CHAP. I. 1. The words of Jeremiah-] This Chapter forms an entire Section by itself. It contains the Call of Jeremiah, and the Commission given him by God; the purport of which is explained by two symbolical images. God encourages him to proceed in the execution of it by assuring him of protection and support. 2. I knew thee-] That is, "I had thee in my view," or "approv"ed thee as a fit and proper object;" in the same sense as it is said, Acts xv. 18. "Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world ;" he contemplated the plan of them, and approved it in his mind, before he created and brought them into being. Agreeably to this premeditated purpose concerning him, God proceeded at an early period to set him apart or separate him from the rest of mankind to be employed in that peculiar office, to which now in the fulness of time he appointed him. Exactly in this manner St Paul says of himself, Gal. i. 15, 16. that God separated him from his mother's womb, and afterwards called him to preach the gospel of his Son unto the Gentiles. : and so 10.-and to build] The LXX. Syr. and Vulg. read likewise four MSS, one of which is the ancient Bodleian, No. 1*. 11.—a rod of an almond tree] The Almond tree is one of the first trees that blossom in the spring; and from that circumstance is supposed to have received its name pw, as being intent and as it were on the watch to seize the first opportunity; which is the proper sense of the Hebrew verb pw. So that here is at once an allusion to the property of the Almond tree, and in the original a Paranomasia ; which makes it more striking there, than it can be in a translation. 13.—its face turned from the north] It is very manifest that En must signify "from the north," or " from the face of the north," as it is expressed in the margin of our Bible, and not, "towards the "north," as it is improperly rendered in the Text. From the next verse it appears, that the evil was to come from the north; and therefore the steam, which was designed for an emblem of that evil, must have issued from that quarter too. The pot denoted the empire of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, lying to the north of Judea, and pouring forth its multitudes like a thick vapour to overspread the land. 14.-shall pour forth] non. Literally, "shall be opened;" that is, shall pass freely out, as having the door open. 15.-shall set every one his throne-] To set up a throne in or over any place denotes taking full possession of it, and exercising authority and dominion there. See ch. xliii. 10. xlix. 38. 16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them] Or "And N. B. When any particular MS. or Edition is referred to, it will be distinguish ed by its Number in Dr Kennicott's Catalogue. ; ודברתי משפטי אותם ": I will discourse my judgments with them * may be the singular משפטי a phrase that implies all the several steps of a judicial process, in which the rules of law are applied and brought home to the particular case in hand. Thus it is said of Zedekiah, Ch. xxxix. 5. lii. 9. that the king of Babylon "discoursed judgments with him," DWA INN 127"; that is, he had him arraigned, tried, convicted, and condemned according to the laws of the empire for the high treason which he had committed. Compare also Ch. iv. 12. xii. 1. or plural noun with the affix', 66 rule" or my 66 my rules of judgment," meaning that system of just laws, which God had established for the regulation of his people's conduct, and guarded by suitable sanctions and penalties. In 2 Kings xxv. 6. we read on in the singular number; in the places above cited, own in the plural. The LXX. render, Και λαλήσω προς αυτές μετα κρισεως ; but with this variation in MS. Pachom. Και λαλήσω μετα κρίσεως με προς αυτές. 17.-lest I should suffer thee to be crushed before them.] There is no threat implied here, as the generality of Commentators are inclined to suppose. The particle 1 points out the danger which might possibly alarm the prophet's fears, that of being overborne by the opposition he was likely to meet with. He therefore receives special assurances of God's immediate protection and support. is in the Conjug. Hiphil, which indeed commonly imports to make or cause to be broken or dismayed. But God is often said to make or cause to be done, what he only permits and suffers. 18.—and like a wall-] The LXX. Syr. Chald. Vulg. all render in the singular number, "a wall." And fifty two MSS. with twelve .לחומת or לחמת printed Editions read either CHAP. II. THAT some of the following Prophecies are in metre is as obvious, as that others are not; there being evidently to be discerned in the one, and not in the other, those characteristic marks of metrical composition, more especially the corresponding or parallel lines or verses, and the relation of the sentences and parts of sentences to each other, which Bp. Lowth has described and treated of at large in his preliminary Dissertation on Isaiah. It has been already noticed (pag. 226.) that the same judicious Critic has pronounced nearly one half of the book of Jeremiah to be poetical. And as the same reasons will hold good for attending to this peculiar form of construction in all parts of the sacred writings where it occurs, I have endeavoured to point it out, after the Bishop's example, to the Reader's notice, by distributing the lines according to their due measure, as far as my judgment would carry me; in which I hope to be serviceable on the whole, though I may sometimes, and perhaps not seldom, be mistaken. The prophecy begun in this Chapter is continued to the end of the 5th verse of the next Chapter. In it God professeth to retain the same kindness and favourable disposition towards Israel, which he had mani fested in their earlier days. He expostulateth with them on their ungrateful returns for his past goodness, and sheweth that it was not want of affection in him, but their own extreme and unparalleled wickedness and disloyalty, which had already subjected, and would still subject them to calamities and misery. He concludes with a pathetic address, exhorting them to return to him, with an implied promise of acceptance and laments the necessity he was under, through their continued obstinacy, of giving them further marks of his displeasure.-This prophecy may not improbably have been delivered soon after the beginning of the Prophet's mission. : 2. I have called to mind in thy behalf the kindness, &c.] Our English version now in use, and most of the ancient Interpreters, seem to -as the regard and affec חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולתיך have considered tion which the Israelites bore to God in the infancy of their constitution, when they first became his covenanted people, and followed his guidance in the wilderness of Sinai. But that they had very little merit of this kind to boast of, is evident from their history at this period, as recorded by Moses, and alluded to by other sacred writers. See Deut. ix. 5, &c. Ps. lxxviii. 8, &c. Ezek. xx. 5-26. The kindness was all shewn on the part of God, and was perfectly gratuitous, as the word Dn properly signifies; and it was his affection for them, and not theirs for him, that led him to espouse them, that is, to engage in a special contract with them to be their God, and to take them for his peculiar people. And thus the words are explained in the margin of our ancient English Bible (1583. Folio) to be "that grace and favour, which I shewed thee from the beginning, when I did first choose thee to be my people, and married thee to myself." And by God's remembering for them, or calling to mind in their behalf, this lovingkindness and affection, is implied, that he still continued to retain the same cordial regard for them, whenever they were disposed to return to him, and to avail themselves of his good will. So it is said, Ps. cvi. 45. na Dnb "And he remembered for them his covenant." See also Isai. lxiii. 11. Ezek xvi. 60. ,ויזכר 3. Israel is a hallowed thing unto JEHOVAH] These words I consider as spoken in those ancient times, when God out of his special favour to Israel appropriated them unto himself, as the first fruits of mankind, and forbade any to molest them, under pain of being considered and treated as sacrilegious invaders of sacred property. And therefore mm DN is rendered," said JEHOVAH," and not "saith." Ibid.-his increase] Fourteen MSS. and two Editions read an for an in the text, and seven MSS. give it as a marginal Keri: but is in use for the masculine affix as well as 1, and seems often to be purposely introduced for the sake of distinguishing between two masculine pronouns in the same period, which refer to different antecedents; as in the present instance the refers to , and the in ישראל to אכליו 6. Through a land of wide waste, and a pit] By the words G g by some of its most unfavourable circumstances in point of nature and appearance. But to call it simply, "a land of deserts," seems not to help forward our idea of it. The proper sense of 2 seems to be derived from the verb 27, to mix or mingle together; and to be that of an extensive plain or open country, in which no one had an exclusive right of property, but the pasturage and sheepwalks were all promiscuous, and in common. Hence I apprehend the whole country of Arabia to have been denominated, being mostly occupied in that manner. Such also I suppose to be the plains mentioned in Scripture, and called from their adjacency, the plains of Mamre, of Moab, of Jordan, of Jericho, &c. as being unappropriated, and of course uncultivated lands in the neighbourhood of those places. Accordingly to such land we usually give the name of the waste. Now the wilderness, through which the Israelites passed in their way out of Egypt, was to a vast extent a land of waste of this kind, totally unoccupied and unfit for the purpose of cultivation, and therefore absolutely incapable of subsisting without a miracle such a numerous people as for many years took up their abode in it. To this is added now, which our Translators have rendered, "and of pits," but why they supposed the wilderness to be called a land of pits I do not well conceive. The LXX. have rendered the whole passage in so lax a manner, that nothing can be collected from thence. The Chald. and Syr. seem to have read Nw, desolation, or to have considered whatever word they found as having that import. But if mw be the true reading, as all the collated MSS. agree in representing it, it undoubtedly signifies a pit, and may perhaps allude to the inclosure of the wilderness within craggy and high mountains, in respect of which Pharaoh is introduced as saying of the Israelites, "The wilderness hath shut them in," or closed upon them, Exod. xiv. 3. So that if we render the words in question " through a land of wide waste and a pit," we may understand by it a country incapable of providing for the people's subsistence from being a wide uncultivated waste; but into which when they were once entered, they were fairly shut up as in a pit, where they and their families must have inevitably perished, if they had not had the assistance of providence to support them by the way, and finally to extricate them out of it. Ibid.-and the shadow of death] This image was undoubtedly borrowed from those dusky caverns and holes among the rocks, which the Jews ordinarily chose for their burying places: where Death seemed to hover continually, casting over them his broad shadow. Sometimes indeed I believe nothing more is intended by it, than to denote a dreariness and gloom like that which reigns in those dismal mansions. But in other places it respects the perils and dangers of the situation. Thus, Ps. xxiii. 4. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." And again, Ps. xliv. 19. But over and above the foregoing allusions, the land of the shadow of death here seems to intend the grave itself, which the wilderness actually proved to all the individuals of the children of Israel that entered into it, Caleb and Joshua only excepted, whose lives were preserved by a special provi dence. 7.-a land of fruitful field] The article shews to be designed for an appellative; and a land of fruitful field is well contrasted with a land of waste. 9.-I will yet plead with you] That is, I will maintain by arguments the equity of my proceedings, and the injustice of yours. 10.-the countries of Chittim] By " it is certain that the Hebrews did not mean the same as we do by islands, that is, lands encompassed with water all around; and therefore we ought not so to render this Hebrew word. It sometimes signifies only a country or region, as isai. xx. 6. but usually perhaps distant ones, and such as had a line of sea coast. See Ch. xlvii. 4. Bochart, Phaleg. lib. iii. cap. 5. has made it appear with much probability, that the countries peopled by Chittim, the grandson of Japhet, are Italy and the adjacent provinces of Europe, which lie along the Mediterranean sea. And as these were to the west of Judea, and Kedar in Arabia to the east, the plain purport of this pasage is, "Look about you to the west and to the east." 11. Hath a nation changed Gods?] Fifty five MSS. and ten Edi 66 its * אלהיו reads אלהים One MS. for .החמיר read ההימיר tions for "Gods." The LXX. Syr. and Vul. all agree in joining the affix; but the two former express the subject and verb in the plural number, as if But the present reading is .חחמירו גוים אלהיהם,they had read unexceptionable. 12. The heavens are astonished, &c.] The verbs here may be either the 3d person plural of the preter tense, or the 2d person plural of the imperative. The LXX. prefer the former. 13.-broken cisterns] 2 82 82.-The text here ap pears to be corrupt. The LXX. and Chald. omit 82, and, I should בארות which would be right : for בארות נשברות suppose, read feminine noun, requires the adjective or participle of the same gender. Three MSS. omit ; one substitutes 2 instead of it; and for נשברות an easy corruption of נשברום two MSS. read נשברים 14. Or if a child of the household] One MS. reads with the conjunction. ' T answers to the Latin word filiusfamilias, and stands opposed to a slave. The same distinction is made Gal. iv. 7. and an inference drawn from it in a similar manner. "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, (a slave) but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." As Christians now, so the Israelites heretofore were the children of God's household; and if so, they seemed entitled to his peculiar care and protection. 15. Against him lions shall roar] Lions in the figurative style of prophecy denote powerful princes and conquerors; See Ch. 1. 17. Such were Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; whose successive hostilities against the kingdom of Judah seem here to be foretold. Fifty six MSS. and six Editions read large. Ibid.-are at -are burned-] Twenty MSS. and two Editions confirm the Three MSS.. read נצחה for נצתו,reading of the Masora |