14. But thou, pray not for this people, and lift not up for them supplication and intercession; for I will not hear at the time when they call to me because of their calamity. 15. What has my beloved to do with carrying out a wicked scheme in my house? Will litanies and holy flesh remove from thee thy misdoing? Then thou mightest exult! 16. "A verdant olive tree, beautiful with splendid fruit," Yahveh called thy name. With the noise of great tumult he kindles fire about it, and its branches crack. 17. And Yahveh of hosts, who planted thee, has spoken evil respecting thee because of the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they committed for themselves to grieve me, in burning incense to Baal. 18. And Yahveh made me know it, and I knew it; then he made me see through their deeds. 19. But I was like a tame lamb that is dragged to the slaughter, and knew not that they had devised plots against me: Let us

her " ,עשותה המזמתה

Ver. 14 like vii. 16, but also with free variation. Ver. 15. applies to the Church, hence the feminine suffix. Cf. Deut. xxxiii. 12, where Benjamin is so called, and Jer. xii. 7. It is not used here ironically, but is uttered with the pain of love, like "Friend" in Matt. xxvi. 50. But, further, the Heb. verse needs emendation mostly in the line of the LXX. carrying out the scheme," is harsh. nom (Ges. § 80. a. 1 f.) means not the mere intention to bring sacrifice, but by sacrifice to deceive God, as in vii. 10, 11. She wishes to carry out her evil purpose of doing the opposite of God's will by seeming to please the Lord. In any case D is to be read instead of

The Aramaic, old-Semitic מעליך כי instead of מֵעָלָיְכִי and הָרַבִּים

ending ki for k (Ges. § 91. 2: a. 2) is found also Ps. ciii. 3-5, cxvi. 7, 19, and in the north - Palestinian history of Elisha, 2 Kings iv. 3, 7. 7, LXX ɛixaí, not vows, but supplications. D', elsewhere jubilant songs, may also have this sense like

like יַעַבְרוּ for יעברו .12 .mournful or penitent song, xiv) רִנָּה

1977, ix. 2. лy, not thy misfortune, but thy misdoing. Then mightest thou exult (after attaining thy end); now thou canst not rejoice, for the Lord cannot be so cheated. Ver. 16. With

in from, to roar, cf. ji; only again in Ezek. i. 24. It alludes to the rushing crowd of foes., from yy, to crack, break. Ver. 17 only repeats the chief accusation. Ver. 19.

, familiar, tame. Without suspicion he was about to give himself up to certain death, when the Lord warned him.

destroy the tree along with its food, and root it out of the land of the living, and its name shall be remembered no more. 20. But Yahveh of hosts judges righteously, and tries reins and heart; I shall behold thy vengeance on them; for upon thee I have rolled my cause. 21. Therefore Yahveh has thus spoken respecting the men of Anathoth, who seek after thy soul, saying: Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of Yahveh, lest thou die by our hand. 22. Therefore thus says Yahveh of hosts: Behold, I visit it upon them; the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine. 23. And no remnant shall be left to them; for I bring calamity upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their visitation.

XII. 1. Righteous art thou, O Yahveh, if I would dispute with thee. Yet will I speak with thee respecting judicial dealing. Wherefore is the way of the wicked prosperous, (wherefore) are all safe who treacherously betray? 2. Thou hast planted them, they also strike root; they grow, they also bear fruit. Thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins. 3. But thou, O Yahveh, knowest me, thou seest through me, and hast proved my heart with thee. Root them out like sheep for the slaughter, and consecrate them on the day of masa, cf. Isa. liii. 7. Jeremiah typified the "Servant of the Lord." 'n' is plainly a proverbial phrase. The tree with its food" the tree laden with its fruit; by the latter the prophet's words are meant, which they wished to root out of the world with himself. It is certainly to be granted that the description of fruit by an cannot be proved in Hebrew; different in Arabic. Hitzig, Graf, Cheyne therefore read in, in its sap, its fresh force, Deut. xxxiv. 7. Ver. 20. n, I have disclosed to thee my cause, better from a (to roll upon), Ps. xxxvii. 5, xxii. 8. The form y'y passes into ', Ewald, Gram. § 121a.

CHAPTER XII.

Ver. 2. 7, to advance, grow, run riot. The reins are the seat of the truest, most intimate feelings in distinction from those merely assumed and worn for show. As to himself, the seer is conscious of the opposite of the relation to God here described, ver. 3. Ver. 3. ns belongs to 5, my heart in Thy fellowship, Thy intercourse, how it bears itself therein; cf. Gen.

carnage. 4. How long yet shall the land mourn and the plants of the whole plain wither for the wickedness of its inhabitants, so that beasts and birds are carrird off, while they say: He will not see our end?-5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, how wilt thou then contend with horses ? And thou art secure in the land of peace; how then wilt thou do in the overgrowth of Jordan? 6. For even thy brethren and the house of thy father, even they have proved untrue to thee, even they cry behind thy back as loud as they can; trust them not, when they speak kindly to thee.

7. I have forsaken my house, rejected my inheritance, have surrendered the darling of my soul to the fist of her enemies. 8. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest, has lifted up its roar against me; therefore I hate it. 9. Is then my inheritance to me a many-coloured bird of prey? Are birds of prey round about upon it? Come, assemble every v. 24. p, to cut off, pluck up, root out, so here Hiphil. Ver. 4. Instead of 8, LXX, our ways, as simplification to be rejected. The prophet complains of the continuing affliction of the land, having its reason in the fact that the really guilty do not cease. But they reply defiantly: he will not witness our end, which he predicts for us (cf. ver. 3). Ver. 5. Answer of God in proverbial language. Instead of desponding now, he is to prepare himself for worse attacks., to burn, be jealous; here Aramaic tiphel: to vie, rival, Ges. § 55, a. 5; Eng. § 54. Second figure: At present thou dwellest in a peaceful land; but how wilt thou do (thou who art already faint-hearted) when thou hast to dwell in the jungles of Jordan, where lions lurk? xlix. 19, 1. 44; Zech. xi. 3. According to these passages, is the overgrowth, the pride of the Jordan: the luxuriant borders of this river. Ver. 6. 5 as in iv. 5: Luther well: cry murder upon thee-utter reproachful accusations, of course so that thou hearest not. Ver. 7. "My house" applies to the land, as in Hos. viii. 1; this is shown by the parallel "my inheritance"= my people, as in ver. 8; this also is called an object of love, cf. xi. 15. Ver. 8. The figure of the hostile lion was suggested by ver. 5, the overgrowth of the Jordan. Spain, Ges. § 138. 1a; Eng. § 135. Ver. 9. In describing such states the prophet is fond of questions of wonder. as, elsewhere in modern Hebrew hyena (so here LXX), unsuitable here; rather: coloured, mottled, of strange colour. Such a bird is attacked on all sides; so the phoenix, Tacitus, Ann. vi. 28; the wren, Suet. Cæs.

wild beast of the field, let it come to devour! 10. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my possession, have made the field of my delight a barren wilderness. 11. They have turned it into a desert, it inourns for me, being desolate; the whole land is laid waste because no one takes it to heart. 12. Spoilers have come on all bare heights in the pasture; for a sword of Yahveh devours from one end of the land to the other end of the land; there

is no peace for all flesh. 13. They sow wheat, and they reap thorns; they tire themselves, it brings them no profit; so shall you be put to shame by your harvests because of the burning wrath of Yahveh.

14. Thus says Yahveh respecting all the wicked neighbours who attack the possession which I gave to my people, the house of Israel, as its portion: Behold, I pluck them up from their soil, and the house of Judah I will pluck up from their midst. 15. But it shall come to pass, after I have plucked them up, I will again have mercy on them, and will cause them to return every one to his possession, and every one to his land. 16. And it shall come to pass, when they have

האתיו for התיו

T

81; the owl and hawk, Pliny, Hist. Nat. x. 17. The question of wonder is put into God's lips, although it properly springs from the prophet's thoughts. God has decided to abandon His people to robber-powers: 5, as in Isa. lvi. 9. Ges. § 68. 2. a. 2; Eng. § 67. Ver. 10. These ravages by strange shepherds (princes) seem already to have smitten the land, as took place, according to 2 Kings xxiv. 1 f., under Jehoiakim by flying bands of Chaldæans, Aramæans, Moabites, and Ammonites. Ver. 11. by, for me. God, forsaken by the land, and therefore taking revenge, is the object, because the author of the land's mourning. This is completed by the reason: "because no one," etc. Since all remain frivolous and impenitent under God's judgment, it must become worse and worse. The men are to blame, cf. ver. 4. Ver. 12. Cf. iv. 11. The attacks do not take place without God's consent. It is really His sword that rages. Ver. 13. The tillers of the land experience His displeasure; their labour is fruitless in consequence of failure of crops and war.-, imperative. So LXX in the whole verse. Ver. 14. Bad neighbours, like the Moabites, Ammonites, etc., see on ver. 10; cf. also ix. 25. wn, see on i. 10. Ver. 16. Converse of x. 2. The heathen will

learned the ways of my people to swear by my name, "As truly as Yahveh lives," as they have taught my people to swear by Baal, they shall be built up in the midst of my people. 17. But if they will not hear, I will pluck up such a people to destroy it utterly, is Yahveh's oracle.

receive the God of Judah. Swearing by His name is acknowledgment of Him, as in iv. 2, etc. Whereas Israel hitherto dwelt in the midst of the nations, the latter then shall be planted in its midst.

EXPOSITION.

Contents. a. Conspiracy against the Word of the Lord, ch. xi. a. The Prophet as Herald of God's Law, vv. 1-8; B. the Nation's Revolt and Rejection, vv. 9-17; y. the Plot against Jeremiah at Anathoth, vv. 18-23. b. God's Wonderful Ways, ch. xii.: a. The Prophet's Complaint, vv. 1-6; B. the Answer of an Avenging God, vv. 7-13; y. the Comforting End, vv. 14-17.

a. Ch. xi. The prophet appears (vv. 1-8) as witness and announcer of the Divine covenant concluded at Sinai. He received this mission without doubt under Josiah, when "the words of this covenant," i.e. the legal ordinances containing the will of the covenant-God, were newly discovered and were to be made known to the people (2 Kings xxii., xxiii.). The public reading of the book of the law once before the elders, and the adhesion of the people to it (2 Kings xxiii. 1), of course only accomplished this end imperfectly. Josiah tried to secure a more thorough teaching of the nation as Jehoshaphat did, 2 Chron. xvii. 7-9. Jeremiah laboured in the same spirit under God's commission, not the king's, proclaiming God's commands, not only in Jerusalem but also in the cities of Judah (xi. 6), and applying them to the hearts of the people in free prophetic discourse. The enforcing of the Sabbath-law (xvii. 19-27) may serve as an example of such preaching. The present discourse, looking back to such a period of labour, is therefore of later origin, perhaps belonging