daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his comrade in the siege and distress with which their enemies and they that seek after their life shall distress them. 10. And thou shalt shatter the bottle before the eyes of the men who go with thee, 11. and say to them: Thus says Yahveh of hosts: Thus will I shatter this people and this city, as one shatters a potter's vessel, which cannot be mended again, and men shall bury in Tophet for want of room to bury. 12. Thus will I do to this place, is Yahveh's oracle, and to its inhabitants, and will make this city like Tophet (spitting). 13. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be made like the place of Tophet, which are defiled, namely, all the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to the heavenly host and poured out libations to foreign gods. 14. Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, where Yahveh had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the house of Yahveh, and said to all the people: 15. Thus has Yahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Behold, I bring on this city ,אותך literally after Deut. xxviii. 53, cf. Lev. xxvi. 29. The same occurred in the siege of Samaria by the Syrians, 2 Kings vi. 28 f. The same actually took place soon in the Babylonian investment of Jerusalem, Lam. ii. 20, iv. 10. Ezekiel has the same threat, v. 10. See a case in the Roman siege, Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 3. 4. Ver. 10 gives the chief symbolical act. see on i. 16. Ver. 11. As one breaks, Ges. § 137. 3; Eng. § 134. П, with instead of, as in iii. 22. On the figure, cf. Ps. ii. 9. LXX omit the last clause: and men shall bury. It is found in nearly the same terms in vii. 32, in better order. But this does not prove that it is out of place here. The section vii. 31 ff. recurs here substantially, but mixed with the references to Jeremiah's symbolical action, and therefore some ,ולתת העיר synonymous with,מקום .12 .what disarranged. Ver הטמאים to be construed as in xvii. 10, and I purpose to make the whole. city like the place Tophet, which has been shunned and abhorred since Josiah's days as impure ("spitting"). Ver. 13. This is said specifically of the houses. DNDD we refer as apposition to... na: which are impure, i.e. already stained and defiled in God's sight by that forbidden worship. Cf. on vii. 18, viii. 2; Zeph. i. 5; 2 Kings xxiii. 12. Incense was offered on the roofs to the stars. Ver. 15. In the & is and all its cities all the evil which I have spoken respecting it. For they have stiffened their neck in not hearkening to my voice. XX. 1. Then Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief overseer in the house of Yahveh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. 2. Then Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah and put him in the stocks, which were in the upper Benjamin-gate, which was in the house of Yahveh. 3. And it came to pass the next morning that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks; then said Jeremiah to him: Yahveh does not call thee Pashhur, but "Terror around." 4. For thus said Yahveh: Behold, I make thee a terror to thyself and to all thy friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, while thine eyes look on. And I omitted, as often before (xxxix. 16) and elsewhere (2 Kings xxi. 29). = CHAPTER XX. . . . ,מהפכת Ver. 1. Pashhur, not to be confounded with the son of Malchiah of the same name, xxi. 1, xxxviii. 1; in the latter passage again a father of Gedaliah is named, whom Hitzig by mere conjecture indentifies with Pashhur. The family of Immer was the sixteenth priestly family or class (1 Chron. xxiv. 14); after the exile it returned in great numbers. 7, apposition to TPD, overseer en chef. Afterwards the office was filled by the priest Zephaniah (xxix. 25), who is mentioned directly after the high priest (lii. 24; 2 Kings xxv. 18), a testimony to the importance of this dignity. 2, participle. Ver. 2. Struck him and put him caused him to be struck. properly, twisting, is the block or stocks in which the prisoners were confined in stooping posture, with limbs crossed; cf. on xxix. 26. Such an instrument stood in the prison in the upper Benjamin-gate, which was in the house of Yahveh, i.e. in the outer wall of the temple-court on the north. It is called upper in distinction from the corresponding city-gate (see on xvii. 19). It seems from its name to belong to the outer court, and is therefore not identical with the "upper" northern gate of the temple, Ezek. ix. 2. Ver. 3. "Terror around" he is called (cf. vi. 25, xx. 10), because this is his lot; as ver. 4 explains, he is girt round by terrors, and is himself a terror to his neighbours. The name Pashhur is not clear etymologically, and is not explained. Ver. 4. He will be a horror to himself and all give up all Judah into the hand of the King of Babylon, and he shall lead them captive to Babylon, and smite them with the sword. 5. And I give up all the store of this city, and all its gain, and all its precious things, and I give up all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of its enemies, and they shall plunder them, and take them and bring them to Babylon. 6. But thou, Pashhur, and all the dwellers in thy house, you shall go away into captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon and die there, and be buried there, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied treacherously. 7. Thou hast persuaded me, Yahveh, and I let myself be persuaded; thou didst put force on me and didst prevail; I am become a mockery all the day; they all laugh at me. 8. For as often as I speak, I perforce cry out; Outrage and violence! I perforce call out; for the word of Yahveh has become a reproach to me and reviling all the day. 9. And if I say I will not remember him and speak no more in his name, it is in my heart like burning fire, enclosed in my bones, and I am weary of holding out and am unable (to do his friends who agree with him, and whose leader he is (ver. 6). He will be terrified at himself, and others at him, when they see how he fares; and again he will see with horror his friends perish. Ver. 6. All thy friends, of course all those who escape the sword (ver. 4). The reference is to the adherents who listened to his ostensibly prophetic words; cf. xiv. 16. Ver. 7. = , to address flatteringly, allure, speak persuasively, hence seduce, mislead, often to something bad, here to something dangerous. On the other hand, pin, to be firm, press strongly on some one, Ex. xii. 33, with Sy—“The whole day" always. riba, its (the nation's) entirety every one. ay with 5, Ps. ii. 4. Ver. 8. Don, vi. 7; Amos iii. 10; Ezek. xlv. 9. The constant association favours, not , which would assign the two words to the two verbs; cf. Hab. i. 2. The outcry (pv) therefore stands absolutely as an utterance of deep indignation and anguish, and is further explained by the exclamation: Outrage and violence! The word of God becomes a reproach, cf. vi. 10. Ver. 9. 8, hypothetically. The suffix in 178, like that in , applies to God. The subject of mm is God's word. This was shut up and suppressed like burning fire, and burnt therefore the more terribly in his bones; his bones, i.e. the hard, jointed framework, giving firmness to the whole body, was unable to so). 10. I have heard whispering of many--Terror all round!" Denounce, and we will denounce him!" All men, who were friendly to me, watch for my tripping: Perhaps he may be enticed, then we will overpower him and take our revenge on him. 11. But Yahveh is with me like a mighty hero; therefore shall my persecutors stumble and not prevail over me; they shall be greatly shamed; for they act not skilfully, to (their) eternal disgrace, which shall not be forgotten. 12. And thou Yahveh of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the reins and heart, let me see thy revenge on them; for upon thee I have rolled my cause. 13. Sing ye to Yahveh! Praise Yahveh! For he has delivered the soul of the poor man from the hand of the evildoers! resist the fire burning in his soul, and was gradually consumed will befall his enemies is meanwhile his own lot (ver. 3). all persons with whom I stand on friendly,אנשי ש', קומו ונקומה1 footing, xxxviii. 22; Obad. 7.-, here not side (y, rib), but falling (y, to lean, limp): they watch for a lapsus, false step, especially a compromising word; perhaps in confidential talk he may be drawn to something of the kind; then they will effect his destruction, and so take revenge for the severe rebukes they have received from him. Ver. 11. Yahveh is with me (N, see on i. 16), according to His promise, i. 8, 19, xv. 20. y, properly violently, therefore terribly for his enemies. The disgrace will finally, according to end of ver. 11, be on their side and perpetual. Ver. 12. Almost like xi. 20. See there on n. Since the Lord tries and judges impartially, he will see the Lord's revenge on them; on the other hand, he will not himself take revenge as they do (ver. 10). Ver. 13. as, properly, needy, poor, then passes into the meaning weak, defence .גליתי on = 14. Cursed be the day on which I was born! Let the day when my mother bare me remain unblessed! 15. Cursed be the man who brought glad news to my father, saying: A son, a boy is born to thee, that he might greatly delight him! 16. Let the same man be like the cities which Yahveh irrevocably overturned! And let him hear shouting in the morning, and tumult of war at noon! 17. Because he killed me not forthwith in the womb, so that my mother should become my grave, and her womb remain big for ever! 18. Wherefore came I forth from the womb to behold toil and trouble, so that my days have vanished in dishonour? less, helpless, often joined with "y, as in Ps. xl. 18. Ver. 14 f. is strongly akin to Job iii. 3 ff., which lyrical outburst, however, is more intensely poetical and cannot be a copy of Jeremiah; the converse relation is much more conceivable. Jeremiah here further explains the complaint of xv. 10 in the form of an imprecation of his birthday. Ver. 15. This curse, which, if it were taken in earnest, would be unreasonable and unjust, is merely intended to express the great sorrow of his life. The Rabbins say, the man was Pashhur. Ver. 16. See Gen. xix. 25. Ver. 17. That he killed me not, refers to that man; D, perhaps retained from Job iii. 11, where it suits better. It is not: directly after leaving the womb, but: directly in the womb; properly, of course from there or out of there. He had better have stayed therein, and so found his grave in his mother. Ver. 18. Cf. Job iii. 10. = EXPOSITION. Contents of chs. xix., xx. a. The Bottle shattered in the Valley of Hinnom, xix. 1-13. b. The next Scenes, xix. 14xx. 18 a. Jeremiah's Discourse in the Temple-court, xix. 14 f.; B. Ill-treatment of the Prophet, xx. 1 f.; y. Pashhur's Rebuke, vv. 3-6; 8. the Prophet's Complaint and Comfort, vv. 7-13; e. renewed Complaint, vv. 14-18. a. XIX. 1-13. The symbolic action here enjoined upon the prophet is again very simple and expressive. He is to take an earthen bottle with long neck, such as a potter makes in thousands, and break it before the representatives of the people, whom he is to take with him as witnesses, in the |
