It is a melancholy reflection that Jeremiah's effort at reconciliation came too late, when the tribes whom it sought to reunite were hopelessly set asunder. Reconciliation, which involves a kind of mutual repentance, can ill afford to be deferred to the eleventh hour. In the last agonies of the Greek Empire, there was more than one formal reconciliation between the Eastern and Western Churches; but they also came too late, and could not survive the Empire which they failed to preserve.
[392] xxxiii., 7, etc.
[393] vii. 15.
[394] Amos ix. 14.
[395] Micah ii. 12; Isa. xi. 10-16.
[396] Hosea xi. 8.
[397] Hosea xi. 9.
[398] Hosea xiv.
[399] So _Giesebrecht_, reading with Jerome and Targum _l'margô'ô_ for the obscure and obviously corrupt _l'hargî'ô_. The other versions vary widely in their readings.
[400] R.V. "with lovingkindness have I drawn thee," R.V. margin "have I continued lovingkindness unto thee"; the word for "drawn" occurs also in Hosea xi. 4, "I drew them ... with bands of love."
[401] So Giesebrecht's conjecture of _bocerim_ (vintages), for the _nocerim_ (watchmen, R.V.). The latter is usually explained of the watcher who looked for the appearance of the new moon, in order to determine the time of the feasts. The practice is stated on negative grounds to be post-exilic, but seems likely to be ancient. On the other hand "vintagers" seems a natural sequel to the preceding clauses.
[402] According to the reading of the LXX. and the Targum, the Hebrew Text has (as R.V.) "O Jehovah, save Thy people."
[403] iii. 21.
[404] Isaiah does not mention Benjamin.
[405] "Which is Bethlehem," in Genesis, is probably a later explanatory addition; and the explanation is not necessarily a mistake. Cf. Matt. ii. 18.
[406] 1 Kings xv. 17.
[407] xl. 1.
[408] LXX. omits verse 17 _b_, _i.e._ from "Jehovah" to "border."
[409] Slightly paraphrased.
[410] More literally as R.V., "I do earnestly remember him still."
[411] The Hebrew Text has the same word, "tamrurim," here that is used in verse 15 in the phrase "bekhi tamrurim," "weeping of bitternesses" or "bitter weeping." It is difficult to believe that the coincidence is accidental, and Hebrew literature is given to paronomasia; at the same time the distance of the words and the complete absence of point in this particular instance are remarkable. The LXX., not understanding the word, represented it _more suo_ by the similar Greek word τιμωρίαν, which may indicate that the original reading was "timorim," and the assimilation to "tamrurim" may be a scribe's caprice. In any case, the word here connects with "tamar," a palm, the post being made of or like a palm tree. Cf. Giesebrecht, Orelli, Cheyne, etc.
[412] Giesebrecht treats verses 21-26 as a later addition, but this seems unnecessary.
[413] So Kautzsch.
[414] Cf. Streane, Cambridge Bible.
[415] Zech. iv. 1.
[416] xxiii, 25-32, xxvii. 9, xxix. 8: cf. Deut. xiii. 1-5.
[417] Cf. Hosea ii. 23, "I will sow her unto Me in the earth" (or land), in reference to _Jezreel_, understood as "Whom God soweth" (R.V. margin).
[418] i. 10-12.
[419] 2 Kings xxiii. 25.
[420] xv. 1-4.
[421] Ezek. xviii. 20: cf. Cheyne, _Jeremiah_ (Men of the Bible), p. 150.
[422] Isa. xi. 13.