The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 56

suitable to the context, and if, as King been removed from the pat\ll'nal hearth, J ames's tre,nslators seem to have felt it they are still " sons." For I am. married necessary to do, we desert the faithful tmns- .u.nto you.. The ea.me Hebrew phrase occurs lation, and enter on the path of conjecture, in ch. xxxi. 32. Its. signification hu.s • been why not emend 1.-ol into h'Uin (there is no a subject of dispute. From the suptiosed m", and such fragments of true readings are necessities of exegesis in eh. xxxi. 32, somjl not e:Uogether uncommon in the Hebrew •(e.g. Pococke aud Gesenius) havo tro.nelo.ted, text), T>-hich at once yields a good meaning "for I have rejected you," but the con- -" tllrough the disgmce of.ller whoredom "? nection requires not "for" but ''.though," Ewald thinks that kiil may be taken in the -which, however, is an inadmissible ,render- sense of k'lon; but this is really more arbi- ing; besides, the Hebrew verb in, q1,1e11tion trary tlrnn emending the text. With stones, nowhere has the sense of "reject" else- etc. (sec eh. ii. 27). where (yet the Septuagint .already has it, Yer. 10.-For all this; i.e. though Judah virtually at'least, in eh. xxxi. 32, q.v.). The had seen the punishment of apostate Israel literal meaning is for 1 have been a lord. (eh. iii. 7, 8). So Rnslii, Naegelsbach, Payne oi•cr you, i.e. a husband. Israel is de- Smith. Most commentators suppose the spondent, and fears to J'eturn. Jehovah phrase to refer to J udah's obstinate wicked- repeats his invitation, assuring Israel that ness (ver. 9), but this gives a weak sense. he does not regard the marriage bond as "J uduh defiled the land, etc., and yet not- broken. He is still (in spite of ver. 8) the withstanding her repentance was insincere" husbancl, and Israel the:bride,{comp. Hos. -this is by no means a natural sequenc3 of ii.; Isa. l. •l; liv. 6, etc.). One of a city, an\l ideas. The right exposition increases the probability of tbe correction proposed at the a two of family. • The promises of God are primarily to communities, but this does not beginning of ver. S. prevent hil!l from devoting the most epe,cia.1 • Ver. 11.-lt is very noteworthy that Jere- care to incj.ividuals. "One of a city, and miah should have still EO warm a feeling far hvo <;>fa. fo.l!lily," even tlicmgh there should the exiles of the northern kingdom (more be ·but one, faithful ,Lot in a, city, and two tllan a hundred years after .the great catas. such in a family (larger than a ,city, a trophe). Rath justified herself. "To justify" ·sing)~ tribe. containing only a few mishpii- can menn " to show one's eelf righteous," as khoth, or clans), yet I will admit these few to well as "to make one's self righteous," just the promised blessings." . Calvin's remark • as '' to sanctify " can mean " to show one's is .wor.th noticing: "Hie loons dignns est cclf holy" (Isa. viii.13), as well as" to make observatu, quia ostendit Deus non eese, cur , nc!s self holy." In spite of Israel's apostacy, alii alios. cxpectent; deinde etiam si corpu~ d.1e has shown herself lese worthy of punish- ipsum populi:: putr0Jlcat in euis pcccatis, ment than Judah, who has bad before her tumen si pau.ci ,ad:;ipsum redea.nt, se illia the warning lesson of Israel's example, and etiam fare placabilem." The historical facts who has been guilty of the moet hateful of to which the .prophecy corresponds are all sins, hypocrisy (comp. ver. 7). variously regarded. 'l'heocloret, Grotius, Ver. 12.-Israel, therefore, shall be re- etc., suppose jt to h!l,ve. been fulfilled ex~ called from exile. Her sins are less than olusively in the return froJD. Babylon; St. those of Judah, and how long ,and bitterly Jerome and others think re.ther of the- Mes- has she suffered for them I Toward the north. sianic period. H11ngstel!berg finds a con- For Israel had been carried captive into the tinnpus fulfilment, beginning at the time of regions to the north of the Assyrian empire Cyr\11!, when Il!!!eDY belonging to the ten (2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11). Comp. the pro- tribes joined themselves to,, the returni11g mise in eh. xxxi. 8. I will not oause mme Ju<lahites. }Je fil!ds a further continuation anger to fe.11 upon :,ou; rather, my face to in the times ofth~:M.accahees, and in fact a fall towards you (ie. upon your return). continually growing fulfilment ill prepa,a- Vc.r. 13,_:._The conditwn .of restoration to tion far that complete one brought Jn '11y favour. Israel is to acknowledge, or per- Christ, when the promised' blessings were ceive, notice, recognize, her guilt. And hast poured out. upon the whqle 6w6e1Cd.q,u>..o~ scattered thy ways; alluding to that "gad- (Luke ii. 36). ," Zion and the holy land ding about" in quest of foreign ulliances, were at that time the seat of the kingdpm reproved iu the preceding chapter (ii. 36). of God, so that. the return to the latte~. was Comp. "interlacing Ler w1,ys," eh. ii. 23. inseparable from the return to the f<;>rl!ler." Ver. 14.-Turn, 0 backsliding ohildren. Dr. G uthe,. however, the latest critical com. There is a play upon words, or rather upon men ta tor on J eremiab, thinks that the pas• eenses, in the original, " Turn, ye turned sage can he explained otherwise, viz..." from away ones" (comp. ver. 12). 'fo whom .is each city ono by one, and from eaoh family this addxessed i' To the Israelites in the two by two." This gives a more obvious narrower sense, for there is nothing to in- explanation; but the ordinary rendering is dicate a transition. Long as they !Jave more natural, and the explanation baaed err. m. 1--25.J 'l'IIE BOOK OF TUE PROPHI~T JEREMIA.U. 51