Vers, 43, 44. — No ultimate escape. I. There are temporary evasions of doom. As there are great varieties of wickedness, so there is also great variety in the conse- quences of it. Sometimes the visitation is sudden, quick, and terrible, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. But oftener men go on sinning with no bad consequences to themselves, so far as appearance goes. They do not lose health ; they do not seem to lose reputation ; there are no checks in their success ; and perhaps they even furnish an example whereby worldly wisdom hangs its maxim that it is not well to be too particular. The frequent prosperity of the wicked is indeed a fact not at all concealed or qualified in the Scriptures. A man of the world takes his own worldly way to keep peril at a distance, and he seems to fall into no pit, no snare. Let all this be allowed. Nothing is gained by trying to make out that the wicked have no advantages. It was an old- world legend that some men sold themselves to the devil, and that his protection secured to them their wonderful immunities and prosperity.
II. There is no way of eboape from danger save God'b way. All that is gained is in the way of postponement. Wicked mpn travel in a narrowing path, and at
CH. xLix. 1— 39.J THE iiOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
247
last are shut up to face the judgments of &od. The moment of what seems to them complete success is quickly followed by the moment ot complete collapse. We have the crowning illustration of this in the death of Jesus. His enemies seemed to hare succeeded. All their efforts to bring his death about had been wonderfully faTOured. And what could they do but be jul'ilant when he was actually dead? The death of Jesus, however, was really a cond tion for the utter downfall of these en'-mies. The grave of Jesus, so to speak, was the snare in which spiritual evil was finally taken and overcome. It is one of the triumphs of faith to be well assured in our own hearts that there is no ultimate escape for wickedness. God has his own wise reasons in tolerating wicked men for a long time, and the evil they do to others is not so great in reality as it is in appearance. They cannot inflict more than outward suffering and inconvenience on God's people. Indeed, the mischief they mean to do can be wonderfully transmuted to good. — y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XLIX.
On Ammoii, Edom, Damascus, Kcdar and Hazor, autl El am.
Vers. 1 — 3.— The violence of the Ammon- ites shall be severely punished.
Ver. 1. — Hath Israel no sons? Tlie vio- lent seizure, peipetrated before his eyes, of parts of the sacred territory, forces the in- dignant question from the propliet, " How can these things be?" It was so on a former occasion (see oh. ii. 14), and it is so a.ituiQ, now that tlie Ammonites are occupy- ing the land of the Gadites. True, the pre- sent generation has lost its property, but the next is the heir to all its lights and privile{;eB. Their king ; rather, their King — tlieir Melech or Molech ; it is the heavenly, iiot the earthly king who is referred to (so in Amos i. 15 ; Zeph. i. 5). The Septuaglnt, ttie Syriac, and the Vulgate, however, read Milfam, which was the name of the Am- monite deity ; this is only a different vocal- izing of the consonants of the text. The aitual vowel-points give " maloam." This readingmaj/, of course, be interpreted of the earthly king of the Ammonites. But this view ignores the obvious pajallelism of oh. xlviii. 7, " ChSmdsh thall go forth into cap- tivity." Inherit. The primary meaning of the word is " to take possession of, espe- cially by force, 1 Kings xxi. 6 " (Gesenius, ad voe.), and this is Ihe sense evidently re- quired here (oonip. ch. viii. 10).
Ver. 2.— Tlie punishment of Ammon. Its capital, Eabbali (see 2 Sam. xii. 26, 27), and ti.e "daugliler" cities (conip. Numb. xxi. 25, margin ; Josh. xv. 45 and xvii. 11 in ■;he Hebrew), shall be laid waste. Ihe alarm of war ("alarm "equivaknt to "shout "),as in oh. iv. 19. A desolate heap. Fnitified towns were built on " heaps," or sliglit elevations (comp. on ch. xxx. 18), the Hebrew name tor which (in the singular) is tfl. The "heap" and the rninB of the tovin together are aptly
called a " heap of desolation." Then ikall Israel be heir, etc. ; rather, tlten shall Itrael dispossess those who dispossessed him (comp. ver. 1). The form of tlie phrase reminds us of Isa. xiv. 2.
Ver. 3. — Heshbon. Here mentioned as de jure a Gadite, but de facto an Ammonitish, town ; in Numb. xxi. 26 it appears as "the city of Sihon " the Amorite. In Isa. xv. 4 and xvi. 9 it is reckoned to the Moabites. There was a continual warfare between the neigh- bouring tribes of Reuben ami Gad on the one hand, and the Moabites and Ammonites on the other. Let Heshbon lament, because Ai is spoiled. The introduction of Ai, which is only known to us as a Canaanitish town, near Bethel, on the wrong side of the Jor- dan for Moab, is startling. It is replied that we have no list of the Ammonitish cities, and that there may have been another town named Ai. The reply is valid; but leaves a second difficulty untouched, viz. that the mention of a third place destroys the continuity of thought. First, we are made acquainted with the fall of Rabbah ; then Heshbon (probably the second place in the country) is called upon to wail be- cause X has bten taken by storm ; then the populations of the "daughter" cities are summoned to join in the lamentation over Rabbah ; — is it not reasonable to conclude that the subject of the mourning is one and the same? Now, it is well known that the received text abounds in small errors arising from the confusion of similar Hebrew letters, and that among the letters most easily con- founded are yod and resh. Is it not an obvious conclusion that fur Ai we should rather read Ar (" the city "), a name as suit- able for the capital of Ammon as for that of Moab ? It is true that we have no example elsewhere of Rabbah being called by the name of Ar; but in 2 Sam. x. 3, 14 it is described as " the city," and we have to be on our guard against the argument a siUntio — that favourite weapon of destructive cri.
248
THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. XLDt 1— 39.
ticiam ! Since a conjecture must be made, it is more respectful to the prophet to olioose the one which is most suitable to the cou- text. Daughters of Babhah; t.«. nnwalled towns (as in ver. 2). Bun to and fro by the hedges ; rather, hy tlie enclosurei ; i.e. wander about in the open country, seeking a lodg- ing-place in the enclosures of the sheep- folds (so Numb, xxxii. 24, Hebrew) or the vineyards (so Numb. xxii. 24, Hebrew). Theii king ; or, Miloom (see on ver. 1).