14

15

and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are 11 afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. And I 12 will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. But if ye 13 say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God, saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: and now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; then it shall come to pass, 16 that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die. So shall it be with all the men that set their faces 17 to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of 18 Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth

I repent me] a figure of speech. I change my conduct towards you, which with men is commonly caused by change of purpose.

12. I will shew mercies unto you] I will grant you compassion, i.e. from Nebuchadnezzar. The Heb. phrase in the text occurs also in the same sense in Gen. xliii. 14; 1 Kings viii. 50.

cause you to return] or, with the difference of a vowel only in the original, cause you to dwell. The latter is perhaps preferable, not only as according more literally with the condition of the persons addressed, but also as agreeing better with the following verse ('We will not dwell,' etc.).

14. we shall see no war] We shall be in a land further from Babylon, and therefore not liable to invasion.

15. and now therefore] now therefore. This is the second or answering part of the sentence (apodosis), the first part (protasis) consisting of the two previous verses.

to enter into Egypt and go] to go into Egypt and go. The verbs are the same in the Heb.

17. none of them shall remain or escape] See note on vi. 9.

19 more.

upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have 20 admonished you this day. For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we 21 will do it. And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor 22 any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

43

CHAP. XLIII. I-7. They disobey and go down to Egypt.

And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent 2 him to them, even all these words; then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all

19. The Lord's reply has ended, and Jeremiah is now adding a brief and emphatic address.

The Lord hath said concerning you] the Lord hath spoken concerning

you.

admonished] become a witness against is the more literal rendering. 20. ye dissembled in your hearts] either, (a) ye err at the risk of your souls, or (b) ye have deceived yourselves, i.e. ye believed that ye were asking of God in absolute good faith, but all the while nothing but your own way would content you.

22.

to go and to sojourn] to go to sojourn, the latter verb expressing the object of the former.

CHAP. XLIII. 1—7.

THEY DISOBEY AND GO DOWN TO EGYPT.

2. then spake Azariah] See note on chap. xlii. 1. The attack upon Baruch, and only indirectly and through him upon the prophet, may have arisen from their being reluctantly compelled to acknowledge that Jeremiah himself at any rate was possessed of integrity of purpose. This he had shewn by his refusal to seek protection and honourable treatment from the Chaldaeans, whose favour the worse section of his countrymen always suspected him of seeking.

5

the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there: but Baruch the son of Neriah 3 setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives into Babylon. So Johanan the son of 4 Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the s captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah: Even men, and 6 women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every person that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. So 7 they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.

8-13. Prophecy of the fall of Egypt.

Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah in Tah- 8 panhes, saying, Take great stones in thine hand, and hide 9 them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; and say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts,

5. that were returned from all nations] See note on chap. xl. 12. 7. Tahpanhes] See note on chap. ii. 16.

8-13. PROPHECY OF THE FALL OF EGYPT.

8. in Tahpanhes] The exiles would be compelled to halt here in order to secure permission to sojourn in the country and obtain if possible such recognition from the king as would help to supply them with means of subsistence.

9. hide them in the clay] i.e. cover them over with mortar.

in the brickkiln] The Heb. word occurs in but three (or, since 2 Sam. xii. 31 has a various reading, possibly in but two) passages in the Bible. See Nah. iii. 14. Beyond the fact that it means a place connected with bricks the form of the word in the original does not help us. Brick pavement, or wall, or building, have all been suggested as the sense here, so as to avoid the objection that a brickkiln would not be likely to be set up close to a royal palace. Such a thing however is far from impossible in that country and at that time.

JEREMIAH

18

the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall 11 spread his royal pavilion over them. And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; 12 and such as are for the sword to the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence 13 in peace. He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh,

10. my servant] See note on xxv. 9.

upon these stones that I have hid] The action of Jeremiah would naturally excite much attention and enquiry among the people, although we must not suppose, arguing from our Western and precise manners, that he would be at all necessarily interfered with. In fact he would have a twofold security, as a prophet of God to those who acknowledged him as such, and in the opinion of others as insane, and according to Eastern ideas thus specially under Divine promptings in his acts. Το the crowd collected by these symbolic acts Jeremiah would proclaim the meaning of the sign which he was commanded thus to shew.

his royal pavilion] rather, his canopy shall be stretched (literally, one shall stretch). The covering, however, is probably not a fixed one, like an awning or tent, but borne by an attendant. "It had a tall and thick pole, which the bearer grasped with both his hands, and in the early times a somewhat small circular top. Under the later kings the size of the head was considerably enlarged, and at the same time a curtain or flap was attached, which, falling from the edge of the parasol, more effectually protected the monarch from the sun's rays.' Rawl. Anc. Mon. I. 496.

11. and deliver] These words may be omitted. Under the name of 'the land' its inhabitants are apportioned out among the various forms of ill that follow.

for the sword] the sword of the executioner: 'death' in the earlier part of the verse referring therefore to other forms of fate such as famine or deadly wound in battle.

12. I will kindle] a sudden change of person, but nothing beyond what is frequent with Jeremiah. He immediately returns to the third person, 'he shall burn them,' etc.

as a shepherd putteth on his garment] Nebuchadnezzar shall have no more difficulty in carrying off the spoil of Egypt than the shepherd has in wrapping his outer garment about him at the end of his ordinary day's labour.

13. the images] The same word is rendered pillar in Is. xix. 19, and there as well as here in all probability means obelisk (see next note).

that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.

CHAP. XLIV. 1—10. Rebuke addressed to the Egyptian Jews.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews 44 which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of a

This announcement of the destruction of such splendid contributions to the favourite Egyptian sun worship shewed the extent to which the devastation of the land by Nebuchadnezzar should go. For the fulfilment of this prophecy against Egypt, see note on xliv. 30. Beth-shemesh house of the sun (Greek Heliopolis, Egyptian_On, which last is altered by a play on the word to Aven=iniquity, Ezek. xxx. 17). It is near the southern point of the Delta and about ten miles north-east of Cairo. An ancient sycamore hard by is pointed out according to a local tradition as that beneath which the Holy Family rested (Matt. ii. 14). At On there was a spring which was believed by the credulous to have been salt until the Virgin's coming. It was a city of obelisks, two of which stood before the entrance to the Temple of the Sun. "When Strabo visited the city twenty years before Christ it was already a heap of ruins. Nothing now remains of Heliopolis but some traces of the massive walls, fragments of sphinxes, and an obelisk of red granite sixty-eight feet high. It is, with the exception of a small obelisk which Lepsius discovered in the Acropolis of Memphis, the oldest obelisk extant.' Schaff's Through Bible Lands. Obelisks were brought from Heliopolis to Rome by Augustus and Caligula and still stand there. The shape of such monuments has been rendered yet more familiar to many of late by the erection on the Thames embankment of "Cleopatra's Needle."

CHAP. XLIV. 1-10. REBUKE ADDRESSED TO THE EGYPTIAN

JEWS.

1. The word that came to Feremiah] This is the last prophecy of Jeremiah in respect of time. The occasion we see to have been the unabated idolatry which characterised the people even in the midst of the punishment which they were undergoing in exile. It may have been uttered at any time between the arrival in Egypt (about 585 B.C.) and the fulfilment (not earlier than 572 B.C.).

at Migdol] twelve miles from Pelusium, on the northern boundary. See Exod. xiv. 2.

at Tahpanhes, and at Noph] See note on ii. 16 (Tahapanes). Authorities are divided as to the exact position of Pathros, some passages where it is mentioned suggesting Lower (northern) and some Upper (southern) Egypt. We have no distinct intimation that Jeremiah ever went into Upper Egypt, yet in that direction on the whole the preponderance of opinion seems to incline.