[167] Cf. chapter on "Baruch."
[168] 1 Sam. xiii.
[169] 1 Kings xxii.
[170] lii. 30.
[171] So Orelli, _in loco_.
[172] For the prophecy against Egypt and its fulfilment see further chapter XVII.
xliv.
"Since we left off burning incense and offering libations to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in want of everything, and have been consumed by the sword and the famine."--JER. xliv. 18.
The Jewish exiles in Egypt still retained a semblance of national life, and were bound together by old religious ties. Accordingly we read that they came together from their different settlements--from Migdol and Tahpanhes on the north-eastern frontier, from Noph or Memphis on the Nile south of the site of Cairo, and from Pathros or Upper Egypt--to a "great assembly," no doubt a religious festival. The list of cities shows how widely the Jews were scattered throughout Egypt.
Nothing is said as to where and when this "great assembly" met; but for Jeremiah, such a gathering at all times and anywhere, in Egypt as at Jerusalem, became an opportunity for fulfilling his Divine commission. He once again confronted his fellow-countrymen with the familiar threats and exhortations. A new climate had not created in them either clean hearts or a right spirit.
Recent history had added force to his warnings. He begins therefore by appealing to the direful consequences which had come upon the Holy Land, through the sins of its inhabitants:--
"Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are an uninhabited waste, Because of their wickedness which they wrought to provoke Me to anger, By going to burn incense and to serve other gods whom neither they nor their fathers knew."
The Israelites had enjoyed for centuries intimate personal relations with Jehovah, and knew Him by this ancient and close fellowship and by all His dealings with them. They had no such knowledge of the gods of surrounding nations. They were like foolish children who prefer the enticing blandishments of a stranger to the affection and discipline of their home. Such children do not intend to forsake their home or to break the bonds of filial affection, and yet the new friendship may wean their hearts from their father. So these exiles still considered themselves worshippers of Jehovah, and yet their superstition led them to disobey and dishonour Him.
Before its ruin, Judah had sinned against light and leading:--
"Howbeit I sent unto you all My servants the prophets, Rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ears, so as to turn from their evil, That they should not burn incense to other gods. Wherefore My fury and My anger was poured forth."
Political and social questions, the controversies with the prophets who contradicted Jeremiah in the name of Jehovah, have fallen into the background; the poor pretence of loyalty to Jehovah which permitted His worshippers to degrade Him to the level of Baal and Moloch is ignored as worthless: and Jeremiah, like Ezekiel, finds the root of the people's sin in their desertion of Jehovah. Their real religion was revealed by their heathenish superstitions. Every religious life is woven of many diverse strands; if the web as a whole is rotten, the Great Taskmaster can take no account of a few threads that have a form and profession of soundness. Our Lord declared that He would utterly ignore and repudiate men upon whose lips His name was a too familiar word, who had preached and cast out devils and done many mighty works in that Holy Name. These were men who had worked iniquity, who had combined promising externals with the worship of "other gods," Mammon or Belial or some other of those evil powers, who place
"Within His sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profane; And with their darkness dare affront His light."