e;

return to her, and heal them, and open to them an abundance of peace and stability; 7. and I bring back the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel, and build them as before 8. and I will cleanse them from all their guilt, wherewith they have sinned against me, and will vouchsafe forgiveness for all their transgressions, with which they have sinned against me and offended against me. 9. And she shall be to me a name of delight, a praise and a pride before all nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good which I do them, and shall quake and be troubled because of all the good and all the peace which I show to her.

10. Thus says Yahveh: Again in this place, of which you say It is waste, forsaken of men and cattle, in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, which are solitary, without men and inhabitants and without cattle, 11. shall be heard the sound of singing and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the cry of those who say: "Praise ye Yahveh of hosts, for Yahveh is good; for his mercy endures for ever," of those who bring sacrifices of praise into the house of Yahveh; for I will bring back the captivity of the land as before, says Yahveh.

12. Thus says Yahveh of hosts: Again in this place, which

Open, properly, disclose to them. Hitzig, from 5, I roll on them like a river. See on xi. 20. ллy, Aramaic form; cf. Ex. xxxv. 13. Peace or salvation and stability, cf. xiv. 13. Ver. 8. Cf. xxxi. 34. Ver. 9. The city is the subject, cf. ver. 6. It will be a name of delight, a praise, an ornament to the Lord in the sight of the nations, i.e. a living monument of His saving power and grace, hence also His glory and pride. D, not necessarily for DAN, but ney, with double accusative (Isa. xlii. 16). The nations tremble, because this blessing of Zion convinces them of the utter superiority of Yahveh to their gods; cf. Deut. ii. 25. They will anxiously long for salvation. Cf. on these mingled emotions, Ps. ii. 11; Hos. iii. 5. 10. , see on ii. 15. D'p, see on vii. 3. Ver. 11. Contrast to vii. 34, xvi. 9, xxv. 10. 170-177, according to this passage, even in the pre-exilian age was already a doxology. See the same in Ps. cvi. 1, cvii. 1, cxviii. 1, cxxxvi. 1; the same in 2 Chron. v. 13, vii. 3, 6, xx. 21. The passage shows the amount of truth in the assertion that in the pre-exilian age the soil for the growth of Psalms was wanting., see on xvii. 26.

Ver.

is waste, empty of men and even of cattle, and in all its cities, shall be a field of shepherds causing the flock to lie down. 13. In the cities of the highland, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the surroundings of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, again shall the sheep pass under the hands of the counter, said Yahveh.

14. Behold, days come, is Yahveh's oracle, that I bring to pass the good word which I spoke to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15. In those days and at that time I make a sprout of righteousness spring forth to David, and he shall exercise justice and righteousness in the land. 16. In those days Judah shall enjoy deliverance, and Jerusalem dwell safely; and this is the name with which she shall be called: Yahveh our righteousness. 17. For thus says Yahveh: Never shall there be cut off from David one sitting on the throne of the house of Israel; 18. and never shall the Levitical priests want one before my face to bring burnt-offerings, present gifts, and offer sacrifice always.

19. And Yahveh's word came to Jeremiah saying:

Ver. 12. 7, properly, and unto the cattle, i.e. empty even of cattle. The whole land will be a peaceful field of shepherds, and so everywhere alive with men and beasts. The meaning, of course, is not that pasture-lands will take the place of the cities, which would suggest permanent desolation. Ver. 13. The parts of the territory of Judah, as in xvii. 26, xxxii. 44. On the counting of sheep, the daily business of the shepherd, cf. Verg. Ecl. iii. 34. Ver. 14. The good word is the promise already uttered previously in xxiii. 5 f., and here repeated in substance. Ver. 15. Instead of the ps nos there Пр П appears; the meaning is similar, see on xxiii. 5. Ver. 16 like xxiii. 6, but with the difference that here JudahJerusalem bears the auspicious name assigned there to David's Sprout. See respecting this difference on xxiii. 6. The Church can then boast: Yahveh our righteousness. That the Messiah gives her this salvation in possession, appears from ver. 15, where the repeated py is noticeable. cf., xvii. 6. Ver. 17 like 2 Sam. vii. 15 f., but in form more akin to Nathan's oracle, 1 Kings ii. 4, viii. 25, ix. 5. Ver. 18. "The priests, the Levites" (apposition), usual form in Deuteronomy (Deut. xvii. 9, 18, etc.) of the family of Levi.

,שכן

20. Thus said Yahveh: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, that there be no more day and night in their time, 21. then also shall my covenant with David my servant be broken, that he should not have a son to be king on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, my servants. 22. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of my servant David and the Levites, who serve me.

23. And the word of Yahveh came to Jeremiah thus: 24. Hast thou not seen what these people say, that they say: "The two families whom Yahveh chose, these he has contemned," and how they revile my people as though it were no more a nation in their eyes ? 25. Thus said Yahveh: If my covenant stand not day and night, if I have not given the laws of heaven and earth, 26. then will I also contemn the seed of Jacob and David my servant, that I no longer take of his seed rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will bring back their captivity and have compassion upon them.

Their male line will not die out or cease to fill the priestly office. The allusion is to the high priest corresponding to the king. Ver. 20 f. The covenant of David and Levi, like that of the nation in xxxi. 35 f., is compared with the order of nature as regards inviolableness. My covenant with the day (cf. on the form, Lev. xxvi. 42), i.e. my covenant made with the day. D, daytime, here and in ver. 25 for D, not necessarily a copyist's error. b, and that not. . . . The covenant of David dated from Nathan's message, see on ver. 17; that of the Levites from Moses, Num. iii. 12, viii. 16; Deut. xxxiii. 8 ff. Cf. in reference to a single line, Num. xxv. 12 f. Ver.

.כאשר for אשר The general .22 .24 .Ver .משרתי = משרתי אתי

The two nine are not the royal and the priestly family, but the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah not seldom uses the word of national races, as in i. 15. The people who so speak are not heathen or foreigners, but people of the country who have lost faith in the existence of their nation; y is in emphatic contrast with n Dyn. Ver. 25. The laws of heaven and earth fixed by God are the unchangeable ordinances of nature observable in the heaven and on earth. Cf. xxxi. 35 f. Ver. 26. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobgreat names, of high import before God, to which the covenant

promises were attached. Instead of , Keri unnecessarily has Hiphil; cf. xxix. 14 and often.

The whole section xxxiii. 14-26 is wanting in LXX, and is denied to be Jeremiah's by J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, and partly by Movers. But these oracles so manifestly bear the stamp of Jeremiah's style, as Ewald and Graf confess, that the suspicion is groundless. And if the promise of the continuance of the Levitical priesthood seems to contradict Jeremiah's style of thought, it is because too spiritualistic a character is ascribed to Jeremiah, or the spiritualizing process is overlooked which awaits this priesthood according to ver. 22. The LXX probably were held back from receiving these oracles by similar doubts, or their desire to avoid repetitions led to the omission.

Contents of ch. xxxiii.

tenth year of Zedekiah.

EXPOSITION.

New Consolatory Discourse in the a. Blessing on the unhappy Nation, vv. 2-13. b. The Justified Church of the last days relying on the inviolable permanence of the Davidic Kingdom and the Levitical Priesthood, vv. 14-26.

Out of Jeremiah's imprisonment there dawned on the small believing flock in Judah a star of hope promising deliverance from captivity. The Lord, whose nature it is not merely to utter comforting words or refresh by inspiring ideals, but perfectly to realize His purposes (ver. 2), just now, when the city resembles a pile of ruins and corpses (ver. 4 f.), brings before the seer anew the picture, far surpassing human expectation, of a restored, purified, blissful Israel enjoying the rich blessings of its God in undisturbed peace. Ver. 9 adds an important feature: As God now in His own people presents to the nations an example of His strict retributive judgment, so then the unparalleled deliverance which His people will experience, will move the nations to do Him homage. Jerusalem will be to Him a name or memorial of delight, i.e. a speaking proof that He is able to save, a living song of praise in His honour, an ornament in which He will shine before all the world. The news of this salvation of His people will

stir up the heathen from their self-confidence and their worldly bliss. They will learn with trembling the uniqueness of God from the way in which He bestows blessing, and will long after it themselves (cf. iii. 17).

In ver. 14 ff. the promise of a Righteous Sprout of David, given before in xxiii. 5 f., is renewed (see p. 178) with the variation there mentioned, that here the Church of the future itself bears the conspicuous name: "Yahveh our Righteousness," and with a ratification (ver. 17 f.) emphasizing the indestructibleness of the Davidic kingdom and the Levitical priesthood as the two pillars of the theocracy now collapsing. God's two ideas of a divinely-anointed king and a divinelyfounded priesthood cannot perish, but must find a purer and fuller realization in the future. This is expounded in further oracles (ver. 19 ff.), in which ver. 22 is specially noticeable, according to which the seed of David and the Levites with priestly functions will be countless, as the patriarchal blessing had promised to the entire seed of Abraham and Isaac (Gen. xxii. 17, xxvi. 4). In this Hengstenberg and Nägelsbach find the promise, that all Israel will attain royal and priestly rank. But if this is too definite an interpretation, at all events there is an intimation of a multiplying, analogous to the enlarging and glorifying of the temple foretold in iii. 16, of that family which could boast of standing in a special filial relation to God (2 Sam. vii. 14), and of that priesthood which had the privilege of entering into God's presence in the temple. That according to this account sacrifices are still offered in the new Jerusalem, should seem as little strange, as that a special priesthood of the tribe of Levi continues to exist. Jeremiah still stands, like Ezekiel, on the principles and ideas of the old covenant, to which a people serving God without sacrifice and priest is inconceivable (cf. xvii. 26, xxxi. 14). But that the limits of the conceivable are broken through by the enlargement beyond all measure of the theocracy hitherto existing, leads on to the thought of the theocracy being spiritualized.