The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 269

was, bad his mind saturated with the idea.a Ver. 4.-They deok it ... that it move 1md phraseology of that mo.guificent work. not. The close resemblance of this verse to The similarity, however, is hardly so close as Isa. xl. 19, 20; xii. 7, will strike every reader. to justify the view that Isa. xl.-lxvi. and "ll'Iove" should rather be totter. eh. x. 1-16 are productions of the same Ver. 5.-They are upright as the pa.Im tree; rather, they a1·8 likB a pillar (i.e. a inspired writer. (It is no objection to the scarecro1c) in a field of cucumbers. This theory here advocated that the passo.ge is !s the interpretation given to our passage found in the Septuagiut; for no one has 10 vor. 70 of the apocryphal Epistle of c>ver supposed that the process of editing Jeremiah (written in the Macce.bean period the Sciriptures was not already long since evidently with reference to our prophecy): finished when the .Alexandrine Version, or e.nd is much more striking than the rival translation, " like e. palm tree of turned rather collection of versions, was made.] It work," i.e. stiff, immovable (comp. Virgil, is a singular fact that ver. 11 is written in 'Georg.,' iv. 110, 111; Horn.oe, 'Sat.,' i. 8, Che.ldee (see note below). 1-4). They mllBt needs be borne . . . they Ver. 2.-The way of the heathen. "Way" oannot do ~vil; e. !eminiscence, apparently, equivalent to "religion" (comp. d61a, Acts of Isa. xlvL 7; xh. 23, ix. 2, etc.). Be not dismayed at the signs of Ver. 6.-Forasmuoh as there is none; heaven ; alluding to the astrological calcu- rather, so t/1at, etc. But practically it is lations based upon extra.ordinary appear- merely e. strengthened negative. There is ances in the sky. Diodorus Siculus remarks none like unto thee ; none, that is, among (ii. 30)-and his statement is frilly confirmed those who claim to have Divine power(comp, by the Bo.bylonie.n cuneiform to.blets-that the phrase, "God of gods," Deut. x. 17; "the appearance of comets, eclipses of the Ps. cxxxvi. 2). It would appear from some sun and moon, earthquakes, and in fa.et every passages, however, as if the heathen did 1.-ind of change occasioned by the atmosphere, not worship mere nonentities (though idols whether good or bad, both to nations and to are sometimes called "things of nought,'' kings and private individuals [were omens e.g. ten times by Isaiah) by comparison with of future events]." A catalogue of the Jehovah, but that there was e. dark back- seventy standard astrological tablets is to be ground of awful personal or quasi-personnl found in the third volume of the British reality (e.g. Deut. iv. 7; 2 Chron. xxviii. Museum collection of inscriptions. .Among 23). the items we read, "A collection of twenty- Ver. 7.-0 King of nations. As timo went fi.e tablets of the signs of heaven and earth, on, the sacred writers became more and according to their good presage e.nd their more distinct in their assertions of the bad;" and again, "Tablets [regarding] the truth that Jehovah, the Self-revealing God, signs of the heaven, along with the star is not Israel's King only, but also of the ! comet) which has a corona in front and e. world (comp. Ps. xxii. 28; xlvii. 7, 8; xcivi. fail behind; the appearance of the sky," 10). To thee doth it appertain; viz. that etc. There can hardly be e. doubt that the men should fear thee. Forasmuch as, etc. prophetic writer had such pseudo-science as (see above, on ver. 6). Among all tho wise this in his eye (see Professor Se.yea, ' The men. " Men" is supplied, but doubtless .Astronomy e.ud Astrology of the Baby- rightly. It is a contest-how unequal a lonians, with translations of the tablets,' one I-between J ehovoh and the sages of etc., in the Transactimis of the Society of the heathen (comp." Yet he also is wise," Biblical .A.rchaJOlogy, iiL 145-339). Isa. xxxi. 2). Ver. 3.-The cll8tome of the people. Ver. 8.-Brutish and foolish. In fact, the " People " should, as usual, be corrected into original meaning of the idolatrous reli- peoples-the heathen nations are referred to. gions had begun, probably, to fade, and the The Hebrew has " the statutes; " but the worship of Bel and Nebo had become (ns Authorized Version is snbstantinlly right, the worship of the Egyptian gods hecan1e customs ha·dng e. force as of iron in Eastern at e. later period) increusingly fo1·mo.l and countries. It seems to be implied that tbe ritualistic. The stook is a dootrine of vani- "customs" arc of religious origin (comp. 2 ties; rather, an instruction of vanities; i.e. l,ings xvii. 8, where "the statutes of the all lhat the idols can tcacih is vanities. lu,athen •• ore obviously the rites and Against this is the plural (" vanities," not customs of polytheism. For one cutteth e. "vanity"); it is more natural (and also more tree, clc. 'fhis is intended to prove the in accordance with usoge ; comp. Gen. xli. foregoing statement of the "vanity,'' or 26, Hebrew) to render, thB instruotion of the i;rouudlessness, of idolatry. The order of vanities is wooden ("vanities" bas the con- the Hebrew, however, is more forcible, for stant technical sense of" idols;" see eh. viii. o• wood out of tJie forut one cutteth it, viz. 19; xiv. 22; Deut. xxxii. 21; Ps. xxxi. 6). ~ho idol. The clause then furnishes ~eoson for tho Cll, X, 1-25,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 2€9