The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 333

EXPOSITION. product of Judah, Hos. ii. 5). Put it not in CHAPTER XIII. water. The object of the prohibition is well The chapter falls iato two parLs-the one elated by St. Jerome. It was at once to describing a divinely commandP.d action of symbolize the cho.ractrr of the people of Israel, stiff and impure, like unwashed linen, the prophet, symbolical of the approaching and to suggest the fate in store for it rejection of the Jewish people, the other (ver. 9). announcing in literal langaage the ruin Vera. 4-6.-After Jeremiah has worn the especially of the king and the queen-mother, apron for some time, he is directed to take it and emphasizing the inveterate corruption to P'rath, and hide it there in a cleft (not which rendered such a blow necessary. The "hole") of the rock. A long interval elapses, and he is commanded to make ,. mention of the queen-mother (see ver. 18) second journey to the same place, and fetch renders it probable that J choiachin ie the o.wo.y the apron. What does this P'rath king under whom the prophecy was com- mean? It is by no means easy to decide. posed. It ie true that other kings besides Hardly "the Euphrates," (1) because tbe J ehoiachin ascended the throne in the life- common prefix, "the river," is wanting, though in so extraordinary 11, narrative it wns time of their mother; but the express and peculiarly needed; (2) becaUBe of the length repeated mention of the queen-mother in the of the journey to Babylonia, which has ez account of Jehoiachin (2 Kings xxiv. 12, hyp. to be me.de twice; and (3) becaUBe 15; comp. oh. xxix. 2; xxii. 26) warrants the Euphrates is not a rocky river. Ewald the inference that Nehushta, Jehoiaehin'e suggested that "some wet place near Jeru- salem" probably l1acl the no.me of P'rath, mother, was e. more powerful personage than and indicates a vo.lley oncl spring called other queen-mothers. Thie will be con- Forah, a.bout six English miles north-east of firmed if, with Hitzig and Bertheau, we Jerusalem. Mr. Birch appears to ho.ve hit accept the statement of the text of the iadependently on the same spot, which he Chronicles (2 Ohron. xxxvi. 9), that Jehoio.- identifies with t.he Pe.r11h of Josh. xviii. 23, a.bout threo miles north-enst of Analhotb, chin was eight (not eighteen) yea.re old and describes wi a picturesque gorge between on his accession (see on chixxii. 28). savage rocks, with a copious etreo.m ( Quar- Vere. 1-ll.-The entire people of the terly Statement of the Pallllltins Ezploration Jews is like e. good-for-nothing apron. Fund, October, 1880, p. 236). Tbis com- Ver. 1.-A linen girdle; rather, a linen bination, however, involves o.n emendntion of apron. "Girdle" is one of the meanings of the text (P'rath into Parah)--logically it the Hebrew ('eziir), but is here uneuit,\ble. involves this, ns Mr. Biroh h11s seen; Ewe.Id's As ver. 11 shows, it is a.a inner garment that comparison of the Aro.hie Ju.rat, sweet water, is meant, one that "oleaveth to the loins of seems inconsistent with hie reference to n man" (in" fact, the .,,,pl(wµ.a. of the Septua- Po.rah-for which there docs not seem gint, the lu.mbare of the Vulgate). The to bo sufficient necessity; and it is better corresponding Aro.hie word, 'izar, has, accord- to adopt the view of the great old ing to Lo.no, the meaning of" waist-wrapper." French Protestant scholar, Boclmrt, that Israel was to Jehovo.h in as close e. relation P'rath ie a shortened form of Ephro.th, i.e. epirituo.lly o.s that in which the inner gar- at once Betblohem o.nd tho distriot in which ment referred to is to him who wee.re it Bethlehem lay (eeo 1 Chron. ii. 50; iv. 4; and materially. There is o.n Arabio proverb perhaps Pe. oxx.xii. '6). It need hardly bo whioh well illustrates this: "Ho is to me in so.id that the limeetono hills of this region place of an 'izar" (Freytag, 'Studium der afforded abund11noe of secluded rocks. Thero Arab. Spl'aohe,' p. 298). " A linen apron" may, ofcouree, be at thes11ma time an allusion may perh11ps be specified, becouse linen was to the ordinary meaning of P'rath, viz. the material of the priestly 1lrese (Lov. ui. Enphro.tes, on the o.unlogy of the o.llusiou in 4), and Israel was to be spiritually" a king- Isa.. xxvii. 12. Those who hold tho view dom of priests." But this Is not o.beolutoly hero rojooted, thnt Prath is equivalent necessary. The oowmon man usod linen in to tho Enphro.tee, sometimes suppose thut his <lress ne well o.e tho priest ; the only the n11rrntive ie a parablo or symbolical difference between· them wo.e that the priest fiction, such o.s Luther, Calvin, onu others was confined to linen garments. But 11n find in Hoe. i., iii., the thing signified "apron" would in any case n11tnro.lly be being in thi.8 case the carrying captive of made of linen. Linen j literally, ftaz (a tho people to l3nbylon; and tbi~ seems tho  334 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' JEREMIAH. [oH, xm.1-27.