of the context. 66 yip has nothing to do with Jer. vi. 1 (where Tekoa is a proper name). But an infin. absol., with preposition and article, is grammatically too bold. Neither are we to translate, as Hengst. does : they blew with a loud blast," but (as also the Sept.) as designating the instrument wherewith the blast is made. The infin. absol. (7)— comp. Nah. ii. 4 [3] (a military term)-shortly for the finite verb (Ew. Gram. § 351, c).-non, Hitzig acutely to the battle, not: into the battle.-Comp. besides, vers. 17, 12; Lev. xxvi. 17.-Ver. 15. Comp. ch. v. 12, vi. 12; Lam. i. 20. Comp. also Mark xiii. 15, 16. Instead of acting offensively, not even on the defensive; without resistance they fall victims, partly to the sword of the enemy, which, according to ch. v. 7, is the sword of God, partly to the pestilence combined with the famine. to be considered. The judgment applies to the persons-this is the leading thought—and not, as the expositors assert, to their possession. Hence - is repeated from ver. 12, but instead of we have by paronomasia, the glowing heat seen in the prophetic vision (ch. i.). might perhaps confirm the interpretation of 7 in ver. 7 as what is fixed, determined. In like manner is resumed from the beginning of our verse, and that in the same sense, so that it is certainly not to be translated "for the prophecy against the whole multitude shall not return" (JER.), a thought which is too little in keeping with the exceptional earnestness Rather is the statement meant to be something additional as to the persons, appended to the special exemplification of the seller. Hence equivalent to: since every one has "his life in his iniquity," and it is therefore very Ver. 16. The fate of those of them who in any questionable whether (as was parenthetically sup- way escape is localized upon the mountains posed above) "their life" might be still among for by, ch. vi. 13), having fled thither (Ps. xi. 1; the living."—S: they shall not show Mark xiii. 14; Luke xxi. 21, 22), they shall be themselves strong, manifest strength, courage; there like, etc., their condition being compared the iniquity cripples their power of life, with to that of doves of the valleys, i.e. doves which, which what follows agrees admirably. [Other having lost their nests, are not like wild doves at expositions: EWALD: But certainly they may home upon the mountains, and which, when become unfortunate or the reverse for a time: he frightened by birds of prey, make known their who was compelled to sell his property may not even obtain it in the year of jubilee, or, on the sorrow, their painful feeling.-non ab, rightly other hand, the divine punishment may no longer KEIL: figure and reality mixed up together; in light upon the rich brawlers, yet the former re-form belonging to the comparison, in reality to main in their lust after a life of sense in the the things compared. The stronger expression world, without coming to repentance through, not without reference to in vers. 13, adversity (Ps. xvii. 14), and the latter do not suffer themselves to be drawn out of their sins by prosperity; all are irresolute, cowardly people, etc. Hav. explains the last clause also of the year of jubilee still, whose object is "to be strengthened in life" (nn, an accus. to be connected with the passive pinn), so that one springs up into new life: there has been a restoration-a new birth. No one is to obtain a new strength of his vital powers by means of his sin; rather do those fearful Sabbatical years make their appearance, Lev. xxvi. 34 sq. The second has also been understood by some in the sense that no one "turns," although the prophecy summons all to repentance, which agrees just as little with the context. is interpreted on the part of some by an omission of the relative: "every one whose life is in his iniquity,' while others take the first suffix pleonastically, in this way: "they shall not any of them strengthen themselves by means of (on account of the iniquity of his life," so as to be able to Ver. 18. Along with such (negative) feebleness stand against their enemies. The plural with we have (as positive elements) mourning and the collective. HENGST.: "The seller will horror, shame and grief. As the expression of in no case return to the property which he has the first, the cloth of coarse hair, which they sold, so that he should be obliged to regard it girt about themselves with a cord (Isa. iii. 24). with pain, for the whole land is stripped of its For the second, the strong expression My inhabitants; but it may also happen that he loses his life, and he has to account it good fortune if (Ps. lv. 5): if mourning is their girdle, then horror this does not take place, so that the thing sold is their covering. But as shame is upon cannot be a source of pain to him and many a one () will not retain his life because of his for y) all faces, so baldness is on the back part misdeed."] The LXX. read y instead of y. of the head of all, as the result of grief, or it Ver. 14. The predicted feebleness is placed be- must be supposed the custom in mourning (Job fore our eyes in a picture all but ironical.-i. 20), or that they have plucked out their hai " 14, and their tumult going before.-For a WIN, comp. ver. 13. As is their life, if they still save it, so is their expression of that life, and, in fact (by the individualization of the all, ), each one gives utterance to his sorrow in his iniquity, as a sorrow that is deserved, therefore as a penal sorrow. [The LXX. read perhaps non. But the text is not to be changed in accordance therewith, for certainly in what follows the farther description of these fugitives is given.] Hence ver. 17 is not to be understood of the whole people (KEIL, HENGST.); it is rather the interpretation of the melancholy cooing in ver. 16. A picture of the repentance which is wrung from them. The hands refuse to perform their office, nay, even the knees refuse to stand and keep firm. The expression for the latter (ch. xxi. 7) is intended to portray the complete desolation of their strength; comp. Josh. vii. 5 (Isa. xiii. 7; Éx. xv. 15). The LXX. too literally. (For bn, comp. Joel iv. 18.) D in their pain (Ezra ix. 3). Comp. besides, Jer. xlviii. 37; Amos viii. 10; and Deut. xiv. 1. The re Ver. 19 speaks in the outset of the fugitives still, who cast from them everything that is burdensome. But what one casts away, that he also in a certain measure repudiates; hence 7, "detestable thing," "abomination." newed mention together of the two principal means employed in sinning (silver and gold), in the next place, generalizes the circle of the persons involved, so as to embrace the people generally. Of idols of silver and gold (Isa. ii. 20), however, there is no need as yet to think. It is rather treasures of that sort that are spoken of, which hinder one during a flight, which only provoke the booty-loving enemy still more, nay, which, now that the saving of life is aimed at, appear like rubbish. For that life might be purchased therewith is no longer the case, since the day of the overflowing (2) wrath of the Eternal (Luke xxi. 22) is come (comp. Isa. xiii. 17; Zeph. i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 18). They have neither enjoyment (satisfaction) from it, nor even the filling of the bowels by means of it. Silver and gold are, alike for the taste and for necessaries (in a practical point of view, aesthetically and physically considered), without significance in this day of judgment; the element which comes in that case into consideration is the stumbling-block which they made of it, so that they fell into iniquity over it. In ch. iii. 20 we have a stumbling-block which is given. Their riches and their trust in them made them satisfied, so that they needed nothing. As a punishment, these riches do not now satisfy them, do not even fill their belly; nothing can be bought with them so that they may live. TT The giving of a reason for the punishment drawn from the guilt leads to a farther description of this guilt in ver. 20. The is explanatory. ? Because the riches wherewith Israel was decked out, and might adorn herself like a bride, of course i zupi, were, on the contrary, misused for self-exaltation and pride. Comp. Isa. ii.any; the subject is the people, or every one, or one-the suffix refers to the ornament of his decoration (Häv., KEIL: elegant ornaments), by which others understand, not the gold and silver, but the temple. Hitz. reads. From the self-exaltation resulted the will-worship, the diversified self-choice in divine worship.-DP, as frequently from Deut. xxix. 17 onwards; omitted by the LXX.-12, not in the temple, but of the silver and gold. Comp. Ex. xxxii.; Hos. ii. 10 [8], viii. 4, xiii. 2.-— -; 1, which Hitzig defends. 66 is צָפוּן According to Häv. (LXX., VULG.), to be referred to the elegant ornament;" according to others, to the objects of worship of gold and silver. the enemy can get the mastery over it. Ver. 22. Dn from those at Jerusalem, so that Others: I will not look what the enemy shall do, but let them act.-From the "profanation" of what is racteristic title of the strangers" as the wicked holy an explanation is got of the preceding cha of the earth." 'something hidden," something concealed; according to Häv., of the place: the sanctuary, the holy of holies, where Jehovah dwells in sacred darkness; according to others: the holy land in general; according to Hengst., of the matter in hand: the churchtreasure, which is secularized. [The LXX. read perhaps Re- EWALD the treasure of My guardianship, i.e. of My country or My people.] The suffixes of and belong to the city, Jerusalem, which always stands in the backKEIL: come ground. Others prefer a neuter construction; Matt. xi. 12 (which passage is to be understood For violent ones, comp. over it." in accordance with this). "As it the whole discourse; in substance equivalent to: such as theirs. Hav. Ver. 24. "Wicked heathen "-(ver. 21) so that they fall, besides, into bad hands of men (2 Sam. xxiv. 14). Comp. Ew. Gram. § 313, c; Hab. i. 6 sqq.-, either as in ver. 20: pride (Häv.: everything of which the mighty are wont to boast), or: ornament, decoration, glory, of the temple (ch. xxiv. 21). They may be called strong, as well because of their real strength, when they preserved their fidelity to the Strong One who dwelt in their midst, as in accordance with their imagined strength (Lev. xxvi. 19). Ew. reads Dy N, "their proud splendour."— the idea of retribution here explains the 17 in ver. 19.—But as God gives it to them as a thing to be cast away and rejected, so He gives it to their enemies in ver. 21, who are described as in ver. 24 (Ps. lxxv. 8), for a prey. The victory of the wicked is God's penal victory.- is not Babylon, but we should rather say the wicked of the earth are the Babylonians. In defence of the Kethibh 5 with fem. suffix (comp. ver. 12), where hitherto masculine, Ewald remarks: "a gradual transition from the masc. y to the holy city, which, strictly speaking, is meant, and even cannot be the Piel of, which would distinctly named in ver. 23." The Qeri is mean "to divide for a possession," but is the close. : DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS. Niphal of 5.—p, according to Ew. the reading (ver. 3). With the well-known (Gramm. § 215, a) from p, with vowel (ch. vi. 14, v. 15) refrain, the two dispushed back. Rosenm. reads: D; Häv. courses of rebuke in ch. vi. and vii. come to a D. HENGST.: “those who sanctify them," hence partic. Piel without Dagesch forte of p, understanding the priests now no longer able to discharge their functions, whereby the means of reconciliation are withdrawn from Israel (Lev. xvi.; Isa. xliii. 26, 27). [Others: of unworthy Levitical service, inasmuch as the Holy One of Israel is also his only true Sanctifier, ch. xxxvii. 28. "Ezekiel points to the cloud only, Jeremiah in ch. xxxiii. opens the view to the sun hidden behind it." By their sanctuaries are understood sometimes the buildings of the temple, but, as being no longer God's, sometimes the self-chosen ones of the Jews. Ver. 25. only here (see GESEN. Lex.). According to Meier, not destruction, but in accordance with the root-meaning ("to draw together"), as in the Syr., of the drawing together of the skin and hair from fright (horror). Exactly so Ew., HENGST.: contraction, in contrast with the expansion which is connected with all joyful prosperity, and which is founded in the nature of the people of God, Gen. xxviii. 14; Isa. liv. 3. [HAV.: the conclusion, the close (p, vers. 2, 6).] For the gender and masc. verb comp. Ew. Gramm. § 173, h, 174, g. [Ros.: paragog.], a proph. perf. (KEIL).—" Peace" is too narrow for, as also attempts at peace with money-offerings with Nebuchadnezzar, of which some think. The attempts at salvation which they make in vain are specified in what follows. 1. We have before us in this chapter an Old Testament pattern for the awe-inspiring Dies iræ, dies illa, the so-called " 'gigantic hymn (comp. Zeph. i. 14 sqq.). What Fr. v. Meyer says of the latter may be uttered also of this chapter of our prophet: "With the man who is so insensible that he can read it without alarm and hear it without dread, I should not like to dwell under the same roof. 2. The contents are the same, ever the same. The drops fall without intermission on the stone, the heart of Israel. Unbelief has just the cha racteristic either that it believes in no punishment at all (2 Pet. iii. 3 sq.), or that its frivolous mind knows beforehand that what will come will certainly not be so severe nor last so long. And therefore God does not grudge to tell us over and over again our inevitable destiny, and also to push it ever nearer to us. The enduring meaning as well as application of our chapter may be expressed in this way, that the end of those things in which they place their trust, and in which they find their satisfaction, is to be held up before the false security of the men of this world on every side. Respice finem. 66 3. Sin has an active and a passive history. When the latter begins, then what was formerly an object of pleasure becomes an object of dread (HENGST.). "On the day of judgment the abominations stand in Israel's midst not in their alluring, seductive form, but with all the woe which comes in their train" (Häv.). ruin which lies on his path of bondage. But in this way the divine long-suffering is revealed, which gives the sinner time for repentance. The picture of this long-suffering of God is furnished by the three years of Christ's ministry. Then at the end of its lingering the long-suffering steps into the background behind the divine wrath" (LANGE). Ver. 26. While the disasters are accumulating, 4. "God does indeed punish the sinner from and the rumours are multiplying (Matt. xxiv. 6), moment to moment in his conscience, but, so far they seek, first of all, from the prophet (the as outward experience is concerned, He causes generic idea). Comp. Jer. xxxvii 17, xxxviii. bim to learn the error of his way at first only in 14. [Hengst. understands it of the false prophets, omens of the most gently threatening character, and compares for the priests Zeph. iii. 4; Jer. so to speak, by means of passing, dimly visible ii. 8; Ezek. xxii. 26.] What they seek, viz. a angels of warning. In this way He gives him vision, is mentioned, but it is not said that they great scope for freely bethinking himself and for find it. That they do not becomes clear alike returning of his own free-will, or else for comfrom ver. 25, and from the circumstance that in-pleting of his own free-will his experience of the struction perishes from the priest, and counsel from the elders. Comp. Jer. xviii. 18 (Luke xxi. 25). To the threefold class in ver. 26 we have a corresponding parallel in Ver. 27, the king-the prince of the tribe-the people in the land; and to the want of counsel corresponds the failure in action. It is a national ruin. (As to an, see GESEN. Gramm. § 53, Obs.) wah, a well-known figurative mode of expression for being covered with and wrapt up in terror, just as in the case of the king it is a deep silent mourning that is meant (2). For ", comp. ver. 17 (zęsμivas xigas, Heb. xii. 12). Like their conduct will God's dealing with them be, drawn from it, regulated in accordance with it. As to D, see Ew. Gramm. § 264, b. DAUBURN, HENGST.: with judgments which correspond to their deeds," and so Ew. also and others. Better: according to what is right in reference to them. Instead of there is also 5. The love of God and its ultimate aim in re demption is resisted in particular by the folly of the sinner, which pursues as its object deliverance from misery, and that the misery which at any time happens to be present, and in selfrighteousness sets itself against deliverance from sin, sometimes by disputing the causal nexus of sin and misery as punishment, sometimes by the denial of sin altogether. The redeeming love of God, therefore, cannot make itself known, in opposition to man's vain imagination, in any way more practical and concrete than, first of all, by means of the zeal of divine wrath. In view of the aim, viz. redemption, and as being divine, this zeal of wrath is not merely a thing of the respect of antichristianity, which has spread among the people of the New Testament, its end is fixed, when God will lay upon it all its abomi nations, and will pour out His vials of wrath" O. T., but not less expressly belongs to the N. T. It is redemptive inasmuch as, through retributive visitation by means of punishment, not only does God, who has vanished from the conscious ness of the self-righteous man- self-righteous | (B. B.).--He that is secure says: Soul, take although both a sinner and a debtor-reveal Himself, but man also by this means is to become free from the hurtful delusion of "envious gods,' of a "blind fate," of an arbitrary "necessity of nature." Judgments like that on Judah and Jerusalem are therefore, besides being divine, of a redemptive character. There is an effort after salvation in such crises, and at all events in the biblical wrath of God there is more of the wisdom of love than in the common assertion that a God who is angry is a God who does not love. 6. The tragic truth of the history of the world, and especially of the history of the kingdom of God, celebrates in those epoch-making catastrophes, which are the emblems of the last judgment, the truth of the idea of God's zeal in wrath, of this fatal curse of sin. 7. Where God is seen angry in Holy Scripture, there we have no mere personification of divine righteousness, but the personality of the Holy and Just One revealing itself; there there can be no reference to human passion; there, in fact, we have divine compassion. The form of sinfulness is just as little an essential and necessary element in wrath as in love. thine ease; but God says: This night thy soul shall be required of thee (Luke xii. 19, 20).What an awakening call for every sinner! The end comes, alike of pleasure and of life.-"If the sinner will not awake, then the punishment must awake" (B. B.).—Ver. 9. "It was not strokes of fate or the like they were to perceive therein, but God's hand and smiting" (Cocc.).—Every one must know the Lord in the end, if not as one that calls, allures, blesses, then as one that smites, is angry, punishes.-"Let the sinner know that he binds for himself the rod which will smite him" (A L.). Ver. 11.Tyrants are God's scourges " (0.).— Ver. 12 sq. "As for the pious an hour of help is promised, so for the transgressor an hour of destruction strikes" (STCK.).—God's judgments sometimes remove the distinction arising from prosperity and possession, and make men alike. Ver. 14. "What avails the trumpet, and of what use all weapons and every preparation, if the Lord departs from a people, from a city, from an army?"- "Courage is also God's gift, as we see in the case of Gideon, Samson, David, and others."- "Where God's terrors are at work, 8. However anthropomorphic the stamp it may there neither counsel, nor call, nor deed gives help" wear, God's wrath is no less truly a part of His (STCK.)." In vain do men blow the trumpet, nature, by means of which the absolute an- if that of the Supreme Judge makes itself heard' tagonism of His spirit and will to sin is expressed (UMBR.). - Ver. 15. War, pestilence, famine, from the innermost energy of His holiness. It is these three remain down even to the end, and are not the ebullition of an impure love for unright-bound up with one another.-"The sinner would eousness, as is the case with the wrath of man, fain flee or hide himself" (STCK.).—" God can but it is the necessary (unless God chooses to find thee everywhere" (B. B.).-Ver. 16. "Redeny Himself) reaction and opposition of His flect that thou also must one day leave everyholy love for righteousness. In the operations of thing, and see to it that thou keep a good condivine wrath, therefore, the holy will of God is science" (STCK.).—" So, many kinds of sighs are revealed in its character of righteousness by heard in the world. But the best are the unmeans of righteous judgment, which recompenses utterable ones, wherewith God's Spirit Himself the sinner according to his own works. makes intercession for believers, Rom. viii. 26" (B. B.).-"Late repentance is seldom true repentance" (STCK.).-Ver. 17. "The hands and knees of believers also do indeed sometimes be come weary, but they know where to strengthen them (ST.).- Ver. 18. If the inward return is wanting, God knows well how to enforce the outward; and that even as far as to bring about the public confession of the fault, as may be seen, surely, in the case of Judas. 9. The continuance of a nation depends not only on the usual material conditions, but on ideal powers of life, which, when despised, show themselves to be powers of death. HOMILETIC HINTS. Ver. 2 sqq. God's grace has indeed no end, is an everlasting grace, but its manifestation and our consciousness of it may come to an end, which at the same time announces a perfecting in what is evil.-"What had begun in the ten tribes was completed in the tribe of Judah (B. B.).-"What is long hidden is not remitted. The longer God delays with punishment, the heavier it is" (W.).—The end as respects God's long-suffering; then, in respect of the land, with which it had not yet come to the end; lastly, the completion of the punishments" (Cocc.).—The end a universal end (not only of Israel, but as of Israel, so of every man and of the whole world); a fearful end (if under the wrath of God according to our abominations); an inevitable end (however safe we seem, however thoughtlessly we think and speak).-"God has his Now (Luke xix. 42), which is, of course, hid from our eyes and ruinous, if we have not regarded the Now of our merciful visitation" (STCK.)." So also in Ver. 19. How can one have such eager desire after what he will at another time cast from him in such cold blood?"God is the only true and abiding treasure which is to be sought" (STCK.). "Oh, if one were only betimes to cast it out of his heart, that it might not make him unjust, covetous, and ungodly!" (B. B.).-" Would that this were written on the doors, yea, in the hearts of all the avaricious, and the rich, and those eagerly desirous of riches, that gold and silver will not be able to save in the day of wrath, and in the hour of death, and at the day of judgment! What has been sought after with so great pains, scraped together with much injustice, guarded with the greatest care, that leaves its possessor comfortless and helpless when he most needs help, and leaves him lying on his sick-bed in his pains, and can rescue him neither from the enemy, nor from the sick-bed, nor from death, much less CHAP. VIII. all high-churchism, still so splendid and ostenta- make him blessed" (B. B.).-Vers. 19, 20. The danger of riches: in the false estimate of them, in the abuse of them.-The final judgment on riches: how it will take place (by means of the rich themselves, and before God and men); by what means it is incurred (through pride and idolatry).- -"How many would have been happy in this world, and blessed in the world to come, if they had not been rich!"-Ver. 20. What adorns is also easily soiled. What ought to humble man for the most part makes him so much the more proud. Self-seeking the source of all abuse of earthly blessings, as well as of the neglect and contempt of heavenly blessings."This is ingratitude, to misuse such gifts of "Our God for pride, for extravagance, for mere finery, and for idolatry" (H. H.).-Ver. 21. worldly possessions are not ours, but God's, who can do with them how and what He will.""God employs for the carrying out of His judgments heretics and ungodly men, in order that those whom He punishes by this means may be the more pained that they had falsely boasted of the true religion" (ST.).-Ver. 22. The face of God the consecration of our life: our free upward look to it, its gracious look on us.-These are the critical turnings in the life of the individual and of whole nations, the turnings of the divine face. -The profanation by the enemy is, alas! always preceded by the profanation on the part of the friends.-God protects Himself against His friends by means of His enemies. What a sign the profanation of Jerusalem and of the temple for | xvii. 3" (STCK.). Ver. 23. God makes various chains; even that III, THE SUBSEQUENT EXECUTION OF DIVINE COMMISSIONS.-CH. VIII-XXIV. 1. The Abominations in the Temple (CH. VIII.). 1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], on the fifth of the And I saw, and lo a likeness as the month-I was in my house, and the elders of Judah were before me, and there 2 fell upon me the hand of the Lord Jehovah. appearance of fire: from the appearance of His loins and downwards, fire; and from His loins and upwards, as the appearance of brightness, as the look of the 3 brightness of gold. And He stretched out the form of a hand, and took hold of me by the front hair of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me to Jerusalem in visions of God, to the opening of the door of the inner [court] that points toward the north, where is the seat of 4 the [idol-] image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold, there the 5 glory of the God of Israel, like the vision which I saw in the valley. And He said And He said unto me: unto me: Son of man, lift up now thine eyes toward the north. And I lifted up mine eyes toward the north, and behold on the north at [northward of] the gate of 6 the altar that [idol-] image of jealousy at the entrance. Son of man, seest thou what they are doing? great abominations that the house of Israel doeth here, in order to be far from My sanctuary! And yet again shalt And He said unto me: Son of man, 7 thou see great_abominations. And He brought me to the opening of the court, 8 and I saw, and behold a hole in the wall. break now through the wall. And I broke through the wall, and behold an And He said unto me: Come and see the wicked abominations that they 9 opening. And I came and saw; and behold every (every kind of) form of 10 are doing here. creeping things and beasts, abomination, and of all the (all kinds of the) dung-gods 11 of the house of Israel, portrayed (painted) upon the wall round and round. And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and |