CHAPTER IV.

OF THE PROPHETS FROM THE AGE OF JOSIAH TO THE END OF THE

CAPTIVITY.

$130. Age of Zephaniah.

ZEPHANIAH, MD, or as he is called in the Alexandrine and Latin

T:-:

translations, Sophonias, is said to be "the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah," i. 1. This progenitor of his was therefore a man of note, but not the celebrated king of that name, [a] for in that case, it would be reasonable to expect some such addition as the king, or king of Judah. Zephaniah exercised his prophetic office in the very beginning of the reign of Josiah, while that monarch was yet a youth, and under tutelage, i. 1, 9.; but yet after the first reformation, for the remnant of the worshippers of Baal, i. 4. is large, i. 5, 6, 8, 9, which was not the case after the second reformation in the eighteenth year of Josiah. The prophet therefore must have entered upon his duties after the twelfth year of Josiah's reign, (B. C. 630, after the division 345,) when the nobles still exercised considerable power over the king. This chronology is confirmed by ii. 13-15, where the ruin of the city of Nineveh is predicted, which followed in the eighteenth year of Josiah, 625 B. C.

(a) So ROSENM. Schol. in Min. Proph. IV. 1. s. and DE WETTE, Einleit. S. 333. But ЕICHн. Th. IV. S. 414. follows ABEN-EZRA and HUET in supposing the king of Judah to be referred to. Tr.]

The first two chapters contain predictions of the carrying into captivity of all the inhabitants of Judea, of the desolation of the country, and of the destruction of the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Cushites, Assyrians, and of Nineveh; and in ii. 7. the restoration of the Jews to their own land is touched on. In the third chapter the prophet reproves the vices of the Jews which had merited that desolation, and promises, after the return from captivity, the propagation of the true religion, the perseverance of the Hebrews in the worship of God, and a period of rest and happiness, which it would have been impossible for him to foresee in the ordinary course of nature.

§ 132. Style of Zephaniah.

The style of Zephaniah is by no means low, yet it is not so elevated as that of the more ancient prophets. He is not always an original writer, but borrows considerably from the prophets who had preceded him. Comp. ii. 14. with Isa. xxxiv. 11., ii. 15. with Isa. xlvii. 8., iii. 10. with Isa. xviii. 1., and ii. 14, 15. with Isa. xiii. 21, 22.[a] The language is pure, although foreign words are occasionally to be met with.[b]

(a) DE WETTE considers these as doubtful instances, but gives the following: Zeph. ii. 8. comp. Isa. xvi. 6. Zeph. i. 13. comp. Amos v. 11. Even these are not such close resemblances as to render it necessary to allow that they are imitations. Tr.]

[b) EICHH. Th. IV. S. 418, and ROSENM. ubi supra, p. 7, have remarked coincidences in expression between Zephaniah and his contemporary, Jeremiah, and even Ezekiel. Comp. Zeph. i. 5, with Jer. viii. 2. (comp. II Ki. xxiii. 12); Zeph. i. 12. with Jer. xlviii. 11; Zeph. i. 18. with Ezek. vii. 19; Zeph. iii. 4. with Ezek. xxii. 26. Tr.]

§ 133. Of Jeremiah and his Age.

Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, p, was a priest of the city Anathoth, which was situated in the tribe of Benjamin, three Roman miles from Jerusalem, to the north. Jer. i. 1. xxix. 27. Jos. xxi. 18. EUSEB. in Onomast. JEROME on Jer. i. xi. xxxi. It is with

good reason doubted whether Jeremiah's father was that Hilkiah who in the eighteenth year of Josiah found a copy of the law of Moses in the temple, as in that case the appellation high priest would have been added to his name. Jeremiah prophesied first at Anathoth, or at least he was not constantly at Jerusalem c. ii. 2. until the people of Anathoth and even his own relations, plotted against his life xi. 21, 22. xii. 5, 6. At length he exercised his office in Jerusalem, where he suffered imprisonment and chains, and was in frequent danger of his life. He was called to assume the prophetic character when a youth, in the 23d year before the commencement of the Babylonian captivity, the 41st before the destruction of Jerusalem, and the 13th of Josiah, c. i. 2, 3, and he continued to retain it until after the burning of the city. At last, upon the murder of Gedaliah, being forced by the rest of the Jews, he accompanied them into Egypt, and there died but in what year is not known. His prophecies relating to the seventy years of the captivity, were read by Daniel, c. ix. 1.

§ 134. Contents of the Book of Jeremiah.

In the first chapter, Jeremiah relates his call to the prophetic office, and the commission which he had received to announce the ruin and restoration of the state, and by two visions he is instructed that this desolation is to come from the north. The prophet therefore in two discourses, ii. 1--iii. 5 and iii 6-vi. 30, upbraids all classes with their sins and predicts destruction by a distant people, who should come from the north and speak a language unknown to the Hebrews. He foretells also the return and re-establishment of the nation.

The discourse in c. vii-x. Jeremiah proclaims in a gate of the temple, and exhorts the Jews not to repose their trust in that building but to reform, lest otherwise they experience the fate of the kingdom of Israel. The 10th chapter contains an exhortation to the Israelites in the Assyrian captivity, to keep themselves from idolatry. The 11th and 12th exhort the people to obey the covenant with Jehovah. No doubt they refer to the finding of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah, and the covenant to which that event gave rise. The prophet complains that the priests at Anathoth, and even his own relations, seek his life. He then predicts that the neighbouring people shall be

driven from their lands but afterwards return and embrace the Jewish religion; and that those who refuse, shall be again destroyed, which was accomplished under the successors of the Maccabees.

Chapter xiii. represents the corrupt state of the people and the consequent calamity by the emblem of a rotten girdle, and by the distresses of drunkenness Chapters xiv. and xv relate to the beginning of Jehoiakim's government. They contain the prophet's intercessions on occasion of a barren year produced by want of rain. God replies that all intercession is vain. At the end, the prophet complains of being exposed to ridicule and persecution. In c. xvi. 1-xvii. 18. he announces the devastation of the land, and the removal of the people as a punishment of their crimes, and adds, v. 19-27, that the state shall be restored, if the Sabbath is kept holy. In c. xviii. he sees a potter at his work, who, after making one vessel which did not satisfy him breaks it in pieces and makes another out of the materials. Thus, says the prophet, can God do with his people without affording to any one a right to find fault, comp. Isa. xlv. 9. lxiv. 8. In v. 18-23, he complains of treacherous efforts made to destroy him.

In c. xix, xx. Jeremiah, in the presence of many witnesses, breaks an earthen bottle in the valley of Tophet and proclaims the similar destruction of the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. On this account, he is abused by Pashur, and thrown into prison; but upon being released the next day, he confirms his prediction, and for the first time mentions the king of Babylon as the instrument by whom the inhabitants and their treasures were to be removed. Pashur himself is to die in Babylon. Passionate complaints and a curse denounced upon the day of his birth. similar to that in Job iii., form the conclusion, v. 7—18.

Chapter xxi. relates to the last years of Zedekiah, and should stand after the 38th, but is placed here because the name Pashur, belonging to a different person from the one just mentioned, occurs in it. The prophet replies to the messengers of Zedekiah, who had sent to inquire of him what would be the result of the siege, that the city would be taken and burnt, and the inhabitants perish by famine, pestilence, and sword, or be carried into captivity; but that whosoever would go over to the Chaldeans, should save his life.

Chapters xxii, xxiii., belong to the early period of Jehoiakim's reign, but are placed after c. xxi., because the termination of the one is similar to the commencement of the other. Comp. xxi. 12 with xxii. 3. Chap. xxii. predicts that the royal palace shall be reduced to a heap of ruins, the body of king Jehoiakim be cast out before the gates, and his son Coniah or Jeconiah be made a prisoner together with his mother, by the Chaldeans, never to return. Then follows a denunciation against the pastors of the people, in other words the kings; the return from captivity is predicted, and in perspective the second David or Messiah xxiii. 1-8. A reproof of the false prophets, and a warning to the people, form the conclusion of this portion.

Immediately after Zedekiah is raised to the throne Jeremiah sees, c. xxiv., a vision of two baskets of figs, the one good and the other bad. He explains the former as a symbol of the Jews who were fellow captives with Jeconiah and whom God would bring back again, and the latter as emblematic of the Hebrews who remained in the coun. try, and were to be destroyed.

The 25th chapter, which belongs to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when the captivity commenced, reproves the indocility of the people during the twenty-three years which the prophet had devoted to their instruction, and threatens devastation and seventy years service of the king of Babylon. A similar fate is predicted of various other nations, including the Babylonians themselves. This is represented under the figure of a cup of strong wine which the prophet stretches out to the kings of those nations until they become intoxicated.

In the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, Jeremiah, c. xxvi., predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, and is on that account accused of a capital crime by the priests and prophets. He is acquitted, but Urijah, who had made the same prediction, is put to death.

To the same period belong c. xxvii. xxviii. By the emblem of a wooden yoke, which the prophet wears upon his neck, he announces the subjugation of the Jews, and also that of other nations by sending yokes to their kings by their ambassadors then at Jerusalem, warning them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. He also warns Zedekiah not to expect the speedy return of the captives and the restitution of the vessels of the temple; for on the contrary the remainder