Ver. 64.-The pi·inciple of retributi... .,,,, Whatever the feelings in the prophet's heart may have been, at all eTents he lays down something like a principle on which he expects Go<l will act in dealing with the wicked. It is not because he hates them, or because they have hurt him, that he wants them to suffer, but because they havo done wrong. Further, he wants to see them dealt with according to the wrong they have done. Perhaps we ought to look at this question of recompense apart from its being made a matter of prayer. One would not liko to think of it as a desirable petition in any prayer, that the wicked might be dealt with according to their wickedness. God'~ law will secme all that is necessary, and we may trust the working of that law. Men will be recompensed according to the work of their hand, only this expression, " tb~ 64 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. [oH, IV, 1-22,
work of their hand," must be taken with a very liberal meaning. What the honrt of the wicked purposes, his hand generally carries out to some extent, and yet many qu11lific11tions must be mnde. To go literally according to the work of the hand would be to deal too severely in some instances, too leniently in others. We have to infer the h<>art from the hand, and our calculation of motives is a very rough-and-roady one. Human law, trying to be just and adequate, is not unfrequently unjust and cruel. We are so under the influence of things seen and temporal that a punishment only looks real when we can S<'e it in operation, manifest to all. Our confidence should rather be that G,,d has so made things by their very nature that a wicked heart becomes a mi~crable one. Whatsoever a man sows, he reaps. But theu there is also another thing to be considered, and that is that God makes room for repentance. He who sows repentance will reap forgiveness and renewal of heart. We cannot uado the works of our hands, but God can bring good out of evil.-Y.
EXPOSITION. or 'abni (stones). The comparison of men CHAPTER IV. THE SUFFERINGS OF JERUSALEM; NO CLASS I to potters' vessels is familiar to the Hebrew writers (comp. Isa xxii. 24; xiv. 9). IS EXEMPT. Eno11:1's TRIUMPHING. Ver. 3.-The sea-monsters; rather, the jackals (tannin, the Aramaic fo1·m of the Ver. 1.-Rowis the gold beoome dim! .. , plural for tannim). Cruel, like the ostriches the stones of the aa.notuary, etc. "Alas for in the wilderness. So in Job (xxxix. 14- the sad sig-bts of the capture of Jerusalem I 16) it is se.id of the ostrich that she "leaveth Tue most fine !('Old be.s lost its brillianco now her eggs in the earth, and warmet.h them in tliat tlie fire of N ebuzar-adan (2 Kings xxv. 9) dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush has passed over it, and the precious stones, them, or that the wild beast may break consecrated to Jehovah, have been cast ont them. She is hardened against her youug into the open street I " Not that the latter ones, e.s though they were not hers." The part of this description can have corre- description is literally true, if we add a sponded to literal fact. None of the hal- detail not mentioned by the sacred poet. lowed jewels wonld have been treated with The eggs destined for hatching are depo- such indifference. The expression must be sited in a nest-hole scratched in the sand, as figurati,e as the paralltl bne, " to cast but there are other eggs laid, not in the pearls before swine,'' in Matt. vii. 6. Tbe sand, but near it, to all appearance forsaken. precious stones are the "sons of Zion,'' who These eggs, however, are not exposed in are coll!pared to "fiue gold" in ver. 2, pre- simple stupidity, though they do often fall cisely as they are in Zeeb. i.x.16 (comp. ver. victims to violence. '' They are intended rn, "Thy sons, 0 Ziou ") to "the stones of a for the nourishment of the newly hatched crown." They are called " stones of the sanc- young ones, which in barren districts would tuary ,'' in allusion, perhaps, to the precious at first find difficulty in procuring food" stones employed in the decoration of the (Houghton, 'Natural History of the An- temple according to 1 Chron. xxi.x. 2 and cients,• p. 198), 2 Cliron. iii. 6. But we may also translate Ver. 4.-Breaketh it unto them. The hallowed stones, which better suits the figu- Jewish bread, consisting of round or oval rati,e use of the phrase. Those, however, cakes (comp. 1 Kings xix. 6). who adopt the literal interpretation, ex- Ver. 5.-They that did feed delioately, etc. plain .. tlie stones of the sanctuary" of the i.e. luxuriously. The rendering bas been dis- hewn stoues of the fabric of th.i temple, puted, but without sufficient ground. "They which are described as "costly" in 1 Kings that did eat at dainties," i.e. pick at their , •. 17. .But how can even a poet have repre- dainty food, is forced. The Aramaic mark oeu tecl the enemy as carrying these stones of the accusative need not surprise us in out aJ.Jd tlirowing them rlown in the street? Lamentations (comp. Jer. xl. 2). Brought On the other hand, in an earlier lamenta- np in scarlet; rather, borne upon scarlet; tion we are expressly told that the young i.e. resting upon scarlet-covered couches, children "fainted for hunger in the top of The poet speaks of adults, not of children. every strc:et" (eh. ii. 19). Ver. 6.-The punishment of the iniquity, , . Ver. 2.-The precioUB som of Zion; i.e. the plllliBhment of the sin. This is a possible not merely the nobility, but the people of rendering (see Gen. iv. 13; Zeeb. xiv. l!J), Jucliil1 in general. H is needless (as the but the renderings," the iniquity," "the sin," literal iuterpreters of rnr. l are compelled are preferable, and yield a finer meaniug, v, do) to alter i'ne (!!Ons) into uiitte (houses) vu;. that the pnni11l11nent having been so on. 1v. 1-22.] THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. (j:,