SECTION VII

SUBMISSION TO GOD'S THREATENED PUNISHMENT, CH. x. 17-25.

VER. 17. Gather up thy bundle from the land, thou who sittest besieged! 18. For thus says Yahveh: Behold, I this time fling away the inhabitants of the land and cause them to be besieged, that they may be caught. 19. Woe is me for my hurt; my wound is painful! But I say: Truly, this is my affliction, so I will bear it. 20. My tent is spoiled, and all my cords are rent. My sons are gone forth from me, and are no more. There is no one to stretch out my tent and unloose my hangings. 21. For the shepherds are brutish, and have not sought Yahveh; therefore they did not prosper, and their whole flock is scattered. 22. Hark! A sound! Behold, it comes! and great uproar from the north to make the cities of Judah desolate, the dwelling of jackals. 23. I

CHAPTER X. 17-25.

TT:

Ver. 17. The person addressed is not mentioned, but is well known, as in vii. 29, xxii. 20-the population of Judah and Jerusalem. DDN, cf. Ges. § 46. a. 2. y or ny here only, perhaps not accidentally chiming with Kenaan: pack, stuff.na, Kethib, to hold fast, ancient construction with, Ges. § 90. 3a, 116. 1. Ver. 18. p, properly, to swing, sling; the same figure in Isa. xxii. 17 f.- variously explained: that they, namely, the besiegers, may reach them; the best reading, with LXX, Jerome. Graf beautifully, but importing too much, after Deut. iv. 27, 29: that they may (seek and) find God. Ver. 19. 1, see on iv. 6. 5, part. Niph. fem. as in xiv. 17, xxx. 2, become sick, and that sensibly, painfully; cf. nn, v. 3., the suff. sing. has blended with the termination, "My suffering" that coming to me, deserved by me; cf. ver. 24. Ver. 20. My curtains, see on iv. 20. properly, sound of something heard, sc.

קול שמועה .22 .Ver

one hears; cf. iv. 15. Ver. 23. They know

הנה באה The content of this sound is

know, O Yahveh, that not to man belongs his way, not to man who walks to keep his steps straight. 24. Chastise me, O Yahveh, but in measure, not in thy wrath, lest thou lessen me too much. 25. Pour out thy fury on the heathen nations, who know thee not, and on the races which call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob, devoured and consumed him, and spoiled his pasture.

now that it belongs not to man to determine his way, here, his fate, but that he must accept it submissively from God's hand; not to man who walks, sc. belongs the choice of his way-and to keep his steps straight, i.e. to walk in a level, straight path, to create his success. This is the Lord's matter, who leads men according to higher laws. Ver. 24. Hence the penitent nation, represented by the prophet, submits, and prays only for moderate chastisement, cf. Ps. vi. 1; lest thou make me small, properly, too little, and so annihilate me as a nation. Ver. 25. Almost Ps. lxxix. 6 f. In the latter clause, phrases are heaped together to denote the deadly hostility of the heathen.

=

EXPOSITION.

Contents of x. 17-25. Submission to God's threatened punishment: a. God's Final Sentence, ver. 17 f.; b. Penitent Submission, vv. 19–25.

This oracle shares the situation of chs. vii.-ix. Even still the assault of the enemy is to come (ver. 22); but in spirit Jeremiah sees the city of Jerusalem already invested, this time to succumb. In x. 17-25 we might see the conclusion of the temple-discourse, which conclusion perhaps originally followed on ix. 21. Yet so close a connection is needless. In any case, the oracle forms a sort of epilogue to that and former threatenings. The tone, however, is more calm and collected. The prophet has learned submission, and expresses it (x. 19) in the name of the future Church, as is done in Micah vii. 9. This submission is first (ver. 23) an acknowledgment of God's sovereignty, against whose decisions man must not murmur; and, again, the recognition in words of

having incurred God's judgment by personal guilt. But it is not despairing submission. With the open confession of guilt is joined (ver. 24 f.) an appeal to God's mercy, and the remembrance that He will yet carry out His gracious purposes respecting His people, and punish the injustice of the heathen.

SECTION VIII.

OPPOSITION TO GOD; GOD'S WONDROUS DEALINGS, CHS. XI., XII.

XI. 1. The word, which came to Jeremiah from Yahveh, saying: 2. Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and before the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3. And thou shalt say to them: Thus says Yahveh, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not hearken to the words of this covenant, 4. which I commanded your fathers on the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: If ye hear my voice. and do the same according to all that I command you, then shall you be my people, and I will be your God, 5. that I may bring to pass the oath which I sware to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as is the case this day. And I answered and said: Yea, amen, O Lord!

CHAPTER XI.

Ver. 1. 7, LXX simply xai λaλous. The plural, however, is to be preferred, for Jeremiah was not the only one who received charge to enforce on the people "this covenant," the law of the Lord. This covenant, embracing a number of sayings, is not limited to what follows OS, ver. 4, but includes also threatenings, ver. 8. It is therefore a comprehensive law of the covenant, doubtless the "book of the covenant" mentioned in 2 Kings xxiii. 2, in which Deuteronomy is in any case included. That such a law can be called simply "covenant" is explained by the root-meaning of the word: settlement, adjustment, by which certainly, according to usage, a certain mutual relation is established, but in which the determination of the same may proceed from one side. Ver. 3. Insisting on the importance of this covenant according to Deut. xxvii. 26. Ver. 4. Egypt as an iron furnace, as in Deut. iv. 20. On the keeping of the covenant the mutual relation between God and the nation was to depend (cf. Jer. vii. 23). Ver. 5. Then will the promise be fulfilled. p, properly, to establish,

6. Then said Yahveh to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the words of this covenant and do them. 7. For I bore solemn testimony to your fathers on the day when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt until this day, testifying early and diligently, saying: Hearken ye to my voice! 8. But they hearkened not, and inclined not their ear, and walked every one in the obstinacy of their evil heart; then I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do and they did not.

9. Then said Yahveh to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10. They have turned back to the transgressions of their fathers of old, who refused to hearken to my words; they have also run after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers. 11. Therefore thus says Yahveh Behold, I bring calamity upon them, from which they will not be able to escape. And they will cry to

me, but I will not listen to them. 12. And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to which they used to burn incense, but verily they will not help them in the time of their calamity. 13. For thy gods have become as numerous as thy cities, O Judah, and after the number of the streets of Jerusalem ye have set up altars to the infamous god, altars to burn incense to Baal.

often used of the realizing of a divine engagement, the fulfilling of a promise. The promise here given the Lord swore, i.e. pledged the honour of His holy name to it, cf. Deut. vii. 8, viii. 18. Dis Deuteronomic, according to viii. 18, ii. 30 and often, after the manner of to-day such as the present shows, cf. xlvi. 6, 22 f. 1, properly stedfast, firm, valid= so let it be, replies one who takes a curse on himself eventually, Num. v. 22; cf. especially Deut. xxvii. 15-26. Ver. 6. P, reading according to LXX; better, proclaim, as in ii. 2. Ver. 8. Cf. vii. 24, 26. Ver. 9. p, conspiracy. The divine covenantlaw encountered a tenacious resistance which proved that there was a secret alliance against it. weakened into revolt. Ver. 10. generation. Ver. 13 like ii. 28, but

The word is not to be applies to the present increased by a clause.