The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 32

implies n negnti,e nnswer; and yet it roust freedom? The view of some, that "servo.nt" be admitted that the ndoption of a new reli• means" servant or Jehovah" (comp. eh. xxx. gion, under the pressure of conquest or a 10), and that the question thorefore is to be higher foreign civilization is not an unknown answered in the 11tHrme.tive, is loss natural. phenomenon in the ancient world. Glory; "Servant," by itself, never he.s this turn- i.e. source of all outward prosperity (comp. ing; nnd thero is a preoisely similar term Ps. iii. 3," my Glory, and the Lifter up of my in the diseourso at ver. 31, whero the nege.- head "). Religion was, in fact, the root of tive answer of the question does not e.dmit ne.tional life in antiquity; contrast our own of a doubt. division between the sacred and the secular I Ver. 15.-The yo'llllg lions, eto. A fresb. Jehovah elsewhere receives the title "the figure, e.nd a most natural oue in Judma. Pride of Israel" -A nthorized Version, rather (comp. l ~am. xvii. :14); already applied to weakly, "the Excellency of Israel "-(Amos the Assynans by Isaiah (v. 29, 30). Burned; Yiii. 'i; Hos. v. 5. Comp. the parallel pas- rather, made ruinous (comp. "ruinous sages, Ps. cvi. 20 ; Rom. i. 23). heaps," 2 Kings xix. 25). . Yer. 12.-Be astonished. "Be appalled" Ver. 16.-Also the ohildren of Noph, etc. would more nearly express the force of the This is the <:limax or the calamity. N<Yph, Hebrew (so eh. xviii. 16; xix. 8). Be ye very called l\1oph 1D the Hebrew text of Hos. ix. desolate; literally, become dry; i.e. not so 6, is generally identified with Memphis much "shrivel and roll up" (on the analogy (after the Septuagint), which was called in of Isa. xxx.iv. 4), as "become stiff with the inscriptions. Mennufr, or "the good horror." abode," but me.y possibly be Napata, the Ver. 13.-Two evils. Israel bas not merely Nap of the inscriptions, the residency of offended, like the heathen, by idolatry, but tlie Ethiopian dyne.sty (De Rouge'). Taha- by deserting the only God who can satisfy panes. The Hebrew form is Talthpanea or the needs of human nature. The fo'lllltain Tahkpankhea. This was a fortified fron- of living waters. So eh. xvii. 13 (comp. Ps. tier town on the Pelusiot arm of the xxx1'i. 9). Fountain; literally, tan1, or.-eser- Nile, called in· Greek Daphnm (Herod., ii. voir. Such reservoirs were "dug in the 20), or Taphnm (Septuagint here). He.ve ground (see on eh. vi. 7), and chiefly intended broken, etc. ; rather, shall break, or (for for storing Ii ving waters, i.e. those of springs the pointing in .the Hebrew Bible requires and rivulets" (Payuc Smith). Cisterns, this ch11nge) shall feed off (or dPpasture). broken cisterns. A cistern, by its very na- From this verse onwards, Judah is per- ture, will onlv hold a limited amount, anu sonified as a woman, as appears from tho the water "coilected from clay roofs or from suffixes in the Hebrew. Baldness was a marly soil, has the colour of weak soap- great mRrk of disgl'8.co (2 Kings ii. 23; eh. suds, tl10 taste of the earth or the stable." xlviii. 45). There is a striking parallel to Who would prefer snch e.n impure supply to this passage in Isa. vii. 18-20, where, in the sweet, wholesome wo.ter of a fountain? punishment of the negotiations of Ahaz with But these cisterns cannot even be depended Assyria, the prophet threatens an invasion upon for this poor, turbid drink. 'fhey are of J ndah both by Assyria e.nd by Egypt. an1l "broken," like so many even of the best employs the very same figure (see ver. 20). rock-hewn cisterns (Thomson, 'The Land So here, the devastation threatened by J erc- 1md the llook,' p. 287). How fine a descrip- miah is the punishment of the unhallowed tion or the coml.Jined e.tlre.ctiveness and dis- coquetting with the Egyptian power of which nppointingness of heathen religions, qualities the Jewish rulers had been recently.guilty. the more striking in proportion to the scale The fa<,t which corrosponds to this predic- on which the religious problem is realized tion is the defuat of Josiah at Megiddo, nnd (e !I· in Hinduism)! the consequent subjugation of Jude.h (2 Vers.14-19.-Iarael', punishment and its Kings xxiii. 29). The abruptness with <·ause. which ver. 16 follows upon ver. 15 suggests Yer. 14.-Is Israel e. servant 1 The speaker that some words have fallen out of tlie text. i, evidently the prophet, who exclaims in Ver. 17.-He.st not thou procured this 1 surprise at the view which bis propbtetic in- rather, Is it not this that doth procure it unto ~ight opens to him: "quasi de re nova. et thee (namely) that thou hast forsalren, eto.? absurJ:i. sciscitatur" (Calvin). For Israel is or, ls it not thy foraa1'ing Jehovah that pro- e. member of J ehovah's family; he is not a cureth thee this 1 When he led thee by the Bcrvant (except in the same high sense as in way. The prophet thinks, perhaps, of the Ise.. xl.-liii., where "servant" is virtually rebellion of tho forefathers of Israel, who <·quivalent to" representative"), uut rather too soon ceased to "go after" Jehovah in the highest degree e. free man, for he is (comp. ver. 2), and whose fickleness wne Jehova.h's "firsiborn son" (Exod. iv. 22). imitated but too well by their descendants. How is it, then, tha.t he is dragged awe.y into 'fhis view is favoured by the phre.soolo~y of captivity like a slave who has never known Dcut. i. 83; viii. 2, 15. But we may, ifwe cu. u, 1-37.J THE BOOK OF 'rHE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 25