Chapter LV: 1-5 (2)

Jeremiah was called to his office when still a youth, in the 13th year of king Josiah, and hence one year after the first reformation of this king, who, as early as in the 16th year of his life, and the 8th of his reign, which lasted 31 years, began to seek the Lord. A king such as he, unto whom no king before him was like, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, (2 Kings xxiii. 25), in the midst of an evil and adulterous generation, is a remarkable phenomenon, as little conceivable from natural causes as the existence of Melchizedec without father, without descent--isolated from all natural development--in the midst of the Canaanites who, with rapid strides and irresistibly, hastened on to the completion of their sin. His existence has the same root as that of Jeremiah,--a fact which becomes the [Pg 364] more evident when we take into consideration the connection of the Regal and Prophetical offices in Christ for the salvation of the people hastening anew to its destruction, and the faithfulness of the Covenant-God, and His long-suffering which makes every effort to lead the apostate children to repentance. The zeal of both, of Josiah and Jeremiah,--although supported by manifold assistance from other quarters, as _e.g._ by the prophetess Huldah and the prophet Zephaniah--was unable to stem the tide of prevailing corruption, and, hence, to stop the tide of the divine judgments. The corruption was so deeply rooted, that only single individuals could be saved, like brands from the burning. It had made fearful progress under the protracted reign of Manasseh, whose disposition must be regarded as a product of the spirit of the time then prevailing, of which he must not be considered as the creator, but as the representative only, 2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27, xxiv. 3, 4. The scanty fruits of his late conversion had been again entirely consumed under the short reign of his wicked son Amon; it had indeed so little of a comprehensive or lasting influence, that the author of the Book of Kings thought himself entitled altogether to pass it over. It was even difficult to put limits to outward idolatry; and how imperfectly he succeeded in this, is seen from the prophecies of Jeremiah uttered after the reformation. And even where he was successful in his efforts; even where an emotion was manifested, a wish to return to the living fountain which they had forsaken, even there, the corruption soon broke forth again, only in a different form. With deep grief, Jeremiah reprovingly reminds the people of this, whose righteousness was like the morning dew, in chap. iii. 4, 5: "Hast thou not but lately called me: My Father, friend of my youth, thou? Will He reserve His anger for ever, will He keep it to the end? Behold, thus thou spakest, and soon thou didst the evil, didst accomplish"--an _accomplishment_ quite different from that of the ancestor. Gen. xxxii. 29. Since the disease had not been healed, but had only been driven out from one part of the diseased organism, the foolish inclination to idolatry was followed by as foolish a confidence in the miserable righteousness by works, in the divine election,--the offering up of sacrifices, &c., being considered as the sole condition of its validity. "Trust ye not in lying words"--so [Pg 365] the Prophet is obliged to admonish them in chap. vii. 4--"saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are they" (the people imagined that they could not be destroyed, because the Lord had, according to their opinion, for ever established His residence among them; compare 1 Cor. iii. 17; 1 Tim. iii. 15). "Thou sayest, I am innocent; His anger hath entirely turned from me; behold I plead with thee, because thou sayest: I have not sinned," chap. ii. 35. "To what purpose shall there come for me incense from Sheba, and sweet cane, the goodly, from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasant unto me," chap. vi. 20. Towards the end of Josiah's reign, the approaching judgment of God upon Judah became more perceptible. The former Asiatic dominion of the Assyrians passed over entirely to the Chaldeans, whose fresh and youthful strength so much the more threatened Judah with destruction, that from the Assyrians they had inherited the enmity to Egypt, on account of which Judah obtained great importance in their eyes. According to the announcement of the prophets generally, and of Jeremiah especially, who, at his very vocation, had it assigned to him as his main task to announce the calamity from the North, it was by the Chaldeans that the deadly stroke should be inflicted upon the people implicated in the conflicts of these hostile powers; but it was the Egyptians who inflicted upon them the first severe wound. Josiah fell in the battle with Pharaoh Necho. The people, conscious of guilt, were, by his death, filled with a fearful expectation of the things that were to come. They had forebodings that they were now standing at the boundary line where grace and anger separate (compare remarks on Zech. xii. 11); and these forebodings were soon converted into bitter certainty by experience. Jehoiakim ascended the throne, after Jehoahaz or Shall um, had, after a short reign, been carried away by the Egyptians. He stood to his father Josiah in just the same relation as did the people to God, in reference to the mercy which He had offered to them in Josiah. A more glaring contrast (see its exhibition in chap. xxii.) can hardly be imagined. Throughout, Jehoiakim shows himself to be entirely destitute not only of love to God, but also of the fear of God; he furnishes the complete image of a king whom God had given in anger. He [Pg 366] is a blood-thirsty tyrant, an exasperated enemy to truth. At the beginning of his reign, some influence of Josiah's spirit is still seen. The priests and false prophets, rightly understanding the signs of the time, came forward with the manifestation of their long restrained hatred against Jeremiah, in whom they hate their own conscience. They bring against him a charge of life and death, because he had prophesied destruction to the city and temple; but the rulers of the people acquit him, chap. xxvi. This influence, however, soon ceased. The king became the centre around whom gathered all that was ungodly, which, under Josiah, had timorously withdrawn into concealment. Soon it became a power, a torrent overflowing the whole country; and that the more easily, the weaker were the dams which still existed from the time of Josiah. One of the first victims for truth who fell, was the prophet Urijah. The king, imagining that he was able to kill truth itself in those who proclaimed it, could not bear the thought that he was still living, although it was in distant Egypt, and caused him to be brought thence (see l. c). The fact that Jeremiah escaped every danger of death during the eleven years of this king's reign, although he ever anew threatened death to the king and destruction to the people, was a constant miracle, a glorious fulfilment of the divine promise given to him when he was called (i. 19): "They shall fight against thee, and they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith _the Lord_, to deliver thee." The threatened divine punishment advanced, under Jehoiakim, several steps towards its completion. In the fourth year of his reign, Jerusalem was, for the first time, taken by the Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 45 ff.), after the power of the Egyptian Empire had been for ever broken by the battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates. The victor this time acted with tolerable mildness; the sin of the people was to appear in its full light by the circumstance, that God gave them time for repentance, and did not at once proceed to the utmost rigour, but advanced, step by step, in His judgments. But here too it was seen that crime, in its highest degree, becomes madness; the more nearly that people and king approached the abyss, the greater became the speed with which they hastened towards it. It is true that they [Pg 367] did not remain altogether insensible when the threatenings of the Prophet began to be fulfilled. This is seen from the day of fasting and repentance which was appointed in remembrance of the first capture by the Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 49); but fleeting emotions cannot stop the course of sin. Soon it became worse than it had been before; and therefore the divine judgments also reached a new station. Even political wisdom advised the king quietly to submit to dependence on the Chaldeans, which was, comparatively, little oppressive. It was obvious that, unsupported, he could effect nothing against the Chaldean power; and, to the _unprejudiced_ eye, it was as obvious that the Egyptians could not help him; and even had it been possible, he would only have changed masters. But, according to the counsel of God, who takes away the understanding of the wise, these political reasons, obvious though they were, should not exercise any influence upon him, because his obdurate heart prevented him from listening to the religious arguments which Jeremiah brought before him. _Melancthon_ (opp. ii., p. 407 ff.) points it out as a remarkable circumstance that, while other prophets, _e.g._, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, exhort to a vigorous opposition to the enemies, and, in that case, promise divine assistance, yea that, to some extent, they even took an active part in the deliverance, Jeremiah, on the other hand, always preaches unconditional submission. The issue, which is as different as the advice, shows that this difference has not, by any means, its foundation in the persons, but in the state of things. The seventy years of Chaldean servitude were irrevocably decreed upon Judah; even the exact statement of years, which else is so uncommon in reference to the fate of the covenant-people, shows how firm and determined was that decree. They had altogether, and more fully than at any other time, given themselves over to the internal power of heathenism; according to a divine necessity, they must therefore also be given over to the external power of the heathen, both for punishment and reform. God himself could not change that decree, for it rested on His nature. Hence, it would be in vain though even the greatest intercessors, Moses and Samuel, should stand before Him, Jer. xv. 1 ff. Intercessory prayer can be effectual, only if it be offered in [Pg 368] the name of God. But if such were the case, how foolish was it to rebel against the Chaldean power; to attempt to remove the effect, while they allowed the cause to remain; to stop the brook, while the source still continued to send forth its waters. It would have been foolish, even if the relative power of the Jews and Chaldeans had been altogether reversed. For when the Lord sells a people, one can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight (Deut. xxxii. 30). But the shepherd of the people had become a fool, and did not enquire after the Lord. He could not, therefore, act wisely; and the whole flock was scattered, Jer. x. 21. Jehoiakim rebelled against the Chaldeans, and for some years he was allowed to continue in the delusion of having acted very wisely, for Nebuchadnezzar had more important things to mind and to settle. But then he went up against Jerusalem, and put an end to his reign and life, Jer. xxii. 1-12; 2 Kings xxiv. 2; "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 49. As yet, the long-suffering of God, and, hence, the patience of the Chaldeans, were not at an end. Jehoiachin or Jeconiah was raised to the throne of his father. Even the short reign of three months gave to the youth sufficient occasion to manifest the wickedness of his heart, and his enmity to God. Suspicions against his fidelity arose; a Chaldean army anew entered the city, and carried away the king, and, along with him, the great mass of the people. This was the first great deportation. In the providence of God it was so arranged that, among those who were carried away, there was the very flower of the nation. The apparent suffering was to them a blessing. They were, for their good, sent away from the place over which the storms of God's anger were soon to discharge themselves, into the land of the Chaldeans, and formed there the nucleus for the Kingdom of God, in its impending new form, Jer. xxiv. Nothing now seemed to stand in the way of the divine judgment upon the wicked mass that had been left behind, like bad figs that no one can eat for badness,--they whom the Lord had threatened that He would give them over to hurt and calamity in all the kingdoms of the earth, to reproach, and a proverb, and a taunt, and a curse, in all places whither He would drive them, Jer. xxiv. 9. And still the Lord was waiting before He carried out this [Pg 369] threatening, and smote the land to cursing. Mattaniah or Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, who was given to them for a king, might, at least partially, have averted the evil. But he too had to learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. From various quarters, attempts have been made to exculpate him, on the plea that his fault was only weakness, which made him the tool of a corrupt party; but Scripture forms a different estimate of him, and he who looks deeper will find its judgment to be correct,--will be able to grant to him that preference only over Jehoiakim which _C. B. Michaelis_ assigned to him in the words: "Jehoiakim was of an obdurate and wild disposition; Zedekiah had some fear of God, although it was a servile, hypocritical fear, but Jehoiakim had none at all." And even this preference, when more narrowly examined, amounts to nothing, for it belongs to nature, and not to grace. Whether corruption manifests itself as weakness, or as a carnal, powerful opposition to divine truth, is accidental, and depends upon the diversity of mental and bodily organization. The fact that Zedekiah did not altogether put away from himself the truth and its messengers (_Dahler_ remarks: "He respected the Prophet, without having the power of following his advice; he even protected his life against his persecutors, but he did not venture to secure him against their vexation") cannot be put down to his credit; _he was, against his will, forced to do so_; and indeed he could not resist a powerful impression of any kind. In a man of Jehoiakim's character, the same measure of the fear of God would induce us to mitigate our opinion; for in such a one it could not exist without some support from within. Confiding in the help of the neighbouring nations, especially the Egyptians; persuaded by the false prophets and the nobles; himself seized by that spirit of giddiness and intoxication which, with irresistible power, carried away the people to the abyss, Zedekiah broke the holy oath which he had sworn to the Chaldeans, and, after an obstinate resistance, Jerusalem was taken and destroyed. As yet, the long suffering of God, and, hence, also that of man, was not _altogether_ at an end. The conquerors left a comparatively small portion of the inhabitants in the land. The grace of God gave them Gedaliah, an excellent man, for their civil superior, and Jeremiah for their ecclesiastical [Pg 370] superior. The latter preferred to remain in the smoking ruins, rather than follow the brilliant promises of the Chaldeans, and was willing to persevere to the last in the discharge of his duty, although he was by this time far advanced in life, and oppressed with deep grief But it appears as if the people had been bent upon emptying, to the last drop, the cup of divine wrath. Gedaliah is assassinated. Even those who did not partake in the crime fled to Egypt, disregarding the word of the Lord through the Prophet, who announced a curse upon them if they fled, but a blessing if they remained.

What the Prophet had to suffer under such circumstances, one may easily imagine even without consulting history. Even although he had remained free from all personal vexations and attacks, it could not but be an immeasurable grief to him to dwell in the midst of such a generation, to see their corruption increasing more and more, to see the abyss coming nearer and nearer, to find all his faithful warnings unheeded, and his whole ministry in vain, at least as far as the mass of the people were concerned. "O that they would give me in the wilderness a lodging-place for wayfaring men"--so he speaks as early as under Josiah, chap. ix. 1 (2)--"and I would leave my people and go from them; for they are all adulterer, an assembly of treacherous men." But from these personal vexations and attacks, he neither was, nor could be exempted. Mockery, hatred, calumny, ignominy, curses, imprisonment, bonds were his portion. To bear such a burden would have been difficult to any man, but most of all to a man of his disposition. "The more tender the heart, the deeper the smart." He was not a second Elijah; he had a soft disposition, a lively sensibility; his eyes were easily filled with tears. And he who would have liked so much to live in peace and love with all, having entered into the service of truth, was obliged to become a second Ishmael, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him. He who so ardently loved his people, must see this love misconstrued and rejected; must see himself branded as a traitor to the people, by those men who were themselves traitors. All these things were to him the cause of violent struggles and conflicts, which he candidly lays before us in various passages, especially in chap. xii. and [Pg 371] xx., because, by the victory, the Lord, who alone could give it, was glorified.

He was sustained by inward consolations, by wonderful deliverances, by the remarkable fulfilment of his prophecies which he himself lived to witness; but especially by the circumstance that the Lord caused him to behold His future salvation with the same clearness as His judgments; so that he could consider the latter only as transient, and, even by the most glaring contrast between the appearance and the idea, never lost the firm hope of the final victory of the former. This hope formed the centre of his whole life. For a long series of years, he is somewhat cautious in giving utterance to it; for, just as Hosea in the kingdom of the ten tribes, so he too has to do with secure and gross sinners, who must be terrified by the preaching of the Law, and the message of wrath. But, even here, single sunbeams everywhere constantly break through the dark clouds. But towards the close, when the total destruction is already at hand, and his commission to root out and destroy draws to an end, because now the Lord himself is to speak by deeds, he can, to the full desire of his heart, carry out the second part of his calling, viz., to plant and to build (compare chap. i.); and it is now, that his mouth is overflowing, that it is seen how full of it his heart had always been. The whole vocation of the Prophet, _Calvin_ strikingly expresses in these words: "I say simply that Jeremias was sent by God to announce to the people the last defeat, and, farther, to proclaim the future redemption, but in such a manner, that he always puts in the seventy years'exile." That, according to him, this redemption is not destined for Israel only, but that the Gentiles also partake in it, appears not incidentally only in the prophecies to his own people; but it is also prominently brought out in the prophecies against the foreign nations themselves, _e.g._, in the prophecy against Egypt, chap. xlvi. 26; against Moab, chap. xlviii. 47; against Ammon, xlix. 6.

In announcing the Messiah from the house of David (chap, xxii. 5, xxx. 9, xxxiii. 15), Jeremiah agrees with the former prophets. The Messianic features peculiar to him are the following:--The announcement of a revelation of God, which by far outshines the former one from above the Ark of the Covenant, and by which the Ark of the Covenant, with every [Pg 372] thing attached to it, shall become antiquated, chap. iii. 14-17; the announcement of a new covenant, distinguished from the former by greater richness in the forgiveness of sins, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: "I give my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their hearts," chap. xxxi. 31-34; the intimation of the impending realization of the promise of Moses: "Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests," with which the abolition of the poor form of the priesthood hitherto is connected, chap. xxxiii. 14-26.

As regards the style of Jeremiah, _Cunaeus_ (_de repub. Hebr._ i. 3, c. 7) pertinently remarks: "The whole majesty of Jeremiah lies in his negligent language; that rough diction becomes him exceedingly well." It is certainly very superficial in _Jerome_ to seek the cause of that _humilitas dictionis_ of the Prophet, whom he, at the same time, calls _in majestate sensuum profundissimum_, in his origin from the _viculus Anathoth_. It would be unnatural if it were otherwise. The style of Jeremiah stands on the same ground as the hairy garment and leather girdle of Elijah. He who is sorrowful and afflicted in his heart, whose eyes fail with tears (Lament. ii. 11), cannot adorn and decorate himself in his dress or speech.

From chap. xi. 21, xii. 5, 6, several interpreters have inferred, that the Prophet first came forward in his native place Anathoth, and that, because they there said to him: "Thou shalt not prophecy in the name of the Lord, else thou shalt die by our hand," he then went to Jerusalem. But those passages rather refer to an experience which the Prophet made at an incidental visit in his native place, quite similar to what our Saviour experienced at Nazareth, according to Luke iv. 24. For in chap. xxv. 3, Jeremiah says to "all the inhabitants of Jerusalem," that he had spoken to _them_ since the thirteenth year of Josiah. As early as in chap. ii. 2, at the beginning of a discourse which bears a general introductory character, and which immediately follows, and is connected with his vocation in chap. i., he receives the command: "Go, and cry into the ears of Jerusalem." The opening speech itself cannot, according to its contents, have been spoken in some corner of the country, but in the metropolis only, in the temple more specially, the centre of the nation and its spiritual dwelling place. It was there that that must be delivered which was to be told to the whole people as such.

[Pg 373]

THE SECTION, CHAP. III, 14-17.

The whole Section, from chap. iii. 6, to the end of chap. vi., forms one connected discourse, separated from the preceding context by the inscription in chap. iii. 6, and from the subsequent context, by the inscription in chap. vii. 1. This separation, however, is more external than internal. The contents and tone remain the same through the whole series of chapters which open the collection of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and that to such a degree, that we are compelled to doubt the correctness of the proceeding of those interpreters, who would determine the chronological order of the single portions, and fix the exact period in the reign of Josiah to which every single portion belongs. If such a proceeding were admissible, why should the Prophet have expressed himself, in the inscription of the Section before us, in terms so general as: "And the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah the king?" Every thing on which these interpreters endeavour to found more accurate determinations in regard to the single Sections, disappears upon a closer consideration. Thus, _e.g._, the twofold reference to the seeking of help from Egypt, in chap. ii. 16 ff., xxxvi., xxxvii., on which _Eichhorn_ and _Dahler_ lay so much stress. We are not entitled here to suppose a reference to a definite historical event, which, moreover, cannot be historically pointed out in the whole time of Josiah, but can only be supposed on unsafe and unfounded conjectures. In both of the passages something future is spoken of, as is evident from vers. 16 and 19. The thought is this:--that Asshur, _i.e._, the power on the Euphrates (compare 2 Kings xxiii. 29), which had. for a long time opened its mouth to swallow up Judah, just as it had already swallowed up the kingdom of the ten tribes, would not be conciliated, and that Egypt could not grant help against him. This thought refers to historical circumstances which had already existed, and continued to exist for some centuries, and which, in reference to Israel, is given utterance to as early as by Hosea, compare Vol. i. p. 164, f. Our view is this: We have here before us, not so much a series of prophecies, each of which had literally been so uttered at some particular [Pg 374] period in the reign of Josiah, as rather a _resumé_ of the whole prophetic ministry of Jeremiah under Josiah; a collection of all which, being independent of particular circumstances of that time, had, in general, the destiny to give an inward support to the outward reforming activity of Josiah, a specimen of the manner in which the Prophet discharged the divine commission which he had received a year after the first reformation of Josiah. Even the manner in which chap ii. is connected with chap. i. places this relation to his call beyond any doubt. We have thus before us here the same phenomenon which we have already perceived in several of the minor prophets; comp. _e.g._, the introduction to Micah.

In the section before us, the Prophet is engaged with a two-fold object,--first, with the proclamation of salvation for Israel, chap. iii. 6-iv. 2; secondly, with the threatening for Judah, chap. iv. 3, to the end of chap. vi. It is only incidentally, in chap. iii. 18, that it is intimated that Judah also, after the threatening has been fulfilled upon them, shall partake in the salvation. It is self-evident that these two objects must not be considered as lying beside one another. According to the whole context, the announcement of salvation for Israel cannot have any other object than that of wounding Judah. This object even comes out distinctly in ver. 6-11, and the import of the discourse may, therefore, be thus stated: Israel does not continue to be rejected as pharisaical Judah imagined; Judah does not continue to be spared.--When the Prophet entered upon his ministry, ninety-four years had already elapsed since the divine judgment had broken in upon Israel; every hope of restoration seemed to have vanished. Judah, instead of being thereby warned; instead of beholding, in the sin of others, the image of its own; instead of perceiving, in the destruction of the kingdom of its brethren, a prophecy of its own destruction, was, on the contrary, strengthened in its obduracy. The fact that it still existed, after Israel had, long ago, hopelessly perished, as they imagined, appeared to them as a seal which God impressed upon their ways. They rejoiced at Israel's calamity, because, in it, they thought that they saw a proof of their own excellency, just as, at the time of Christ, the blindness of the Jews was increased by the circumstance that they still considered themselves as the sole members of [Pg 375] the Kingdom of God, and imagined the Gentiles to be excluded from it. The Saviour's announcement of the calling of the Gentiles stands in the same relation as the Prophet's announcement of the restoration of Israel.

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Ver. 14. "_Turn, O apostate children, saith the Lord, for I marry myself unto you, and I take one of a city, and two of a family, and bring you to Zion._"

The question here is:--To whom is the discourse here addressed,--to the members of Israel, _i.e._, the kingdom of the ten tribes, as most of the interpreters suppose (_Abarbanel_, _Calvin_, _Schmid_, and others), or, as others assume, to the inhabitants of Judea? The decision has considerable influence upon the exposition of the whole passage; but it must unhesitatingly and unconditionally be given in favour of the first view. There is not one word to indicate a transition; the very same phrase, "turn, O apostate children," occurs, in ver. 22, of Israel. Apostate Israel is, in the preceding verses (6, 8, 11,) the standing expression, while Judah is designated as treacherous, ver. 8-11. The measure of guilt is determined by the measure of grace. The relation of the Lord to Judah was closer, and hence, her apostacy was so much the more culpable. _Farther_--A detailed announcement of salvation for Judah would here not be suitable, inasmuch as no threatening preceded; and ver. 18 ("In those days, the house of Judah shall come by the side of [literally, 'over'] the house of Israel," according to which the return of Judah is, in the meantime, a subordinate point which has here been mentioned incidentally) clearly shows that that announcement of salvation, contained in vers. 14-17, refers to Israel. To Israel the Prophet immediately returns in ver. 19; for, from the contrast to the house of Judah in ver. 18, and to Judah and Jerusalem in chap. iv. 3, it is evident that by the house of Israel in ver. 20, and by the sons of Israel in ver. 21, Israel, in the stricter sense, is to be understood. _Finally_--It will be seen from the exposition, that it is only on the supposition that Israel is addressed, that the contents of ver. 16, 17, become intelligible.--In our explanation of the words [Hebrew: ki anki belti atkM], we follow the precedent of the Vulgate (_quia ego vir vester_), of _Luther_ ("I will [Pg 376] marry you to me"), of _Calvin_, _Schimd_, and others. On the other hand, others, especially _Pococke_, _ad P.M._ p. 2, _Schultens_ on Prov. xxx. 22, _Venema_, _Schnurrer_, _Gesenius_, _Winer_, _Bleek_, have made every endeavour to prove that [Hebrew: bel] is used _sensu malo_ here, as well as in chap. xxxi. 32, where it occurs in a connection altogether similar; so that the decision must be valid for both of the passages at the same time. This signification they seek to make out in a twofold way. Some altogether give up the derivation from the Hebrew _usus loquendi_, and refer solely to the Arabic, where [Hebrew: bel] means _fastidire_. Others derive from the Hebrew signification, "to rule," that of a tyrannical dominion, and support their right in so doing, by referring, with _Gesenius_, to other verbs in which the signification, _to subdue_, _to be distinguished_, _to rule_, has been changed into that of _looking down_, _despising_, and _contemning_. As regards the _first_ derivation, even if the Arabic _usus loquendi_ were proved, we could not from it make any certain inference as regards the Hebrew _usus loquendi_. But with respect to this Arabic _usus loquendi_, it is far from being proved and established. It is true that such would not be the case if there indeed occurred in Arabic the expression [Arabic: **] _fastidivit vir mulierem eamque expulit, s. repudiavit_; but it is only by a strange _quid pro quo_ that interpreters, even _Schultens_ among them, following the example of _Kimchi_, have saddled this expression upon the Arabic. The error lies in a hasty view of _Adul Walid_, who, instead of it, has [Arabic: **] _any one is embarrassed in his affair_. The signification _fastidire_, _rejicere_, is, in general, quite foreign to the Arabic. The verb [Arabic: **] denotes only: _mente turbatus_, _attonitus fuit_, _i.e._, _to be possessed_, _deprived of the use of one's strength_, _to be embarrassed_, _not to know how to help one's self_: compare the _Camus_ in _Schultens_ and _Freytag_. As soon as the plain connection of this signification with the ordinary one is perceived, it is seen at once, that it is here out of the question. As regards the second derivation, we must bring this objection against it, that the fundamental signification of _ruling_, from which that of _ruling tyrannically_ is said to have arisen, is entirely foreign to the Hebrew. More clearly than by modern Lexicographers it was seen by _Cocceius_, that the fundamental, yea the only signification of [Hebrew: bel], is that of _possessing_, [Pg 377] _occupying_. It may, indeed, be used also of rulers, as, _e.g._ Isa. xxvi. 13, and 1 Chron. iv. 22; but not in so far as they rule, but in so far as they possess. On the former passage: "Jehovah our God, [Hebrew: belvnv advniM zvltiM], Lords beside thee have dominion over us," _Schultens_, it is true, remarks: "Every one here easily recognizes a severe and tyrannical dominion;" but it is rather the circumstance that the land of the Lord has at all foreign possessors, which is the real sting of the grief of those lamenting, and which so much occupies them, that they scarcely think of the way and manner of the possessing.--Passages such as Is. liv. 1,[1] lxii. 4, compare Job i. 8, where a relation is spoken of, founded on most cordial love, show that the signification "_to marry_," does not by any means proceed from that of ruling, and is not to be explained from the absolute, slavish dependence of the wife in the East, but rather from the signification "to possess." And this is farther proved by passages such as Deut. xxi. 10-13, xxvi. 1, where the _copula carnalis_ is pointed out as that by which the [Hebrew: bel] is completed. And, finally, it is seen from the Arabic, where the wife is also called, [Hebrew: belh], [Arabic: **], just as the husband is called [Hebrew: bel], [Arabic: **].--It is farther obvious that, in the frequent compositions of [Hebrew: bel] with other nouns, in order, by way of paraphrasis, to form adjectives, the signification "lord" is far less suitable than that of "possessor," _e.g._, [Hebrew: bel Hlmvt], _the dreamer_, [Hebrew: bel aP], _the angry one_, [Hebrew: bel npw], _the covetous one_, [Hebrew: bel mzmzt], _the deceitful one_, [Hebrew: beli eir] _oppidani_, [Hebrew: beli brit], _the members of the covenant_, etc. We arrive at the same conclusion, if we look to the dialects. Here, too, the signification "to possess" appears as the proper and original signification. In the Ethiopic, the verb signifies _multum possedit, dives fuit._ In Arabic, the significations are more varied; but they may all be traced back to one root. Thus, _e.g._ [Arabic: **], [Hebrew: bel], according to the _Camus_, "a high and elevated land which requires only one annual rain; farther, a palm-tree, or any other tree or plant which is not watered, or which the sky alone irrigates;" _i.e._, a land, a tree, a plant which themselves _possess_, which do not require to _borrow_ from others. This reason of the appellation clearly appears in _Dsheuhari_ (compare [Pg 378] _Schultens_ l. c.): "It is used of the palm-tree, which, by its roots, provides for itself drink and sap, so that there is no need for watering it." In favour of the signification "to rule" in this verb, the following gloss from the _Camus_ only can be quoted: "Both (the 1st and 10th conjugations) when construed with [Hebrew: elih] _super illum_, denote: he has taken possession of a thing, and behaved himself proudly towards it." But the latter clause must be struck out; for it has flowed only from the false reading [Arabic: **] in _Schultens_, for which (compare _Freytag_) [Arabic: **] _noluit_ must be read, [Hebrew: bel] with [Hebrew: el] accordingly signifies "to be the possessor of a thing, and, as such, not to be willing to give it up to another." And thus every ground has been taken from those who, from the Hebrew _usus loquendi_, would interpret [Hebrew: bel] in a bad sense,--The same result, however, which we have reached upon philological grounds, we shall obtain also, when we look to the context. From it, they are most easily refuted, who, like _Schultens_, understand the whole verse as a threatening. That which precedes, as well as that which follows, breathes nothing but pure love to poor Israel. She is not terrified by threatenings, like Judah who has not yet drunk of the cup of God's wrath, but allured by the call: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, _for_ I will give you rest." But they also labour under great difficulties who, after the example of _Kimchi_ ("_ego fastidivi vos, eo scil. quod praeteriit tempore, ac jam colligam vos_"), refer the [Hebrew: ki] not so much to [Hebrew: belti], as rather to [Hebrew: lqhti]: "For I have, it is true, rejected you formerly, but now I take," &c. This is the only shape in which this interpretation can still appear; for it is altogether arbitrary to explain [Hebrew: ki] by "although," an interpretation still found in _De Wette_. If it had been the intention of the Prophet to express this sense, nothing surely was less admissible, than to omit just those words, upon which everything depended--the words _formerly_ and _now_. [Hebrew: lqHti] and [Hebrew: belti] evidently stand here in the same relation; both together form the ground for the return to the Lord. To these reasons we may still add the circumstance that, according to our explanation, we obtain the beautiful parallelism with ver. 12: "Return thou, apostate Israel, saith the Lord; I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; _for_ I am merciful; I do not keep anger for ever,"--a circumstance which has already been [Pg 379] pointed out by _Calvin_. Israel's haughtiness is broken; but despondency now keeps them from returning to the Lord. He, therefore, ever anew repeats His invitation, ever anew founds it upon the fact, that He delights in showing mercy and love to those who have forsaken Him. The rejection of Israel had, in ver. 8, been represented under the image of divorce: "Because apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her the bill of divorce." What, therefore, is more natural, than that her being received again, which was offered to her out of pure mercy, should appear under the image of a new marriage; and that so much the more, that the apostacy had, even in the preceding verse, been represented as adultery and whoredom? ("_Thou hast scattered thy ways_, _i.e._, thou hast been running about to various places after the manner of an impudent whore seeking lovers"--_Schmid_; compare ver. 6.) Farther to be compared is ver. 22: "Return ye apostate children, (for) I will heal your apostacy. Behold we come unto thee, _for_ thou art the Lord our God." The objection that [Hebrew: bel], in the signification "to take in marriage" is construed with the Accusative only, is of no weight. In a manner altogether similar, [Hebrew: zkr], which else is connected with the simple Accusative, is, in ver. 16, followed by the Preposition [Hebrew: b]. [Hebrew: bel] with [Hebrew: b] altogether corresponds to our "to join onesself in marriage;" and the construction has perhaps a certain emphasis, and indicates the close and indissoluble connection. Of still less weight is another objection, viz., that, in that case, the _Suffix Plur._ is inadmissible. It is just the Israelites who are the wife; and this is so much the more evident that, in the preceding verses, and even still in ver. 13, they had been treated as such. Hence nothing remains but to determine the sense of our passage, as was done by _Calvin_: "Because despair might take hold of them, in such a manner that they might be afraid of approaching Him.... He saith that He would marry himself to them, and that He had not yet forgotten that union which He once had bestowed upon them." This is the only correct view; and by thus determining the sense, we at the same time obtain the sure foundation for the exposition of chap. xxxi. 32; just as, _vice versa_, the sense which will result from an independent consideration of that passage, [Pg 380] will serve to confirm that which was here established.[2] In the right determination of the sense of the subsequent words, too, _Calvin_ distinguishes himself advantageously from the earlier, and most of the later interpreters: "God shows that there was no reason why some should wait for others; and farther, although the very body of the people might be utterly corrupted in their sins, yet, if even a few were to return. He would show himself merciful to them. The covenant had been entered into with the _whole_ people. The single individual might, therefore, have been disposed to imagine that his repentance was in vain. But in opposition to such fears, the Prophet says: 'Although only one of a town should come to me, he shall find an open door; although only two of one tribe come to me, I will admit even them.'" After him _Loscanus_ too (in his Dissertation on this passage, Frankf. 1720) has thus correctly stated the sense: "The small number shall not prevent God from carrying out His counsel." Thus it is seen--and this is alone suitable in this context--that the apparent limitation of the promise is, in truth, an extension of it. How great must God's love and mercy be to Israel, in how wide an extent must the declaration be true: [Greek: ametamelêta ta charismata kai hê klêsis tou Theo], Rom. xi. 29, if even a single righteous Lot is by God delivered from the Sodom of Israel; if Joshua and Caleb, untouched by the pefunishment of the sins of the thousands, reach the Holy Land; if every penitent heart at once finds a gracious God! Thus it appears that this passage is not by any means in contradiction to other passages by which a complete restoration of Israel is promised. On the contrary, the [Greek: epitunchanein] of the [Greek: eklogê] (Rom. xi. 7) announced here, is a pledge and guarantee for the more comprehensive and general mercy.--Expositors are at variance as to the historical reference of the prophecy. Some, _e.g._ _Theodoret_, _Grotius_, think exclusively of the return from the Babylonish captivity. Others (after the example of _Jerome_ and the Jewish interpreters) think of the Messianic time. It need [Pg 381] scarcely be remarked, that here, as in so many other passages, this alternative is out of place. The prophecy has just the very same extent as the matter itself, and, hence, refers to all eternity. It was a commencement, that, at the time of Cyrus, many from among the ten tribes, induced by true love to the God of Israel, joined themselves to the returning Judeans, and were hence again engrafted by God into the olive-tree. It was a continuation of the fulfilment that, in later times, especially those of the Maccabees, this took place more and more frequently. It was a preparation and prelude of the complete fulfilment, although not the complete fulfilment itself, that, at the time of Christ, the blessings of God were poured upon the whole [Greek: dôdekaphulon], Acts xxvi. 7. The words: "I bring you to Zion," in the verse under consideration, and: "They shall come out of the land of the North to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto their fathers," in ver. 18, do not at all oblige us to limit ourselves to those feeble beginnings; the idea appears here only in that form, in which it must be realised, in so far as its realisation belonged to the time of the Old Testament. Zion and the Holy Land were, at that time, the seat of the Kingdom of God; so that the return to the latter was inseparable from the return to the former. Those from among Israel who were converted to the true God, either returned altogether to Judea, or, at least, there offered up their sacrifices. But Zion and the Holy Land likewise come into consideration, as the seat of the Kingdom of God _only_; and, for that very reason, the course of the fulfilment goes on incessantly, even in those times when even the North has become Zion and Holy Land.--The circumstance that two are assigned to a family, while only one is assigned to a town, shows that we must here think of a larger family which occupied several towns; and the circumstance that the town is put together with the family, shows that it is cities of the land of Israel which are here spoken of, and not those which the exiled ones inhabited.

Ver. 15. "_And I give you shepherds according to mine heart, and they feed you with knowledge and understanding._"

The question is:--Who are here to be understood by the shepherds? _Calvin_ thinks that it is especially the prophets and priests, inasmuch as it was just the bad condition of these [Pg 382] which had been the principal cause of the ruin of the people; and that it is the greatest blessing for the Church, when God raises up true and sincere teachers. Similar is the opinion of _Vitringa_ (_obs._ lib. vi., p. 417), who, in a lower sense, refers it to Ezra and the learned men of that time, and, in a higher sense, to Christ. Among the Fathers of the Church, _Jerome_ remarked: "These are the apostolical men who did not feed the multitude of the believers with Jewish ceremonies, but with knowledge and doctrine." Others refer it to leaders of every kind; thus _Venema_: _Pastores sunt rectores, ductores._ Others, finally, limit themselves to rulers; thus _Kimchi_ (_gubernatores Israelis cum rege Messia_), _Grotius_, and _Clericus_. The latter interpretation is, for the following reasons, to be unconditionally preferred. 1. The image of the shepherd and of feeding occurs sometimes, indeed, in a wider sense, but ordinarily of the ruler specially. Thus, in the fundamental passage, 2 Sam. v. 2, it occurs of David, compare Micah v. 3. Thus also in Jeremiah ii. 8: "The _priests_ said not. Where is the Lord, and they that handle the law knew me not, and the shepherds transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied in the name of Baal;" comp. ver. 26: "They, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets." 2. The word [Hebrew: klbi] contains an evident allusion to 1 Sam. xiii. 14, where it is said of David: "The Lord hath sought him, a man after His own heart, and the Lord hath appointed him to be a prince over His people." 3. All doubt is removed by the parallel passage, chap. xxiii. 4: "And I raise shepherds over them, and they feed them, and they fear no more, nor are dismayed." That, by the shepherds, in this verse, only the rulers can be understood, is evident from the contrast to the bad rulers of the present, who were spoken of in chap. xxii., no less than from the connection with ver. 5, where that which, in ver. 4, was expressed in general, is circumscribed within narrow limits, and the concentration of the fulfilment of the preceding promise is placed in the Messiah: "Behold, days come, saith the Lord, and I raise unto David a righteous _Branch_, and He reigneth as a king and acteth wisely, and setteth up judgment and justice in the land." This parallel passage is, in so far also, of importance, as it shews that the prophecy under consideration likewise had its final reference to the [Pg 383] Messiah. The kingdom of the ten tribes was punished by bad kings for its apostacy from the Lord, and from His visible representative. In the whole long series of Israelitish kings, we do not find any one like Jehoshaphat, or Hezekiah, or Josiah. And that is very natural, for the foundation of the Israelitish throne was rebellion. But, with the cessation of sin, punishment too shall cease. Israel again turns to that family which is the medium and channel through which all the divine mercies flow upon the Church of the Lord; and so they receive again a share in them, and particularly in their richest fulness in the exalted scion of David, the Messiah. The passage under consideration is thus completely parallel to Hosea iii. 5: "And they seek Jehovah their God, and David their king;" and that which we remarked on that passage is here more particularly applicable; compare also Ezek. xxxiv. 23: "And I raise over them one Shepherd, and He feedeth them, my servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd." The antithesis to the words: "According to mine heart," is formed by the words in Hos. viii. 4: "They have set up kings not by me, princes whom I knew not,"--words which refer to the past history of Israel. Formerly, the rebellious chose for themselves kings according to the desires of their own hearts. Now, they choose Him whom God hath chosen, and who, according to the same necessity, must be an instrument of blessing, as the former were of cursing.--[Hebrew: deh] and [Hebrew: hwkil] stand adverbially. [Hebrew: hwkil] "to act wisely" is, in appearance only, intransitive in _Hiphil_. The foundation of wisdom and knowledge is the living communion with the Lord, being according to His heart, walking after Him. The foolish counsels of the former rulers of Israel, by which they brought ruin upon their people, were a consequence of their apostacy from the Lord. The two fundamental passages are, Deut. iv. 6: "And ye shall keep and do (the law); for this is your wisdom and understanding;" xxix. 8 (9): "Ye shall keep the words of this covenant and do them, that ye may act wisely." Besides the passage under consideration, the passages Josh. i. 7; 1 Sam. xviii. 14, 15; 1 Kings ii. 3; Is. lii. 13; Jer. x. 21, xxiii. 5, are founded upon these two passages. If all these passages are compared with one another, and with the fundamental passages, one cannot but wonder at the arbitrariness [Pg 384] of interpreters and lexicographers who, severing several of these passages from the others, have forced upon the verb [Hebrew: hwkil] the signification "to prosper,"--a signification altogether fanciful _God's_ servants act wisely, because they look up to God; and he who acts wisely finds prosperity for himself and his people. Hence, it is a proof of the greatest mercy of God towards His people, when He gives them His _servants_ for kings.

Ver. 16. "_And it cometh to pass, when ye be multiplied and fruitful in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord! And it will not come into the heart, neither shall they remember it, nor miss it, nor shall it be made again._"