It is in this verse that it comes clearly out, that the speaker is not merely to announce the mercy of G.o.d, but, at the same time, to bestow it; that the announcement is not an empty one, but one which brings along with it that which is promised; that it is not a Prophet or Evangelist who speaks, but the Saviour. Such a change cannot be effected by merely _announcing_ it. Everywhere, in the second part, it is brought about, not by words, but by deeds. How were it possible that by mere words, as long as the reality stood in glaring contrast to them, the believers could become terebinths of righteousness, a glorious planting of the Lord?--The connection of the two verbs ??? and ??? is to be accounted for from the circ.u.mstance, that the p.r.o.noun suited the first noun only--the ornament for the head. It is only when ??? is understood in the sense, "to put upon," or, "to put on," that there is a sufficient reason for adding ???; but that is not the case when it is taken in the signification "to grant," "to appoint." ???
"crown," and ??? "ashes," are connected with one another, because mourners were accustomed to strew ashes on their heads. The expression "oil of joy," which is to be explained from the custom of people anointing themselves with oil in cases of joy, is taken from Ps. xlv.
8. As the Messiah there appears as the possessor of the oil of joy, so, here, He appears as the bestower. In chap. lv. 3, there is [Pg 355]
likewise an allusion to Ps. xlv., and along with it, to Ps. xxii. The "spirit of heaviness" refers to chap. xlii. 3. The fact that, instead of it, they receive "garments of praise," intimates that they shall be altogether clothed with praise, songs of praise for the divine goodness which manifested itself in them; on the garments as symbols of the condition, compare remarks on Rev. vii. 14. The "righteousness" which is appropriate to the spiritual terebinths, is the actual justification, which the Lord grants to His people at the appearance of the Messiah. There is in it an allusion to the planting of paradise; G.o.d now prepares for himself a new paradisaical plantation, consisting of living trees.
[Pg 356]
THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH.
By the inscription, the Prophet"s origin is, in a way rather uncommon, traced back to his fourth ancestor, Hezekiah,--no doubt the king. He appeared as a prophet under the reign of Josiah--before the time, however, at which the reforms of that king had attained their completion, which took place in the 18th year of his reign--and, hence, prophesied, like his predecessor Habakkuk, in the view of the Chaldean catastrophe. The prophecy begins with threatening judgment upon the sinners, and closes with announcing salvation to the believers,--a circ.u.mstance which proves that it forms one whole. The threatening is distinguished from that of Habakkuk by the circ.u.mstance, that it has more of a general comprehensive character, and does not, as is done in Habakkuk, view the Chaldean catastrophe as a particular historical event. It is not an incidental circ.u.mstance, that the Chaldeans are not expressly mentioned by Zephaniah, as is done by Habakkuk, and was done by Isaiah. The Prophet can, therefore, have had them in view as being, _in the first instance_ only, the instruments of Divine punishment.
The prophecy begins, in chap. i. 2, 3, with announcing the judgment impending over the whole world. Then, the Prophet shows how it manifests itself in Judah; first, in general outlines, vers. 4-7; then, in detail, vers. 8-18. In close connection, this is followed by a call to repent, in chap. ii. 1-3. This call is founded on the fearful character of the impending judgment which, according to vers. 4-15, will be inflicted not only upon Judah, but also upon the world, and will especially bring destruction upon all the neighbouring nations: in the [Pg 357] West, upon the Philistines; in the East, upon Ammon and Moab; in the South, on Cush; in the North, upon Nineveh, upon whose destruction the Prophet especially dwells, since, up to that time, it had been the bearer of the world"s power.
In chap. iii., in the first instance, the threatening against Judah is resumed. Apostate Jerusalem, corrupt in its head and members, irresistibly hastens on towards judgment. But, notwithstanding, "the afflicted and poor people of the land" shall not despair. On the contrary, as salvation cannot proceed from the midst of the people, they are to put their trust in the Lord. By His judgments (viz., those declared in chap. ii., which at last shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness, compare Isa. xxvi. 9: "For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness") will He break the pride of the Gentile world, and bring about their conversion,--and the converted Gentile world will bring back to Jerusalem the scattered Congregation. Being purified and justified, it will then enjoy the full mercy of the Lord.
The princ.i.p.al pa.s.sage is chap. iii. 8-13.
Ver. 8. "_Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my right is_ (_i.e._, the exercise of my right consists in this) _to gather the nations, and to a.s.semble the kingdoms, to pour out upon them mine indignation, all the heat of mine anger; for all the earth shall be devoured by the fire of my jealousy._ Ver. 9. _For then will I turn unto the nations a clean lip, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one shoulder._ Ver. 10. _From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia shall they bring my suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed for a meat-offering to me._ Ver. 11. _In that day shall thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me; for then will I take away out of the midst of thee them that proudly rejoice in thee, and thou shall no more be haughty on mine holy mountain._ Ver. 12. _And I leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they trust in the name of the Lord._ Ver. 13. _The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid._"
[Pg 358]
Zephaniah, who opens the series of the prophets who are preeminently dependent upon other prophets, just as Habakkuk closes the series of those pre-eminently independent, leans, in this section, chiefly upon Isaiah; and it is from this circ.u.mstance that it appears, that the person of the Messiah, although not appearing here, stands in the background and forms the invisible centre.
"_Therefore_" ver. 8: Since the salvation cannot proceed from the midst of the people, inasmuch as, in the way of their works, they receive nothing but destructive punishment. On the words: "Wait ye upon me,"
compare Hab. ii. 3. "The day that the Lord rises up to the prey" is the time when He will begin His great triumphal march against the Gentile world. With the words: "For my right," &c., a new argument for the call "Wait ye upon me," commences. But this does not by any means close with the 8th verse, but goes on to the end of ver. 10. First: Wait, for I will judge the nations. It is not without meaning that, as regards your hope, I refer you to the judgment upon the Gentiles; for, in consequence of this judgment, their conversion will take place, and a consequence of their conversion is, that they bring back to Zion her scattered members. In the thought, that the judgments upon the Gentile world will break their hardness of heart, and prepare them for their conversion, Zephaniah follows Isaiah, who, _e.g._ in chap. xix., exemplifies it in the case of Egypt, and in chap. xxiii. in that of Tyre. The bruised reed and the faintly burning wick is not merely a designation of the single individuals who have been endowed with the right disposition for the kingdom of G.o.d, but of whole nations. "The clean lip" in ver. 9 forms the contrast to the unclean lips in Is. vi.
With unclean lips they had, in the time of the long-suffering of G.o.d, invoked their idols, Ps. xvi. 4. On the words: "To serve Him with one shoulder," comp. Is. xix. 23: "And Egypt serves with a.s.shur." The words: "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," in ver. 10, rest on Is.
xviii. 1. In both of the pa.s.sages, Ethiopia is the type of the whole Gentile world to be converted in future. In Is. xviii. Ethiopia offers itself and all which it has to the Lord; here it brings the scattered members of the community of the Israelitish people to the Kingdom of G.o.d. ??? always means "to supplicate," [Pg 359] never "to burn incense." Ezek. viii. 11 must thus be translated: "Every man, his censer in his hand, and the _supplication_ of the cloud of incense went up;" compare remarks on Rev. v. 8. The dispersed members of the Church _supplicate_ that the Lord would again receive them into His communion (compare Hos. xiv. 3; Jer. x.x.xi. 9, 18; Zech. xii. 10); and these supplications cannot remain without an answer, since they from whom they proceed stand in a close relation to the Lord. "The daughter of my dispersed" is the daughter or communion, consisting of the dispersed of the Lord, just as in the phrase "the daughter of the Chaldeans," the Chaldeans themselves are the daughter or virgin. The designation, in itself, plainly suggests the dispersed members of the old Congregation, inasmuch as they only can be designated as the dispersed of the Lord.
To this, moreover, must be added the reference to Deut. iv. 27: "And the Lord _disperses_ you among the nations;" xxviii. 64: "And the Lord _disperses_ thee among all the nations from the one end of the earth even unto the other,"--an announcement which, at the time of Zephaniah, had already been fulfilled upon the ten tribes, and the fulfilment of which was soon to commence upon Judah. It is only when the members of the old Congregation are understood by the suppliants and dispersed, that the call, "Wait ye upon me" is here established and confirmed. The offering of the meat-offering signifies, in the symbolism of the Mosaic law, diligence in good works, such as is to be peculiar to the redeemed. A single manifestation of it is the missionary zeal which is here shown by the converted Gentiles.
In harmony with the Song of Solomon, Isaiah announces in several pa.s.sages, that the converted Gentiles shall, at some future period, labour for the restoration of Israel; compare the remarks on Is. xi.
12. Zephaniah here specially refers to the remarkable pa.s.sage, Is.
lxvi. 18-21, which we must here subject to a somewhat closer examination: Ver. 18. "And I ... their works and their thoughts; _the time cometh to gather_ all Gentiles and tongues, and they come and _see_ my glory." The first hemistich still belongs to the threatening.
The holy G.o.d and unholy men, the unholy members of the Church to which the Lord spake: "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy," and their sinful thoughts and words are simply placed beside one another, [Pg 360]
other, and it is left to every one to draw from it the inference as to the fate awaiting them. "I and their works"--what an immense contrast, a contrast which must be adjusted by the judgment! With the threatening, the Prophet then connects, by a suitable contrast to the rejection of a great part of the covenant-people, the calling of the Gentiles. The glory of the Lord, which the Gentiles see, is His glory which, up to that time, was concealed, but is now manifested; compare Is. xl. 5, lx. 2, lii. 10, liii. 1. Ver. 19. "And I set a sign among them, and send from among them escaped ones unto the nations, to Tarshish, &c., to the isles afar off that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory, and they declare my glory among the Gentiles,"--The suffix in ??? can refer to those only from among the nations and tongues who have come and seen the glory of G.o.d. They are sent out to bring the message of the living G.o.d, the message of salvation to those also who hitherto have not come. By the demonstration of the Spirit and power, they are marked out as blessed of the Lord, as His servants, separated from the world given up to destruction. Just as the wicked, the servants of the prince of this world, have their _mark_, Gen. iv. 50, so have the servants of G.o.d theirs also, which may be recognised by all who are well disposed. It is only by one"s own fault, and at one"s own risk, that the sign is not understood. The fact that "unto the nations" forms the beginning, and the "isles afar off"--isles in the sea of the world, kingdoms--the close, shows that the single names, Tarshish, &c., are only individualizations. In the following verse, too, all the heathens are spoken of Ver. 20: "And they bring, out of all nations, your brethren for a meat-offering unto the Lord, upon horses, &c., to my holy mountain to Jerusalem, as the children of Israel bring the meat-offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." It is in this verse that it clearly appears, that Zephaniah depends upon it; and it is by the offering of the spiritual meat-offering that his dependence is recognized. The subject in "they bring" is the Gentiles, to whom the message of salvation has been brought. They, having themselves attained salvation, offer to the Lord, as a meat-offering, the former members of His Kingdom who were separated from it. It is they, not the Gentiles who have become believers, who in the second [Pg 361] part of Isaiah, are throughout designated as the _brethren_.
Salvation is first to pa.s.s from Israel to the Gentiles, and shall then, from them, return to Israel. The two verses before us thus contain a sanction for the mission among the heathens and among Israel. Vers. 18 and 19 divide the conversion of the Gentiles into two main stations; it is only when the Church has arrived at the second, that the missionary work among Israel will fully thrive and prosper. To the _clean vessel_ in which the outward sacrifice was offered, correspond the faith and love with which they, who were formerly heathens, offer the spiritual meat-offering. Ver. 21: "And of them also will I take for Levitical priests, saith the Lord." Of them, _i.e._, of those who formerly were heathens; for it is to them that, in the words preceding, a priestly function, viz., the offering of the meat-offering, is a.s.signed. Of them _also_; not merely from among the old covenant-people, to whom, under the former dispensation, the priestly office was limited. The fact that the priests are designated as Levitical priests, is intended to keep out the thought that the point in question related only to priests in a lower sense, beside whom the Levitical priesthood, attached to natural descent, would continue to exist in full vigour. Priests with full dignities and rights are here so much the more required, that, according to what precedes, the point in question does not refer merely to a personal relation to the Lord, to immediate access to the throne of grace, but to the priestly office proper.
Vers. 11-13 describe the internal condition of the redeemed Church of the future,--a condition so different from the present one. The expression, "they that proudly rejoice in them," is from Is. xiii. 3.
?? in ver. 13 is to be accounted for from the fact, that wherever there exists the blessing promised by the Law of G.o.d (Lev. xxvi. 6) to faithfulness, faithfulness itself must exist.
In ver. 14 ff., the Jerusalem of the future is addressed; compare the expression, "at that time," ver. 20.
[Pg 362]
THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
In Malachi iii. 1, the Lord promises that He would send His messenger who should prepare the way before _Him_, who was to come to His temple, judging and punishing; vers. 23, 24 (iv. 5, 6): that before the coming of His great and dreadful day, before He smites the land with a curse, He would send another Elijah, who should bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. Even before this prophecy was expressed in words, it had _actually_ been given in the existence of Jeremiah, who, during the whole long period of forty-one years, before the destruction, announced the judgments of the Lord,--who, with burning zeal and ardent love to the people, preached repentance,--and who, even after the destruction, sought the small remnant that had been left, and was anxious to secure it against the new day of the Lord, which, by its obstinate impenitence, it was drawing down upon itself. It is this typical relation of Jeremiah to John the Baptist and Christ, of which the Jewish tradition had an antic.i.p.ation, although it misunderstood and expressed it in a gross, outward manner, by teaching that, at the end of days, Jeremiah would again appear on earth,--it is this, which invests with a peculiar charm the contemplation of his ministry, and the study of his prophecies.
The name of the Prophet is to be explained from Exod. xv. 1, from which it is probably taken. It signifies "The Lord throws." He who bore it was consecrated to that G.o.d who with an almighty hand throws to the ground all His enemies. From chap. i. 10: "See, I set thee to-day over the nations [Pg 363] and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant," it appears that it was by a dispensation of divine providence, that the Prophet bore this name with full right, and that the character of his mission is thereby designated. The judging and destructive activity which the Prophet, as an instrument of G.o.d, is to exercise, is here not only placed at the commencement, but four appellations are also devoted to it, whilst only two are devoted to his healing and planting activity.
As the object of the _throwing_, we have to conceive, not of the unfaithful covenant-people only. This appears from the mention of the _nations and kingdoms_ here, and farther, from ver. 14, where the Lord says to the Prophet: "Out of the North the evil breaks forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth." To be the herald of the judgment to be executed upon the whole world by the Chaldeans, was so much the destiny of the Prophet, that, in chap. i. 3, the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which this judgment was brought to a close, as far as Judah was concerned, is mentioned as the closing point of his ministry. The Prophet, as is reported by the book itself, still continued his ministry even among the remnant of the people; but that is lost sight of The "carrying away of Jerusalem" is treated as the great closing point; just as, in a manner altogether similar, it is, in the case of Daniel, in chap. i. 21, the year of Israel"s deliverance, although, according to chap. x. 1, his prophetic ministry extended beyond that period.
Jeremiah was called to his office when still a youth, in the 13th year of king Josiah, and hence one year after the first reformation of this king, who, as early as in the 16th year of his life, and the 8th of his reign, which lasted 31 years, began to seek the Lord. A king such as he, unto whom no king before him was like, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, (2 Kings xxiii. 25), in the midst of an evil and adulterous generation, is a remarkable phenomenon, as little conceivable from natural causes as the existence of Melchizedec without father, without descent--isolated from all natural development--in the midst of the Canaanites who, with rapid strides and irresistibly, hastened on to the completion of their sin.
His existence has the same root as that of Jeremiah,--a fact which becomes the [Pg 364] more evident when we take into consideration the connection of the Regal and Prophetical offices in Christ for the salvation of the people hastening anew to its destruction, and the faithfulness of the Covenant-G.o.d, and His long-suffering which makes every effort to lead the apostate children to repentance. The zeal of both, of Josiah and Jeremiah,--although supported by manifold a.s.sistance from other quarters, as _e.g._ by the prophetess Huldah and the prophet Zephaniah--was unable to stem the tide of prevailing corruption, and, hence, to stop the tide of the divine judgments. The corruption was so deeply rooted, that only single individuals could be saved, like brands from the burning. It had made fearful progress under the protracted reign of Mana.s.seh, whose disposition must be regarded as a product of the spirit of the time then prevailing, of which he must not be considered as the creator, but as the representative only, 2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27, xxiv. 3, 4. The scanty fruits of his late conversion had been again entirely consumed under the short reign of his wicked son Amon; it had indeed so little of a comprehensive or lasting influence, that the author of the Book of Kings thought himself ent.i.tled altogether to pa.s.s it over. It was even difficult to put limits to outward idolatry; and how imperfectly he succeeded in this, is seen from the prophecies of Jeremiah uttered after the reformation.
And even where he was successful in his efforts; even where an emotion was manifested, a wish to return to the living fountain which they had forsaken, even there, the corruption soon broke forth again, only in a different form. With deep grief, Jeremiah reprovingly reminds the people of this, whose righteousness was like the morning dew, in chap.
iii. 4, 5: "Hast thou not but lately called me: My Father, friend of my youth, thou? Will He reserve His anger for ever, will He keep it to the end? Behold, thus thou spakest, and soon thou didst the evil, didst accomplish"--an _accomplishment_ quite different from that of the ancestor. Gen. x.x.xii. 29. Since the disease had not been healed, but had only been driven out from one part of the diseased organism, the foolish inclination to idolatry was followed by as foolish a confidence in the miserable righteousness by works, in the divine election,--the offering up of sacrifices, &c., being considered as the sole condition of its validity. "Trust ye not in lying words"--so [Pg 365] the Prophet is obliged to admonish them in chap. vii. 4--"saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are they" (the people imagined that they could not be destroyed, because the Lord had, according to their opinion, for ever established His residence among them; compare 1 Cor. iii. 17; 1 Tim. iii. 15). "Thou sayest, I am innocent; His anger hath entirely turned from me; behold I plead with thee, because thou sayest: I have not sinned," chap. ii. 35. "To what purpose shall there come for me incense from Sheba, and sweet cane, the goodly, from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasant unto me," chap. vi. 20. Towards the end of Josiah"s reign, the approaching judgment of G.o.d upon Judah became more perceptible. The former Asiatic dominion of the a.s.syrians pa.s.sed over entirely to the Chaldeans, whose fresh and youthful strength so much the more threatened Judah with destruction, that from the a.s.syrians they had inherited the enmity to Egypt, on account of which Judah obtained great importance in their eyes. According to the announcement of the prophets generally, and of Jeremiah especially, who, at his very vocation, had it a.s.signed to him as his main task to announce the calamity from the North, it was by the Chaldeans that the deadly stroke should be inflicted upon the people implicated in the conflicts of these hostile powers; but it was the Egyptians who inflicted upon them the first severe wound. Josiah fell in the battle with Pharaoh Necho.
The people, conscious of guilt, were, by his death, filled with a fearful expectation of the things that were to come. They had forebodings that they were now standing at the boundary line where grace and anger separate (compare remarks on Zech. xii. 11); and these forebodings were soon converted into bitter certainty by experience.
Jehoiakim ascended the throne, after Jehoahaz or Shall um, had, after a short reign, been carried away by the Egyptians. He stood to his father Josiah in just the same relation as did the people to G.o.d, in reference to the mercy which He had offered to them in Josiah. A more glaring contrast (see its exhibition in chap. xxii.) can hardly be imagined.
Throughout, Jehoiakim shows himself to be entirely dest.i.tute not only of love to G.o.d, but also of the fear of G.o.d; he furnishes the complete image of a king whom G.o.d had given in anger. He [Pg 366] is a blood-thirsty tyrant, an exasperated enemy to truth. At the beginning of his reign, some influence of Josiah"s spirit is still seen. The priests and false prophets, rightly understanding the signs of the time, came forward with the manifestation of their long restrained hatred against Jeremiah, in whom they hate their own conscience. They bring against him a charge of life and death, because he had prophesied destruction to the city and temple; but the rulers of the people acquit him, chap. xxvi. This influence, however, soon ceased. The king became the centre around whom gathered all that was unG.o.dly, which, under Josiah, had timorously withdrawn into concealment. Soon it became a power, a torrent overflowing the whole country; and that the more easily, the weaker were the dams which still existed from the time of Josiah. One of the first victims for truth who fell, was the prophet Urijah. The king, imagining that he was able to kill truth itself in those who proclaimed it, could not bear the thought that he was still living, although it was in distant Egypt, and caused him to be brought thence (see l. c). The fact that Jeremiah escaped every danger of death during the eleven years of this king"s reign, although he ever anew threatened death to the king and destruction to the people, was a constant miracle, a glorious fulfilment of the divine promise given to him when he was called (i. 19): "They shall fight against thee, and they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith _the Lord_, to deliver thee." The threatened divine punishment advanced, under Jehoiakim, several steps towards its completion. In the fourth year of his reign, Jerusalem was, for the first time, taken by the Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p.
45 ff.), after the power of the Egyptian Empire had been for ever broken by the battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates. The victor this time acted with tolerable mildness; the sin of the people was to appear in its full light by the circ.u.mstance, that G.o.d gave them time for repentance, and did not at once proceed to the utmost rigour, but advanced, step by step, in His judgments. But here too it was seen that crime, in its highest degree, becomes madness; the more nearly that people and king approached the abyss, the greater became the speed with which they hastened towards it. It is true that they [Pg 367] did not remain altogether insensible when the threatenings of the Prophet began to be fulfilled. This is seen from the day of fasting and repentance which was appointed in remembrance of the first capture by the Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p.
49); but fleeting emotions cannot stop the course of sin. Soon it became worse than it had been before; and therefore the divine judgments also reached a new station. Even political wisdom advised the king quietly to submit to dependence on the Chaldeans, which was, comparatively, little oppressive. It was obvious that, unsupported, he could effect nothing against the Chaldean power; and, to the _unprejudiced_ eye, it was as obvious that the Egyptians could not help him; and even had it been possible, he would only have changed masters.
But, according to the counsel of G.o.d, who takes away the understanding of the wise, these political reasons, obvious though they were, should not exercise any influence upon him, because his obdurate heart prevented him from listening to the religious arguments which Jeremiah brought before him. _Melancthon_ (opp. ii., p. 407 ff.) points it out as a remarkable circ.u.mstance that, while other prophets, _e.g._, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, exhort to a vigorous opposition to the enemies, and, in that case, promise divine a.s.sistance, yea that, to some extent, they even took an active part in the deliverance, Jeremiah, on the other hand, always preaches unconditional submission. The issue, which is as different as the advice, shows that this difference has not, by any means, its foundation in the persons, but in the state of things.
The seventy years of Chaldean servitude were irrevocably decreed upon Judah; even the exact statement of years, which else is so uncommon in reference to the fate of the covenant-people, shows how firm and determined was that decree. They had altogether, and more fully than at any other time, given themselves over to the internal power of heathenism; according to a divine necessity, they must therefore also be given over to the external power of the heathen, both for punishment and reform. G.o.d himself could not change that decree, for it rested on His nature. Hence, it would be in vain though even the greatest intercessors, Moses and Samuel, should stand before Him, Jer. xv. 1 ff.
Intercessory prayer can be effectual, only if it be offered in [Pg 368]
the name of G.o.d. But if such were the case, how foolish was it to rebel against the Chaldean power; to attempt to remove the effect, while they allowed the cause to remain; to stop the brook, while the source still continued to send forth its waters. It would have been foolish, even if the relative power of the Jews and Chaldeans had been altogether reversed. For when the Lord sells a people, one can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight (Deut. x.x.xii. 30). But the shepherd of the people had become a fool, and did not enquire after the Lord. He could not, therefore, act wisely; and the whole flock was scattered, Jer. x. 21. Jehoiakim rebelled against the Chaldeans, and for some years he was allowed to continue in the delusion of having acted very wisely, for Nebuchadnezzar had more important things to mind and to settle. But then he went up against Jerusalem, and put an end to his reign and life, Jer. xxii. 1-12; 2 Kings xxiv. 2; "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 49. As yet, the long-suffering of G.o.d, and, hence, the patience of the Chaldeans, were not at an end.
Jehoiachin or Jeconiah was raised to the throne of his father. Even the short reign of three months gave to the youth sufficient occasion to manifest the wickedness of his heart, and his enmity to G.o.d. Suspicions against his fidelity arose; a Chaldean army anew entered the city, and carried away the king, and, along with him, the great ma.s.s of the people. This was the first great deportation. In the providence of G.o.d it was so arranged that, among those who were carried away, there was the very flower of the nation. The apparent suffering was to them a blessing. They were, for their good, sent away from the place over which the storms of G.o.d"s anger were soon to discharge themselves, into the land of the Chaldeans, and formed there the nucleus for the Kingdom of G.o.d, in its impending new form, Jer. xxiv. Nothing now seemed to stand in the way of the divine judgment upon the wicked ma.s.s that had been left behind, like bad figs that no one can eat for badness,--they whom the Lord had threatened that He would give them over to hurt and calamity in all the kingdoms of the earth, to reproach, and a proverb, and a taunt, and a curse, in all places whither He would drive them, Jer. xxiv. 9. And still the Lord was waiting before He carried out this [Pg 369] threatening, and smote the land to cursing. Mattaniah or Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, who was given to them for a king, might, at least partially, have averted the evil.
But he too had to learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. From various quarters, attempts have been made to exculpate him, on the plea that his fault was only weakness, which made him the tool of a corrupt party; but Scripture forms a different estimate of him, and he who looks deeper will find its judgment to be correct,--will be able to grant to him that preference only over Jehoiakim which _C. B. Michaelis_ a.s.signed to him in the words: "Jehoiakim was of an obdurate and wild disposition; Zedekiah had some fear of G.o.d, although it was a servile, hypocritical fear, but Jehoiakim had none at all." And even this preference, when more narrowly examined, amounts to nothing, for it belongs to nature, and not to grace. Whether corruption manifests itself as weakness, or as a carnal, powerful opposition to divine truth, is accidental, and depends upon the diversity of mental and bodily organization. The fact that Zedekiah did not altogether put away from himself the truth and its messengers (_Dahler_ remarks: "He respected the Prophet, without having the power of following his advice; he even protected his life against his persecutors, but he did not venture to secure him against their vexation") cannot be put down to his credit; _he was, against his will, forced to do so_; and indeed he could not resist a powerful impression of any kind. In a man of Jehoiakim"s character, the same measure of the fear of G.o.d would induce us to mitigate our opinion; for in such a one it could not exist without some support from within.
Confiding in the help of the neighbouring nations, especially the Egyptians; persuaded by the false prophets and the n.o.bles; himself seized by that spirit of giddiness and intoxication which, with irresistible power, carried away the people to the abyss, Zedekiah broke the holy oath which he had sworn to the Chaldeans, and, after an obstinate resistance, Jerusalem was taken and destroyed. As yet, the long suffering of G.o.d, and, hence, also that of man, was not _altogether_ at an end. The conquerors left a comparatively small portion of the inhabitants in the land. The grace of G.o.d gave them Gedaliah, an excellent man, for their civil superior, and Jeremiah for their ecclesiastical [Pg 370] superior. The latter preferred to remain in the smoking ruins, rather than follow the brilliant promises of the Chaldeans, and was willing to persevere to the last in the discharge of his duty, although he was by this time far advanced in life, and oppressed with deep grief But it appears as if the people had been bent upon emptying, to the last drop, the cup of divine wrath. Gedaliah is a.s.sa.s.sinated. Even those who did not partake in the crime fled to Egypt, disregarding the word of the Lord through the Prophet, who announced a curse upon them if they fled, but a blessing if they remained.
What the Prophet had to suffer under such circ.u.mstances, one may easily imagine even without consulting history. Even although he had remained free from all personal vexations and attacks, it could not but be an immeasurable grief to him to dwell in the midst of such a generation, to see their corruption increasing more and more, to see the abyss coming nearer and nearer, to find all his faithful warnings unheeded, and his whole ministry in vain, at least as far as the ma.s.s of the people were concerned. "O that they would give me in the wilderness a lodging-place for wayfaring men"--so he speaks as early as under Josiah, chap. ix. 1 (2)--"and I would leave my people and go from them; for they are all adulterer, an a.s.sembly of treacherous men." But from these personal vexations and attacks, he neither was, nor could be exempted. Mockery, hatred, calumny, ignominy, curses, imprisonment, bonds were his portion. To bear such a burden would have been difficult to any man, but most of all to a man of his disposition. "The more tender the heart, the deeper the smart." He was not a second Elijah; he had a soft disposition, a lively sensibility; his eyes were easily filled with tears. And he who would have liked so much to live in peace and love with all, having entered into the service of truth, was obliged to become a second Ishmael, his hand against every man, and every man"s hand against him. He who so ardently loved his people, must see this love misconstrued and rejected; must see himself branded as a traitor to the people, by those men who were themselves traitors. All these things were to him the cause of violent struggles and conflicts, which he candidly lays before us in various pa.s.sages, especially in chap. xii. and [Pg 371] xx., because, by the victory, the Lord, who alone could give it, was glorified.
He was sustained by inward consolations, by wonderful deliverances, by the remarkable fulfilment of his prophecies which he himself lived to witness; but especially by the circ.u.mstance that the Lord caused him to behold His future salvation with the same clearness as His judgments; so that he could consider the latter only as transient, and, even by the most glaring contrast between the appearance and the idea, never lost the firm hope of the final victory of the former. This hope formed the centre of his whole life. For a long series of years, he is somewhat cautious in giving utterance to it; for, just as Hosea in the kingdom of the ten tribes, so he too has to do with secure and gross sinners, who must be terrified by the preaching of the Law, and the message of wrath. But, even here, single sunbeams everywhere constantly break through the dark clouds. But towards the close, when the total destruction is already at hand, and his commission to root out and destroy draws to an end, because now the Lord himself is to speak by deeds, he can, to the full desire of his heart, carry out the second part of his calling, viz., to plant and to build (compare chap. i.); and it is now, that his mouth is overflowing, that it is seen how full of it his heart had always been. The whole vocation of the Prophet, _Calvin_ strikingly expresses in these words: "I say simply that Jeremias was sent by G.o.d to announce to the people the last defeat, and, farther, to proclaim the future redemption, but in such a manner, that he always puts in the seventy years" exile." That, according to him, this redemption is not destined for Israel only, but that the Gentiles also partake in it, appears not incidentally only in the prophecies to his own people; but it is also prominently brought out in the prophecies against the foreign nations themselves, _e.g._, in the prophecy against Egypt, chap. xlvi. 26; against Moab, chap. xlviii. 47; against Ammon, xlix. 6.
In announcing the Messiah from the house of David (chap, xxii. 5, x.x.x.
9, x.x.xiii. 15), Jeremiah agrees with the former prophets. The Messianic features peculiar to him are the following:--The announcement of a revelation of G.o.d, which by far outshines the former one from above the Ark of the Covenant, and by which the Ark of the Covenant, with every [Pg 372] thing attached to it, shall become antiquated, chap. iii.
14-17; the announcement of a new covenant, distinguished from the former by greater richness in the forgiveness of sins, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: "I give my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their hearts," chap. x.x.xi. 31-34; the intimation of the impending realization of the promise of Moses: "Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests," with which the abolition of the poor form of the priesthood hitherto is connected, chap. x.x.xiii. 14-26.
As regards the style of Jeremiah, _Cunaeus_ (_de repub. Hebr._ i. 3, c.
7) pertinently remarks: "The whole majesty of Jeremiah lies in his negligent language; that rough diction becomes him exceedingly well."
It is certainly very superficial in _Jerome_ to seek the cause of that _humilitas dictionis_ of the Prophet, whom he, at the same time, calls _in majestate sensuum profundissimum_, in his origin from the _viculus Anathoth_. It would be unnatural if it were otherwise. The style of Jeremiah stands on the same ground as the hairy garment and leather girdle of Elijah. He who is sorrowful and afflicted in his heart, whose eyes fail with tears (Lament. ii. 11), cannot adorn and decorate himself in his dress or speech.
From chap. xi. 21, xii. 5, 6, several interpreters have inferred, that the Prophet first came forward in his native place Anathoth, and that, because they there said to him: "Thou shalt not prophecy in the name of the Lord, else thou shalt die by our hand," he then went to Jerusalem.
But those pa.s.sages rather refer to an experience which the Prophet made at an incidental visit in his native place, quite similar to what our Saviour experienced at Nazareth, according to Luke iv. 24. For in chap.
xxv. 3, Jeremiah says to "all the inhabitants of Jerusalem," that he had spoken to _them_ since the thirteenth year of Josiah. As early as in chap. ii. 2, at the beginning of a discourse which bears a general introductory character, and which immediately follows, and is connected with his vocation in chap. i., he receives the command: "Go, and cry into the ears of Jerusalem." The opening speech itself cannot, according to its contents, have been spoken in some corner of the country, but in the metropolis only, in the temple more specially, the centre of the nation and its spiritual dwelling place. It was there that that must be delivered which was to be told to the whole people as such.
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