the kings of the island which is beyond the sea, 23. Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all with clipped temple, 24. and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed nations which dwell in the wilderness, 25. and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, 26. and all the kings of the north, those which are near to each other and those which are far off, and all the kingdoms (of the earth), which are on the face of the earth. And the king of

islands and of the continent. "The coast beyond the sea" here refers generally to the islands and coast-lands of the Mediterranean Sea lying westward, especially the Phoenician colonies. Ver. 23. Dedan, Tema, Buz, three tribes of northern Arabia. See on Isa. xxi. 13 f. Buz adjoins Edom and Uz, Job xxxii. 2. All with shorn temple, see on ix. 25. Ver. 24. Arabia embraces, not the whole territory bearing this name at present, but the portion bordering on the east and south-east of Palestine, perhaps the territory of Ishmael, in opposition to Ereb, the mixed people (cf. ver. 20), which was probably not of Semitic, but Cushite origin. The latter is described, in distinction from the use of the word in ver. 20, as dwelling on the coast. The same tribes are mentioned in 1 Kings x. 15 as paying tribute to Solomon. Ver. 25. Zimri (wanting in LXX), derived by most writers from Zimran, Gen. xxv. 2, but not to be more certainly indicated. On the other hand, the newest conjecture of some Assyriologists is, that it is to be sought in north-east Babylonia, south-west of Media (= Namri of the inscriptions); see Schrader, ii. 107. Elam (Gen. x. 22; Isa. xxi. 2) is also called in the inscriptions the "highland," whose capital was Shushan. It is mentioned already in Gen. xiv. 1, 9 as an independent kingdom. Media (Gen. x. 2), lying north of Elam, with the capitals Ecbatana and Rhaga. It was formerly subject to Assyria, but contributed materially to the fall of Nineveh. Ver. 26. Instead of enumerating the more remote peoples of the north, the seer is content with this summary: all the kings of the north, those dwelling near each other and the distant. They are all remote from Judah. text by mistake, is excluded by the article of the preceding word. The king of Sheshak without doubt Babylon, as in li. 41. The form is like one which appears in li. 1, formed after the alphabetical figure of Athbash ('n's), according to which the last letter (n) takes the place of the first (N), and the next last one () the place of the second one (2). As in li. 1, a play of meaning may be joined with the play of letters, 7 remind

inserted in the הארץ

=

Sheshak shall drink after them. 27. And thou shalt say to them: Thus says Yahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye and be drunken and spue, and fall down and rise not again because of the sword which I send among you. 28. And it shall come to pass, if they refuse to take the goblet from thy hand to drink, thou shalt say to them: Thus has Yahveh of hosts said: You shall surely drink; 29. for behold, to the city, over which my name was proclaimed, I begin to do evil,

In

ing of 7, and so yielding the sense: abasing, humbling. some cases such names were perhaps used in order to speak of powers of the day under a disguise. Yet Jeremiah also used the actual name without fear; at least in the present redaction of the oracles in question this motive could have no influence. In a quite different sense Lauth, Fried. Delitzsch (Paradies, p. 214 f.) think that T, as the name of a country or quarter of Babylon, is to be recognised in Ses-ku of the inscriptions. See, on the other hand, Schrader, ii. 108. The genuineness of the addition, "and the king of Sheshak shall drink after them," is likewise contested by Hitzig, Graf, Ewald, Cheyne et al. Its absence in the LXX certainly proves nothing. Nor does the use of the Athbash, which, indeed, is not beyond doubt, as unworthy of the prophet, disprove Jeremiah's authorship. This argument is materially weakened by the alphabetical Lamentations; and, to speak generally, we have to do here, not with the invention of an individual, but with a custom of the age. As to subject-matter, however, it is said the sentence does not at all fit into the section, which treats of the judgment. on the nations which Babylon executes. No doubt this great power stands in the foreground as the instrument of divine judgment, but the description expands into a vision of universal judgment (cf. especially ver. 30 f.), from which Babylon cannot be exempted. It is quite in keeping, therefore, to say that on the first act, where Babylon figures as avenger, a second will follow in which it will itself succumb to the divine judgment as the others do now. The acting subject here is not the king of Babylon, but the prophet, who presents the wine of wrath to all nations. In ver. 26 even the northern nations are mentioned inclusively, who, according to ver. 9, at present are acting with Nebuchadnezzar. Ver. 27. As in ver. 16, drunkenness is said to follow the draught of wrath, but at the same time the material means is indicated by which they will ignorantly come to ruin the sword. p for NP, from NP-Nip. Ver. 29. Over which my name was proclaimed; see on vii. 10, and cf.

קִיוּ

and should you go utterly unpunished?

You shall not remain

unpunished. For I summon a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, is the oracle of Yahveh of hosts.

30. And thou shalt address all these prophecies to them, and say to them: Yahveh roars from on high, and from his holy dwelling he makes his voice sound. Yea, he will verily roar over his pasture, will raise a hurrah like the winepresstreaders, against all the inhabitants of the earth. 31. The turmoil has reached to the end of the earth; for Yahveh has a controversy with the nations; he pleads with all flesh; the wicked-to the sword he has delivered them, is Yahveh's oracle. 32. Thus said Yahveh of hosts: Behold, evil goes forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirred up from the corners of the earth. 33. And the slain of Yahveh shall be on that day from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, nor gathered together, nor buried; they shall lie as dung on the open field. 34. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry out, and sprinkle you (with ashes), ye principal of the flock; for your days are fulfilled for slaughter, and I will dash you to pieces, so that you shall fall like an elegant vessel. 35. And refuge fails the shepherds, xlix. 12. Ver. 30, after the original passage, Joel iii. 16, to which Amos i. 2 joins on; Jeremiah, however, mentioning the height of heaven instead of Zion-Jerusalem as the source of the divine thunder, which empties itself on his own pasture (= Jerusalem and Judah). The blood-red treading of the winepress also alludes to Joel iii. 13. 77, the far-resounding cry with which the treaders encouraged one another, as in xlviii. 33, li. 14. Ver. 31. DD with here only. The process this time is not merely with individuals, but all flesh = all men. Ver. 32. The storm, starting from one corner, embraces this time the whole world of nations. Ver. 33. Those slain by Yahveh's might fill the whole earth, phraseology as in viii. 2, xvi. 4. Ver. 34. nn, sc. DN, as in vi. 26. The shepherds (kings) and chief ones of the flock (common crowd) are to be slain as if they were common sheep. ', many MSS. read : your scatterings (Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus); better: dashings to pieces. We must then supply from the preceding the days of your dashing. Still better, many moderns read Diven, as Hiphil or rather Tiphel: I dash you to pieces. One does not indeed break elegant vessels

and means of escape the principal of the flock. 36. Hark! The cry of the shepherds and the howl of the principal of the flock; for Yahveh lays waste their pasture. 37. And the peaceful pastures perish before the fiery wrath of Yahveh. 38. He has forsaken his thicket like a lion; for their land has become a solitude before the violent sword and before the flame of his wrath.

for

intentionally, but they fall to pieces like others beyond repair. Cf. xix. 11, xxii. 28. Ver. 36. Cf. Zech. xi. 3, ♫ Ges. § 24. 1c. Ver. 37. Cf. Amos i. 2. Ver. 38. ay, with indefinite subject, applies, according to iv. 7, to the Chaldæan, not to Yahveh, to whom, however, the N at the end (cf. ver. 37) refers. Instead of the first n read an (LXX, Targ. and some MSS., as well as most moderns); cf. xlvi. 16, 1. 16. The meaning of the is that the desolation is the work of such a beast of prey.

EXPOSITION.

Contents of ch. xxv. a. The seventy years' Bondage in Babylon, xxv. 3-14: a. the Condemnation of Judah and its Neighbours, vv. 3-11; B. Sentence on Babylon, vv. 12–14. b. Judgment on the Heathen, xxv. 15-29. c. The Universal Judge, xxv. 30-38: a. the Universal Judge, vv. 30, 31; B. the Earth judged, vv. 32-38.

This discourse, including a general review of the past and a glance at the future, was uttered by the prophet in the epoch-making fourth year of Jehoiakim, the year of the decisive battle of Carchemish (xlvi. 2), which secured to the Babylonian monarch supremacy over Judah and all the nations in a narrower and wider range around. To this year belongs, according to xxxvi. 1, the first written collection of all his discourses delivered hitherto, which was made, however, in a later part of the year, since the prophet was not then arrested (xxxvi. 5), although prevented from entering the temple, whereas he was to deliver the present discourse, as xxv. 1 f. expressly declares, before all the people. But this discourse,

like that act of recording, has already the character of a concluding summary. Arrived at a decisive turning-point, which puts the seal on his previous labours in the most glorious way, the prophet looks back on his work and sums it up, at the same time fixing his eye on a new epoch which would put an end to the period of the Babylonian captivity.

a. XXV. 3–14. Jeremiah's preaching, which had now continued twenty-three years, and which was one unceasing call to repentance, had proved fruitless. On this account the Lord now summoned the northern conquerors, who were referred to from the beginning. Nebuchadnezzar, an instrument of God's will, now appears as their leader. He along with his vassals will lay waste the land of Judah and also the neighbouring lands, and reduce them to bondage for seventy years (ver. 11). The number seventy is neither merely ideal nor merely chronological, but partly one belonging to sacred, prophetic symbolism (7 x 10), capable then of further prophetic development (Dan. ix. 2, 24), and partly intended to indicate definitely to the present generation the limit of the period of judgment by way of comfort, and also to dissipate false expectations (cf. xxviii. 3 ff.). Since the revolution was completed with the current year, which is carefully mentioned xxv. 1, the simplest course is to take this year as the starting-point; and since the period of seventy years is described as that of the bondage in Babylon, the end is the fall of Babylon, with which the Judæan exile also reached its end. In fact, between the two points of time, the fourth year of Jehoiakim (606) and the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus (536), lie exactly seventy years. Specific prediction must not be questioned from dogmatic prejudice. The intimation here of the end of the rule of Babylon, and its express prediction in vv. 12-14, are quite in keeping with the nature of prophecy. Now, when the long-announced northern foe appears on the scene, it again opens out a new period, which likewise hastens to a surprising issue. Before two generations