"He now remembereth their guilt, And visiteth their trespasses. And Iahvah said unto me, Intercede thou not for this people for good! If they fast, I will not hearken unto their cry; And if they offer whole-offering and oblation, I will not accept their persons; But by the sword, the famine, and the plague, will I consume them.
"And I said, Ah, Lord Iahvah! Behold the prophets say to them, Ye shall not see sword, And famine shall not befall you; For peace and permanence will I give you in this place.
"And Iahvah said unto me: Falsehood it is that the prophets prophesy in My Name. I sent them not, and I charged them not, and I spake not unto them. A vision of falsehood and jugglery and nothingness, and the guile of their own heart, They, for their part, prophesy you.
"Therefore thus said Iahvah: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in My Name, albeit I sent them not, And of themselves say, Sword and famine there shall not be in this land; By the sword and by the famine shall those prophets be fordone. And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem, Because of the famine and the sword, With none to bury them,-- Themselves, their wives, and their sons and their daughters: And I will pour upon them their own evil. And thou shalt say unto them this word: Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day, And let them not tire; For with mighty breach is broken The virgin daughter of my people-- With a very grievous blow. If I go forth into the field, Then behold! the slain of the sword; And if I enter the city, Then behold! the pinings of famine: For both prophet and priest go trafficking about the land, And understand not."[59]
It has been supposed that this whole section is misplaced, and that it would properly follow the close of chap. xiii. The supposition is due to a misapprehension of the force of the pregnant particle which introduces the reply of Iahvah to the prophet's intercession. "_Even so_ have they loved to wander;" _even so_, as is naturally implied by the severity of the punishment of which thou complainest. The dearth is prolonged; the distress is widespread and grievous. _So_ prolonged, _so_ grievous, _so_ universal, has been their rebellion against Me. The penalty corresponds to the offence. It is really "their own evil" that is being poured out upon their guilty heads (ver. 16; cf. iv. 18). Iahvah cannot accept them in their sin; the long drought is a token that their guilt is before His mind, unrepented, unatoned. Neither the supplications of another, nor their own fasts and sacrifices, avail to avert the visitation. So long as the disposition of the heart remains unaltered; so long as man hates, not his darling sins, but the penalties they entail, it is idle to seek to propitiate Heaven by such means as these. And not only so. The droughts are but a foretaste of worse evils to come; _by the sword, the famine, and the plague will I consume them_. The condition is understood, If they repent and amend not. This is implied by the prophet's seeking to palliate the national guilt, as he proceeds to do, by the suggestion that the people are more sinned against than sinning, deluded as they are by false prophets; as also by the renewal of his intercession (ver. 19). Had he been aware in his inmost heart that an irreversible sentence had gone forth against his people, would he have been likely to think either excuses or intercessions availing? Indeed, however absolute the threats of the prophetic preachers may sound, they must, as a rule, be qualified by this limitation, which, whether expressed or not, is inseparable from the object of their discourses, which was the moral amendment of those who heard them.