The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 484

that of the dead Josiah. Weep not, in com- Ver. 14.-A wide ho111e; literally, a house parison, for him, but weep sore for him tha.t of ea:tensions. Large ohambers, The Hebrew goeth awa.y (or rather, t1uit is gone away). spccifi~s '' upper chambers "-the principal 'l'ha king referred to is probably Jehoo.haz, rooms in ancient houses. Cutteth him out who, though two years younger than Jehoia- windows ; .and it is oieled with oedar; rother, kim (2 Kings xxiii. 31; comp. 36), was pre- .. , his windows, roofing it witli cedar. (This ferred to him by the people on the death of involves no chang·e of letters, but a very Josiah. The counsel to "weep sore" for this slight rearrangement, and the alteration royal exile was carried out, as Mr. Samuel of oue point ; grammar gains greatly by the Cox observes (and we ho.ve, perhaps, a speci- clrnugo.) "Cutteth out'' is, literally, rend- men of the populnr elegies upon him iu Ezek. eth ; it is the word used in eh. iv. 30 of the xu. 1-4): "A young lion of royal strain, apparent euh\rgement of the eyes by putU1;1g caught untimely, and chained and carried powdered antimony upon the eyelids. Win- away captivc,-this was how the people of dows are, as it were, the eyes of i. building Israel concefred of Shallum" (' Biblical (Graf corn pares Eccles. :xii. 3). .Beams of Expositions,' p. 120). The conjecture is cedar wood were used for the roof of the incapaule of proof; and Ezekiel, we know, palace, us being the most costly and durable was fond of imagina.tive elegies. But pro- (comp. Isa. ix. 10). And painted-rather, and bably enough he was in harmony with painting it-with vermilion; a taste derived popular feeling on this occasion. The from the Egyptians rather the.n the Baby- identification of Sha.llum with Jehoahaz is lonians, who seem to have had a difficulty in con.firmed by 1 Chron. iii. 15 (Shallnm, the procuring red. youngest so:1 of Josiah); lhe name appears Ver. 15.-Shalt thou reign-re.ther, dost to have been changed on his accession to thou. reign; i.e. dost thou prove thy royal the throne, just as Eliakim was changed to qualities)-because thou oloaest thyself in Jchoiakim (2 Chron. xxx.vi. 4). There is, cedar l 'l'he second part of the clause must the1efore, no occasion to suppose an ironical at any rate be altered.' Some render, " be- allusion to the short reign of Jehoahaz, cause thou viest (with thy forefathera) in winch might be compared to that of the cedar" (i.e. in building cede.r palaces). Hit- l,;raelitish king Shallum (somewhat as zig would strike out "in cedar," as having Jezebel addresses Jehu e.s "0 Zimri, mur- intruded from the prccecling line (such e. derer of his lord," 2 Kings ix. 31). This phenomenon meets us occasionally in the view has the support of F. J unins (professor received Hebrew text), bnt this does not at Leyden, 1592), of Graf, and Ilowland help us to a connected translation of the Williams; but why should not the Chroni- passage. Gre.ra rendering is grammatical, cler, though writing in the Persian period, and not against usage; it is, ".Dost thou have drawn here, as well as elsewhere in the reign becauBe thou art eager about cedar- geuealogies,from ancient traditional sources?, wood ? " and yet the impression left on the There is nothing in ver. 11 to suggest an mind is that there is some error in the text. allusion to the fate of the e:ll'lier Shallum. The Septuagint find~ a reference to one of Ver. 13.-ShallllDl, or Jehoahaz, in his Jehoiakim'a predecessors, "because th,ou Bhort reign of three months, had no oppor- viest with Abaz" (so the Vatican Codex), tunity of distinguishing himself for good or or, " . . . with Ahab" (so the Alexandrine for evil. It was 0U1erwise with Jehoiakim, and the Sinaitic or Fri<l.erico-Augustan). whose eleven yearB we1·e marked by the The latter king is .cel~brated in tho Old worst characteristics of idolatry aud ·des- Tealament on account of his buildings, potism. He "had, besides, a passion for especially his ivory palace (2 Kings xxii. buildinµ; Bplendid aucl costly houses; and as 39). The former was at any rate addicted he esteemed hls own position secure under to the imitation of foreign ways (2 Kings the protection of a superior power, he did xvi. 11 ; xx. I I). Did not thy father eat and not acrui,le severely to oppress his helpless drink 1 There wo.s no call upon Jehoiukim subjects, and wring from them as much to live the life of a Nazarite. "Eating and money as possible" (Ewald, 'History of drinking," i.e. enjoying the good things Lrael,' iv. 252; see 2 Kings xxiii. 33-35). within his reach, was perfectly admissible '!'he buil<l.ing mania., to which Oriental (Eccles. ii. 24); indeed, the Old Testo.mcn t sovereigns bo.ve always been prone, had view of life is remarkable ·for its healthy, sciz~d upon Jehoiaki.m. The architecture naturalness. There was, however, one per- of the original palace no longer, perhaps, emptory condition, itself a.a much in accord- suited the higher degree of civilization; the ance with nature a.a with the Law of Goel, space wa.e as confined as that of a Saxon that tho rights of other men should be mansion would have appeared to a Norman, studiously regarded. Josiah "ate and That buildeth hia ho111e by nnrighteouneBS ; drank," but he also "did judgment and jus- i.e., ns the second half-verse ex plains, by not tice," and 110 "it we.s well with him." paying the workmen (comp. Hab. ii. 12), Ver. 17.-But thou, 0 Jehoiakim, art the ou, xx:u. 1-30.] 'l'HE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHE'r JEREMIAH. 4Ql