2 3 And they shall be my people. Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in Even Israel when I went to cause him to rest. Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, 2. Interpretations which have been offered of this verse are to refer it (i) to the Exodus from Egypt, (ii) to the return from exile. According to (i) the sense will be, The escaped from Pharaoh's oppression were supported in the desert that lay between Egypt and Canaan; according to (ii) Those who survive the sufferings of the Assyrian captivity are promised a safe journey through the desert home. On the other hand in li. 50 the Jews delivered from Babylon are spoken of as escaped from the sword, and are told to remember the Lord afar off (see note on verse 3). If we accept (ii), the verb will of course be in the prophetic past. The expression "left of the sword" hardly suits the circumstances of the Egyptian bondage or the deliverance from that servitude. On the other hand even if in the case of these words we adopt (ii), it is open to us to understand those that follow as relating to the wilderness of Sinai, which therefore will make a third possible interpretation. Perhaps on the whole (ii) is best, understanding however the expression "found grace in the wilderness" to be chosen as having a distinct allusion to the wilderness journey of old time. The grace then shewn God has now determined to repeat. Even Israel when I went to cause him to rest] Let me go to give him rest (or, when he (the Lord) went to find him rest), even Israel. 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me] It is best to take this as put in the mouth of the people themselves. of old] from afar, as the same Heb. word is rendered chap. xxx. 10. The people from their distant exile in Assyria think upon God as dwelling upon His accustomed seat, Mount Zion. with lovingkindness have I drawn thee] rather, I have prolonged loving-kindness to thee. So the Heb. word is rightly rendered in Ps. xxxvi. 10, cix. 12. 4. I will build thee, and thou shalt be built] For build=make to prosper, see note on xii. 16. O virgin of Israel] woman, as so often. The nation is addressed under the figure of a tabrets] The margin has timbrels. Both words are used in the Eng. Vers. to translate the Heb. tôph, the duff or diff of the Arabs, a hoop on And shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of 5 Samaria: The planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day, That the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, which pieces of brass are often fixed, and over which parchment is extended. It is thus played with the fingers like our tambourine. The whole group of words (compare French tambour, tabouret, Provençal tabor, Eng. tabor, Span. tambor, Ital. tamburo) were probably introduced into Europe by the Crusaders, who learned the name and use of the instrument from the Saracens. Taber is used as a verb (to beat as a tabor or tabret) in Nah. ii. 7. The name tôph is probably derived either from the sound or from a root meaning to strike (Gk. TÚT-TW, TÚμπ-avov, Eng. thump, tap). The tabret was used in early times by the Syrians of Padan-aram (Gen. xxxi. 27), played principally by women (Ex. xv. 20; Jud. xi.` 34; 1 Sam. xviii. 6; Ps. lxviii. 25), but also by prophets (1 Sam. x. 5) and by others (2 Sam. vi. 5; 1 Chron. xiii. 8). See Sm., Bibl. Dict., Art. 'Timbrel.' 5. shall eat them as common things] Our version here quite misses the sense, which is shall eat the fruit. The fruit borne by a tree for the first three years was not to be gathered, that of the fourth year was to be consecrated to God, while that of the fifth year the owner might eat. See Lev. xix. 23—25; Deut. xx. 6, xxviii. 30. The word which in those passages expresses the handing over of the fruit to God or to the owner's use, as the case may be, is that used in this passage also. 6. watchmen] According to a Jewish tradition, which is by them referred back to Moses himself, watchers were placed seven times a year on the 30th day of the month on heights round Jerusalem to await the appearance of the new moon and thus determine the beginning of the month, which with them coincided with its phases. When they made the announcement, the news was conveyed from the Mount of Olives by beacon fires upon the hills. These watchmen are posted in the present case in order that members of the Northern kingdom may go up to keep the Feasts in Jerusalem, thus betokening the end of the schism which had so long kept the two kingdoms apart. 7. Sing] The imperatives throughout are in the plural, and that not Israel only is meant, but in general all who are acquainted with the circumstances of the nation before and after this joyful change in its fortunes, is rendered probable by ver. 10 ("O ye nations”). 6 7 8 9 10 And shout among the chief of the nations: O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. And with them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: A great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, And with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters In a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble : And Ephraim is my firstborn. 10-14. Similar promises renewed. Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, among the chief of the nations] either, at the head of the nations, or on account of the chosen people, now restored to their rightful position. O Lord, save] Hosannah, the expression of a joyful wish, or congratulation, rather than strictly speaking a prayer. Compare Ps. cxviii. 25; Matt. xxi. 9: 8. The Lord's reply to the joyous acclamation. north country] See note on chap. iii. 12. coasts of the earth] See note on vi. 22. the blind and the lame...] None shall be omitted, even those who would naturally have most difficulty in travelling shall return. thither] hither, to Palestine, where the prophet is now writing. 9. with weeping] tears at once of contrition for their rebellion and of joy at their return. supplications] not favours, as the Eng. margin reads. Ephraim is my firstborn] These words may merely express the choice of Israel as against all other nations of the world. It is also however very possible that Ephraim may here mean the Northern kingdom (of which this was the principal tribe), and then the sense will be, Although its punishment came earlier than that of the Southern kingdom, yet if it repent, it shall be forgiven first. Compare for this sense chap. iii. 18 with note. 10-14. SIMILAR PROMISES RENEWED. 10. Oye nations] See note on ver. 9. And declare it in the isles afar off, and say, And ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, And for the young of the flock and of the herd: And will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, the isles] See note on xxv. 22. He that scattered Israel will gather him] The nations are instructed that as it was not their doing but God's, that His people had been subject to a foreign yoke, so now their restoration was His work alone. 12. shall flow together] shall flow. The exact sense however is not quite plain. Does it continue the picture which the first clause gives us of the returned tribes assembling in joyful worship on the holy mountain, that they may receive the blessings of a fruitful land, or are they likened to a river which pours down from Zion, so that, their religious service over, they go forth to their several abodes to reap the produce of the field, vineyard and oliveyard? There is good authority for the latter of these, but the use of the word in the parallel passages (chap. li. 44; Is. ii. 2; Mic. iv. 1) makes the former to be perhaps on the whole the better of the two. for wheat...] or, to the corn, to the wine etc., as an explanation of that in which "the goodness of the Lord" shall consist. wheat] corn. sorrow] pine, waste away through listlessness and inactivity, such as they had felt when exiles. Compare ver. 25 and note. 13. both young men] and young men, etc. This rendering will save us from imagining, as the Eng. Vers. suggests, that any but the virgins shew their rejoicing by the special means of the dance. With the others we have merely to understand rejoice. 14. satiate] literally, water. the soul of the priests with fatness] The sacrifices shall be so numerous that the priests and their families shall have more than enough for their share. The priest's portion was the wave-breast and heave-shoulder (Lev. vii. 31-34). II 12 13 14 JEREMIAH 14 15 And my people shall be satisfied with my godness, saith the LORD. 15-26. Ephraim's weeping and remorse shall disappear. Judah also shall be brought back. Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children Refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. 15-26. EPHRAIM'S WEEPING AND REMORSE SHALL DISAPPEAR. JUDAH ALSO SHALL BE BROUGHT BACK. 15. This verse is specially familiar to our ears through the use made of it by St Matt. (ii. 17, 18), who, having related the slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem, adds, "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation," etc. It is possible that there may have been a place of this name near Bethlehem which has since disappeared (and in favour of this may be advanced the meaning of the name, which is simply high place), but this is by no means necessary in order to understand the Apostle's use of the verse. It is quoted by him as an illustration, or type. The mourning at Ramah is a forecast of that bitter wailing which shall be raised by the mothers of the slaughtered babes, while Rachel's name (Rahel), used in the prophecy, is naturally associated with Bethlehem by the fact that her tomb was in its neighbourhood (Gen. xxxv. 16-19, xlviii. 7). The two best known Ramahs in the O.T. history are (a) a city mentioned first in Josh. xviii. 25, between Gibeon and Beeroth, five miles north of Jerusalem; and (b) the birth-place, home, and place of burial of Samuel (1 Sam. i. 19, xxv. 1). The latter was in Mount Ephraim, the limits of which are however rather vague, and was probably about four miles north-west of Jerusalem. Both of these are much too far from Bethlehem to be in any way immediately connected with the subject in illustration of which St Matt. quotes the passages. One or other of them was doubtless the Ramah at which the exiles were assembled before departing for Babylon, as described chap. xl. I. The appropriateness of calling upon Rachel to weep in Ramah consists in this, that she, the one of Jacob's wives who had so ardently longed for children (Gen. xxx. 1), and mother of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, should in a conspicuous border town of the two kingdoms, with both of which she was thus immediately connected, lament the overthrow of her offspring. The fitness of the figure is unaltered, whether we take the reference to be to some special butchery on the part of the Assyrian captors, of which Ramah was remembered in Jeremiah's day as the scene, or only to their general cruelty. |