Zion to a comely and delicate woman. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place. 4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched

out.

5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

9 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine; turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.

10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be

[approach.

taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

12 And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the

sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.

21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.

22 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

24 We have heard the fame there of our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

CHAP. VI.

[guardeth Judah

25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly

come upon us.

27 I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all cor rupters.

29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them. (F)

(F) An alarm excited by the enemy's approach. The Prophet, seeing the Chaldeans on their march, bids his people set up the usual signals of distress, spread the general alarm, and betake themselves to fight. The rapidity of the movements and the quickness of the transactions in ver. 1, are highly expressive of the great emotion of the Prophet's mind, and peculiarly suited to the alarming occasion: theu by a beautiful allusion to the custom of shepherds moving their flocks to the richest pastures, Jerusalem is singled out as a place devoted to be eaten up or trodden down, by the armies of the Chaldeans who ar alled up against her, and whose ardour an impatience is so great, that the soldiers, when they arrive in the evening, regret they have no more day, and desire to begin the attack without waiting for the light of the morning.' God is even represented as animating and directing the besiegers against this guilty city, which sinned as

NOTES

Ver. 21. Stumbling blocks — allading, perhaps, to some military instruments cast in their way, to prevent their flight.

Ver. 27. I have set thee for a tower, &c.-Taking our authorized translation, it is very natural to refer back to chap. i. 18. But Dr. Blayney has given, both from the text and context, very good authority for a different rendering, which is as follows: "I have appointed thee to make an essay among my people, as to the gold thereof," which is partly adopted by Dr. Boothroyd. But Betser is used for both the pre

incessantly as a fountain flows. (Ver. 7.) He intimates also (by the figure of gleaning grapes) that one invasion should carry away the remains of another, till the whole should effect their total overthrow. The Lord then, to justify the severity of his dispensations towards Israel, mentions his having in vain repeatedly admonished and warned them, and calls upon the whole world to witness the equity of his proceed. ings in punishing his perverse and hypocritical people, by the instrumentality of the cruel Chaldeans. Upon this a chorus of Jews is introduced, (ver. 24, 25,) expressing their alarm, to which the Prophet, in the next verse, re-echoes a response of sympathy and tenderness, exhorting to speedy penitence. The concluding verses, by metaphors taken from the process of refining the precious metals, represent all the methods hitherto used to amend them as ineffectual, and declare their case desperate. They had been long in the refiuer's fire; but instead of being purified, came out mere dross.

cious metals, Job xxii. 24, 25; and by ver. 38, should be here confined to silver. (See Gesenius) Ver. 28. They are brass and iron-not pure gold or silver. See Ezek. xxii. 18.

Ver. 29. The hellows are burnt, with perpetual use. The lead is consumed.-Lead was used in 'refining of silver, and when this was expended, refining was stopped.

Ver. 30. Reprobate silver-Marg," Refuse silver," scoria, dross.

against hypocrisy]

CHAP. VII.

THE word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.

5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did

[and vain sacrifice.

to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early, and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;

14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GoD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burat offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

CHAP. VII. Ver. 4. The temple of the Lord are these.-Compare Matt. xxiv. 1, 2.

Ver. 10. Which is called by my name - Heb. "Whereupon my name is called." See 1 Kings viii. 29, &c.

Ver. 11. Behold, I have seen it, saith the Lord.Compare Matt. xxi. 13.

Ver. 18. The children gather wood, &c.-This verse has been cited as an instance of the zeal and activity of idolaters: men, women, and children all

22 For I spake not unto your fa

employed. O that Christians were as zealous as the heathen! The queen of heaven—or of the heavens. Some versions render it, "the hosts of heaven;" others, "the regency of the heavens ;" but some copies read, as in our margin, “ the frame of the heavens."

Ver. 21. Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices-that is, take away both together, and eat them as food: what care I for them?

sacrifices:

23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck they did worse than their fathers.

27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.

28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

י

[against vain confidence.

29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.

33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate. (G)

CHAP. VII.

(G) The Prophet Jeremiah guardeth Judah against vain confidence.—A new section of prophecy here begins, which continues to the end of chap. x. It is evident that, besides Jeremiah and a few other prophets of the Lord, who warned the people against the danger of self-deception, there was a

class of pretended Prophets, who endea voured to counteract their labours, and fill the people with vain confidence and false security. Among all the delusions in the religious world, certainly no one is more fatal than that of trusting to a mere profession, crying, "The temple of the Lord are these," pointing to its consecrated stones, while men themselves are indifferent,

Ver. 22. Concerning burnt offerings, &c. - Heb. 06 Concerning the matter of burnt offerings," &c. This passage has been brought to oppose the divine authority of the Jewish sacrifices. Many learned men have remarked, that it is an idiom of the Hebrew language, to affirm one thing and deny another, when the writer means only to give a strong preference of one before the other; thus Hos. vi. 6. “I will have mercy and not sacrifice;" i. e. I greatly prefer mercy before sacrifice." See Dr. S. Clarke's "Sermon on government of passion. Also Gataker, Blayney, Boothroyd, &c. in loc. Doddridge in Matt. xii. 7.

Other instances of this idiom are the following, 1 Sam. xv. 22; Joel ii. 13; Ezek. xx. 25; Maft. XV. 24; Luke xviii. 14; John vi 27; Ephes. iv. 26, &c. Ver. 24. Went backward-that is, like a refractory heiter, Hos, iv. 16.

Ver.23. Cut off thine hair—a sign of deep moaraing. See Isa. xv. 2; Jer. xvi. 6.

Ver. 30. Abominations-that is, idols. Ver. 31. Tophet. See Note on Isa. xxx. 12 -Ixvi. 24. Compare Deut. xii. 31. Ver. 33. Fouts of the heaven- that is, birds of prey.--Fray-that is, drive away.

Farther judgments against]

A

CHAP. VIII.

T that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What

[Judah and Jerusalem.

have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

both to the true interest of religion and of mankind. They persuaded themselves that God would not suffer the temple to be profaued by heathens, though themselves had profaned it by their hypocrisy and idolatry. In reply to this foolish presumption, the

Lord, by his Prophet, directs them to look at Shiloh, where his name was first recorded, and to profit by the fate of their sister kingdom of Israel, which had been ruined by the like vain confidence that they now indulged.

CHAP. VIII. Ver. 1. The bones of the king of Judah.-The motive to this outrage is supposed to have been the hope of plunder, since it was customary to bury great treasures in the tombs of royalty, as Josephus informs us was the case with David's: (Antiq. lib. 7. cap. ult.) But we have no account of his tomb being opened before the times of Hyrcanus and Ilerod the Great.

Ver. 4. Shall they full and not arise again ?—that is, shall they persist in their apostacy, and not accept the merciful invitation to return?

Ver. G. Every one turned to his course-Blayney, Every one that turneth away, renneth on full speed.

Ver. 7. Yea, the stork, &c. These migratory birds, who all know their time of return to their country, are brought forward to shame these people who know not when to return to God.

Ver. 8. In vain made ke it ; the pen of the scribes is in vain—that is, God made the law in vain, and the scribes copy it in vain, if men will not regard it. So Gataker. See Hosea viii. 12.

Ver. 11. They have healed.- -Sve chap. vi. 14. Ver. 13. I will surely consume them---Heb. “Gathering I will gather them."

Ver. 14. Water of gail Marg. "Of poison;" Blayney, "Of hemlock." So our translators render it, ilosca x. 4; Amos vi. 12.