Ver. 4. — Yet hear the word of the Lord, ete. Cleady this introduces a limitation of the foieguing threat. Zedekiah will, it is true, be carried to Babylon, but he will not suffer a violent death ; he will " die in peace," and be buried with all customary royal honours. A difiiculty, however, lias been felt in admitting this view. How conld Zedekiah be said to die in peace, when he was "in prison till the day of his death " (oh. lit 11)? and how could the deposed king of a captive people be honoured with • public mourning ? The reply is (1) that, as compared with a cruel d( atli by flaying or impalement, it wa* " peace " to live in the obscure quiet of a prison ; and (2) that, as the Jews appear to have been left very njuch to themselves (see Ezekiel, passim), it is credible enough that they were allowed to show the customary honours to a deceased representative of Uavid. At any rate, the allernative view seems not in accordance with sound exegesis, viz. that the verse naeans this, " If thou obey the word of the Jjoti, and lorrender thyself to Nebuchad-
nezzar, thou shalt live and die In peaceable possession of the throne." What parallel can be produced for tliis violent interpreta- tion?
Ver. 5. — With the burnings of thy fathers. It was customary to burn spices at royal funerals (2 Chron. xvi. 14 ; xxi. 19). Say- ing, Ah lord ! (see on oh. xxii. 18).
The second of the group of prophecies in oh. xxxiv., XXXV. is composed of vers. 8 — 22. It conti^ins a denunciation of the Jews who, at the beginning of the siege, had emancipated their Hebrew slaves (according to Exod. xxi. 1—4 ; Dent. xv. 12), but after the with- drawal of the Chaldeans had resumed pos- session of them. Ver. 21 is couched in a form which indicates the precise date of the pro- phecy, viz. before the Chaldeans returned to renew the siege of Jerusalem.
Ver. 8. — A covenant. The scene of this " covenant " was the temple (vers. 15, 18). Solemn agreements of this kind were not uncommon (conip. 2 Chron. xv. 12; 2 Kings xi. 17; xxiii. 3; Neh. x.). To proclaim liberty unto them. The phrase, a very peculiar one, is taken from the law of jubilee (Lev. ixv. 10), though tlie prescription on which the covenant was based refers exclusively to the seventh year of the slave's servitude.
Ver. 9.— Should serve himself of them; literally, should work through them; Le. "should employ them for forced labour;" ■s in ch. XXV. 13.
Ver. 10. — Now when all the princes, etc. This verse should rather be rendered tlius: Then all the princes, and all the people, etc., obeyed, every one letting his slave, and every one his handmaid, go free, not serving them- selves of them any more; they even obeyed, and let them go.
Ver. 13. — Out of the house of bondmen. Egypt had been a " house of bondmen " to their fathers (Exod. xiii 3; Deut. vi. 12, and elsewhere); let them not make the holy city thus grievous to those who were equally with themselves children of Jehovah's redeemed ones.
Ver. 14. — At the end of seven years, etc. This is the literal rendering, but the sense, as is clear from tlie parallel passage in Deut. XV. 12, and indeed from the next clause of this vejy verse, is " in the seventh (not, the eightli) year."
Ver. 15. — Ye were now turned; or, y» returned (the primary meaning is simply " to turn ; " hence (1) to turn away, as in ver. 16; (2) to return, as here; oomfK oh. viii. 4).
OH. ixxiT. 1— 22.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
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Ver. 17. — I proclaim a liberty for you. Judab is henceforth to be " lord of himself — that heritage of woe ; " or ratlier, he is to become the slave of Sword, Pestilence, and Famine. The "liberty" now proclaimed does not profit Judab, who so much desires it. I will make you to be removed ; rather, / toill make you a shuddering (as ch. xv. 4).
Ver. 18. — When they out the calf in twain, eto. This clause should be translated diiierently, and placed, for clearness, in a parenthesis (the calf tehich they cut in twain, and between the parts of which they passed). The division of the calf might, in fact, be calltid in Hebrew either " the covenant " or "the token of the covenant" (oomp. Gen. xvii. 10, 11). It was a solemn assurance that be who should transgress God's Law
ihould share the same fate tm the Tietim. The same idea seems to have dictated the Hebrew phrase, " to cut a covenant," and the Greek and Latin equivalents (Spxia rdfivetf. fiedus icere) ; comp. the parallel narrative in Gen. xv. 10.
Yer. 20. — ^And their dead bodies, etc. One of Jeremiah's repetitions (see oh. vii. 33).
Ver. 21.— And Zedekiah . . , and his princes. Graf infers from the separate men- tion of the king and his princes that these had themselves been unfaithful to the covenant. But the threat in this verse seems merely intended to enforce the preceding one by specializing the most prominent sufferers. Parallel passage: ch. xzi. 7. Which are gone np from you (see ch. zxzviL S>
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1 — l.—A king's doom. Jeremiah reveals to King Zedekiah his approaching doom. The invader is already occupying the land and coming up before the walls of Jerusalem (ver. 7). It is now too late to escape, resistance is vain, the doom is certain. What a terrible scene is that in the royal palace when the mournful prophet stands up to deliver his message to the terror-stricken monarch I Such events are rare in history. Yet the general truths on which the message of Jeremiah depended are eternal and clear to all who will see them. We have no prophet to tell us of the exact nature and date of our future judgments. But we know the principles of God's government and can apply them to ourselves. We know that God is just and must punish sin ; we know that " the wages of sin is death." Therefore, though no voice sounds in our ears, the sentence is virtually pronounced every day we sin, and hangs over us continually until our sin is forgiven.
I. The doom. 1. The city is to he destroyed. She has shared the king's sin, there- fore she must share his punishment. The destruction of Jerusalem was especially a blow to Zi'dekiah. They who have most can lose most. Jerusalem was a favoured city — the greater, therefore, was the guilt of her apostasy, and the heavier must be her doom. Past favours are no charms against future judgments. 2. The king shall not escai>e. (Ver. 3.) Rank is no safeguard against the jiidgmentof Heaven. God will call kings to account. So all who have accepted responsible posts will have to answer for their conduct in them. Zedekiah would find his suCferings aggravated by being a witness to the triumph of Nebuchadnezzar. Shame, remorse, mental anguish, are to the sensitive worse penalties than bodily torture.