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"If thou wilt return, O Israel," saith Jehovah, "if thou wilt return unto me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be removed;1 and thou shalt swear, As Jehovah liveth, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in 20 him, and in him shall they glory."

Deliverance Conditional upon Moral Reform

In his zeal to abolish idolatry Jeremiah did not abandon the old theme of his predecessors among the prophets, the necessity for the kind of righteousness which included justice, mercy, and truth. The nation was directed to Jehovah for refuge from the impending calamity, but no deliverance was promised save on the condition of complete moral reform.2

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3For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,

"Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Consecrate yourselves to Jehovah, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;

Lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it

Because of the evil of your doings.

Thou shalt not be removed: As events progressed, this promise drops out of Jeremiah's messages. In these early days of his ministry, he has strong hopes of turning the people back from idolatry.

2*Zephaniah, a prophet of whose personal life we can conjecture nothing, has left us evidence of his work in this period. He was a great-great-grandson of King Hezekiah and was probably the first to attempt to bring the people back to Jehovah after the long period of superstition and idolatry under Manassah and Amon. His addresses are plainly influenced by the threatened Scythian invasion. They are full of gloom, picturing the day of Jehovah as rapidly approaching, a day of wrath and trouble. Not all of the chapters which bear his name in our Old Testament are his, but the following quite certainly come from this situation: 1:2-6, 7–18; 2:1-8, 12-15; 3:1-7. The following is an extract from one of his addresses:

Near is the day of Jehovah! near and rapidly approaching!

Near is the bitter day of Jehovah, and strong men will then cry out;

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress,

A day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom,

A day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and battle cry,

Against the fortified cities and against the high battlements.

And I will bring distress upon men and they shall walk as the blind

And their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as dung.

3 Jer. 4:3-8, 11-21; 5:1-3, 15-17; 6:16-26 (revised from Am. Standard Rev. Ver.)

"Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say,

Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, stay not; IO For I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; He is on his way, he is gone forth from his place,

To make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant."

For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail;

15 For the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us.1

At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people,

Not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

A full wind from these shall come for me:

20 Now will I also utter judgments against them."

Behold, he shall come up as clouds,

And his chariots shall be as the whirlwind:

His horses are swifter than eagles.

Woe unto us! for we are ruined.2

25 O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.

How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?

For a voice declareth from Dan,

And publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim.
Make ye mention to the nations;

30 Behold, publish against Jerusalem,

That watchers come from a far country,

And give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

As keepers of a field are they against her round about,
Because she hath been rebellious against me,'

35 Saith Jehovah.

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"Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee;

This is thy wickedness; for it is bitter,

For it reacheth unto thy heart."3

1 A call to the inhabitants of the land to prepare for a great invasion by taking refuge in the fortified cities; an invasion from the North, sent by Jehovah in fierce anger.

2 "It will be like a great wind-storm from the hot desert, destroying everything

in its path."

3 "The wickedness of Jerusalem is responsible for the scourge."

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My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart;
My heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace;
Because thou hast heard, O my soul,

The sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Destruction upon destruction is cried;
For the whole land is laid waste:
Suddenly are my tents destroyed,
And my curtains in a moment.
How long shall I see the standard,
And hear the sound of the trumpet ? 1

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Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her. And though they say, "As 5 Jehovah liveth," surely they swear falsely. O Jehovah, do not thine eyes look upon truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they were not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

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"Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel," saith Jehovah: "it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up 15 thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees; they shall beat down thy fortified cities wherein thou trustest, with the sword."3

PERSISTENT SIN AND IMMINENT PUNISHMENT4

Thus saith Jehovah,

"Stand ye in the ways and see,

And ask for the old paths,

Where is the good way; and walk therein,

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And ye shall find rest for your souls:"

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The prophet's cry of anguish over the desolation which seems to him inevitable.

2 Jer. 5:1-3, 15-17 (Am. Standard Rev. Ver., by permission).

3 "The stranger nation shall come and the fortified cities in which the people

have taken refuge will be beaten down."

4 Jer. 6:16-26 (Am. Standard Rev. Ver., by permission).

But they said, "We will not walk therein."
And I set watchmen over you, saying,
"Hearken to the sound of the trumpet,"
But they said, "We will not hearken."

IO Therefore hear, ye nations,

And know, O congregation, what is among them.
Hear, O earth:

"Behold, I will bring evil upon this people,

Even the fruit of their thoughts,

15 Because they have not hearkened unto my words, And as for my law,

They have rejected it.

To what purpose cometh there to me frankincense from
Sheba,

And the sweet cane from a far country?

20 Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, Nor your sacrifices pleasing unto me."

Therefore thus saith Jehovah,

"Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people;

And the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them;

25 The neighbor and his friend shall perish.

Thus saith Jehovah,

"Behold, a people cometh from the north country;

And a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

They lay hold on bow and spear;

30 They are cruel, and have no mercy;

Their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses,
Every one set in array, as a man to the battle,
Against thee, O daughter of Zion."

We have heard the report thereof;

35 Our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us. Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way;

For the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side.

* Lines 1-21: "Jehovah has persuaded in vain. Ye would not listen. Obedience, not sacrifice, is the desire of Jehovah."

O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth,

And wallow thyself in ashes:

40 Make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation;

For the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.1

But the Scythian destroyer turned back without greater devastation than that made by his predecessors, and Judah was saved for the time. Jeremiah's predictions lost their significance to the people, and the prophet was treated with contempt, but not silenced.

The New Law Book and the Reformation

The prophets were practical men as well as idealists. Jeremiah and his associates saw that ignorance of Jehovah and his fundamental laws was one of the chief obstacles to reform. Perhaps among these associates we may count the young king who had been growing up under the shadow of the Temple and the tutelage of priests and prophets. The only formal law code which we know as existing at this time was from an early period, custom having dictated such additions as were necessary. At all events if any more systematic code had been formulated it had not become operative in the confused state of Israel's political and religious life.

Just here a story which we find in the records of the kings of Judah helps out our history. In the eighteenth year of king Josiah (621 B.C.), at his direction, a general repairing of the Temple was undertaken. During this process a book was found, which contained an elaborate code of laws including all the ancient laws of Israel as believed to have been given by Jehovah through his servant Moses, now newly formulated, and such later additions as would meet the approval of priests and prophets of Jehovah. Written in a new and striking literary form, and saturated with

Lines 22-41: "The destroyer is cruel and invincible. Put on mourning for he will quickly and suddenly come."

2 The early code: Exod., chaps. 20 to 23, contains the only formal code of laws promulgated previous to this time. It contains the Ten Commandments and a series of laws suitable to an agricultural people, laws such as would enable a community of people to live comfortably and peaceably together in mutual respect for each other's personal and property rights.

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