the custom of the Hebrew writers.* 5) The general repentance of the Ninevites is not a circumstance inexplicable. For in the old world the threatening of a man of reputation, (and it must not be assumed that Jonah was an obscure or unknown person,) led to an inclination to pacify the offended Deity; and some allowance may be made for the use of hyperbole, as, for instance, where the beasts as well as the people are ordered to be clothed in sackcloth, and to fast, and cry mightily unto God; or this may have been done with the view of exciting the people to penitence. 6) The silence of profane history on the subject of this book may be accounted for from the imperfection of history in relation to the Assyrian monarchy; and that of sacred history (comp. II Kings xiv. 25.), by the fact that the book of Jonah was well known. 7) The analogy of this narrative to certain fictitious matters of Heathen mythology, is but inconsiderable, and can have no weight against its truth.' Tr.]

* [In addition to this it may be observed, with particular reference to the objection drawn from the silence respecting the crimes of the Ninevites, that the prophecies of Jonah, in which we might expect a description of those crimes, have not been preserved, and that the present book is probably only an abridgement of his history. Tr.]

† [Similar instances, especially among Oriental people, are adduced by VERSCHUIR, ubi supra, p. 46. s. Tr.]

§ 129. Age of the Book of Jonah.

The language of the book exhibits Chaldaic terms, compound particles, and other words of a late age, as 'ph, i. 7., 'ph xa, i. 8.,

hwa, i. 12.; the words on, for sailors or rowers, i. 5, and hin for

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master of a vessel, i. 6. do not occur except in Ezek. xxvii. 8, 27, 28, 29. Chaldaic terms are 'DD for ', a ship, i. 5., лwyn', he will

think, i. 6., and by in the sense of a command, iii. 7. The ode of Jonah, c. ii. is compiled from sentences taken from more ancient writers, which method of composing prayers is comparatively recent.* Lastly, the words, "Nineveh was a very great city," iii. 3., where cannot be translated is, intimates that the author wrote after its

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* [Yet NACHTIGALL, who maintains that the book is a late compilation from three successive writers, allows this hymn, and this only, to be the genuine production of the Jonah who lived in the reign of Jeroboam II. Tr.]

destruction.

From all this it follows, that the Jonah who is said to have prophesied in II Kings xiv. 25, cannot have been the author of this book, who must have lived a long time after the year 625 before Christ when Nineveh was destroyed, and even after the Babylonian captivity, when the Jews vehemently desired the chastisement of the heathen, and could scarcely bear to have it delayed, a disposition which is silently reproved in this book. Comp. Mal. ii. 17. and Ps. cxxxvii. 8. s. It is impossible to determine the time of the author more particularly, or to identify him, for want of historical documents.[a]

(a) VERSCHUIR, ubi supra, p. 100-105, examines all the words and phrases supposed to prove the recent origin of this book, and shows that they do not necessarily lead to that conclusion. DE WETTE, although he relies on them as proofs of a recent date, yet asserts that "Jahn probably places this book too late." He denies that c. iii. 3. affords any certain data. ROSENM. Vol. II. p. 358, asserts that, without doubt, the book was composed before the destruction of Nineveh by Cyaxares, but in the latter period of the kingdom of Judah; and that perhaps the author was a contemporary of Jeremiah, and composed his book in the latter part of the reign of Josiah. Tr.]

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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. Pa shur 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. pestr lence, 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 de, nunciation 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 country, 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