Ver. 46. — Capital events in history. Capital events in history are of two kinds. 1, Those which by the magnitude of them arrest attention and deeply impress the imagination of the world. Such was the taking of Babylon. It was like the fall of a mighty building ; when the fall came, it could not but shake the earth. The effects were of necessity far-reaching. The political centre of gravity got shifted. The fall of Babylon meant a new kind of government for a great many people. It meant a total change in temporal circumstances. Then the whole thing was to a large extent unexpected. Many such events have happened in history. Great struggles between nations and confederated nations, lasting for years, come to their consummation in some battle, and then for a while there is comparative equilibrium. 2. Those which excite little or no attention at the time. The death of Christ is the crowning instance of events of this kind. Locally and for a short time it did make a deep impression, but certainly the earth was not moved, nor was there a cry heard among the nations. The movement was in spiritual regions ; heaven it was that got moved ; and the cry was heard among the principalities and powers in the invisible world, whether they were good ones or bad ones. We need a divinely chosen standpoint from which to measure the magnitude of terrestrial events. We enlarge where we should diminish, and diminish where we should enlarge. It has truly been said that history is too full of wars and conquerors. These have been recorded, while other events dropped into oblivion, which now we should give a great deal to understand. We must guard against letting the deepest impression on us be produced by mere noise and bulk. As history is commonly written, critical, seminal events are to be luoked for in the quiet corners of it, and often they are treated in a very hasty way. If we would discover the fountains of what is really momentous in human affairs, we must he obedient to the guidance of
JEBEICAH — ^n. II
290
THE BOOK OF THE PfiOPHET JEREMIAH. [oh. u. 1—64
God's Spirit. We must be delivered from the snares of mere national prosperity and glory. Then, coaversely, in our own actions we must not be troubled if little attention is paid to them by others. A man may be sowing the seeds of immense, world-wide benefits, all unconsciously, knowing only this, that he is doing the thing, the evidently appointed work for him — lying nearest to his hand. — Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER Lt
Ver. 1. — Against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me. The Hebrew has leb-kamai, which is Kasdim, or Chaldea, written in the cypher called ,Ath- bash (see on ch. xxT. 26) ; just as Sheshach In ver. 41 is equivalent to Babel. TJie ques- tion arises whether the prophet himself is responsible for this covert way of writing, or a scribe in later times (so Ewald). In favour of the former view it may be urged that Babylon and Chaldea receive symbolic names (though not in Athbash) in the con- nected chapter (1. 21, 31, 32) ; in favour of the latter, that the Septuagint has Xa\5alovs in ver. 1, and does not express Sheshach in Ter. 41, also that the clause to which She- shach belongs in oh. xxv. 26 is of very dubious genuineness. A destroying wind; rather, the spirit (rHaJch') of a destroyer (or perhaps, of destruction). The verb rendered in this verse " raise up," when used in con- nection with rualch, always means " to excite the spirit of any one " (ver. 11 ; Hag. i. 14; 1 Chron. v. 26).
Ver. 2. — Fanners. This is supported by the Septuagint, Peshito, Targum, Vulgate, according to tiie Massoretic pointing, how- ever, we should render " enemies." Possibly the prophet intended to suggest both mean- ings, a and 6 being so nearly related. Shall empty her land. The original has a much more striking word, "shall pour out" (for the figures, comp. ch. xlviii. 12), which occurs again in similar contexts in Isa. zxiv. 1 ; Nah. ii. S (Hebrew, 2).
Ver. 3. — Against him that bendeth, eto. There are two readings in the Hebrew Bible — one that given by the Authorized Version; the other, "Against him that bendeth (let) him that bendeth his bow (come)." The difficulty, however, is in the first two words of the clause, which are the same in either reading. It would be much simpler to alter a single point, and render, " Let not the archer bend his bow ; aud let Ijim not lift himself up in his coat of mail " (for the old word " brigandine," see on ch. xlvi. 4) ; which might be explained of the Babylonians, on the analogy of oh. xlvi. 6, " Let him not bend his bow, for it will be useless ; " but then the second half of the verse ha'dly suits the first — the prohibitions leem clearly intended to run on iu a oon>
nected order. On the other hand, the de- scriptions, "him til at bendeth," and "him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine," seem hardly a natural way of putting " the Chaldean army."
Ver. 4.— In her streets ; i.e. in the streets of Babylon.
Vers. 5 — 14. — The covenant between Jeho- vah and Israel is one reason why Babylon must fall; aud Babylon's own guilt is another. Hence pity is out of place.
" Here liveth piety where pity ends ; Can any man be guilty more than he Whose bias with the doom of God ooa- teuds?" (Dante, 'Inferno,' ix. 28, Cayley.)
Flee, therefore, lest ye be involved in Babylon's ruin. For Jehovah's purpose of vengeance cannot be reversed.
Ver. 5. — Hath not been forsaken. The Hebrew is much more forcible, " is not widowed " — alluding to the fundamental Old Testament idea of a mystic marriage between God and his people (comp. Isa. L I ; liv. 4 — 6; Hob. ii.). Was fiUed with sin; rather, with guilt (Hebrew, asham).
Xer. 7. — Babylon, as the instrument used by God for his judicial purposes, is likened to a wine-oup, which " made all the earth drunken " (comp. ch. xxv. 15, 16) ; and, more than this, to a golden oup, such was the impression made upon the Jewish prophets, by Babylon's unexampled splendour. (Golden cups were not unknown in I^e- stine ; Jehu sent some to Shalmaneser ; Smith, 'Assyrian Canon,' p. 114.) So, in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the image, the head of the image is of gold (Dan. ii. 32, 88). But neither her splendour nor her honourable positiun as God's minister oonld save her from merited destruction.
Ver. 8. — Destroyed. Tiie Hebrew, more forcibly, has " is broken." The Authorized Version wished, perhaps, to avoid the ob- jection that a golden cup could not, properly speaking, be broken. But if we once begin to harmonize the language of Hebrew poetry, we shall have no end. It is not the cup which falls, but the state, considered as a house (the " breach " of God's people is con- stantly referred to; e.g. Ps. Ix. 2; Isa. zxx. 26). Howl for her. Sympathetic bystanders t aie dramatically appealed to. From the next
CH. U.1— 64.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
29J