possible that passages originally spoken of the Scythians have been inter- mixed with later prophecies respecting the Chaldeans. The descriptions in eh. iv., v., viii., of the wild, northern nation, sweeping along and spreading devastation as it goes, seems more strikingly appropriate to the Scythians (see Professor Rawlinson's description, 'Ancient Monarchies,' ii. 122) than to the Babylonians. The difficulty felt by many in admitting thit:J view is doubtlcsa caused hy the silence of Herodotus as to any mischief wrought by these nomad hordes in Judah; of course, by keeping the coast- road, the latter might have left Judah unharmed. But (1) we cannot be sure that they did keep entirely to the coast-road. If Scythopolis is equi- valent to Beth-shan, and if " Scytho-" is correctly explained as "Scythian," they did not; and (2) the pictures of devastation may have been principally called forth by the later invasion. According to eh. xxxvi. 1-4, Jeremiah dictated all his former prophecies to Baruch, either from memory or from rough notes, as late as n.c. 606. Is it not possible that he may have heightened the colouring of warnings suggested by the Scythian invasion to adapt them to the later and more awful crisis? Nay, more, is not this expressly suggested .by the statement (eh. xxxvi. 32) that "there were added besides unto them many like words"? When you once grant that prophecies were written down subsequently to their delivery, and after- wards combined with others in the form of a summary ( a theory which does not admit of a doubt either in Isaiah or in Jeremiah), you therewith admit that features of different periods have in some cases most probably been combined by an unconscious anachronism. 1 W 0 may now return to that more pressing danger which has so deeply .coloured the discourses of the prophet. One striking feature about the rise of the Babylonian power is its rapidity; this is vigorously expressed by a prophet contemporary with Jeremiah- " Behold ye among the nations, and look, Astonish yourselves, and be astonished; For, be doeth a deed in your days, Which ye will not believe, when related. For, behold, I raise up the Chal<leans, The passionate and impetuous nation, Who goeth through the breadth of the earth, To possess liimself of dwelling-places which are not his." (Hab. i. 5, 6.) In B.C. 609 Babylon had still two seemingly vigorous rivals-Assyria and. Egypt; in B.C. 604 it had the undisputed mastery of the East. Between these two dates lie-to mention the events in Palestine first-the conquest of Syria by Egypt, and the reattachment of Judah, after the lapse of five centuries, to the empire of th~ Pharaohs. Another still more surprising 1 On the whole Soythian question, eee further Ewald,' History of Israel,' iv. 255,256;
Duncker,' Hi~tory of Antiquity,' iii. 271-274; Po.yne Smith (whose expressions seem to the present writer too hasty nnd dogmatic), •Speaker's Commentary,' v. 3H. , i INTRODUCTION TO
cYC'1\t remains-the fall of Nineveh, which, so very short a time proviouely, had ma<l.e snch a show of warlike power under the brilliant Assurb1mipal (11.c. 648--626). In vol. xi. of the • Records of the Past,' Mr. Sayce has trane• lntctl some striking thongh fragmentary texts relative to the collapse of this mighty colossm. "When Cyaxares the Mede, with the Oimmerians, the 1wople of 1Iinni, or Van, an<l. the tribe of Saparda, or Sepharad ( of. Obad. 20), 0n the Black Sea, was threatening Nineveh, Esarhaddon II., the Saraoos 0f the Greek writers, had proclaimed a solemn assembly to the gods, in the hnpe of warding off the danger. But the bad writing of the tablets shows that they are merely the first rough text of the royal proclamation, and we may perhaps infer that the capture of Nineveh and the overthrow of the empire prevented a fair copy from being taken" (p. 79). Thus was the prediction of Nahum, uttered in the height of Assyrian power, fulfilled; the sword devoured her young lions, her prey was cut off from the earth, and the voice of her insolent messenger (like the Rabshakeh in Isa. xxxvi.) was no more heard (Nah. ii. 13). And now began a series of calamities only to be paralleled by the still more awful catastrophe in the Roman War. The Chaldeans became the waking thought and the nightly dream of king, prophets, and people. A reference was made just now to Habakknk, who gives vent to the bitterness of hie reflections in complaint to Jehovah. Jeremiah, however, fond as he is supposed to be of lamen- tation, does not give way to the language of complaint; his feelings were, perhaps, too deep for words. He records, however, the unfortunate moral effect produced by the danger of the state on his fellow-countrymen. It took the form of a religious reaction. The promises of Jehovah in the Book of Deuteronomy appeared to have been falsified, and Israel's God to be incapable of protecting his worshippers. Many Jews fell away into ido1atry. EYen those who did not become renegades kept aloof from prophets like Jeremiah, who boldly declared that God had hidden his face for the sins of the people. Those who have read the life of Savonarola, will be struck by the parallel between the preaching of the great Italian and that of Jeremiah. Without venturing to claim for Savonarola an equality with Jeremiah, he can hardly be denied a kind of reflection of Old Testament prophecy. God's Spirit is not tied to countries or to centuries; and there is nothing wonderful if mountain-moving faith were blessed in Florence as it was in Jerusalem. The prospects held out by Jeremiah were gloomy indeed. The Captivity was to be no brief interlude in Israel's history, but a full generation; in round numbers, seventy years. Such a message was, from its very nature, doomed to an unfavourable reception. The renegades (probably not a few) were, of course, disbelievers in" the word of Jehovah," and many even of the faithful still hoped against hope that the promises of Deuteronomy, accord- ing to their faulty interpretation of theJ..O, would somehow be fulfilled. It cost Jeremiah much to be a. prophet of ill; to be always threatening "s1vonl, famine, pestilence," and the destruction of that temple which was 'l'm: llOOK OF THE PROPHET ,JEREML\.il.