17 18 of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive. Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down : for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of 19 your glory. The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away by St John the Baptist to the coming of Christ), "Every mountain and hill shall be made low" (Is. xl. 4). and make] yea make. There is no conjunction in the original, and the clause is merely added to intensify. gross] thick. The Hebrew for 'gross darkness' is one word, literally cloudy darkness. 17. in secret places] Inasmuch as the time for warning and rebuke will then have passed, the prophet will retire (as he did in the reign of Jehoiakim), and mourn apart. the LORD'S flock] as the rulers are called elsewhere shepherds (pastors), so the ruled are the flock. Compare Zech. x. 3. is carried away captive] The tense probably signifies in accordance with the prophetic style that the event is pictured so vividly to the mind that it seems to have already taken place. The prophecy however (see above) may have been uttered so late in the short reign of Jehoiachin, that the captivity (of 2 Kings xxiv. 12-16) had already begun. 18. Say] The LORD now addresses the prophet. the queen] the queen mother, Nehushta (see note on ver. 1). The fact that the kings practised polygamy, and took wives from their subjects, was the cause of the high position which the king's mother assumed. Accordingly she is frequently mentioned in connexion with the accession of one and another, eg. 1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Kings x. 13. Compare I Kings ii. 19. In Jehoiachin's case especially, as he was but eighteen (2 Kings xxiv. 8; eight only, according to 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9) years old, when he came to the throne, his mother would have a considerable share in the government. Humble yourselves, sit down] Sit down humbly. The Hebrew language, being scantily supplied with adverbs, often expresses their sense by an additional verb. principalities] head tires, viz. the 'crown' which follows. 19. The cities of the south shall be shut up] Some take this to mean that, as was done by Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 13), the enemy should invest the southern towns of Palestine before advancing to reduce the capital city to submission. It is better to take it, as the second part of the verse suggests, as in Isaiah xxiv. 10. Ruins block the entrance to the cities, and that because of the desolation. There is none to clear a passage to the deserted dwellings. The verbs in this verse are in the past tense, which is however very possibly the prophetic past. See ver. 17. captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the 20 north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for 21 thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail ? And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian 23 change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Therefore will I 20. Lift up your eyes] The Hebrew verb is fem. and sing., whereas the possessive pronoun is plural. This shews that the subject is a noun of multitude, viz. Jerusalem personified as the daughter of Zion. This thought harmonizes with the words 'the flock that was given thee,' the inhabitants of the land in general. them that come from the north] See note on chap. i. 14. 21. when he shall punish thee...] if He set over thee those whom thou hast accustomed to thee as familiar friends, for a head. The reference is probably both to the Egyptians and to the Babylonians. Israel courted the friendship now of the one, now of the other, and was then made to taste their rule in turn. 22. thy skirts discovered] thy flowing robe pulled aside, so that thou shalt appear in the garb of servitude, bare-legged, doing the work of a slave. thy heels made bare] barefoot and suffering from the roughness of the road, as thou art led captive. 'Made bare' is literally treated with violence. 23. the Ethiopian] the Cushite, meaning the African branch, and not that which seems in early times to have spread across Arabia to the Tigris and Euphrates. Ethiopia lay south of Egypt, bounded by the Libyan deserts on the West and by Abyssinia on the south. Through the Jews' intercourse with Egypt the Ethiopians were familiar to them. They were thus acquainted with the "merchandise of Ethiopia" (Is. xlv. 14), which consisted of gold, ebony and elephants' tusks (Herod. Bk. III. 97, 114) and jewels (Job xxviii. 19). The people were known as tall ("men of stature," Is. xlv. 14; compare Herod. III. 20, "The Ethiopians...are said to be the tallest...men in the whole world"). For this reason probably they were chosen as attendants upon kings; see chap. xxxviii. 7. the leopard] See chap. v. 6. Cant. iv. 8 shews that this animal was found on the mountains of Palestine. "It is now not uncommonly seen in and about Lebanon, and the southern maritime mountains of Syria." (Kitto, quoted in Sm. Bibl. Dict.). then may ye also do good] So incorrigible is Judah, that her conversion would be no less wonderful than a suspension of natural laws. 22 24 25 scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness. This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten 26 me, and trusted in falsehood. Therefore will I discover 27 thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? 14 CHAP. XIV. 1-6. Description of the drought. I The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. 24. stubble] the broken straw, when the separation of the grain, which we effect by winnowing, had been attained through the trampling of the stalks by oxen. the wind of the wilderness] the east wind which blew strong from the Arabian desert. Compare chap. iv. 11. 25. the portion of thy measures] the portion measured. The word translated measure may however very well mean, as it does elsewhere, an upper garment. Then the rendering will be, that which is placed in thy lap, which brings us in the end to the same thought. falsehood] idolatry. Compare chaps. x. 14, xvi. 19. 26. Therefore will I] This is scarcely strong enough. The Hebrew implies a contrast and a retaliation. Thou hast had thy turn, and now I shall take mine, and shall requite thee. As thou didst give thyself up to disgraceful idolatries, so I will now cover thee with disgrace. 27. The people's zealous pursuit of false gods is put once more in the most forcible language. and thine abominations] even thine abominations. This word is meant to sum up the previous expressions. in the fields] in the open. when shall it once be?] after how long yet? i.e. Although (ver. 23) there is no chance that this generation turn from sin, yet may we not look for a reformation at some time, even though distant? CHAP. XIV. 1-6. DESCRIPTION OF THe drought. 1. The word of the Lord that came] This and the following chapter contain a succession of short utterances, which some have sought, but without success, to assign to particular crises of history (e.g. xiv. 17-19 and xv. 7, to Josiah's defeat and death at Megiddo, or xv. 8, etc., to Jehoiakim's subjugation by Nebuchadnezzar). These conjectures have but little probability. The famine, which seems the occasion of this part of the prophecy, is probably a later one than that which is spoken of earlier in the Book (chaps. iii. 3, xii. 4), because in this place it is associated with disaster in war (verses 17, 18). The probabilities Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish ; They are black unto the ground; And the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 2 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: 3 They came to the pits, and found no water; They returned with their vessels empty; They were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, therefore are that the section, like the greater portion of this division of the Book, was in substance included within the Roll read in the ears of Jehoiakim, and so represents the state of matters during the earlier part of that king's reign, when all hope of permanent reform, such as had been cherished in the days of Josiah, had well nigh disappeared. Some would continue this section to chap. xvii. 18. Chap. xvi. however clearly begins a new portion. We may subdivide as follows: (a) xiv. 2-6, description of the drought ; (b) xiv. 7—xv. 9, the prophet's pleadings and excuses on behalf of the people, each followed by the Lord's reply; (c) xv. 10-21, Jeremiah complains of persecution. He receives comfort and assurance of protection. dearth] drought. The original word is in the plural (droughts), which may imply a series of dry years. 2. City and country, high and low, man and beast alike suffer. the gates] put, as often in Heb., for cities, i.e. for the inhabitants. The gate was the place in which justice was administered and also that of general resort. Hence it is often poetically substituted for the city of which it formed so important a part, or, as here, by a somewhat further stretch of the figure, for the inhabitants. For gate=city compare Deut. xvii. 2; and so too 1 Kings viii. 37, in which latter "cities" of Eng. Vers. should be literally gates. they are black unto the ground] an abbreviated way of saying, they are black (= in mourning garb) and sit upon the ground. Compare for the sense chap. xiii. 18; also Ps. cxxxvii. 1 ("By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down") and Is. xlvii. 1 ("Come down, and sit in the dust"). 3. little ones] mean ones, i.e. servants. The Heb. word is rare, occurring elsewhere only chap. xlviii. 4. pits] cisterns, or tanks, where the water was kept till wanted for use. See note on chap. ii. 13. covered their heads] as a sign of the greatest grief or confusion. Compare 2 Sam. xix. 4; Esth. vi. 12. 4. Because the ground is chapt] Because of the ground, which is dismayed. Chapt is indeed literal, and it is possible that nothing more may be meant than the cracks produced by drought. It is more likely however that the verb is used in the secondary sense which it bears, as above rendered. If this be so, the ground may well stand for the tillers of it, as "gates" (ver. 2) for the people who assembled there. It is only 5 6 7 For there was no rain in the earth, The plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, They snuffed up the wind like dragons; Their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. 7-12. The prophet's first intercession. God's answer. O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we 8 have sinned against thee. O the hope of Israel, the saviour a less usual application of the principle on which the Sublime Porte stands for the Turkish Government, England, etc., for the inhabitants. 5. Yea] or, For. The dismay was increased by the sight of the hind, which was known to be tender in her care for her offspring, deserting it, and seeking merely the preservation of her own life. Compare Lam. i. 6. The care which the hind bestows upon its young is set forth by several ancient writers. Aristotle tells how they bring their young to a secure retreat which has but one approach; Pliny, that they teach them to run and to flee at the approach of danger; and Solinus, that they carefully hide their young ones, forcing them by blows with their feet to conceal themselves in the thickets (Bochart, P. 1., Bk. III., ch. 17). Compare for this character borne by the hind Prov. v. 19. 6. high places] Compare chap. iii. 2. snuffed up the wind] gasped for breath, as oppressed by heat and thirst. dragons] jackals. See note on chap. ix. 11. their eyes did fail] In place of the sharpness of sight, which they naturally enjoyed, their sufferings were depriving them wholly of the power of vision. grass] more literally, plants, or herbage. It is the "herb" of Gen. i. II, 12. 7-12. THE PROPHET'S FIRST INTERCESSION. 7. do thou it] deal. GOD'S ANSWER. for thy name's sake] either (i) in accordance with the name, under which Thou hast revealed Thyself, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, etc. (Exod. xxxiv. 6); or (ii) for Thy honour, that the heathen may behold Thy might and faithfulness. This latter seems the more usual sense of the phrase, for which see Ps. lxxix. 9, cvi. 8; Is. xlviii. 9; Ezek. xx. 9, 14, 22; and for the thought Josh. vii. 7—9. for our backslidings are many] The connexion is, The maintenance of Thine own honour is the only plea that we can urge, and no merits of ours, for, etc. 8. hope of Israel] a favourite expression with Jeremiah (See chaps. |
