PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositor's Bible: The Book of Jeremiah, Chapters XXI.-LII.
Bennett, W. H. (William Henry) · 101,314 words · 154 reading sections
Fourth Series, 1890-1.
EDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. _Editor of "The Expositor"_ THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH CHAPTERS XXI.-LII. BY W. H. BENNETT, M.A. =London= HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27, PATERNOSTER ROW _Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d, each vol._ Colossians. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. St. Mark. By Very Rev. the Dean of A…
264 wordsSECTION 2Mdcccxcv
The Psalms. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. By JAMES DENNEY, D.D. The Book of Job. By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D. Ephesians. By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. The Gospel of St. John. By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II. The Acts of the Apostles. By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II. 1 Kings. By Ven. Archde…
256 wordsSECTION 3Chap. Page
The present work deals primarily with Jeremiah xxi.-lii., thus forming a supplement to the volume of the _Expositor's Bible_ on Jeremiah by the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A. References to the earlier chapters are only introduced where they are necessary to illustrate and explain the later sections. I regret that two important…
397 wordsSECTION 4Chronological Table
In the present stage of investigation of Old Testament Chronology, absolute accuracy cannot be claimed for such a table as the following. Hardly any, if any, of these dates are supported by a general consensus of opinion. On the other hand, the range of variation is, for the most part, not more than three or four years…
595 wordsSECTION 5Chapter Vii
[1] For spelling see note, page 4 INDEX OF CHAPTERS vii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ix _PERSONAL UTTERANCES AND NARRATIVES_ INTRODUCTORY: JEHOAHAZ. xxii. 10-12 3 "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more."--xxii, 10 A TRIAL FOR HERESY. xxvi.: cf. v…
304 wordsSECTION 6Chapter Xv
BAD SHEPHERDS AND FALSE PROPHETS. xxiii.; xxiv. 96 "Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!"--xxii. 1 "Of what avail is straw instead of grain?... Is not My word like fire, ... like a hammer that shattereth the rocks?"--xxiii. 28, 29 HANANIAH. xxvii., xxviii. 115 "Hear now, Hanani…
259 wordsSECTION 7Chapter Xxiv
_PROPHECIES CONCERNING FOREIGN NATIONS_ JEHOVAH AND THE NATIONS. xxv. 15-38 211 "Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations."--xxv. 31 EGYPT. xliii. 8-13, xliv. 30, xlvi. 220 "I will visit Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him."--xlvi. …
256 wordsSECTION 8Jeremiah And Christ 367
BABYLON. l., li. 258 "Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces."--l. 2 _JEREMIAH'S TEACHING CONCERNING ISRAEL AND JUDAH_ "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."--xxxi. 1 "Very bad figs, ... too bad to be eaten."--xxiv. 2, 8, xxix. 17 "They have fo…
301 wordsSECTION 9_Introductory:_[2] _Jehoahaz_
xxii. 10-12. "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more."--JER. xxii. 10. As the prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the order in which they were delivered, there is no absolute chronological division between the first twenty chapters and …
706 wordsSECTION 10_Introductory:_[2] _Jehoahaz_
Much of this Jeremiah must have anticipated, but there were some from whose position and character the prophet expected acceptance, even of the most unpalatable teaching of the Spirit of Jehovah. The personal vindictiveness with which priests and prophets repaid his loyalty to the Divine mission and his zeal for truth …
715 wordsSECTION 11_Introductory:_[2] _Jehoahaz_
Thus, at the time when we take up the narrative, the government was in the hands of the party hostile to Jeremiah, and the king, Jehoiakim, seems to have been his personal enemy. Jeremiah himself was somewhere between forty and fifty years old, a solitary man without wife or child. His awful mission as the herald of ru…
263 wordsSECTION 12_A Trial For Heresy_
[2] Cf. Preface. [3] We know little of Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns. In 2 Kings xxiv. 1 we are told that Nebuchadnezzar "came up" in the days of Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years. It is not clear whether Nebuchadnezzar "came up" immediately after the battle of Carchemish, or at a later time after h…
727 wordsSECTION 13_A Trial For Heresy_
The prophet was to stand in the court of the Temple and repeat once more to the Jews his message of warning and judgment, "all that I have charged thee to speak unto them, thou shalt not keep back a single word." The substance of this address is found in the various prophecies which expose the sin and predict the ruin …
694 wordsSECTION 14_A Trial For Heresy_
The Ephraimite sanctuary of Shiloh, long the home of the Ark and its priesthood, had been overthrown in some national catastrophe. Apparently when it was destroyed it was no mere tent, but a substantial building of stone, and its ruins remained as a permanent monument of the fugitive glory of even the most sacred shrin…
737 wordsSECTION 15_A Trial For Heresy_
How was it that these priests and prophets thought that their princes might be induced to condemn Jeremiah to death for predicting the destruction of the Temple? A prophet would not run much risk nowadays by announcing that St. Paul's should be made like Stonehenge, or St. Peter's like the Parthenon. Expositors of Dani…
656 wordsSECTION 16_A Trial For Heresy_
In prosperous times a nation may forget its Palladium, and may tolerate doubts as to its efficacy; but the strength of the Jews was broken, their resources were exhausted, and they were clinging in an agony of conflicting hopes and fears to their faith in the inviolability of the Temple. To destroy their confidence was…
753 wordsSECTION 17_A Trial For Heresy_
At this point again the sequence of events is not clear; possibly the account was compiled from the imperfect recollections of more than one of the spectators. The pronouncement of the princes and the people seems, at first sight, a formal acquittal that should have ended the trial, and left no room for the subsequent …
681 wordsSECTION 18_A Trial For Heresy_
But unfortunately no precedent can bind succeeding generations, and both Judaism and Christianity have sinned grievously against the lesson of this chapter. Jehoiakim himself soon broke through the feeble restraint of this new-born tolerance. The writer adds an incident that must have happened somewhat later,[23] to sh…
566 wordsSECTION 19Footnotes:
[10] The expression is curious; it usually means all the cities of Judah, except Jerusalem; the LXX. reading varies between "all the Jews" and "all Judah." [11] See especially the exposition of chaps. vii.-x., which are often supposed to be a reproduction of Jeremiah's utterance on this occasion. [12] The Hebrew appa…
314 wordsSECTION 20The Roll
xxxvi. "Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee."--JER. xxxvi. 2. The incidents which form so large a proportion of the contents of our book do not make up a connected narrative; they are merely a series of detached pictures: we can only conjecture the doings and expe…
883 wordsSECTION 21The Roll
Jeremiah dictated his prophecies, as St. Paul did his epistles, to an amanuensis; he called his disciple Baruch[30] ben Neriah, and dictated to him "all that Jehovah had spoken, upon a book, in the form of a roll." It seems clear that, as in xxvi., the narrative does not exactly follow the order of events,[31] and tha…
953 wordsSECTION 22The Roll
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover hi…
751 wordsSECTION 23The Roll
When Baruch arrived, the princes greeted him with the courtesy and even deference due to the favourite disciple of a distinguished prophet. They invited him to sit down and read them the roll. Baruch obeyed; the method of reading suited the enclosed room and the quiet, interested audience of responsible men, better tha…
843 wordsSECTION 24The Roll
Thus the career of Baruch's roll was summarily cut short. But it had done its work; it had been read on three separate occasions, first before the people, then before the princes, and last of all before the king and his court. If Jeremiah had appeared in person, he might have been at once arrested, and put to death lik…
718 wordsSECTION 25Footnotes:
[26] See Cheyne, Giesebrecht, Orelli, etc. [27] R.V. "against." The Hebrew is ambiguous. [28] So Septuagint. The Hebrew text has Israel, which is a less accurate description of the prophecies, and is less relevant to this particular occasion. [29] _Jeremiah_ (Men of the Bible), p. 132. [30] Cf. Chap. V. on "Baruch.…
405 wordsSECTION 26_The Rechabites_
xxxv. "Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me for ever."--JER. xxxv. 19. This incident is dated "in the days of Jehoiakim." We learn from verse 11 that it happened at a time when the open country of Judah was threatened by the advance of Nebuchadnezzar with a Chaldean and Syrian army. If N…
697 wordsSECTION 27_The Rechabites_
Various parallels have been found to the customs of the Rechabites. The Hebrew Nazarites abstained from wine and strong drink, from grapes and grape juice and everything made of the vine, "from the kernels even to the husk."[48] Mohammed forbade his followers to drink any sort of wine or strong drink. But the closest p…
677 wordsSECTION 28_The Rechabites_
After these details Jeremiah next tells us how he set before his guests bowls of wine and cups, and invited them to drink. Probably Jaazaniah and his clansmen were aware that the scene was intended to have symbolic religious significance. They would not suppose that the prophet had invited them all, in this solemn fash…
708 wordsSECTION 29_The Rechabites_
Buddhists and Mohammedans have been held up as modern examples to rebuke the Church, though as a rule with scant justification. Perhaps material for a more relevant contrast may be found nearer home. Christian societies have been charged with conducting their affairs by methods to which a respectable business firm woul…
622 wordsSECTION 30_Baruch_
[48] Num. vi. 2. [49] xix. 94. [50] Scott, _Legend of Montrose_, chap. xxii. [51] The term "house of the Rechabites" in verse 2 means "family" or "clan," and does not refer to a building. [52] Eight Jeremiahs occur in O.T. [53] Literally "sons of Hanan." [54] Jeremiah, according to this view, had no interview wit…
671 wordsSECTION 31_Baruch_
We next hear of Baruch in connection with the symbolic purchase of the field at Anathoth.[61] He seems to have been attending on Jeremiah during his imprisonment in the court of the guard, and the documents containing the evidence of the purchase were entrusted to his care. Baruch's presence in the court of the guard d…
718 wordsSECTION 32_Baruch_
The short prophecy which has furnished a text for this chapter shows that Jeremiah was not unaware of Baruch's tendency to self-assertion, and even felt that sometimes it required a check. Apparently chapter xlv. once formed the immediate continuation of chapter xxxvi., the narrative of the incident of the roll. It was…
666 wordsSECTION 33_Baruch_
We prefer a more generous interpretation. To a selfish man, unless indeed he clung to bare life in craven terror or mere animal tenacity, such an existence as Baruch was promised would have seemed no boon at all. Imprisonment in a besieged and starving city, captivity and exile, his fellow-countrymen's ill-will and res…
370 wordsSECTION 34_The Judgment On Jehoiakim_
[58] _Antt._, x. 9, 1. [59] xxxvi. 26, 32. [60] In order of time, ch. xxxvi. [61] xxxii. [62] xliii. [63] _Antt._, x. 9, 1. [64] Bissell's Introduction to Baruch in Lange's Commentary. [65] So LXX., which here probably gives the true order. [66] The clause "I am weary with my groaning" also occurs in Psalm vi. …
727 wordsSECTION 35_The Judgment On Jehoiakim_
Let us now consider these utterances. In xxxvi. 30_a_ we read, "Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David." Later on,[71] a like judgment was pronounced upon Jehoiakim's son and successor Jehoiachin. The absence of this threat from xxii. 13-19 is…
769 wordsSECTION 36_The Judgment On Jehoiakim_
How far Jeremiah would have shared such modern sentiment, it is hard to say. At any rate his personal feeling is kept in the background; it is postponed to the more patient and deliberate judgment of the Divine Spirit, and subordinated to broad considerations of public morality. We have no right to contrast Jeremiah wi…
689 wordsSECTION 37_The Judgment On Jehoiakim_
Renan says[77] of this period: "L'Egypte était, à cette époque, le pays où les industries de luxe étaient le plus développées. Tout le monde raffolaient, en particulier, de sa carrosserie et de ses meubles ouvragés. Joiaquin et la noblesse de Jérusalem ne songeaient qu'à se procurer ces beaux objets, qui réalisaient ce…
882 wordsSECTION 38_The Judgment On Jehoiakim_
The warlike spirit of classical antiquity and of Teutonic chivalry welcomed a glorious death upon the field of battle:-- "And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods?" No one spoke of Leonidas as a victim of Divine wrath. Later Judaism caught somet…
917 wordsSECTION 39_The Judgment On Jehoiakim_
Though we extenuate Jehoiakim's conduct, we are still bound to condemn it; not however because he was exceptionally wicked, but because he failed to rise above a low spiritual average: yet in this judgment we also condemn ourselves for our own intolerance, and for the prejudice and self-will which have often blinded ou…
432 wordsSECTION 40_Jehoiachin_[86]
[69] 2 Kings xxiii. 34-xxiv. 7. [70] iii. 274. [71] xxii. 30. [72] R.V., "Ah my brother! or Ah sister!... Ah lord! or Ah his glory!" The text is based on an emendation of Graetz, following the Syriac. (Giesebrecht.) [73] Chap. xiii. [74] Jude 9. [75] Apc. vi. 10. [76] xxii. 17. The exact meaning of the word tran…
711 wordsSECTION 41_Jehoiachin_[86]
" ... iron dug from central gloom, And heated hot with burning fears And dipt in baths of hissing tears, And battered with the shocks of doom, To shape and use." He had long lost all trace of that sanguine youthful enthusiasm which promises to carry all before it. His opening manhood had felt its happy illusions, …
1,075 wordsSECTION 42_Jehoiachin_[86]
We feel a shock of surprise and repulsion as we turn from this pathetic story to Jeremiah's fierce invectives against the unhappy king. But we wrong the prophet and misunderstand his utterance if we forget that it was delivered during that brief frenzy in which the young king and his advisers threw away the last chance…
667 wordsSECTION 43_Jehoiachin_[86]
"Yet would I pluck thee thence." A signet ring was valuable in itself, and, as far as an inanimate object could be, was an "_alter ego_" of the sovereign; it scarcely ever left his finger, and when it did, it carried with it the authority of its owner. A signet ring could not be lost or even cast away without some ref…
701 wordsSECTION 44_Jehoiachin_[86]
"O land, land, land, Hear the word of Jehovah." Isaiah had called all Nature, heaven and earth to bear witness against Israel, but now Jeremiah is appealing with urgent importunity to Judah. "O Chosen Land of Jehovah, so richly blessed by His favour, so sternly chastised by His discipline, Land of prophetic Revelatio…
685 wordsSECTION 45_Jehoiachin_[86]
Our second point is the application of this prophecy to Jehoiachin. How far did the king deserve his sentence? Jeremiah indeed does not explicitly blame Jehoiachin, does not specify his sins as he did those of his royal sire. The estimate recorded in the Book of Kings doubtless expresses the judgment of Jeremiah, but i…
303 wordsSECTION 46Footnotes:
[86] Also called Coniah and Jeconiah. [87] Considerable portions of chaps. i.-xx. are referred to the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin: see previous volume on Jeremiah. [88] i. 18. [89] The Chronicler's account of Jehoiakim's end (2 Chron. xxviii. 6-8) is due to a misunderstanding of the older records. According t…
264 wordsSECTION 47_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
xxiii., xxiv. "Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!"--JER. xxiii. 1. "Of what avail is straw instead of grain?... Is not My word like fire, ... like a hammer that shattereth the rocks?"--JER. xxiii. 28, 29. The captivity of Jehoiachin and the deportation of the flower of the pe…
752 wordsSECTION 48_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
We have already had occasion to compare the changes in the religious policy of the Jewish government to the alternations of Protestant and Romanist sovereigns among the Tudors; but no Tudor was as feeble as Zedekiah. He may rather be compared to Charles IX. of France, helpless between the Huguenots and the League. Only…
693 wordsSECTION 49_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel turn from the unfaithful shepherds whose "hungry sheep look up and are not fed" to the true King of Israel, the "Shepherd of Israel that led Joseph like a flock, and dwelt between the Cherubim." In the days of the Restoration He will raise up faithful shepherds, and over them a righteous Branc…
753 wordsSECTION 50_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
We are always reluctant to speak of ancient prophecy or modern preaching as a "profession." We may gladly dispense with the word, if we do not thereby ignore the truth which it inaccurately expresses. Men lived by prophecy, as, with Apostolic sanction, men live by "the gospel." They were expected, as ministers are now,…
651 wordsSECTION 51_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
"If they had stood in My council, They would have caused My people to hear My words; They would have turned them from their evil way, And from the evil of their doings." But now:-- "They walk in lies and strengthen the hands of evildoers, That no one may turn away from his sin. * * * * * They say continually un…
725 wordsSECTION 52_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
The solemn attestation NE'UM YAHWE, "It is the utterance of Jehovah," is continually appended to prophecies, almost as if it were the sign-manual of the Almighty. Isaiah and other prophets frequently use the term MASSA (A.V., R.V., "burden") as a title, especially for prophecies concerning neighbouring nations. The anc…
708 wordsSECTION 53_Bad Shepherds And False Prophets_
Yet the Bible, with that marvellous catholicity which lifts it so high above the level of all other religious literature, not only records Jeremiah's prohibition to use the term "Burden," but also tells us that centuries later Malachi could still speak of "the burden of the word of Jehovah." A great phrase that has bee…
671 wordsSECTION 54_Hananiah_
[101] xxxvii. 2. [102] 2 Kings xxiv. 18-20. [103] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10 makes Zedekiah the brother of Jehoiachin, possibly using the word in the general sense of "relation." Zedekiah's age shows that he cannot have been the son of Jehoiakim. [104] Ezek. xvii. 13, 14. [105] xxiv. [106] vii.-xi. [107] viii. [108] Gen…
690 wordsSECTION 55_Hananiah_
When he had sent his message to the foreign envoys, Jeremiah addressed an almost identical admonition to his own king. He bids him submit to the Chaldean yoke, under the same penalties for disobedience--sword, pestilence, and famine for himself and his people. He warns him also against delusive promises of the prophets…
742 wordsSECTION 56_Hananiah_
On such an occasion, Jeremiah's opponents would select as their representative some striking personality, a man of high reputation for ability and personal character. Such a man, apparently, they found in Hananiah ben Azzur of Gibeon. Let us consider for a moment this mouthpiece and champion of a great political and ec…
680 wordsSECTION 57_Hananiah_
These prophets, however, display a courtesy and self-restraint that have, for the most part, been absent from Christian polemics. "Jeremiah the prophet said, Amen: may Jehovah bring it to pass; may He establish the words of thy prophecy, by bringing back again from Babylon unto this place both the vessels of the Templ…
749 wordsSECTION 58_Hananiah_
"Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, ... Go and tell Hananiah: Thou hast broken wooden yokes; thou shalt make iron yokes in their stead. For thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the necks of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon."[123] W…
727 wordsSECTION 59_Hananiah_
The point at issue between these two prophets was exceedingly simple and practical--whether Jehovah approved of the proposed revolt and would reward it with success. Theological questions were only indirectly and remotely involved. Yet, in face of his opponent's persistent asseverations, Jeremiah--perhaps the greatest …
718 wordsSECTION 60_Correspondence With The Exiles_
But this principle, which is necessarily of limited application, does not go far to solve the great question of authority in religion, on which Jeremiah gives us no further help. There is, however, one obvious moral. No system of external authority, whatever pains may be taken to secure authentic legitimacy, can altog…
723 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.