1

The fourth collection, containing chapters xl.-xliv. inclu- | synopsis, which accordingly consists of four parts, and sive, presents us with an account of Jeremiah himself, and thirty-one prophetic discourses :of the other Jews who were left in Judæa by the command of Nebuchadnezzar. The fifty-second chapter was probably added by Ezra' as a preface to the book of Lamentations. It is chiefly taken out of the latter part of the second book of Kings, with additions, which Ezra might supply out of the inspired records, and forms a very useful appendage to the prophecies of Jeremiah, as it illustrates their fulfilment in the destruction of the kingdom, city, and temple, which are the subject of the Lamentations.

III. From the preceding statements it is obvious that the prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the chronological order in which they were originally delivered; the cause of their transposition it is now impossible to ascertain.

Professor Dahler of Strasbourg, in his French version of this prophet, divides the book into fifty-five sections, which he disposes in the following manner; viz.

1. Discourses published during the Reign of Josiah.

8. An Historical Appendix, chap. lii. 1-34.

A somewhat different arrangement, and more simple than the preceding, was proposed by the Rev. Dr. Blayney in his version of the writings of Jeremiah; who has endeavoured, with great judgment, to restore their proper order by transposing the chapters wherever it appeared to be necessary. According to his arrangement, the predictions of Jeremiah are to be placed in the following order; viz.

1. The Prophecies delivered in the Reign of Josiah, containing chapters i.-xii. inclusive.

2. The Prophecies delivered in the Reign of Jehoiakim, comprising chapters xiii.-xx. xxii. xxiii. xxxv. xxxvi. xlv.— xlviii. and xlix. 1-33.

3. The Prophecies delivered in the Reign of Zedekiah, including chapters xxi. xxiv. xxvii.—xxxiv. xxxvii.—xxxix. xlix. 34-39. and 1. li.

4. The Prophecies delivered under the Government of Gedaliah, from the taking of Jerusalem to the retreat of the people into Egypt, and the prophecies of Jeremiah delivered to the Jews in that country; comprehending chapters xl.—xliv. inclusive.

As this arrangement throws much light upon the predictions of Jeremiah, it has been adopted in the following 1 Carpzov ascribes it to Baruch, or some other inspired man. Introd. pars iii. p. 152. VOL. II. 2 M

THE INTRODUCTION to the book contains its title (i. 1-3.), the call of Jeremiah to the prophetical office, and the commission given him by God (4-10.); the purport of which is explained by two symbolical images or visions, that of an almond tree (11.) indicating the nearness, and the vision of a seething-pot typifying the severity, of the divine judgments. The face of the pot being turned from the north denoted that they were to be inflicted by the Babylonians and Chaldæans, whose empire lay to the north of Judæa, and poured forth its multitudes like a thick vapour to overspread the land. PART I. comprises such Prophecies as were delivered in the Reign of Josiah. (ch. ii.—xii.)

DISCOURSE 1. God, by his prophet, professes to retain the same kindness and favourable disposition for the Jews (ii. 1-3.), with whom he expostulates on account of their ungrateful returns for his past goodness (4-13.), and shows that it was their own extreme and unparalleled wickedness and disloyalty which had already subjected, and would still expose them to calamities and misery. (14-30.) This discourse concludes with a pathetic address, exhorting the Jews to return to God, with an implied promise of acceptance, and lamenting the necessity under which he was, through their continued obstinacy, of giving them further marks of his displeasure. (31 -37. iii. 1-5.) Dr. Blayney (to whom we are indebted for this analysis of Jeremiah's writings) thinks that this prophecy was delivered soon after the commencement of Jeremiah's prophetic commission.

DISCOURSE 2. consists of two parts. The first part contains a complaint against Judah for having exceeded the guilt of her sister Israel, whom God had already cast off for her idolatrous apostasy. (iii. 6-12.) The charge of Judah with hypocrisy in the tenth verse points out the date of this prophetic discourse to have been some time after the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, when the people, under the influence of their good king, were professedly engaged in measures of reformation, which, however, are here declared to have been insincere. The prophet is then commissioned to announce to Israel the promise of pardon upon her repentance, and the hope of a glorious restoration in after-times, which are plainly indicated to be the times of the Gospel, when the Gentiles themselves were to become a part of the church. (12-21.) The children of Israel, confessing and bewailing their sins, have the same comfortable assurances, as before, repeated to them. (22-25. iv. 1, 2.) In the second part, which is prefaced with an address to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, exhorting them to prevent the divine judgments by a timely repentance (iv. 3-5.), the Babylonian invasion is clearly and fully predicted, with all its attendant miseries; and the uni versal and incorrigible depravity of the people is represented at large, and stated to be the justly provoking cause of the national ruin. (iv. 6-31. v. vi.)

DISCOURSE 3. Although the date of this prophecy is not precisely marked, Dr. Blayney thinks it probable that it was delivered shortly after the preceding, and, it should seem, on the following occasion. Besides the prophets who were commissioned to announce the approaching calamities of Judah and Jerusalem, there were others who took upon themselves to flatter the people with opposite predictions. They taught them to regard such threats as groundless; since God (they said) would have too much regard for his own honour to suffer his temple to be profaned, and the seat of his holiness to be given up into the hands of strangers. In the former part of this discourse, therefore, Jeremiah is commanded openly to reprove the falsehood of those assertions, and to show, by an example in point, that the sanctity of the place would afford no security to the guilty; but that God would assuredly do by his house at Jerusalem, what he had done unto Shiloh, and would cast the people of Judah out of his sight, as he had already cast off the people of Israel for their wickedness. (vii. 1-16.) God justifies the severity of his proceedings by a representation of the people's impiety and idolatry. (17-20.) The prophet declares that their sacrifices would be unacceptable, while they continued deaf to the calls of God's messengers (2128.); he further specifies the gross idolatries with which they were defiled, and pronounces a heavy sentence of divine vengeance both on the dead and on the living. (29-34. viii. 1-3.) In the latter part of this discourse, the prophet, at first, in the name of Jehovah, reproves the Jews, who vainly thought that He would save them because they had his law

among them, though they kept not that law. (viii. 4-17.) | DISCOURSE 6. Under the type of breaking a potter's vessel, is Next, in his own person, Jeremiah gives vent to his lamentations at the foresight of the calamities which the Chaldæans would inflict upon the Jews (18-22. ix.); and earnestly dissuades his countrymen from idolatry (x. 1-18.), setting forth the vanity of idols in comparison with the true God. Jerusalem is then introduced, as lamenting the completion of her ruin, and humbly supplicating the divine mercy. (19—25.) In perusing this part of the prophet's discourse, the difference of speakers must be attended to; the transition from one to another being very quick and sudden, but full of animation and energy.

DISCOURSE 4. was probably delivered towards the close of Josiah's reign; when the people, having forgotten the solemn covenant-engagements which they had made in the 18th year of Josiah (2 Kings xxii. 3. xxiii. 3.) are supposed to have relapsed into their former disregard and neglect of the divine law. The prophet was, therefore, sent to recall them to their duty, by proclaiming anew the terms of the covenant, and rebuking them sharply for their hereditary disobedience. (xi. 1-8.) He denounces severe judgments against the people of Judah and Jerusalem for their idolatrous apostasy. (9-17.) Being informed, by divine revelation, of the conspiracy of the men of Anathoth against his life, he prays against them, and is authorized to foretell their utter destruction (18-23.); and, emboldened by the success of his prayers, he expostulates with God concerning the prosperity of the wicked (xii. 1—6.), who answers the prophet's expostulation (7-13.), and promises the future restoration of his people, with a retaliation in kind upon their heathen neighbours who had oppressed them: but with this reservation, that such of them as would embrace the worship of the true God, would be received and incorporated into his church, while the unbelieving part would utterly perish. (14-17.)

PART II. contains the Prophecies delivered in the reign of Jeho

iakim.

DISCOURSE 1. comprises a single and distinct prophecy; which, under two symbols, a linen girdle left to rot, and the breaking of bottles (that is, skins) filled with wine, foretells the utter destruction that was destined to fall on the whole Jewish nation. (xiii. 1-14.) An exhortation to humiliation and repentance is subjoined (v. 15-21.); and their incorrigible wickedness and profligacy are assigned as the cause of all the evils that imminently awaited them. (22-27.) The particular mention of the downfall of the king and queen in the 18th verse, Dr. Blayney thinks, will justify the opinion which ascribes this prophecy to the commencement of the reign of Jehoiakim, whose fate, with that of his queen, is in like manner noticed together in ch. xxii. 18.

DISCOURSE 2. was, in all probability, delivered shortly after the preceding. It predicts a severe famine, to punish the Jews for their sins, but which does not bring them to repentance (xiv. 1-22.); and announces God's peremptory decree to destroy Judah, unless they should speedily repent. (xv. 1-9.) The prophet, complaining that he is become an object of hatred by reason of his office, receives an assurance of divine protection, on condition of obedience and fidelity on his part. (10-21.) DISCOURSE 3. foretells the utter ruin of the Jews, in the type of the prophet being forbidden to marry and to feast (xvi. 1—13.); and immediately afterwards announces their future restoration (14, 15.), as well as the conversion of the Gentiles (16—21.); accompanied with a severe reproof of the Jews for their attachment to idolatry (the fatal consequences of which are announced), and also for their too great reliance on human aid. (xvii. 1-18.)

DISCOURSE 4. is taken up with a distinct prophecy relative to the strict observance of the Sabbath-day (xvii. 19-27.), which Jeremiah was commanded to proclaim aloud in all the gates of Jerusalem, as a matter that concerned the conduct of each individual, and the general happiness of the whole nation. -DISCOURSE 5. shows, under the type of a potter, God's absolute authority over nations and kingdoms, to alter and regulate their condition at his own discretion. (xviii. 1-10.) The prophet is then directed to exhort the Jews to avert their impending dangers by repentance and amendment, and, on their refusal, to foretell their destruction. (11-17.) The Jews conspiring against him, Jeremiah implores judgment against them. (18-23.)

Mr. Reeves and other commentators refer it to the commencement of Jehoiakim's reign, and consequently after the death of Josiah.

foretold the similar ruin and desolation of the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem for their sins (xix.); and a severe judgment is denounced against Pashur for apprehending and punishing Jeremiah (xx. 1-6.), who complains of the persecutions he met with. (7-18.) DISCOURSE 7. is supposed to have been delivered immediately after the preceding, and in the precincts of the temple, whence the prophet is commanded to "go down to the house of the king of Judah." It commences with an address to the king, his servants, and people, recommending an inviolable adherence to right and justice as the only means of establishing the throne, and preventing the ruin of both prince and people. (xxii. 1-9.) The captivity of Shallum is declared to be irreversible. (10-12.) Jehoiakim is severely reproved for his tyrannical expressions, and his miserable end is foretold. (13

19.) His family is threatened with a continuance of similar calamities; the fall and captivity of his son Jeconiah are explicitly set forth, together with the perpetual exclusion of his posterity from the throne. (20-30.) The prophecy concludes with consolatory promises of future blessings, of the return of the people from captivity, and of happier times under better governors; of the glorious establishment of Messiah's kingdom; and of the subsequent final restoration of all the dispersed Israelites to their own land. (xxiii. 1-8.) DISCOURSE 8. denounces the divine judgments against false prophets, and mockers of true prophets. (xxiii. 9-40.) DiscOURSE 9. predicts their subjugation, together with that of the neighbouring nations, to the king of Babylon for seventy years (xxv. 1-11.), at the expiration of which Babylon was to be destroyed (12-14.); and the destruction of Judah and several other countries (including Babylon herself, here called Sheshach), is prefigured by the prophet's drinking a cup of wine. (15-38.)

DISCOURSE 10. Jeremiah being directed to foretell the destruc-
tion of the temple and city of Jerusalem, without a speedy
repentance and reformation (xxvi. 1-6.), is apprehended and
accused before the council of a capital offence, but is acquitted,
his advocate urging the precedent of Micah in the reign of
Hezekiah. (7-19.) The sacred writer then observes, in his
own person, that notwithstanding the precedent of Micah,
there had been a later precedent in the present reign, which
might have operated very unfavourably to the cause of Jere-
miah, but for the powerful influence and authority exercised
DISCOURSE 11. The Jews' disobedience to God is condemned by
in his behalf by Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. (20-24.)
comparison with the obedience of the Rechabites to the com-
mands of Jonadab their father, who had prescribed to them a
certain rule of life. A blessing is promised to the Rechabites
for their dutiful behaviour. (xxxv.)

DISCOURSE 12. By divine appointment Jeremiah causes Baruch
to write all his former prophecies in a roll, and to read them
to the people on a fast-day. (xxxvi. 1-10.) The princes
being informed of it, send for Baruch, who reads the roll be-
fore them. (11-15.) Filled with consternation at its con-
tents, they advise Jeremiah and Baruch to hide themselves
(16-19.); they acquaint the king, who sends for the roll,
and having heard part of its contents, he cuts it to pieces, and
burns it. (20-26.) Jeremiah is commanded to write it anew,
and to denounce the judgments of God against Jehoiakim
(27-31.) Baruch accordingly writes a new copy with addi
tions (32.); but being greatly alarmed at the threatenings
contained in those predictions, and being perhaps afraid of
sharing in the persecutions of the prophet, God commissions
Jeremiah to assure Baruch that his life should be preserved by
a special providence amidst all the calamities denounced against
Judah. (xlv.)

DISCOURSE 13. contains a series of prophecies against severa.
heathen nations (xlvi. 1.), which are supposed to have been
placed towards the close of the book of Jeremiah, as being in
some measure unconnected with the others. As, however, in
point of time, they were evidently delivered during the reign
of Jehoiakim, they may with great propriety be referred to the
present section. In this discourse are comprised,

(1.) A prophecy of the defeat of the Egyptians that garrisoned Carche. mish, by the Chaldæans (xlvi. 2-12.), and of the entire conquest of that country by Nebuchadnezzar. (13-28.)

(2.) Predictions of the subjugation of the land of the Philistines, includ ing Tyre (xlvii.), and also of the Moabites (xlviii.), by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar.

(3.) Predictions of the conquest of the Ammonites (xlix. 1-6.) by the same monarch, and likewise of the land of Edom (7-22.), of Damas cus (23-27.), and of Kedar. (28-33.)

(that is, the ineffable name JAOH, here put for GOD HIM- | ELEGY 1. The prophet begins with lamenting the sad reverse SELF)."i

Again, in Jer. xxxi. 22. we have a distinct prediction of the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ; and in xxxi. 31 -36. and xxxiii. 8. the efficacy of Christ's atonement, the spiritual character of the new covenant, and the inward efficacy of the Gospel, are most clearly and emphatically described. Compare Saint Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. viii. 8-13. and x. 16. et seq.

V. The STYLE of Jeremiah, though not deficient in elegance or sublimity, is considered by Bishop Lowth as being inferior in both respects to Isaiah. Jerome, after some Jewish writers, has objected to the prophet a certain rusticity of expression, which however it is very difficult to trace. Though the sentiments of Jeremiah are not always the most elevated, nor his periods uniformly neat and compact; yet his style is in a high degree beautiful and tender, especially when he has occasion to excite the softer passions of grief and pity, which is frequently the case in the earlier parts of his prophecies. These are chiefly poetical. The middle of his book is almost entirely historical, and is written in a plain prosaic style, suitable to historical narrative. On many occasions he is very elegant and sublime, especially in xlvi. li. 1-59. which are wholly poetical, and in which the prophet approaches very near the sublimity of Isaiah.5

2. ON THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.

I. Author, date, and argument of the book.-II. Synopsis of its contents.-III. Observations on its style and structure.

I. THAT Jeremiah was the author of the Elegies or Lamentations which bear his name is evident, not only from a very ancient and almost uninterrupted tradition, but also from the argument and style of the book, which correspond exactly with those of his prophecies.

Josephus, Jerome, Juníus, Archbishop Usher, Michaelis, Dathe, and other eminent writers, are of opinion, that the Lamentations of Jeremiah were the same which are mentioned in 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. as being composed by the prophet on the death of the pious king Josiah, and which are there said to have been perpetuated by "an ordinance in Israel." But, whatever may have become of those Lamentations, it is evident that these cannot possibly be the same; for their whole tenor plainly shows, that they were not composed till after the subversion of the kingdom of Judah. The calamities which Jeremiah had foretold in his prophecies are here deplored as having actually taken place, viz. the impositions of the false prophets who had seduced the people by their lying declarations, the destruction of the holy city and temple, the overthrow of the state, and the extermination of the people. But though it be allowed that the Lamentations were primarily intended as a pathetic description of present calamities, yet it has with great probability been conjectured that, while Jeremiah mourns the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem, he may be considered as prophetically painting the still greater miseries they were to suffer at some future time; and this seems plainly indicated by his referring to the time when the punishment of their iniquity shall be accomplished, and they shall no more be carried into captivity. (iv. 22.)7

II. This book, which in our Bible is divided into five chapters, consists of five distinct elegies; viz.

11., from the above cited passage of Jeremiah.

of fortune which his country had experienced, confessing at the same time that all her miseries were the just consequences of the national wickedness and rebellion against God. In the midst of his discourse he withdraws himself from view, and introduces Jerusalem, to continue the complaint, and humbly to solicit the divine compassion. Jahn is of opinion, that, in this elegy, Jeremiah deplores the deportation of king Jehoiachin, and ten thousand of the principal Jews, to Babylon. Compare 2 Kings xxiv. 8-17. and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, 10. ELEGY 2. Jeremiah gives a melancholy detail of the dire effects of the divine anger in the subversion of the civil and religious constitution of the Jews, and in that extreme misery to which every class of individuals was reduced. He represents the wretchedness of his country as unparalleled; and charges the false prophets with having betrayed her into ruin by their false and flattering suggestions. In this forlorn and desolate condition, the astonishment and by-word of all who see her, Jerusalem is directed earnestly to implore the removal of those heavy judgments which God, in the height of his displeasure, had inflicted upon her.-Jahn thinks that this elegy was composed on the storming of Jerusalem by the ELEGY 3. The prophet, by describing his own most severe and Babylonian army. trying afflictions, and setting forth the inexhaustible mercies of God, as the never-failing source of his consolation, exhorts his countrymen to be patient and resigned under the divine chastisements. He asserts the divine supremacy in the dispensations of good and evil, and argues that no man has a right to complain, when he is punished according to his deserts. He recommends it to his fellow-sufferers to examine themselves, and to turn to God with contrite hearts; and concludes by expressing his hope, that the same Providence that had formerly delivered him, would frustrate the malice of his present enemies, and would turn the scornful reproach, which ELEGY 4. exhibits a striking contrast, in various affecting inthey had cast upon him, to their own confusion. stances, between the present deplorable and wretched condition of the Jewish nation and their former flourishing affairs; and ascribes the unhappy change chiefly to the profligacy of its priests and prophets. The people proceed with lamenting their hopeless condition, especially the captivity of their sovereign Zedekiah. This elegy concludes with predicting the judgments that were impending over the Edomites, together with a final cessation of Sion's calamities.

ELEGY 5. is an epilogue or conclusion to the preceding chapters or elegies. In the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate versions, this chapter is entitled THE PRAYER OF JEREMIAH; but no such title appears in the Hebrew copies, or in the Septuagint version. It is rather, as Dr. Blayney has remarked, a memorial representing, in the name of the whole body of Jewish exiles, the numerous calamities under which they groaned; and humbly supplicating God to commiserate their wretchedness, and to restore them once more to his favour, and to their ancient prosperity.

III. The Lamentations are evidently written in metre, and contain a number of plaintive effusions composed after the manner of funeral dirges. Bishop Lowth is of opinion that his mind, in a long course of separate stanzas, and that they they were originally written by the prophet, as they arose in were subsequently collected into one poem. Each elegy consists of twenty-two periods, according to the number of Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. book i. p. 481. who cites letters in the Hebrew alphabet; although it is in the four Buxtorf's Lexicon, voce nn. Dr. H. thinks that Paul derived the decla first chapters only that the several periods begin (after the ration he has made concerning Jesus Christ, in 1 Cor. i. 30. and Phil. ii. 9-manner of an acrostic) with the different letters following Professor Dahler considers this simply as a proverbial expression; and the modern Jews, and a few Christian interpreters, particularly the late Dr. Blayney in his translation of Jeremiah, have denied the application of this prophecy to the Messiah: but the following remarks will show that this denial is not authorized. According to the first evangelical promise concerning the seed of the woman, followed this prediction of the prophet: The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. (Jer. xxxi. 22.) That new creation of a man is therefore new, and therefore a creation, because wrought in a woman only, without a man, compassing a man. This interpretation is ancient, literal, and clear. The words import a miraculous conception: the ancient Jews acknowledged this sense, and applied it determinately to the Messiah. This prophecy is illustrated by that of Isaiah vii. 14.-Bp. Pearson on the Creed, art. iii. p. 171. edit. 1715, folio.

a Pref. ad Com. in Jerem.

See the whole of ch. ix. ch. xiv. 17. &c. and xx. 14-18.
Lowth's Lectures, vol. ii. pp. 88, 89.

Prof. Pareau has amply proved this point from a general collation of the Prophecies of Jeremiah with select passages of this book, in the preliminary Dissertation to his Latin version of the Lamentations (Lug. Bat.

1790. 8vo.), illustrated with notes.

Bishop Tomline's Elements of Christian Theology, vol. i. pp. 112, 113.

each other in alphabetical order. By this contrivance, the metre is more precisely marked and ascertained, particularly in the third chapter, where each period contains three verses, all having the same initial letter. The two first chapters, in like manner, consist of triplets, excepting only the seventh period of the first and the nineteenth of the second, each of which has a supernumerary line. The fourth chapter resembles the three former in metre, but the periods are only couplets; and in the fifth chapter the periods are couplets, though of a considerably shorter measure.

Although there is no artificial or methodical arrangement of the subject in these incomparable elegies, yet they are totally free from wild incoherency or abrupt transition. Never, perhaps, was there a greater variety of beautiful, tender, and pathetic images, all expressive of the deepest distress and sorrow, more happily chosen and applied than in the lamentations of this prophet; nor can we too much

I. Author and date.-II. Analysis of his prophecy.-III. Ob- credit with the Babylonian monarchs; and his uncommon