The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 270

folly of the heathen ; how should they 22; xiii. 5; xliv. 24; xlv. 12, 18; Ii. 13). By oltuin to more thon o "wooden" know- his diaoretion; rather, by his understanding. ledge, when the idols themscl vee are but Ver. 13.-When he uttereth his voice, etc. wood? A bitter trnth in an ironicol form. The phrase is difficult, but the Authorize,l Ver. 9.-This verse appRrently 0000 Version probably gives the right sense. followed ver. 5. Like vers. 7 and 8, it is God's " voice" is the thunder (Ps. xxix. 3), omitted in the Septuagint. Silver spread which is accompanied by the gatt,eriog of into plates, etc. The silver and gold were heavy clouds (" His pavilion round about meant for the coating of the wooden image him," Ps. xviii. ll). He causeth the vapours (comp. Isa. ux. 22; xl. 19). Tarehish; i.e. to ascend, etc.; the storm-clouds coming up Tartessus, in south-west Spain, between more and more thickly from the horizon, the two mouths of the Bretis, or Guadal- From this point the verso agrees with Ps. qui vir, Gold from trphaz. A place bearing cxxxv. 7 (the psalm is full of such rcmiois- this name, or anything like it, is not known ceoces, and is obviously very late). Light- from other sources than the Old Testament nings with rain; rather,/ar the rain. The writings ; and hence a corruption of the text lightnings are, as it were, the heralds or has naturally been suspected (Ophir into attend11onts of the rain. The wind ont of his Uphaz). As, however, rand z are not easily treasures; a noble figure, used elsewhere of confounded, either in the earlier or the later the snow and hail (Job xxxviii. 22), and of Hebrew characters, this view must be tho waters of the sea (Ps. xuiii. 7). abandoned, though it has the authority of Ver. 14.-Before these natural miracles, several ancient versions of this passage all men, except those who ham been (including the Peshito and the T,lrgum). enlightened by revelation, are icithout 'fhe name occurs again in Dan. x. 5. The knowledge (so, nod not ill his knowledge, Peshito, moreover, curiously enough, trans- we ought to render); i.e. without insight lates zii!tab mii.fiiz in 1 Kings x. 18 (Autho- into their origin and meaning (compare rized Version, " the best gold") by " gold the overwhelming series of questions in the from Ophir." :Blue and purple. The Hebrew sublime theoph11ony in Job, eh. xxxviii., has no word, strictly speaking, for either xxxix.). Every founder is confounded by, "blue" or "purple." Both these words etc. ; rather, every golds111ith is brought to hero used probably express colouring matter shame by tlie graven image; for how can the rather than colours (this is certain of the work which has needed 11,ll the resources of lRttor word, which properly designates a his skill deliver him? kind of mussel, the shell of which yielded Ver. 15.-The very essence of idols i3 dye). The first produced a violet purple, the vanity; thoy are unre11ol as "a breath ; " second n reddish purple. they are, not so much the work of errors Ver. 10.-The truo God; liternlly, a God as 11, work of mockery, i.e. not opus ria1& in truth, the Rccusative of opposiLion being dign11m, but o work which rewards the chosen instead of the usual genitive con- efforts bestowed upon its production by struction, to emph11osize tho idea of "truth." disappointment. Ver. 11,-Thus shall ye say, etc. This Ver. 16.-The portion of Jacob; i.e. Jeho- verse is, unlike the rest of the chapter, vah. The phrase oppenrs to have been written in Chaldee, nnd greatly interrupts coined at o lower level of religion, when the connection. Whether it is a fmgruent every no.tion was supposed to have its own of n Targum (or Ohaldee paraphrase) repre- pa.tron deity ; just a.a the prophet so.ye, senting a Hebrew verse renlly written by ironically, to the fetish-worshippers of Jeremiah, or whether it is 11, margino.l note Israel, "Among the smoc-~h stones of the by some scribe or reader which ho.s found stream is thy portion" (Isa. !vii. 5), 11,nd its way by accident into the text, cannot be Moses, in Deuteronomy (iv. 19), speaks of positively determined. What is certain is the host of heaven a.s h11oving been "divided th11ot it is not in its right place, though it [i.e. assigned] unto oil n11otions under tho already stood here when the Septuagint whole heaven." Ilut, of course, the phrase Version of Jeremiah was made. To a.rgue, is susceptible of a high, spiritual a.ppli,•11,- with the 'Speaker's Oommentary,' that the tion (cowp.Ps. xvi. 5; cxlii. 5). God's people latter circumstance is decisive of the correct- are, by their very conception, nn l1<>,.,ry11, ness of the passage in its present position, chosen out by God, and choosiug him, and implies a view of the unchangeableness of not the world, for their portion. " Mo.king the text in the early centuries which few the best of both worlds" is nn object leading scholars will admit. implicitly condemned by this ooneeoro.tcd Vere. 12-16.-Repcnted with a slight phrase, The former of all things. How variation in eh, Ii. 15-19. much more forcible is the original phra.so: Ver. 12.-He hath mado the earth, etc. " ... of the whole," i.e. the uni verso I "'l'o (comp. the frequent references to tho_Divine form" is a. phrase constantly used of God in ereatorship in the l11tter part of Isa1ah (xl. the second pnrt o[ Isuia.h. The rod of hia 270 'l'HE BOOK 01'' 'l'HE PHOl'llE'l' JEREMIAH. [cu. x. 1-25.