IIL The worthlessnebb or here reputatioic. Reputation by itself is always to be looked upon with caution. If we would have reputation to be a valuable element in judgment, it must be by asking in whose voice the reputation lies. The voice of the multitude, the voice that takes up a cry and as it were transmits an echo, what is it worth ? The people of Jerusalem had come to rest in the comfortable feeling that their city was reckoned impregnable. Do not let our safety rest in what other people think about us. If our safety is not of God, if it does not rest in trusting him and obeying him, then sooner or later that will happen to us in our life which happened to Jerusalem, The walls of our life will be broken down, our most precious treasures taken away, our hearts made desolate. — Y.
Ver. 13. — Shedding the hlood of thejutt. Consider —
I. The thing that is done. It is not merely that life is taken away ; nor is it even that murder is committed. It would be bad enough if even the most wicked of men were maliciously slain — slain, not because of his wickedness, but because of some evil motive on the part of the slayer. But here those who are slain are just men, and slain because they are just. All they needed in order to live on was to fall in with prevailing and popular iniquities. Instead of this, they set their faces against the multitude that are doing evil. They must, as a matter of necessity to their own consciences, say and do things which ai« a continual exasperation to the wicked. They do not mean to exasperate, they may be in the spirit of their life most meek, gentle, and unaffected ; but all thu will avail nothing — the wicked are bound to pick a quarrel with them, even as the wolf in the fable picked a quarrel with the lamb. And let it be observed that shedding the blood of the just ii oaly the climax of the persecuting treatment which the just must be ready to experi«no«
OOL T. 1—22.]
THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.
79
The wicked are often quite willing to stop short of the climax if they can gain their ends hy something less. Not all at once do they proceed to the shedding of blood. It is well for those who, if they be indeed Christians, are assuredly to be reckoned among the just to remember what they have to number among the possibilities of their endeavour to live a truly righteons life. No mere human civilization will ever secure the just man from the risk of having to lose his life for his righteousness.
li. Those who do it. Once again, as so often, the prophet and priest stand forth in a shameful revelation. Their life is so contrary to their office. The prophet whose force should have come from the strong ri;;hteousness of his heart within and be directed ■traight against all evil-doers, is found ranging himself with the wicked and making evil put on the semblance of good. And as lor the priest, he does holy things with his hands and offers sacrifices for sin, while those whose lives are a continual protest against sin he hates and strives to slay. Not that we must reduce the prophet and the priest Here spoken of to the level of vulgar murderers. Doubtless, in many instances, they persuaded themselves they were right and doing God service. Fanaticism and class leeling, where each one blows the flame of his neighbour's zeal, will urge men on to the greatest atrocities. There may be no danger, most likely there will be no opportunity, that we should go as far as these prophets and priests, but we need to guard against having their narrow spirits in our hearts. We may not shed the blood of the justi but nevertiieless we may do much to hinder and trouble them.— T.
Ver. 20. — A diiappointed eonjidenee and a desecrated lanetittf. There seems to 1m indicated in these words a great attachment to the kingly office and a great confidence in it. It is the same spirit continuing and probably intensified which caused the people ages before to demand a king. And is it not thus suggested to us what a deep feeling there is in the human heart to have some one individual to look up to as having rule over us? " The right Divine of kings " is a principle which more than once in history has been seen pushing itself to disastrous issues, but that is no reason for asserting that "the right Divine of kings " is an absurdity. It is only an absurdity when a weak fallible mortal holds himself, by virtue of his ancestry and kinship, to have little less than absolute control over multitudes of his fellow-men. The question is not whether king- ship is right, but who shall be the king. And especially does this need to be recollected among the changing forms of government so perceptible In modern times. Now that despotisms are tending to limited mouRrcViies, and limited monarchies becoming more limited, and extensions being made of republican territory, it is more than ever important to insist on the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Not without deep reason does the proper government for man stand before us in the New Testament as a kingdom. The collective wisdom of mankind can only be at best a puzzling mixture of knowledge and ignorance, prudence and rashness. Blessed is he who feels tl;at the real Anointed of the Lord is the proper Being to guide. Under his shadow we can live the true life in that safety of the spirit which is of far more moment than that mere external safety from Uie Gentiles, which counted for so much in the esteem of the Israelite of old, b m i)its baa tha Lord Jesus Christ ever been taken. — ^Y.
IXPOSITJON.
CHAPTER V. Ten. I— 18.— Insult upon tseovf has
BEEN HEAPED UPON JeKCSALEH.
Yei. 2. — Onr inheritance. The land had been "given "to Abraham (Gen. xiii. 25; xvli. 8), and was consequently inherited by Abraham's posterity. Onr houses. Not as it' the Chaldeans had actually taken up their abode in some of the houses of Jerusalim. The expressions are forcible, but inexact. The land wu seized; the houses were de- stroyed (Jet. Ui. 1S>
Ver. 8.— We are orphans and fatherless ; t.«. "We are like the most desolate of beings," as the Targum already explains it. Hence in the next clause the mothers of Israel ere likened to widows.
Ver. 4. — We have drtmken our water, ele. The Jews were not yet carried away to Babjlonia when this was written, but had to pay a dear price to the new lords of the soil tor the commonest necessaries of life.
Ver. 5. — Our necks are under persecution. Pertecution is here compared to • yoke. But this rendering and expIanatio« hardly
80
TKE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.
LCH. T. 1—22
suit the phrase, which rather means, " We are pursued close upon our necks." The harassing conduct of the Babylonian con- querors is compared tn the piusuit of a foe fast gaining upon a fugitive.