hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the 4 LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now 5 every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: and go not after 6 other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith 7 the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works hands to your own hurt.

of your

9

8-14. Babylon's Victory and subsequent Ruin. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye 8 have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them called. He therefore prophesied for eighteen or nineteen years in that reign. To this we are to add the reign of Jehoahaz (three months), and more than three years of Jehoiakim.

rising early and speaking] See note on vii. 13.

4. all his servants the prophets] The people's wickedness was aggravated yet further by the fact that the call to repentance and amendment had come not from Jeremiah only, but from many other accredited messengers of God. Compare vii. 13, 25, xxxv. 15.

5. They said] more literally, Saying.

for ever and ever] literally, from everlasting to everlasting. The otherwise absolutely permanent character of that which they are forfeiting by their iniquity is strongly brought out by the expression.

7. works of your hands] idols. Described thus in contempt also xxxii. 30 (where see note). The expression is probably taken from Deut. xxxi. 29. In each case 'works' is literally work, and here only is it made plural in Eng. Vers.

8-14. BABYLON'S VICTORY AND SUBSEQUent Ruin. 9. the families of the north] For these see chap. i. 14, 15. families] races ascribing their descent to the same ancestor. Of these there would be many in the Babylonish empire. For this use of the word, as wider than that in which it is more familiar to us, see notes on iii. 14, and compare viii. 3.

and Nebuchadrezzar] and to Nebuchadrezzar, thus depending not on take but on I will send.

my servant] so called also in xxvii. 6 and xliii. 10. Compare Ezek. xxix. 19, 20 ("because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God").

ΙΟ

against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a 10 hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. II And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 12 seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity,

an astonishment] a destruction. Compare v. 30 with note.

a hissing, and perpetual desolations] See note on xviii. 16, and compare xix. 8.

10. the voice of mirth...] Compare vii. 34 with note. Here mention of the millstones and of the candle (lamp) is added, to increase the force of the warning. Not only all sign of mirth, but also of domestic labour and social cheer, should vanish. See the same description somewhat amplified in Rev. xviii. 22, 23.

11. a desolation, and an astonishment] See ver. 9.

seventy years] This may mean (i) the duration of the Babylonish empire, or (ii) the length of the Jewish captivity in Babylon: (ii) is clearly the sense in xxix. 10. Here however (i) is rather suggested by the words 'these nations.' Either period can easily be shewn to have been about 70 years.

(i) The successive Sovereigns and the lengths of their reigns were Nebuchadnezzar 44 years, Evil-Merodach 2 years, Neriglissor 4 years, Nabonedus 17 years, in all 67 years. To this is to be prefixed the year that intervened between the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the death of his father Nabopolassar.

(ii) In this case the captivity will have to be reckoned, not from the deportation of Jehoiachin's time (2 Kings xxiv. 14-16), but from (605 B.C.) the 4th year of Jehoiakim ("the third year" Dan. i. 1-3) to (536 B.C.) the liberation under Cyrus.

In either case it is quite sufficient to make an approximation to the number seventy. The Jewish love for round numbers and especially for one so significant in symbolism, as having for its elements seven and ten, would cause the number seventy to their ears when used in such a connexion to stand for any number not differing by much from that amount. This must accordingly have been a deeply marked occasion for Jeremiah, when he learnt, as we may suppose for the first time, that there was no hope for those who like himself had come to anything like mature years, that they would see the end of the exile that was now at hand.

and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words 13 which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve 14 themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

15-30. The Wine-cup of God's fury is to be drunk by all

the nations.

For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take 15

13. even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations] At this point there presents itself one of the most marked discrepancies between the Septuagint Version of Jeremiah and the Hebrew. (See Introduction, chap. III. §§ 8-12.) The Greek Version ends the sentence with "in this book," and for the rest reads "What Jeremiah prophesied against the nations. Elam." Upon which follows what with us appears as chap. xlix. 35-39, and then the other prophecies against foreign nations including Babylon, which in the Heb. text (and Eng. Vers.) come at the end of the whole Book (chaps. xlvi.-li.). This fact, coupled with the expression which Feremiah hath prophesied, an expression hardly likely to have been used by Jeremiah himself, has suggested to some that the arrangement in the 'Septuagint may be closer to the form in which Jeremiah at first at any rate arranged his writings. One or two other omissions in the Greek, as compared with the Heb. of these verses ("and to Nebuchadrezzar,' see note on ver. 9, "the king of Babylon...and the land of the Chaldeans," ver. 12), have been thought to point in the same direction. According to this view then the words 'which (what) Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations' will stand as the immediate introduction to those prophecies, that still follow upon this passage in the Septuagint; while ver. 14, not occurring in that Version, will be a marginal note or gloss, afterwards inserted as such notes often were by a copyist in the text, and intended to account for the preceding words, now that the detailed prophecies which they originally introduced had been withdrawn.

14. shall serve themselves of them also] The pronoun them in the Heb. is repeated for the sake of emphasis, and refers to the Chaldaeans. Their punishment shall be severe. As they have done to the people of God, so shall He requite them. The same sentiment is expressed in the prophecy specially directed against Babylon, but written some years later, chap. 1. 29, li. 24.

15-30.

THE WINE-CUP OF GOD'S FURY IS TO BE DRUNK BY ALL
THE NATIONS.

15. For thus saith] In this section we have the rapid enumeration

the wine cup of this fury at mine hand, and cause all the 16 nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will 17 send among them. Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD 18 had sent me: to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; 19 as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants,

of those kingdoms which should be involved with the Jews in the overthrow.

the wine cup of this fury] more literally, this wine-cup, namely fury. The likening of disaster to a bitter draught is frequent in the Bible. See chaps. xlix. 12, li. 7; Job xxi. 20; Ps. lx. 3, lxxv. 8; Is. li. 17, 22 ; Ezek. xxiii. 31; Hab. ii. 15; Rev. xiv. 8, xvii. 4, xviii. 3.

16. be moved] reel.

be mad] The words mean, behave as madmen. Their dismay at the horrors of war shall be so great, that they will have the bearing of men drunken or insane.

the sword] Here Jeremiah, as so often, returns suddenly from figure to fact. See for other instances Introd. chap. II. 8 (d).

17. Then took I the cup] not however in any literal sense, just as the cup was not a literal cup, but along with its contents a figurative expression for the wrath of God as manifested in a national subjugation. Hence the view, which has been maintained, that Jeremiah presented a cup of actual wine to the ambassadors of these various powers, assembled, according to this hypothesis, for counsel in Jerusalem, may be dismissed, as utterly improbable. The figure was sufficiently carried out by the proclamation of God's message in Jerusalem, whence it might be conveyed to the other nations united by a common danger.

18. We may perceive a certain system (south to north) in the enumeration. After Jerusalem and Judah the prophet takes in order the furthest south (Egypt), south-east (Uz), south-west (Philistines), east (Edom, etc.), west (Tyre, etc.), east and northwards (Dedan, etc. to the Medes), and finally the north far and near (ver. 26).

kings] For the use of the plural see note on xix. 3.

a desolation...] See notes on v. 30 and xviii. 16.

as it is this day] may well be an insertion of Jeremiah's after the fulfilment of the prophecy.

19. Pharaoh] a name belonging not to an individual but (compare Cesar and Czar) to the monarch as such. The word is no doubt Coptic, more or less altered in shape by its transmission to us through Hebrew. According to the latest view it great house (compare Sublime Porte), while others have thought it to be either (i) from PI=the definite article and OURO=king, or (ii) PI RA=sun-god, whom the king of Egypt represented. (For authorities see Schaff's Through Bible Lands, p. 91.)

21

and his princes, and all his people; and all the mingled 20 people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod: Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all the kings 22 of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, 23

20. the mingled people] This phrase, which occurs also ver. 24, seems to mean in general those who without being connected by blood with the nation had for one reason or other attached themselves to it (compare 1. 37). Some have thought that here there is a particular reference to mercenary troops from Ionia and Caria, whom Psammetichus, father of Pharaoh. nechoh, had hired. This however is probably too limited a reference.

and all the kings of the land of Uz] The Septuagint Version omits these words, and it has been supposed that it did so, as knowing that Uz lay much too far north to be introduced at this part of the enumeration. On the contrary however Uz appears (Lam. iv. 21) to have been in the neighbourhood of Idumaea, and therefore not far from Egypt. and Ashkelon] even Ashkelon.

Azzah] Gaza, which is the ordinary spelling, although that adopted here (and in Deut. ii. 23; 1 Kings iv. 24) is perhaps nearer the Heb.

the remnant of Ashdod] For twenty-nine years Psammetichus pressed the siege of Azotus without intermission, till finally he took the place (Rawl. Herod. II. 157). The coincidence is very remarkable between what we might have gathered as the likely result of such a protracted siege followed by capture and the expression here 'the remnant of Ashdod.' If we compare this list of Philistine towns with earlier ones (Josh. xiii. 3; 1 Sam. vi. 17) we notice that Gath is here wanting, as it is also Amos i. 7, 8; Zeph. ii. 4; and Zech. ix. 5, 6. It is not apparently as belonging to Judah that it is omitted in these places, for though taken by David (1 Chron. xviii. 1) it recovered independence afterwards (1 Kings ii. 39). The reason therefore probably is that it was no longer a separate kingdom.

22. Tyrus] This form in place of Tyre is found in the Eng. Vers. of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Zechariah, besides the Apocryphal Books of Esdras, Judith and Maccabees.

Zidon] the ordinary form of the name in the O. T. Compare xxvii. 3, xlvii. 4. Sidon however, which as the Greek form is that which occurs in the N. T., we find also in Gen. x. 15, 19. The similar usage in the name Zion (Sion) may be compared.

isles] more literally, inhabited places. The word is used however most commonly of the places which were, roughly speaking, west of Palestine, and thus it had special reference to the islands of the Grecian Archipelago.

23. Dedan] a tribe descended from Abraham by his wife Keturah (Gen. xxv. 3) and dwelling S. E. of Edom. Their caravans maintained a trade between Tyre and Arabia (Ezek. xxvii. 15, 20).