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veil their head. 5. For even the hind brings forth in the field and forsakes it, because there is no green. 6. And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for wind like jackals; their eyes languish, because there is no grass. 7. If our sins witness against us, O Yahveh, act for thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee. 8. Thou hope of Israel, its deliverer in time of affliction, wherefore wilt thou be like a stranger in the land, and like a wanderer who spreads his tent to lodge for a night? 9. Wherefore wilt thou be like a man dumbfounded, like a hero who cannot save; yet thou art in our midst, O Yahveh, and thy name has been proclaimed over us-lay us not is scarcely the original one. They omit the end of ver. 3 from won, which words perhaps seem to them too strong, and give ver. 4a, xa rà iрya tñs yñs λ, making product (Josh. v. 11 f.), and perhaps reading: nay. Ver. 5. The infin. abs. strengthens the emphasis. Even the hind, proverbial among the ancients as specially delicate (Bochart, Hieroz. Lond. 1663, i. p. 893), forsakes her newlyborn young to go after food. Ver. 6. The wild asses, tormented by burning thirst, pant for wind to cool themselves like jackals, ie. opening the mouth wide like the latter in howling. It is unnecessary instead of 'n to read or to understand (conversely the latter stands for the former, Lam. iv. 3, Kethib): dragon (Ewald) or crocodile (Hitzig, Graf). The LXX omit the word entirely. Ver. 7. nvy, to act, work, put pregnantly for God's saving intervention. 17 gives a reason for the preceding : for in fact we have greatly erred, so that it is intelligible if the Lord refuses to help in consequence. Ver. 8. = п, to spread a tent (Gen. xii. 8, xxvi. 25); on the other hand, according to Hitzig, Graf="D (xv. 5), to turn aside from the way turn in; cf. Num. xx. 17, xxii. 23. Neither in the one nor the other sense is the word found elsewhere so absolutely. Yet the former figure is more expressive. The wanderer pitching his tent outside is more aloof from the inhabitants than one turning into their dwellings; and perhaps the former custom of lodging for the night may have existed at that time alongside the latter one. Ver. 9. A man dumbfounded, i.e. distracted, made stupid and helpless by calamity, cf. the Arabic dahama, to attack suddenly. The LXX i have in mind the more usual . Thy name was proclaimed over us, see on vii. 10, and cf. Deut. xxviii. 10. Make

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down! 10. Thus says Yahveh to this people: So have they loved to ramble, they put no check on their feet; thus Yahveh has no pleasure in them; now he will remember their guilt and visit their sins. 11. And Yahveh said to me: Make not intercession for this people for their good. 12. If they fast, I will not hearken to their complaint, and if they bring burnt-offerings and meat-offerings, I have no delight in them; but by the sword and famine and pestilence I will consume them. 13. Then I said: Ah, Lord Yahveh, behold the prophets say to them: "You shall see no sword and have no famine; for I will give you assured peace in this place." 14. Then said Yahveh to me: The prophets prophesy deceit in my name; I have not sent them, nor bidden them, nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you false vision and divination, and nothingness and deception from their heart. 15. Therefore thus has Yahveh spoken respecting the prophets, who prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, saying: "Sword and famine shall not be in this land"-by sword and by famine shall the same prophets be consumed. 16. And the people, to whom they

us not lie down," lay us not down like an irksome burden which one is weary of carrying. Ver. 10. 1, best referred to what precedes (ver. 8): So unstable and uncertain have they themselves loved to keep their relation to God; properly, so they loved to wander, they restrained not their feet. The meaning of this reproach is easily seen after the former statements. Cf. especially ii. 25. End of ver. 10 from any on, literally Hos. viii. 13 (cf. ix. 9). Ver. 11. Cf. vii. 16, xi. 14. Ver. 12. Cf. vii. 21 ff., xi. 15. Ver. 13. The false prophets announce the opposite of the evils threatened: peace, security, wellbeing, see vi. 14 and cf. viii. 11. Here" peace of trustworthiness" trustworthy peace. Hitzig, Graf arbitrarily read nos after xxxiii. 6. On DPD, see on vii. 3. Ver. 14. DDP, as usual in bad sense: divination by artificial means. Deception of their own heart" is deception which their own heart has devised (xxiii. 16). Their oracles spring not from divine revelation, but from their own imagination and more or less deliberate fiction, and are therefore deception. Ver. 15. prophet's language passes here at once into that of the Lord. Ver. 16. Dyn, best: the persons. Not the whole nation is

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.is to be read with Keri ואליל ותרמית

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prophesy, shall be cast down in the streets of Jerusalem for famine and the sword, and no one shall bury them, they, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, and I pour out their wickedness upon them. 17. And thou shalt utter this message to them: Mine eyes shall run down with tears night and day, and shall not rest. For the virgin daughter of my people has suffered a heavy wound, a grievous blow! 18. If I go out into the field, behold, those pierced through with the sword; and if I enter into the city, behold, pangs of hunger. For both prophet and priest journey to a land which they know not.

19. Hast thou then wholly rejected Judah, or is thy soul weary of Zion? Wherefore hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? One waits for peace, but no good comes; for a time of improvement, and behold, terror! 20. We know, O Yahveh, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers, that we have sinned against thee. 21. Yet reject not for thy name's sake, disgrace not the throne of thy glory. Keep in remembrance, break not thy covenant with us. 22. Can there be rain-givers among the vanities of the

meant, see xx. 6. Cf. vii. 33, viii. 2. I will pour out upon them their evil evil-doing, namely, as punishable, cf. ii. 19, thy wickedness shall correct thee thy own wicked doing shall become thy punishment. Ver. 17. Cf. ix. 17, xiii. 17. ¬~, see on iv. 6. by a лhna, genit. appos., see on vi. 14; Ges. § 116. 5; Eng. § 114. Ver. 18. Din (sbn=nbn), sicknesses, sufferings; so pains of hunger, such as are suffered in the worst form in a besieged city. D, elsewhere to wander as a merchant (LXX incorrectly apply to the past opunov).

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, variously explained, but always artificially; with LXX, Graf, we may erase 1, according to xv. 14, xvi. 13, xvii. 4, xxii. 28. Ver. 19. Cf. viii. 15. Ver. 20. The guilt is inherited, and also self-incurred, cf. xv. 4 and ii. 5 ff., vii. 25 ff., xi. 10, xvi. 11 f. Ver. 21. ND is object to run as to Sans, in the same way to two verbs. The throne of the divine majesty is the temple at Jerusalem, which stands and falls with the city; the latter, therefore, partakes in the glory and holiness, although far from what it will do one day, iii. 17. Ver. 22. pan, see on ii. 5. The heathen ascribe the giving of rain to their deities, especially the starry ones, to

heathen, or can the heavens give rain-showers?

Art thou not he, O Yahveh, our God, so that we wait for thee; for thou hast done all these things?

XV. 1. Then said Yahveh to me: If Moses and Samuel stood before me, I would yet know nothing of this people. Dismiss them from my sight, make them go forth! 2. And it shall come to pass, if they say to thee: "Whither shall we go forth?" thou shalt say to them: Thus has Yahveh said: He who is doomed to death, to death; and he to the sword, to the sword; and he to famine, to famine; and he to captivity, to captivity. 3. And I will appoint over you four manner of things, is Yahveh's oracle; the sword for killing and dogs for mangling, and the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth for devouring and destroying. 4. And I make them a horror to all kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah king of Judah, be

whom 'n alludes. In contrast with this, the prophet acknowledges one Creator, to whom alone confidence is due, cf. x. 16.

CHAPTER XV.

Ver. 1. Moses and Samuel are here the greatest high-priestly representatives of the nation in prayer, Ex. xxxii. 11 ff. (xvii. 11); Num. xiv. 13 ff.; 1 Sam. vii. 9 f., xii. 18; Ps. xcix. 6. Properly, "my soul (would not turn) to this people." Ver. 2. They are to go away, every one to the destruction appointed him, which is of four kinds. n, here specifically death by pestilence, synonymous with 77, pestilence, xiv. 12, where LXX puts ávaros as often. Such, too, is the meaning of the Greek word in Rev. vi. 8, iv saváry, and often. Ver. 3. by p, as in xiii. 21, cf. the Hiphil, i. 10. I appoint over them four families, make four species of destructive powers work their will on them. The four destroyers are somewhat differently specified than in ver. 2. There it was chiefly modes of death, here chiefly ill-usage of the corpses. and, to mangle, xxii. 19. Ver. 4. (, to tremble), an object of shuddering, cf. xxiv. 9, xxix. 18, xxxiv. 17, 2 Chron. xxix. 8, where Keri everywhere reads the phonetically more pleasing transposition my. As to the meaning, cf. Isa. xxviii. 19. Others understand: Object of throwing about, ill-treatment, plaything, a meaning which cannot be proved. Manasseh is mentioned as a chief

cause of what he did at Jerusalem. 5. For who will have pity on thee, O Jerusalem, and who will show sympathy, and who turn aside to ask after thy welfare? 6. Thou hast rejected me, is Yahveh's oracle, gone away back-so I turn my hand against thee, and will destroy thee; I am weary of showing pity. 7. Thus then I winnow thee with a fan in the gates of the land; I bereave, destroy my people; they turn not back from their ways. 8. Their widows greatly increase to me more than the sand of the sea; I make the spoiler come upon the mother of the young men at noon, make anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly. 9. She who has borne seven languishes; her soul is breathed away; her sun has gone down when it was yet day; she was undeceived and confounded. And her remnant I will deliver up to the sword before their foes, is Yahveh's oracle.

sinner. See Introd. p. 15. Ver. 5. No one will spare Jerusalem, nor even sympathize with her, show sympathy with her misfortune. Ver. 6. Cf. vii. 24. Thou wentest away backward, instead of following me in the way in which I would lead thee. Ver. 7. Like UN in ver. 6, so here the preterites refer in substance to the future in prophetic style. At the gates of the land (not of the earth, cf. Nah. iii. 13), i.e. at its outlets, the Lord winnows, so that they are scattered to all lands. There on the border of the land the decisive battle takes place. Ver. 7b is to be understood thus: from their ways to battle and captivity they return not. This is better than the usual view taken of the words as explaining why Yahveh gives up His people, which would make necessary. Ver. 8. In consequence of this, numberless widows and bereaved mothers are at home. On the mother of the martial youth, elsewhere well protected, the spoiler comes in open day, with no one to defend her, as one would expect. Those left are only defenceless women. On, war-loving youth, cf. xviii. 21, xlix. 26, li. 3. y, Aramaic for 7, anguish. Ver. 9 has a general resemblance to 1 Sam. ii. 5 (cf. Ruth iv. 15). The mother, who was rich in sons and proud of them, has with them lost as it were her life-breath or her sunlight, which has suddenly gone down in open day. She is inwardly undone; the shame of childlessness has fallen on her unexpectedly. The figurative expressions do not allude to outward death. As the breath stands for vital force, so the sunlight stands for happiness.

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