall 
 know whose word shall stand." But it seems to me that, if 
 verses 25-26 read so, the inference according to verse 29 would 
 be that their word, not Jahveh's, had stood. Some clearer 
 declaration of Jahveh's purpose with them is certainly re- 
 quired (verse 27a). On the other hand, verse 266 ("Behold, I 
 have sworn by My great name ") is Editorial ; verse 276 (" All 
 the Jews, etc. , shall perish ") is exegetical of the phrase. All that 
 are left, in verse 28 ; while verse 28a is from the same hand as 
 the close of verse 14, and modifies a statement which seemed 
 too absolute in the light of events.] 
 
 Verses 29 30 read thus : " And this shall be a 
 sign unto you, saith Jahveh, that ye shall know that 
 My word shall surely stand against you for evil ; 
 Thus saith Jahveh, Behold, I am giving Pharaoh 
 Hophrah, King of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies, 
 and into the hand of them that seek his life." Hophrah 
 had been the ally of Judah in her struggle against 
 Nebuchadrezzar ; and it was in Egypt the exiles sought 
 the safety and peace they despaired of finding else- 
 where. Yet Egypt herself was tottering. In 570, 
 after an unsuccessful war against the Libyans, Amasis 
 rose against Hophrah, and took the throne. Of the 
 discontent and disaffection which ended thus, some 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 333 
 
 early symptoms may have met the prophet's eye. 
 But it is questionable whether the domestic affairs of 
 Egypt came within his vision as a prophet, or were 
 likely to find a place in his reasoning with Judah. 
 
 The subsequent history of the exiles in Egypt does 
 not, at first sight, confirm the gloomy augury of this 
 chapter. In the time of Alexander the Great they had 
 attained to considerable numbers as well as to wealth 
 and political influence, so that a portion of the newly 
 founded city of Alexandria was given over to their 
 use. There was, moreover, free and constant inter- 
 course between Egypt and Judah. Commentators, 
 bound by the fetish of a literal interpretation, have 
 done their best to remove the apparent inconsistency. 
 They have supposed that, as the result of this very 
 oracle, a religious revival took place among the people, 
 such as gave a new bent to their history, and made it 
 possible for Jahveh to receive them again into favour. 
 It is as easy to imagine what may have been, as it is 
 impossible to say what was. We incline to think that 
 the prophet himself would have discounted the material 
 wealth and prosperity to which his people attained in 
 Egypt, and would have reckoned their exclusion from 
 the spiritual inheritance of their race as an adequate 
 fulfilment of his word. 
 
 Such is the last word we have from Jeremiah. Where 
 or how he ended his days, we do not know. One 
 authority sends him back to Jerusalem ; another far 
 off to Babylon. Still another points out his grave at 
 Tahpanhes, i.e. Daphne by the Nile. These are all purely 
 legendary. A greater interest belongs to two notices 
 of the prophet, which are found in later Jewish writings. 
 In 2 Maccabees, chap, ii, we read that on the fall of 
 the city the prophet " took the tabernacle, and the 
 
334 THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 
 
 Ark, and the altar of incense, with him to the Mount 
 where Moses had met with God, and there deposited 
 them in a cave, sealing the door. Some of those who 
 were with him, afterwards tried to find the place, but 
 could not, which he perceiving bade them desist, till 
 such time as God should bring again His people and 
 receive them to His mercy." In the same Book 
 (chap, xv)^ we read that Judas, to encourage the 
 people, " told them how Onias, the High Priest, when 
 in prayer, saw an old man with grey hair and of ex- 
 cellent maj esty . This, said he, is a lover of the brethren 
 who prays much for our people and for the Holy City, 
 to wit, the prophet Jeremiah. Whereon the prophet, 
 holding out his right hand, gave to Judas a sword of 
 gold, saying : Take this holy sword, a gift from God, 
 with which thou shalt wound the adversary." These 
 narratives have, of course, no historic value ; but there 
 is in them a spiritual insight which has saved them from 
 oblivion. They represent in parabolic form the prophet's 
 relation to the past and future of his people. 
 
 Take the first. Israel's history is divided broadly 
 into two periods. Pre- and Post-Exilic ; the one looking 
 back to Moses, the other looking forward to Christ. 
 Jeremiah belonged to the former. His own spiritual 
 experience is rooted in the past ; the aim of his life 
 had been to realize the. old ideals of the nation. But 
 he recognized that these had their Hmits, and that the 
 time had come to transcend them. It is accordingly 
 a fine conception that represents him taking into his 
 aged hands what was most sacred in the past and re- 
 storing it to its source, hiding it in the shadow of the 
 Mount from whose burning heart it came at first, 
 reserving no more than the hope of brighter days in 
 which it should receive spiritual fulfilment. Take now 
 the second, and see in it the prophet's relation to the 
 
THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT 335 
 
 future of his people. At first sight certainly it seems 
 strange that, in that last and sternest struggle for 
 independence, the Jews should draw their inspiration 
 not from a great solider like Joshua, or Gideon, or 
 even David, but from this tender and beautiful soul. 
 Yet here again we find a spiritual truth underlying the 
 legend. The greatest factor in history is not the sword 
 which divides and destroys, but the Truth which 
 quickens and unites. It is the religious ideal of the 
 prophet that rallies a people and arms them with 
 conquering strength in the day of battle. 
 
 And if from these legends we turn to the New Tes- 
 tament, it is still the same. The memorable words 
 spoken by the Baptist of our Lord : " I indeed baptize 
 with water, but He shall baptize with the Holy Ghost 
 and with fire," were not soon forgotten. They taught 
 men to speak of Jesus as the second Elias, and to see 
 much in Him which recalled the Prophet of Fire. But 
 the words, while profoundly true, might easily prove 
 misleading. The impression directly made on men's 
 minds, by what they heard and saw of Jesus, by the 
 tenderness of His spirit, and the patience with which 
 He bore the long martyrdom of life, made them think 
 rather of Jeremiah. " Some say Elias ; others Jere- 
 mias." And that, beyond all else, was our prophet's 
 meed of praise ; to have created a new ideal which 
 was realized in the Perfect Life ; to have begun a work 
 of self-denying service which received its crown in 
 the sacrifice of the Cross. 
 
BARUCH 
 Chapter XLV 
 
 THROUGHOUT the prophet's lifetime, Baruch 
 acted as his amanuensis ; after his death he 
 seems to have constituted himself biographer, and, 
 in a certain sense, literary executor of the prophet. It 
 is almost certainly to Baruch's hand we owe those 
 vivid touches and that wealth of personal detail which 
 have lent such a charm to our study of the book. He 
 was the prophet's Boswell, with a devotion never 
 surpassed, and without a trace of vanity or self-asser- 
 tion. Already, on occasion, we have caught a glimpse 
 of him at his work. We have seen him busy over the 
 prophet's Roll ; we have seen him in the Temple court 
 reading it, while the people stood with upturned faces ; 
 we have seen him in the Council Hall, closely cross- 
 questioned as to the authority by which he wrote and 
 read. In this connexion a particular interest attached 
 to a brief notice in chap, xliii, 3. Readers may re- 
 member how, on the way to Egypt, the people asserted 
 that Jeremiah had misapprehended Jahveh's purpose 
 for them ; and then, anxious to safeguard the prophet's 
 reputation, insinuated that Baruch had misled him. 
 Ridiculous as the suggestion may appear to us, there 
 must have been something in the man that rendered 
 it at least plausible. Evidently the self-repression, so 
 splendidly preserved, was only one [side of a complex 
 character. Something of the independent, and even 
 commanding, there must have been about him. If 
 
BARUCH 
 
 Jeremiah, like Paul, was the chief speaker, Baruch was 
 like Barnabas of whom the mob at Lystra said that he 
 was Jupiter. An air of mystery invested him ; and, 
 to many, he seemed the controlling and compelling 
 power behind the prophet. We shall see that this 
 popular conception of Baruch is to some extent jus- 
 tified by the estimate given of him by the man who 
 knew him best, his own Master. 
 
 At last the task of a lifetime is finished ; and Baruch, 
 dropping the mask, discovers himself with a naivet6 
 which is charming. He confesses himself as in no 
 admirable mood ; discontented with his fortunes and 
 disheartened over his work. He had toiled at the 
 prophet's RoU, the insatiable prophet making ever 
 fresh demands upon his time and strength to rewrite 
 and enlarge it. He had shared the fortunes of the 
 prophet, while they led him from worse to worse till 
 at last, an exile in Egypt, he was compelled to abandon 
 all the bright hopes with which he had started on life. 
 " Woe is me now, for Jahveh adds toil to my travail ; 
 I am weary as well as sad, and find no rest." We do 
 not know in what direction Baruch's ambition lay. 
 As the prophet's secretary he may once have hoped 
 for a good appointment in the State ; or, Hke Milton, 
 he may have aspired " to write something that the 
 world would not willingly let die." It is enough to 
 know that he was not wholly free from the last infirmity 
 of noble minds. He sought " great things " for him- 
 self. 
 
 Let us see now how he is dealt with. " Thus saith 
 Jahveh, Behold that which I have built, I, even I, 
 pull down ; and that which I have planted, I, even I, 
 pluck up." From his narrow sphere of labour Baruch's 
 attention is challenged by the great Worker. The 
 thought in verse 4 is that of the Divine Ideal of work, 
 
 J. 22 
 
338 BARUOH 
 
 patient strength, efforts made that seem to end in 
 nothing, immediate results sacrificed in the interests 
 of ultimate perfection. At the close of verse 4, we 
 meet a phrase which is absent from the LXX ; " And 
 this of the whole earth." On grammatical grounds 
 we must regard the phrase as a later insertion ; but 
 it is not without force and point, and anticipates 
 the phrase, "On all flesh," in verse 6. Jahveh is 
 the great Worker, not only in regard of His methods, 
 but of the scale on which He works. The issues of 
 any particular hfe must always appear unimportant 
 compared with those which affect the whole earth. 
 The poet says : 
 
 That loss is common would not make my own 
 
 Less bitter, rather more. 
 
 Yet there is a fellowship in sorrow which, if it 
 cannot sweeten pain, silences the murmur with which 
 we are apt to meet it. 
 
 Secondly, Baruch is confronted by the promise of 
 Divine protection amid all the uncertainties of life. 
 " And thou, dost thou seek great things for thyself ? 
 Seek them not. For behold I am bringing evil on aU 
 flesh, saith Jahveh. But I wiU give thee thy life for 
 a spoil in all places whither thou goest." What is 
 accidental (" Great things ") may be denied him ; what 
 is essential to usefulness and happiness, the permanent 
 and personal element {" Thy life "), is ensured him. 
 Henry Martyn tells how, as he entered the Senate Hall 
 at Cambridge to sit for his degree examination, thfese 
 words came into his mind " and quieted him." The 
 greatness which is not sought may come, as it came 
 to him, Senior Wrangler and Smith Prize man ; the 
 peace of mind which is the strength and beauty of a 
 life shall be given to all who seek only to know the 
 will of God and do it. 
 
THE ORACLES OF THE NATIONS 
 Chapters XLVI-LI 
 
 IN the LXX, as we have already seen, these Oracles 
 of the Nations are embedded in the heart of chap. 
 XXV, following on verse 13. The order in the Greek 
 and Hebrew versions differs ; and the original place and 
 order must both be left, as an open question. The 
 question of authorship is equally doubtful, and must 
 be raised in connexion with each chapter in succession. 
 Chap, xlvi, I is a general introduction to the Section. 
 
 In point of value, these Oracles differ greatly. Chap, 
 xlvi is lively ; chap, xlviii has a pathetic human in- 
 terest which attracts us. Chaps. 1, li, form an oracle 
 on a really great scale. The theme is striking, the 
 Fall of Babylon ; and the treatment, in spite of a 
 certain looseness which marks the train of thought, 
 is worthy of it. The rest, concerning the Philistines, 
 Anamonites, Edom, Syria, and the Arab tribes are, on 
 the whole, pointless, and suggest that they have been 
 written to order, so as to complete a scheme, rather 
 than under pressure of any immediate emergency. 
 Of all these only chap. Ixvi, so far as my judgment 
 guides me, has any pretension to be Jeremian. 
 
 Chap, xlvi consists of two oracles against Egypt, 
 with a postscript directed toward Israel. The first 
 (verses 2-12) may well have been written by Jeremiah, 
 to celebrate the defeat of Necho at Carchemish in 604 
 B.C. Duhm rejects it, partly on account of its con- 
 tents, and partly on account of its dependence on 
 
 3S» 
 
340 THE ORACLES OF THE NATIONS 
 
 later documents. (Cf. verse lo with Isa. xxxiv, 
 5, 6, 8). As regards its dependence on Isa. xxxiv, 
 which Duhm assigns to the age of John Hyrcanus 
 (109 B.C.), it should be noticed that the verses in 
 question (verses 9, 10) are in prose and, evidently, an 
 interpolation. As regards the contents, usually judged 
 to be jejeune, I confess myself unable to share in the 
 depreciation. The passage seems to me rhythmic and 
 regular in its structure, and, on the whole, stirring in 
 its tone. Twice over the prophet pictures the marshal- 
 ling and Northward march of the Egyptian army, and 
 twice over, in two slightly longer stanzas, he describes 
 the rout on the banks of the Euphrates. The following 
 is a translation of this oracle : 
 
 Verse 3. Order buckler and shield. 
 
 And draw near to battle ; 
 
 Verse 4. Harness horses, ye horsemen, 
 Polish the spears ; 
 And stand forth with helmets on, 
 Clothe you with mail. 
 
 Verse 5. Why are they panic-stricken, 
 Why turn their backs ? 
 They flee apace and rally not. 
 Terror takes them round about. 
 Verse 5. Let them not flee, nor make escape. 
 
 The mighty ones, in the North land. 
 For, by the river Euphrates, 
 They stumble and fall. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Verse 7. Who is this riseth like the Nile, 
 
 With stormy waters ? 
 Verse 8. Saying, I will go up and cover the earth, 
 
 I will destroy its inhabitants. 
 Verse 9. Go up, ye horses, and prance ; 
 
 And let the mighty men go forth. 
 
THE ORACLES OF THE NATIONS 341 
 
 IV 
 
 Verse ii. Go up by Gilead, and take balm. 
 Oh virgin daughter of Egypt. 
 In vain hast thou multipled remedies. 
 There is no heaUng for thee. 
 Verse 12. The nations have heard thy cry, 
 The earth resounds with it. 
 For, man on man, they stumble, 
 And both are fallen. 
 
 [Verse 4 omit " Get up " (M.T.), inserted by analogy from 
 verse 9 ; and transpose two of the clauses which follow. In v. 
 5, omit (both on grammatical and metrical grounds) the phrase : 
 I have seen ; also the clause : The mighty men are beaten down. 
 If so — ^how could they flee away ? Verse 6, omit : The Swift. 
 The subject of both verbs is the same (" The mighty ones.") 
 Verse 7, The advance of the victorious army is like the Nile 
 when in flood. Omit : Like rivers. Omit also verse 8a (a 
 repetition). Verse 86 omit : The city ; and, in verse 9a," The 
 chariots (it is the horses, not the chariots that prance) . Verse 
 12a. Omit : Thy shame. If retained, it must be read : 
 Thy voice (cf. chap, iii, 9). Verse 126 Omit : Together.] 
 
 Verses 13-26. A second oracle follows, referring 
 possibly to the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadrezzar 
 in 568 B.C., which may have been written by Jeremiah. 
 The value of the heading is, however, doubtful ; and 
 the authorship and reference of the oracle must be 
 regarded as uncertain. 
 
 The rout of the Egyptian army has now become the 
 invasion of Egypt ; and the fear of the advancing foe 
 falls, like the shadow of Tabor or Carmel, across the 
 land. Egypt itself is likened to an heifer with glossy 
 hide, stung by a gadfly and maddened with pain ; 
 and, again, to a serpent frightened by the crash of 
 falling timber and darting through the long, dry grass, 
 with sudden swish. Her sound is that of a retreating 
 serpent (verse 22). Meantime the people fall like a 
 forest under the axe. The aptness of the figure is 
 
342 THE ORACLES OF THE NATIONS 
 
 apparent when we remember that the serpent en- 
 circling a globe is the ideograph for Pharaoh on the 
 monuments. The oracle ends, as it began, with the 
 gods of Egypt, which share the fate of their worshippers 
 and feel the heavy hand of Jahveh.^ 
 
 Verses 27, 28 are in the true post-Exilic style, com- 
 fortable words directed toward Israel. 
 
 ^ There is a reference to Pharaoh in verse 17 : Call ye the 
 name of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a Crash ; he hath let the 
 appointed time pass by. Might we render this enigmatic name 
 thus : Backwash, Tum-of-the tide ? (Shaon is used of the 
 waves as they break — " with melancholy long-withdrawing 
 roar." Compare Ps. Ixv 8 and J^r. li. 55. It is distin- 
 guishable from the gallim or cresting waves). The meaning, 
 anyhow, is that Pharaoh has lost his chance either of making 
 an Empire or of making peace with the foe. Schmidt {Encyc. 
 Bibl.) gives a spirited rendering of the phrase, " War-whoop, 
 capture of the troop." But this is based on the LXX, which 
 merely transliterate the original (Sawi/ 'EcrySet 'E/tuiyS). 
 
 BntUr and Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Promt, and London