The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 11

( i ncd as the author of a great religions sc~ues interieures, jc n'imnginnis rien 1110vcment, he in whom God is not ml\ni- c'.ct~ient de saisiss~ntes et tl'es-cnergiqnes fl'stly, sensibly, avowedly working out his rea.lltes auxquelles Je ne m'o.ttendnis nnlle• pre-established designs, will never be saint or ment." rl-former" (' Lntin Christianity,' i. lll, 112). Ver. 10.-1 have set thee; literally, I hatHJ Sl\llctified thee; i.e. set thco a pa.rt for holy made t~ee an overs!er, or vicegerent (comp. uses. Ordained; mther, appointed. Unto Gen. xll. 34; Judg. u. 28, where the Autho- the nations. Jeremiah 's prophecies, in fact, rized Version renders the cogno.te noun have reference not only to Israel, but to the " officer"). To root out . . , to plant, viz. by peoples in relation to Israel (rnr. 10; eh. xxv. pronouncing tho.t Divine judgment which l 5, 16; xh-i.-xlix.; 1. and Ii.?). fulfils itself (comp. eh. v. 14; Numb. uiii. Ver. 6.-Ah, Lord God! rather, Alas, 0 2~; Isa. ix. 8, 9; Iv. ll). As there is so Lord ,Tehovah ! It is a cry of alarm and much more threatening the.n promise in pain, and r~cm-s in eh. iv. 10; xiv. 13; Jeremiah's writings, the destructive side of :axii. 17. I 11m a. child. I am too young to his activ!ty is expressed by four verbs, the support such an office. The word rende1-cd constructive only by two, 1 \: 1 , :- c • "child" is used elsewhere of youths nearly grown up (c,0mp. Gen. :uxiv. 19; :tli. 12; Vers. 11-16.-Two hiw or ,probatiW l Kings iii. 7). of Jeremiah's inner sight (2 Kings vi. 17). Ver. 7.-Thou shalt go, etc. Thoughts of Two visions are granted him, which he is self are altogether out of place in one who required to describe. The first expresses lias received a Divine commission. Jere- miah's duty is simple obedience. In pur- the certainty of his prophetic revelation; suing this path he cannot but be safe the second indicates its contents. (vcr. 8). Ver. ll.-A rod lit au almond tree. The Ver. 9.-Touohed my mouth; literolly, name here adopted for the almond tree is cauBed (hu hand) to touch my mouth. Jere- peculiarly· suitable in this connection.' ·1t, miah had said that he W1l,8 unskilled in means "wakeful;" the almond, blossoming oratory ; the Divine answer is that the in January, is the first to',' wa.ke" from the words which he has to speak e.re not his sleep of winter. • own, but those of .Jehovah. Two things are Ver. 12.-1 will hasten Diy word; liter- obvious : 1. The touching of the lips is not o.lly, I am wakeful over my word'; o.llnding purely metaphorical, as in Ps. Ii. 15 (comp. to the meaning of the Hebrew_ word for Ps. x.l. 6); it represents a real experience. almond. 2. This experience, however, can only ho.ve Ver. 13.-A seething pot. There is a bceu a ruionary one, a.nalogons to that variety of Hebrew" words for "pot,"'· The vouchsafed to Isaiah ·at the opening of his word here used ·suggests a vussol of large prophetic ministry. In the gro.nd account size, since pottage for a whole company of given by Isaiah of his inaugural vision prophets could- be cooked in such a. pot l which he.a evidently iufluenced the form of or ca.ldron (2 Kings iv. 38). From Ezek. the vision of Jeremiah), we read of the samto xxiv. 11 we ma.y infer that it was of metni. significant act on the po.rt of one of the ,!i,- "seething pot'' in ancient A,abic poetry seraphim. It is the same act, certainly, is a figure for war. The same symbol oc- but it symbofo:es, not a.a here the ootnm®i- curs in Ezek. uiv. 3-12, but with a oe.tion of a prophetic message (comp. Matt. ditferent application. The faoe thereof is x. 19), but the purification of the lips. toward the north; rather, toward, the soutl,; Does it not seem Iii! if Isaiah had attained litera.111, from the face of the north. The a. deeper insight into the spiritual regenera- " face' of the pot is the side turned to the tion needed by the prophet than had been prophet. We ma.y suppose the contents to granted to Jeremiah? Another point in be ori the point of boiling over. • which Jeremiali's account seems inferior to Ver. 14.-0ut of the north; Previo11Sly that of Isaiah is plastic power. Notice how to the battle of Carchem,ish, the Baby- Jeremiah dwells upon the meaning of the lonians are only mentioned vaguely as a words; this is a reflective element which northern people (see eh. iv. 6; vi. 1, 22; diminishes the poetic power of the narrative. x. 22). Strictly _speaking, they were an A word may be added to explain that ea.stem people from the point· of view of ''visionary" is not here used in opposition Palestine ; bnt the caravan-road which the to "based on fact." 'l'hat the two epithets Chuldaian armies ha.d to take entered Pales- are susceptible of combination is well shown tine at Dan ( comp. eh. iv. 15; viii. 16), and in the vision described by Pere Gratry, in then proceeded southward. (On the question his 'Souvenirs de ma Jeunesse' (pp. 102- whether o. Scythian invasion is referred to, 105), the reality of which is not in the lea.at at least conjointly with the Bo.bylonian, ·see impaired in the writer's mind by its tho• Introduction.) An evil; ra.ther, the evil; roughly inward character: "Dana toutes ces viz. the calamity whioh in deepening gloom Ull, I, 1-19.] 'fIIE BOOK OF THI.; PROPHET JEREMIAH. ~