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ings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

21

21-28. The fact that the moral has always taken precedence of the ceremonial law in God's sight has never been acknowledged by Israel.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them

marginal translation (frame, or workmanship) is drawn, we should rather render service of heaven. This however is unnecessary. The "queen of heaven" is the moon, worshipped by the Assyrians as the receptive power in nature, and contrasted with the sun, Baal, the fertilising power. Her worship is to be distinguished from that of Astarte, a star, viz. Venus. They were similar however in so far as they were both accompanied by impure rites. The foreign form of the Heb. for queen, as in the case of the word cakes above, is probably meant as a hit at the foreign origin of the worship.

19. Will they not bring about their own vexation and shame?

21-28. THE FACT THAT THE MORAL HAS ALWAYS TAKEN PRECEDENCE OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW IN GOD'S SIGHT HAS NEVER BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY ISRAEL.

21. Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices] Burnt offerings (holocausts) were consumed whole, while of sacrifices certain portions were reserved to be eaten by the priest and the offerer. Accordingly the sense here is either (i) reserve, if you like, of the offerings of which ye now consume the whole: I care not, for in either case ye are breaking a higher law; or (ii) add one sacrifice to another. Multiply your victims ad libitum, it will avail you nought. The latter of these explanations avoids the objection that the Jews would abhor the idea of failing rigidly to consume those animals which were offered in burnt offering.

22. Some have seen a difficulty in reconciling this verse with the institution of sacrifices through Moses. They accordingly consider that such passages of the Pentateuch as enjoin them did not exist in its original form, that the Book of Deuteronomy as a whole is the compo. sition of Jeremiah, and that the entire notion of laws concerning sacrifice, &c. came in in the time of Ezra. To this we may reply that (i) regu

in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing com- 23 manded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but 24 walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day 25 that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they :6 hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Therefore 27 thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will larly instituted sacrifices are expressly mentioned in chap. xxxiii. 18, as well as referred to in vi. 20, vii. 21, xiv. 12, xvii. 26; (ii) Hosea and Amos, prophets prior in date to Jeremiah, testify the same; (iii) the frequent censure of sacrifice offered as a perfunctory task shews that it was a powerful institution to the supposed efficacy of which men could thus trust; (iv) the discovery of the Book of the Law in Josiah's reign in all probability before this prophecy was uttered, (whether that Book were the Pentateuch or Deuteronomy) as well as the feeling which it produced, precludes such a supposition. The sense of the verse is sufficiently clear. The phraseology of Jeremiah (see below) proves that he had in his mind the promulgation of the Ten Commandments on Sinai. Now among these we find no direction concerning sacrifice, and they were the only precepts which had the honour of being treasured up in the Ark. Thus they from the first received the chief place. The Jews, it may be added, in their public service read this portion of the prophets along with Lev. vi-viii., thus shewing their belief that the sacrifices are but secondary. Compare for the sentiment of the verse 1 Sam. xv. 22.

23. From the fact that obedience to the moral Law always ranked first, it follows (and this is Jeremiah's special point) that sacrifices were wholly worthless when offered by the immoral.

Obey my voice] not an exact quotation; the nearest approach is Exod. xix. 5.

in all the ways] Only once elsewhere does this precise phrase occur, viz. Deut. v. 33, immediately after the repetition of the Ten Command

ments.

24. imagination] stubbornness. Compare iii. 17.

went] literally were. That has been their condition ever since the exodus from Egypt.

26. hardened their neck] 2 Kings xvii. 14; Neh. ix. 16, 27. Therefore thou shalt]

Compare for the phrase chap. xix. 15;
17, 29; Prov. xxix. I.
The Hebrew is And thou shalt...and

not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but 28 they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

29

29-34. The Scene of their Wickedness shall be also that of their Punishment.

Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath 30 rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which

they will not...and thou shalt...and they will not. It is not a command so much as a statement that the rule on which the people have acted still holds good. We might render "Speak...and they will not hearken to thee: call unto them, and," &c.

28. But] Yet. Although they have been, and will be, consistent in iniquity, yet Jeremiah must fulfil his part as prophet.

a nation] the nation. They stand out prominent, as the disobedient people, a disobedience the guilt of which is enhanced by their privileges, by the Lord's being "their God."

truth] faithfulness. Compare chap. v. 3.

29-34. THE SCENE OF THEIR WICKEDNESS SHALL BE ALSO THAT OF THEIR PUNISHMENT.

29. Cut off thine hair] The verb is feminine in the original, thus shewing that the English Version is right in the inserted words, the inhabitants collectively being spoken of as elsewhere in the fem. sing. Hair is literally crown. The word from its use of the Nazarite's hair as a crown or consecrated diadem (Numb. vi. 7), comes to have the sense it bears here. So the anointing-oil on the head of the highpriest is called his diadem (Lev. xxi. 12). When the Nazarite was defiled by contact with a dead body, he was obliged to shave his head. So now must Jerusalem act, as about to be contaminated thus, as well as because she is faithless to her vows as a virgin consecrated to the LORD.

cast it away] Those who understand crown or diadem literally, make these words to refer to the overthrow of the monarchy at the Babylonian conquest now approaching. This however is quite unne

cessary.

high places] bare heights. Compare chap. iii. 2.

30. they have set their abominations] See 2 Kings xxi. 5, which relates that Manasseh profaned the Temple itself in the manner here mentioned.

is called by my name, to pollute it. And they have built 31 the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, 32 that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall

31. high places] A different word from that in ver. 29, and meaning

altars.

Tophet] A place near the eastern extremity of the southern reach of the valley of Hinnom. Three explanations have been given of the name. (i) A drum, on account of the noise made to drown the cries of the children being sacrificed to Moloch

"for the noise of drums and timbrels loud

Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim idol."

Milton, P. L. I. 394—6.

(ii) A burning, compare Tép-pa, tep-idus. (iii) A spitting. This is shewn to be the most likely by a comparison of chaps. xix. 5, xxxii. 35, which scarcely differ from the present passage except in having Baal not Tophet. The substitution then of Tophet for Baal in the present passage is merely a parallel for that of Bosheth (shame) for the same word. Compare chap. iii. 24 and note. The word is almost peculiar to Jeremiah (that of Is. xxx. 33 is somewhat different), its occurrence in 2 Kings xxiii. 10 being possibly in some way due to him.

valley of the son of Hinnom] Nothing is known of Hinnom. The view that it is not a proper name, but means "wailers" (alluding to the human sacrifices) is disproved by its occurrence as early as Josh. xv. 8. The valley had long an evil name, (a) as the place of impure offerings, (b) as defiled by Josiah, (c) as the receptacle for the offal and filth of the city. Hence it became with the Rabbis the visible sign of the place of future punishment, Gehenna (yéevva, Matt. v. 22). The valley, narrow, with steep and rugged rocks on either hand, formed a natural defence to the city on the western and southern sides, joining the eastern valley of the Kedron.

to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire] in honour of Moloch the fire-god, who is often identified with Baal, the sun-god. Two questions have been asked concerning the nature of this worship. (i) Were the children destroyed or merely passed through the fire as a sort cf purification? The present passage shews that the former was the case. (ii) Granting that they perished, were they slain previously? This we gather with probability from Ezek. xvi. 21.

Whether this part belong to the time of Josiah or Jehoiakim, the reference is evidently not to the present but to the sin of the past unrepented of.

53 bury in Tophet, till there be no place. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

CHAP. VIII. 1—3. The dead bodies shall meet with
indignities worse than death.

At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their

32. till there be no place] Two appalling features connected with the bloodshed that is coming are set forth—(a) The valley defiled by bloody sacrifices shall now be defiled by the carnage of war. (b) This carnage shall extend far beyond the valley, 'They shall bury in Tophet for want of room elsewhere.' Such is the more approved as well as the oldest rendering.

33. Burial, owing to the multitude of corpses and fewness of survivors, shall be impossible, and birds and beasts shall have their_way unmolested. The passage is taken almost word for word from Deut. xxviii. 26.

fray] The word is obsolete, except as a provincialism. It is the root of affray (participle, afraid), “he thought hir to affraye" (Chaucer's Clerk's Tale). Wedgwood derives it from the root fray (Latin, frango, fragor) while fray in the sense of rub is connected with the Latin frico. (Bible Word-Book.)

34. the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride] a frequent expression with this prophet. See chaps. xvi. 9, xxv. 10, xxxiii. 11. "The marriage feast continued usually for seven days, with the greatest mirth. ... Singing, music, and dancing, merry riddles, and the play of wit, amused the house night after night, while the feast was prolonged." Geikie's Life and Words of Christ, 1. 474. desolate] Properly, a place which has become desolate.

CHAP. VIII. 1-3. THE DEAD BODIES SHALL MEET WITH
INDIGNITIES WORSE THAN DEATH

1. they shall bring out] Four causes are suggested by Michaelis: (a) The hope of finding spoil, treasures and ornaments of value being often buried with the dead, (compare Darius's fruitless visit to the tomb of Nitocris, Herod. 1. 187); (b) accident, in digging a hole in order to light a fire; (c) wantonness; (d) the erection of earthworks for the siege.

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