and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16 to make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his 17 head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

18-23. The Prophet desires retribution for his enemies. 18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not

they have caused] The pronoun refers either to false prophets and priests, or, which is better, to the idols (see the case of Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 23).

from the ancient paths] These mean the godly lives which their forefathers led, but in which their children have now stumbled. Compare for the figure chap. vi. 16, with notes.

in paths] in by-paths.

not cast up] not raised above the inequalities and obstructions of the adjoining fields.

16. desolate] The word is cognate to that presently rendered shall be astonished. We may therefore render respectively a dismay...shall be dismayed. See note on wonderful in chap. v. 30.

hissing] not in contempt or anger, but in amazement at so appalling a spectacle.

17.

as with an east wind] better perhaps, as an east wind.

I will shew them the back, and not the face] in answer to the people's own behaviour towards Him. See chap. ii. 27.

18-23. THE PROPHET DESIRES RETRIBUTION FOR HIS ENEMIES.

18. Then said they] the leaders among those whom Jeremiah had

addressed.

the law shall not perish...] See note on chap. viii. 8. There were certain classes of persons in the state, viz. the priests, the wise and the prophets, who were thought infallible, as being in undoubted possession of the truth. The appeal therefore is made to them against Jeremiah. The law is not doctrine in general, but the Mosaic Law, as the basis of all the teaching of the prophets, and under the special guardianship of the priests.

smite him with the tongue] report his words to the king. Compare for another case Amos vii. 10, 11.

give heed to any of his words. Give heed to me, O LORD, 19 and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged 20 a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee

21

22

to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against 23 me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

19.

Give heed to me, O Lord] He prays God to give him that hearing, which his enemies refused him.

20.

Shall evil be recompensed for good?] Jeremiah had interceded for the people in times past, e. g. chap. xiv. 7, 21.

21. pour out their blood by the force of the sword] literally, pour them out upon the hands of the sword: a forcible expression, meaning, Cast them upon the sword, so that their blood may be thereby shed. It will help us to understand the severity of the punishment here invoked, if we remember that in the attack on God's prophet these were the leaders, who incurred therefore the responsibility of directing the attacks of the multitude.

22. The last verse has painted the havoc wrought in battle outside the walls. This one goes on to the next stage of the coming calamity, the sacking of the houses of the city, and the cruelties attendant upon it.

they have digged a pit] For this and the following figure we may compare Ps. lvii. 6.

23. Yet] But. The sense is, Although they conceal their devices, yet there is no concealment from Thee.

deal thus with them in the time of thine anger] rather, deal with them (as Thou art wont to act) in time of wrath.

The imprecations in these verses may be compared with those found in certain Psalms, e.g. Pss. lxix. (see p. 382) and cix. In them we see a feature which has caused much difficulty to some, but which is to a large extent explained, when we remember that (i) those thus spoken of were the enemies of God and His Church, not merely the personal foes of the writer; (ii) the general spirit of the Old Dispensation was sterner than that of the New; (iii) the comparative darkness in which a future existence was then

19

CHAP. XIX. I—13. The figure of the Broken Vessel and its

meaning.

Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the 2 ancients of the priests; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and 3 proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, and say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burnt incense in it unto other gods, whom

shrouded would naturally make righteous men the more eager that God's glory should be vindicated and His people avenged in the present life. CHAP. XIX. 1-13. THE figure of THE BROKEN VESSEL AND ITS MEANING.

1. get a potter's earthen bottle] In the figure of chap. xviii. (the potter's clay) the distinguishing feature was the power of God to alter the destinies of a people at any moment, just as the potter's work (ver. 4) was made "again another vessel." The special lesson here is that there may come a time in the history of a nation when its persistent obduracy shall demand that the only alteration in its destiny shall take the form of breaking, destruction.

ancients] the same word which is elsewhere rendered elders. Those who from position, or it might be age, were the leading men of the State and of the Church.

2. the valley of the son of Hinnom] See note on chap. vii. 31, which explains how well the place was adapted to the message that Jeremiah had to deliver.

the east gate] rather, the sherd-gate. The Hebrew name, which does not occur elsewhere, seems to have been given it from the fragments of broken pottery cast here as refuse. It may probably have been identical with one of the two gates mentioned in Nehemiah (iii. 14, 15) as leading from the city into this valley.

3. kings] The plural is used, as not only the reigning king is ad dressed, but the whole dynasty, whose accumulated transgressions with those of their people are now about to be punished.

his ears shall tingle] The same expression was used by the prophets of Manasseh's time (2 Kings xxi. 12) in reference to the evil in which his doings would result, and earlier still, of the consequences of the sins of Eli's house (1 Sam. iii. 11).

4.

have estranged] have treated it as a place of whose sanctity they

are not aware.

5

neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; they have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, 6 that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem 7 in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And 8 I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them to eat,

whom neither they...] The right construction is probably somewhat different from that given in the Eng. Vers. They, their fathers and the kings of Judah, are in strictness nominatives to the first verb, have forsaken. Thus the rendering will be, They have forsaken, etc., whom they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah.

innocents] not children, the sacrifice of whom is first mentioned in the next verse, but in general innocent persons. Compare 2 Kings xxi. 16.

5, 6. These verses have occurred already in substance, chap. vii. 31, 32. See notes there and on ii. 23.

6. The valley of slaughter] The valley of Hinnom, as possessing water, was a natural place for an attacking army to take up its position. Some have thought that the name 'valley of slaughter' refers in particular to successful assaults made by the enemy upon the Jews when these were attempting with an armed force to hold possession of the water supply, so necessary for the maintenance of life within the city.

7. I will make void] The Heb. verb is that from which is derived the original word for 'vessel' in ver. I. Hence it is evidently intended as a play on the word, and means literally, I will pour out. It has been thought that Jeremiah here suited the action to the word, and having previously filled with water the vessel which he bore, now poured out the contents on the ground, as he spoke. For the latter part of the verse compare vii. 33.

8. desolate, and a hissing] See note on chap. xviii. 16.

plagues] blows, wounds. The word plague is generally used only of pestilences, although in point of derivation (Greek) it should mean simply blows.

The verse is taken from the opening words of Deut. xxviii. 5357, in which passage are described at length the unnatural straits to

the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek To their lives, shall straiten them. Then shalt thou break the I bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee. And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense which hunger shall drive the besieged. Compare a briefer expression of the same, Levit. xxvi. 29. This had already been the state of things in the siege of Samaria by the Syrians (2 Kings vi. 28, 29), and that it actually occurred in fulfilment of this prophecy, when the Chaldaeans besieged Jerusalem, we learn from Lam. iv. 10.

12

13

10. The first of the two thoughts to be connected with the pitcher, the pouring out of the people as water spilt on the ground, has been made sufficiently plain by the prophet (verses 7-9). He now proceeds to the second sign, viz. the breaking of the pitcher.

"The people...have the same custom of breaking a jar, when they wish to express their utmost detestation of any one. They come behind or near him, and smash the jar to atoms, thus imprecating upon him and his a like hopeless ruin." Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 641. 11. that cannot be made whole again] In this lies the special point of the figure here used. See above, note on ver. I.

and they shall bury them...] The Septuagint omits the last part of this verse. The apparent arbitrariness, however, which is so often displayed by that Version in this Book, prevents us from attributing very inuch weight to such an omission when unsupported by good evidence. The words seem to have a natural connexion both with what precedes and with what follows. The overthrow of Jerusalem shall be so sudden and complete, that there shall not be room for burial, unless by using even the unclean place of Tophet for that purpose.

12.

As Tophet had been made an unclean place by the practice of idolatry, so shall all the houses of Jerusalem be made unclean by corpses, because of the idolatries which have been practised upon their roofs. 13. because of all] better, even all.

upon whose roofs they have burnt incense] "The flat roofs of oriental buildings were used for gatherings at festivals (Judg. xvi. 27), for exercise (2 Sam. xi. 2), for the erection of booths at the feast of tabernacles (Neh. viii. 16), and for public meetings (Matt. x. 27). They seem also to have been the favourite places for star-worship (Zeph. i. 5)."