Vers. 6, 7. — Uie sword of Jehovah. L A fersonifioation of Divine weath. " Sword of Jehovah ■"' is an expression that seems to suggest the Philistines as the speakers ; " for, though not bad Hebrew, it has a foreign sound, and makes the impres- sion that the speakers attribute the sword raging against them only unwillingly and hesitatingly to Jehovah " (Naegelsbach), Gk)d in his true character is still unknown, but conscience witnesses to him as a dimly realized agent of moral recompense. Such language tells : 1. How ceaseless and terrible i» the Judgment of the heathen world. Ezekiel uses the same figure in relation to thi Amorites (xxL 30). " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked ; " " Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, God " (Ps. czxxix. 19) ; " When they shall say. Peace and safety ; then sudden destruction Cometh upon them," etc. (1 Thess. v. 3). 2. Of ignorance and moral distance from Ood, He is only conceived of as a God of vengeance — ^an all but impersonal fate. 3. jebsuah — n. ■■I
226 THE BOOK OJ? THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. XLvn. 1—7
Of the helplessness and nuperstiiious dread of sinners. An imperfect knowledge is eked out and distorted by a diseased imagination. All moral strength seems to have gone out of them.
IL Explained and justified as a Divine appointment. At first the answer of the prophet appears little oIIut than a repetition of the Philistines' thought; but it is far more. 1. This k nut blin:/ fate, hut jndfjinent stridly meted out and iJetermined. 2. It dedares, in effect, that the wicked cnnnot be suffered to remain on the eart'i. They must be subjects of continual and exterminating judpjinent. There is no escape. Is this'so? Yis, so long as they remain impenitent and at a distance from him. Is it contradictory, then, for Zechaiiah to prophecy the conversion of the PliilistiuesV The rightful end of jiidj;ment is mercy. The sinner is driven into the arms of the Divin* love. Our helplessness prepares for the reception of his salvation. — M.
Ver. 7. — The sword that cannot be quiet. This chapter tells of another of the Gentile nations on whom the judgment of God was to come. These nations all lay in the march of the Babylonian armies, and were one after another overthrown. Philistia is represented as asking of the sword of the Lord, wlien it will be quiet, and the answer is, "How can it be quiet, when," etc. ? (ver. 7). It reminds —
I. Of the 8W0BD OF coNsciENOB. Tlie Lord hath given it a charge, and, though we may blunt it, we cannot perfectly quiet it (cf. Macbeth, Judas, and other conscience- haunted men).
II. Of the sword of Scripture. " The Word of the Lord is not bound. How men have sought to sheathe it in tlie scabbard, to hide and hold it there, so that they may go on unchecked in their own ways! But it has leapt forth in spite of them ; and, in spite of pagan, Roman, and other persecutions, has asserted its supreme nii^ht."
III. Of the swokd of the Divine judgment against sin. Sin and sorrow are eternally married, and can never be put asunder. Where one is the other is never fur off, and never will be in this world or the next. But for every believer Christ has offered his own heart as a sheath for it. For such that sword is sheathed therein, and will ba quiet there for ever.
" When Christ gave up the ghost The Law was satisfied ; And now to its most rigorous claimi I answer, ' Jesus died.' "
G
Vers. 6, 7. — Apostrophe to the sword. I. What is meant by the bword of Jehovah. Any man, or army of men, or any inanimate thin^ even, may be as a sword in the hand of God. Men are restricted in their agents to injure and desirny, and wtll it is so, though in old and su] erstitii.us times some of them were believed to control the powers of nature so that they could raise winds and ttinpe-ts. But God, with his real and complete control over all naturnl f mccs, can turn them against rebellious man whenever and to whatever extent it may be necessary. It is not a case of a strong arm and a weak weapon, or a weak arm and a strong weapon beyond what the arm can wield. God smites, and not imperfectly ; nor does he need to smite twice.
II. What is suggested by the ArosTiiOPHE. 1. The thought or' Ood's enemies. Here the Philistines are mentioned, so long the troublesome and jealous neighbours of fsrael. But they are only types. There are still enemies numerous enough and active enough to keep the sword of God from lyin-; qniet in its scabbard. Why were these Philistines reckoned enemies ? Simply because ol their wickedness. God is hostile to nothing but wickedness in man, and to that he is always hostile. There are Philistines still against whom a charge has to be given to the sword of God. And such must ever be deatroyed, that is, not the men themselves must be destroyed, but that in them which selfishly uptiolds evil and profits by it. And even they themselves, if they continue the foolish war against God, must perish in ihe end. 2. The thought of God's opposing activity to Ma enemies. Wherever there is emnity to God, Divine oppo- sition to it becomes manifest. Hard as it may be to fight for God, it is harder still to fight against him. In being on (iod's side against evil all the difficulties are at the beginning; in being on the evil side against God the difficulties, though they may
CH. xL'-'ni. 1— 47.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
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look as nothing to start with, soon multiply and increase to the end. A cliarge is given to all God's servants to be resolute and uncompvomising in their opposition to all wickedness. 3. The thought of ultimate cessation of the sword^s activity. Surely the time is to come when the sword will lie quietly in the scabbard. He who came not to bring peace but a sword has peace for his ultimate aim. He will not say, " Peace, peace," when there is no peace ; and when at last he will say, " Peace," we may be sure of the reality corresponding with the word. — Y.
BXP08ITI0N.
CHAPTER XLTin.
This prophecy is so full of repetitions that the question has naturally arisen wliether the most prominent of these may not be due to interpolation. For instance : 1. Vers. 29 — 38 recur in Isa. xvi. 6—10 ; xv. 1, 5, 6 ; xvi. 12, 11 ; xy. 2, 3 ; not, indeed, without many peculiarities, and those pe- culiarities are so striking, and so little in harmony with Jeremiah's usual mode of using his predecessor's writings, that some have held that vers. 29 — 38 were inserted by one of Jeremiah's readers. 2. Vers. 13, 41 so closely resemble Isa. xziv. 17, 18, and cohere so loosely with the con- text, that interpolation is a not unreasonable hypothesis. 3. Vers. 45, 46, which are omitted in the Septuagint, are evidently based on Xumb. xxi. 28, 29. 4. Vers. 40, 41 closely resemble ch. xlix. 22 ; the portion corresponding to that passage is omitted in the Septuaglnt.