The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 58

indi~ation ; "Isn.. xxvi. 8," The desire of our prophet's thoughts. "Unto your fathers." l!oul wns to thy Name;" Isa. lix.19, "So shn.ll t.hey fear the Name of Jehovah from the ! cs ; how bright the prospect whon that ideal of Israel wo.s fro.mod in the Divine west, and his glory from the rising of the co'Uusels I Condescending o.coommode.tion l!Ull." Comp. also Prov. xviii. JO; men do to. huruo.n modes of thought; But I said not run for safety to &n abstract idoo.. Nor fe.1ls to represent the relation of this verse will all nations in the latter days resort to the preceding. Render, I indeed had either to a localized or to a spiritually dif- ,aid, and continue, HO'U/ will I, eto. Put fused Jerusalem in the future, to gratify a thee among the children. This is e. very refined intellectual curiosity. Neither shall common rendering, but of doubtful correct- they walk, etc.; i.e. the Israelites of the n~s. It o.ssumes tho.t, from the point of latter days; not the" nations" before men- view adopted (under Divine guide.nee) in tioned (as Hengstenbcrg). The phrase the prophecies of Jeremiah, the various (l~curs eight times in Jeremiah, and is heathen nations were in the relo.tion of al ways used of the Israelites. The word sons to Jehovah. This is most improbable· rendered "ima.ginatiou" is peculiar (shlri- indeed, even Exod. iv. 22 does not really -ruth). As Hengstenberg has pointed out, it favour the doctrine of the universe.I father- occurs independenUy only in a single pas- hood of God in the fullest sense of the word. sage (Dent. xxix. 18); for in Ps. lxxxi. 13, Moreover, the pronoun rendered ••thee" is it is plainly derived, not from the living in the feminine, indicating that. the language, from which it h&d disappeared, prophet has still in his mind the picture but from the written. (The close phraseo- of Israel e.s Jehovah's bride. It would logice.l affinity between the Books of surely be an absurd statement that Jehovah Deuteronomy n.nd Jeremiah has been already would put bis bride among the children I indicated.) The rendering of the Autho- Render, therefore, HO'U/ will I found thee rized Version, which is supported by the with son, I comparing, for the use of the. Septuagint, Peshito, Targnm, is certainly Hebrew verb, l Sam. ii. 8, e.nd for that of -wrong; the Vulgate has pra'Ditatum; the the preposition, lee.. liv. 11. It is, in fa.et, etymological meaning is "stubbornness." the familial' figure by which a family or a The error of the versions may perhaps have nation is likened to a building (" house of arisen out of a faulty inference from Ps. Abraham," "of Israel"). Jehove.h's purpose l.xxxi. 13, where it stands in pe.re.llel:ism to had been to make Abraham's seed e.s the " their counsels." dust of the earth (Gen. :xiii. 16). lnste&d Ver. 18.-The reunion of the separated of that, the restored exiles would be few, portions of the nation (comp. Ezek. xx.xvii. and weak in proportion, so that the Jewish 16, 17; Hos. i. 11: Isa.. xi 12, 13). Observe, Church of the early restoration period is Israel is converted first, then J nde.h. Thie represented e.s complaining, "We me.de not detail in the prophecy is not to be pressed. the land sal ve.tion, neither were inhabitants Not that the force of o.ny prophecy is to be of the world produced" (Isa.. xxvi. 18). A evaded, but the.tin this case the form of the specie.I Di vine promise we.e needed to sur- statement is so clearly conditioned by the mount this grave difficulty. A goodly . , . abounding sympathy of the prophet for nations; ro.ther, a heritage the most the ten tribes. These bad been so long gwrious among the nations. So in Ezekiel langu..ishing in captivity that they needed (xx. 6, 15) Palestine is described as " the a specie.I promise. The form of the promise glory of e.11 le.nds." The want of irrigo.tion, is imagin.e.tive; this seems clearly to follow e.nd the denudation of the land, have no from the fe.ct -that in no other passage (ex- doubt much diminished the nature.I beo.uty cept, indeed, eh. xxxi 9) is there a reference and fertility of Palestine; but wherever to the spiritual primacy of Ephraim in the moderate care is bestowed on the soil, how restored nation. Out of the land of the well it rewards it I Thon shalt oe.11 me . . , north; i.e. Assyria and (eh. i. 14) Babylonia.. shalt not turn; rather, thou wilt call me The Septuagint inserts, "and from all the . . . wilt not tum. It is the continuo.tion countries," agreeably to eh. xvi. 15: x.xiii. of Jehovah'e ideal for Israel. In response 8; xx.xii 37. Of course, it would not be to his loving gifts, Israel would surely an accurate statement that the exiles from recognize him as her Father, and devote to Judah were confined to "the land of the him nil her energies in willing obedience; north." This is a fair specimen of the Father is here used, not in the spiritual and ' supplementing tendency uf the Septuagint, individualizing sense of the New Testa- though it is possible, and even probable, ment, but in such o. sense e.e a member of o. that the Hebrew text bas suffered in a less primitive Isro.elitish family, in which the degree from tho so.me tendency on tbo pa.rt patria potestas was fully carried out, could of fo.ter copyists. realize. The first instance of the indi- Ver. 19.-Tbe concluding words of the vidualizing use of the term is in Eoolus. laet vorse he.vo turned th• 41urrent of the xxiii. 1-4. (For the Old Testament use, 011. m. 1-2/i.J THE IlOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.