The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 118

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER V. which means (I) obedience, (2) a religion, (3) a statute or ordinance, (4) a. system Is the punishment thought too eevere? of usages, rites, and ceremonies" (Lane's Then Jet the moral condition of Jerusalem • Lexicon,' s.v.). "Judgment" is, therefore, be inquired into. Must not such trans- here equirnlent to "religious la.w," and gressions precipitate its people into ruin? "law" is a preferable rendering. There are four well-marked sections or Ver. 5.-The bonds nre the thon;;s by strophes. which the yoke was secured to the neck Vers. 1-9.- Gladly would Jehovah (comp. Isa.. lviii. 6). In eh. ii. 20 the word p1irdon, if his people showed but a gleam is rendered "bands." of sound morality. But they are all deaf Ver. 6.-This verse reminds us or a to the warning rnice-the Law of God is famous passage in the first canto of Dante's flngrnntly violated. In particular tho 'Commedia,' in which Dante the pilgrim is marriage tie, as well the typical one be- successively opposed by three wild beasts- tween man and woman as the anti-typical a panther, a lion, and a she-wolf. 'l'hat the between the people nnd its God, is openly pod had Jeremiah in his mind cannot be disregarded (comp. Hos. iv. 1; Micah vii. 2; doubted. The deep knowledge of the Isa. !xiv. 6, 7; Ps. xiv. 3). Scriptures possessed by mcdi:eval theo- Ver. 1.-If ye can find a man. "A man " logians (and snch was Dante) may put ia explained by the following clauses. It many Protestants to sba.me. Curiously ia a man whoso practice and whose aims enough, whereas the early commentators are right, of whom Jeremiah, like Diogenes on Dante interpret these wild beasts or with bis lantern, is in search. (It is evident vices, the mode.ms find historical references that the prophet speaks rhetorically, for to nations. On the other hand, while himself and his disciples, however few, modern expositors explain Jeremia.b's wild were doubtless "men" in the prophetic beasts as symbols of calamities, Rashi and sense of the word.) ludgment . . . the St.Jerome understand them of the Chaldean8, truth; rather, justice . . . good faith, the Persians, and Greeks. A lion ont of the primary virtues of civil society. forest. The first of a series of figures for Ver. 2.-And though they eay, The Lord the cruel invaders of Judah (comp. eh. liveth. Though they asseverate by the iv. 7). The frequent :references (see also most solemn of nll oaths (contrast eh. iv. eh. xii. 8; xxv. 38; xlix. 19: I. 4) show 1, 2). Surely. So the Syriac. This ren- how common the lion was in the hills and dering, however, involves an emendation vo.lleys of the land of Israel. A wolf of of one letter in the text. The ordinary the evenings; i.e. a wolf which goes ont to reading is literally therefore, but may ety- seek for prey in tho evening. So the Peshito, mologically be taken to mean " for all this," Tnrgum, Vulgate (comp. "wolves of tha "novertheless." ernning," Hab. i. 8; Zoph. iii. 3). But Ver. 3.-Are not thine eyes upon the there is no evidence that 'ere1,h, evening, truth 1 rather, surely thine eyes are upon has for its plural 'ariibhoth, whicl1 is, in foct, (equivalent to thou lookest for and demo11dest) the rcgul11r pltual ol''ariibiih,desert. Render, aood faith, alluding to ver. 1. therefore, a wolf of the deserts, i.e. one which Ver. 4.-Thorefore I &aid; rather, and a, has its den in tho deserts, and falls upon tha for me, I said. They are fooliBh; rnther, cultivated parts wben it ie hungry. Luther, the!J act foolishly (11s Numb. xii. 11). For; "the wolf out of tho desert." A leopard; rather, because. Their want of religious rather, a :panther. The Cho.ldeane are com- Instruction is the cause of their faulty pared to this animal, on account of its conduct. In fact, it was only after the swfftucse, in Hnb. i. 8. return from Babylon that any popular Ver. 7.-How . . . for this 1 rather, Why schools were founded in J udma, and not till should I pardon thee f Thy ohildren; i.e. shortly Lefore the destruction of the temple (sinco "the daughter of Zion" ie equivalent thnt the elementary instruction attained to Zion roganled ae ,m idel\l entity) the the regularity of a system (Edersheim, members of the Jewish people (oomp. Lev. • Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the xix. 18, "the children of thy pcoplo ''). 'l'i.me of Christ,' pp. 13-l, 135). The judg- When I had fed them to the tull. So Ewald, mont of their God. A similar phrase occurs following the versions and many mnnuscripts iu eh. viii. 7. "Judgment (mishpat) here (there is no mo.rginal reading in the Hebrew (as in some other passages) has acq nired a Dible). This gives n good seUBe, nn<l muy technical sense. 'l'his may be illustrl\tcd bo supported by ver. 28; Dent. xnii. 15: by the corresponding word in Arnbic (din), Hos. xiii. 6. Dut th') re1\lling of the :rrceivcd ,11mr.111.\1t, ' 114 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ea. v. 1-31,