Baruch, and which Fritzsche refers to the Maccabean times, appear to
be partially based upon the passage we are considering. Its heading
is: "Copy of a letter which Jeremiah sent unto those who were about to
be carried away captives to Babylon, by the king of the Babylonians;
to announce to them as was enjoined him by God." It then begins thus:
"On account of your sins which ye have sinned before God ye will be
carried away to Babylon as captives by Nabuchodonosor king of the
Babylonians. Having come, then, into Babylon, ye will be there many
years, and a long time, until seven generations; but after this I
will bring you forth from thence in peace. But now ye will see in
Babylon gods, silvern and golden and wooden, borne upon shoulders,
shewing fear (an object of fear) to the nations. Beware then, lest ye
also become like unto the nations, and fear take you at them, when
ye see a multitude before and behind them worshipping them. But say
ye in the mind: Thee it behoveth us to worship, O Lord! For Mine
angel is with you, and He is requiring your lives." The whole epistle
is well worth reading as a kind of paraphrase of our passage. "For
their tongue is carven (or polished) by a carpenter, and themselves
are overlaid with gold and silver, but lies they are and they cannot
speak." "They _being cast about with purple apparel_ have their face
wiped on account of the dust from the house, which is plentiful upon
them" (13). "But he holds a dagger with right hand and an axe, but
_himself from war and robbers he will not_ (= cannot) _deliver_" (15),
cf. Jer. x. 15. "_He is like one of the house-beams_" (20, cf. Jer. x.
8, and perhaps 5). "Upon their body and upon their head alight bats,
swallows, and the birds, likewise also the cats; whence ye will know
that they are not gods; therefore fear them not" (cf. Jer. x. 5).
"At all cost are they purchased, in which there is no spirit" (25;
cf. Jer. x. 9, 14). "_Footless, upon shoulders they are carried_,
displaying their own dishonour to men" (26). "Neither if they suffer
evil from any one, nor if good, will they be able to recompense"
(34; cf. ver. 5). "But they that serve them will be ashamed" (39;
cf. ver. 14). "By carpenters and goldsmiths are they prepared; they
become nothing but what the craftsmen wish them to become. And the
very men that prepare them cannot last long; how then are the things
prepared by them likely to do so? for they left lies and a reproach
to them that come after. For whenever war and evils come upon them,
the priests consult together where to hide with them. How then is it
possible not to perceive that they are not gods, who neither save
themselves from war nor from evils? For being of wood and overlaid
with gold and silver they will be known hereafter, that they are lies.
To all the nations and to the kings it will be manifest that they are
not gods but works of men's hands, and no work of God is in them"
(45-51; cf. Jer. x. 14-15). "_A wooden pillar in a palace_ is more
useful than the false gods" (59). "_Signs_ among nations they will not
shew _in heaven_, nor yet will they shine like the sun, nor give light
as the moon" (67). "_For as a scarecrow in a cucumber-bed guarding
nothing, so their gods are wooden and overlaid with gold and with
silver_" (70; cf. Jer. x. 5). The mention of the sun, moon and stars,
the lightning, the wind, the clouds, and fire "sent forth from above,"
as totally unlike the idols in "forms and powers," seems to shew that
the author had verses 12, 13 before him.
When we turn to the Septuagint, we are immediately struck by its
remarkable omissions. The four verses 6-8 and 10 do not appear at all
in this oldest of the versions; while the ninth is inserted between
the first clause and the remainder of the fifth verse. Now, on the one
hand, it is just the verses which the LXX. translates, which both in
style and matter contrast so strongly with Jeremiah's authentic work,
and are plainly incongruous with the context and occasion; while,
on the other hand, the omitted verses contain nothing which points
positively to another author than Jeremiah, and, taken by themselves,
harmonise very well with what may be supposed to have been the
prophet's feeling at the actual juncture of affairs.
"There is none at all like Thee, O Iahvah!
Great art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might!
Who should not fear Thee, O King of the nations? for 'tis Thy due
For among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdom
there is none at all like Thee.
And in one thing they are brute-like and dull;
In the doctrine of Vanities, which are wood!
But Iahvah Elohim is truth;
He is a living God, and an eternal King:
At His wrath the earth quaketh,
And nations abide not His indignation."
As Hitzig has observed, it is natural that now, as the terrible
decision approaches, the prophet should seek and find comfort in the
thought of the all-overshadowing greatness of the God of Israel. If,
however, we suppose these verses to be Jeremiah's, we can hardly
extend the same assumption to verses 12-16, in spite of one or two
expressions of his which occur in them; and, upon the whole, the
linguistic argument seems to weigh decisively against Jeremiah's
authorship of this piece (see Naegelsbach).
It may be true enough that "the basis and possibility of the true
prosperity and the hope of the genuine community are unfolded in these
strophes" (Ewald); but that does not prove that they belong to Jeremiah.
Nor can I see much force in the remark that "didactic language is of
another kind than that of pure prophecy." But when the same critic
affirms that "the description of the folly of idolatry ... is also quite
new, and clearly serves as a model for the much more elaborate ones,
Isa. xl. 19-24 (20), xli. 7, xliv. 8-20, xlvi. 5-7;" he is really giving
up the point in dispute. Verses 12-16 are repeated in the prophecy
against Babylon (li. 15-19); but this hardly proves that "the later
prophet, chap. l.-li., found _all these words_ in our piece;" it is only
evidence, so far as it goes, for those verses themselves.
The internal connexion which Ewald assumes, is not self-evident.
There is no proof that "the thought that the gods of the heathen might
again rule" occurred for one moment to Jeremiah on this occasion; nor
the thought that "the maintenance of the ancient true religion in
conflict with the heathen must produce the regeneration of Israel."
There is no reference throughout the disputed passage to the spiritual
condition of the people, which is, in fact, presupposed to be good;
and the return in verses 17-25 "to the main subject of the discourse"
is inexplicable on Ewald's theory that the whole chapter, omitting
verse 11, is one homogeneous structure.
_Hear ye the word that Iahvah spake upon you, O house of Israel! Thus
said Iahvah._ The terms imply a particular crisis in the history of
Israel, when a Divine pronouncement was necessary to the guidance of
the people. Iahvah speaks indeed in all existence and in all events,
but His voice becomes audible, is recognised as His, only when human
need asserts itself in some particular juncture of affairs. Then,
in view of the actual emergency, the mind of Iahweh declares itself
by the mouth of His proper spokesmen; and the prophetic _Thus said
Iahvah_ contrasts the higher point of view with the lower, the
heavenly and spiritual with the earthly and the carnal; it sets forth
the aspect of things as they appear to God, in the sharpest antithesis
to the aspect of things as they appear to the natural unilluminated
man. _Thus said Iahvah_: This is the thought of the Eternal, this is
His judgment upon present conditions and passing events, whatever
_your_ thought and your judgment may happen or incline to be! Such, I
think, is the essential import of this _vox solennis_, this customary
formula of the dialect of prophecy.
On the present occasion, the crisis in view of which a prophet declares
the mind of Iahvah is not a political emergency but a religious
temptation. The day for the former has long since passed away, and the
depressed and scattered communities of exiled Israelites are exposed
among other trials to the constant temptation to sacrifice to present
expediency the only treasure which they have saved from the wreck of
their country, the faith of their fathers, the religion of the prophets.
The uncompromising tone of this isolated oracle, the abruptness with
which the writer at once enters _in medias res_, the solemn emphasis of
his opening imperatives, proves that this danger pressed at the time
with peculiar intensity. _Thus said Iahvah: Unto the way of the nations
use not yourselves, And of the signs of heaven stand not in awe, for
that the nations stand in awe of them!_ (cf. Lev. xviii. 3; Ezek. xx.
18). The "way" of the nations is their religion, the mode and manner
of their worship (v. 4, 5); and the exiles are warned not to suffer
themselves to be led astray by example, as they had been in the land of
Canaan; they are not to adore the signs of heaven, simply because they
see their conquerors adoring them. The "signs of heaven" would seem
to be the sun, moon and stars, which were the objects of Babylonian
worship; although the passage is unhappily not free from ambiguity.
Some expositors have preferred to think of celestial phenomena such
as eclipses and particular conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, which
in those days were looked upon as portents, foreshadowing the course
of national and individual fortunes. That there is really a reference
to the astrological observation of the stars, is a view which finds
considerable support in the words addressed to Babylon on the eve of
her fall, by a prophet, who, if not identical was at least contemporary
with him whose message we are discussing. In the forty-seventh chapter
of the book of Isaiah, it is said to Babylon: "Let now them that
parcel out the heavens, that gaze at the stars, arise and save thee,
prognosticating month by month the things that will come upon thee"
(Isa. xlvii. 13). The _signs of heaven_ are, in this case, the supposed
indications of coming events furnished by the varying appearances of
the heavenly bodies; and one might even suppose that the immediate
occasion of our prophecy was some eclipse of the sun or moon, or some
remarkable conjunction of the planets which at the time was exciting
general anxiety among the motley populations of Babylonia. The prophecy
then becomes a remarkable instance of the manner in which an elevated
spiritual faith, free from all the contaminating and blinding influences
of selfish motives and desires, may rise superior to universal
superstition, and boldly contradict the suggestions of what is accounted
the highest wisdom of the time, anticipating the results though not the
methods nor the evidence of science, at an epoch when science is as yet
in the mythological stage. And the prophet might well exclaim in a tone
of triumph, _Among all the wise of the nations none at all is like unto
thee_, O Lord, as a source of true wisdom and understanding for the
guidance of life (ver. 7).
The inclusion of eclipses and comets among the signs of heaven here
spoken of has been thought to be barred by the considerations that
these are sometimes alleged by the prophets themselves as signs of
coming judgment exhibited by the God of Israel; that, as a matter
of fact, they were as mysterious and awful to the Jews as to their
heathen neighbours; and that what is here contemplated is not the
terror inspired by rare occasional phenomena of this kind, but an
habitual superstition in relation to some ever-present causes. It
is certain that in another prophecy against Babylon, preserved in
the book of Isaiah, it is declared that, as a token of the impending
destruction, "the stars of heaven and the Orions thereof shall not
give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and
the moon shall not cause his light to shine" (Isa. xiii. 10); and the
similar language of the prophet Joel is well known (Joel ii. 2, 10,
30, 31, iii. 15). But these objections are not conclusive, for what
our author is denouncing is the heathen association of "the signs of
the heavens," whatever may be intended by that expression, with a
false system of religious belief. It is a special kind of idolatry
that he contemplates, as is clear from the immediate context. Not
only does the parallel clause "Unto the way of the nations use not
yourselves" imply a gradual conformity to a heathen religion; not
only is it the fact that the Hebrew phrase rendered in our versions
"Be not dismayed!" may imply religious awe or worship (Mal. ii.
5), as indeed terms denoting fear or dread are used by the Semitic
languages in general; but the prophet at once proceeds to an exposure
of the absurdity of image-worship: _For the ordinances_ (established
modes of worship; 2 Kings xvii. 8; here, established objects of
worship) _of the peoples are a mere breath_ (_i.e._, nought)! _for
it_ (the idol) _is a tree, which out of the forest one felled_ (so
the accents); _the handiwork of the carpenter with the bill. With
silver and with gold one adorneth it_ (or, _maketh it bright_); _with
nails and with hammers they make them fast, that one sway not_ (or,
_that there be no shaking_). _Like the scarecrow of a garden of gourds
are they, and they cannot_ _speak; they are carried and carried,
for they cannot take a step_ (or, _march_): _be not afraid of them,
for they cannot hurt, neither is it in their power to benefit!_ "Be
not afraid of them!" returns to the opening charge: "Of the signs of
heaven stand not in awe!" (cf. Gen. xxxi. 42, 53; Isa. viii. 12, 13).
Clearly, then, the _signa cœli_ are the idols against whose worship
the prophet warns his people; and they denote "the sun, the moon,
the constellations (of the Zodiac), and all the host of heaven" (2
Kings xxiii. 5). We know that the kings of Judah, from Ahaz onwards,
derived this worship from Assyria, and that its original home was
Babylon, where in every temple the exiles would see images of the
deities presiding over the heavenly bodies, such as Samas (the sun)
and his consort Aa (the moon) at Sippara, Merodach (Jupiter) and his
son Nebo (Mercurius) at Babylon and Borsippa, Nergal (Mars) at Cutha,
daily served with a splendid and attractive ritual, and honoured
with festivals and processions on the most costly and magnificent
scale. The prophet looks through all this outward display to the void
within, he draws no subtle distinction between the symbol and the
thing symbolized; he accepts the popular confusion of the god with
his image, and identifies all the deities of the heathen with the
materials out of which their statues are made by the hands of men. And
he is justified in doing this, because there can be but one god in his
sense of the word; a multitude of _gods_ is a contradiction in terms.
From this point of view, he exposes the absurdity of the splendid
idolatry which his captive countrymen see all around them. Behold
that thing, he cries, which they call a god, and before which they
tremble with religious fear! It is nothing but a tree trunk hewn in
the forest, and trimmed into shape by the carpenter, and plated with
silver and gold, and fixed on its pedestal with hammer and nails, for
fear it should fall! Its terrors are empty terrors, like those of the
palm-trunk, rough-hewn into human shape, and set up among the melons
to frighten the birds away.
"Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,
Maluit esse deum. Deus inde ego, furum ariumque
Maxima formido." (Hor., _Sat._ i. 8, 1, _sqq._)
Though the idol has the outward semblance of a man, it lacks his
distinguishing faculty of speech; it is as dumb as the scarecrow,
and as powerless to move from its place; so it has to be borne about
on men's shoulders (a mocking allusion to the grand processions of
the gods, which distinguished the Babylonian festivals). Will you
then be afraid of things that can do neither good nor harm? asks the
prophet; in terms that recall the challenge of another, or perchance
of himself, to the idols of Babylon: _Do good or do evil, that we may
look at each other and see it together_ (Isa. xli. 23).
In utter contrast with the impotence, the nothingness of all the gods
of the nations, whether Israel's neighbours or his invaders, stands
for ever the God of Israel. _There is none at all like Thee, O Iahweh!
great art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might!_ With different vowel
points, we might render, _Whence_ (cometh) _Thy like, O Iahvah?_ This
has been supported by reference to chap. xxx. 7: _Alas! for great is
that day. Whence_ (is one) _like it?_ (_me`ayin?_); but there too,
as here, we may equally well translate, _there is none like it_. The
interrogative, in fact, presupposes a negative answer; and the Hebrew
particle usually rendered _there is not, are not_ (_`ayin, `ên_) has
been explained as originally identical with the interrogative _where?_
(_`ayin_, implied in _me`ayin_, "from where?" "whence?" cf. Job. xiv.
10: _where is he?_ = _he is not_). The idiom of the text expresses a
more emphatic negation than the ordinary form would do; and though
rare, is by no means altogether unparalleled (see Isa. xl. 17, xli.
24; and other references in Gesenius). _Great art Thou and great is
Thy Name in might_; that is to say, Thou art great in Thyself, and
great in repute or manifestation among men, in respect of _might_,
virile strength or prowess (Ps. xxi. 14). Unlike the do-nothing
idols, Iahvah reveals His strength in deeds of strength (cf. Exod.
xv. 3 _sqq._). _Who should not fear Thee, Thou King of the nations?_
(cf. v. 22) _for Thee it beseemeth_ (= it is Thy due, and Thine
only): _for among all the wise of the nations and in all their realm,
there is none at all_ (as in ver. 6) _like Thee_. Religious fear is
instinctive in man; but, whereas the various nations lavish reverence
upon innumerable objects utterly unworthy of the name of deity,
rational religion sees clearly that there can be but One God, working
His supreme will in heaven and earth; and that this Almighty being is
the true "King of the nations," and disposes their destinies as well
as that of His people Israel, although they know Him not, but call
other imaginary beings their _kings_ (a common Semitic designation of
a national god: Ps. xx. 9; Isa. vi. 5, viii. 21). He, then, is the
proper object of the instinct of religious awe; all the peoples of
the earth owe Him adoration, even though they be ignorant of their
obligation; worship is His unshared prerogative.
_Among all the wise of the nations and in all their realm, not one
is like Thee!_ Who are the wise thus contrasted with the Supreme
God? Are the false gods the reputed wise ones, giving pretended
counsel to their deluded worshippers through the priestly oracle?
The term "kingdom" seems to indicate this view, if we take "their
kingdom" to mean the kingdom of the wise ones of the nations, that
is, the countries whose "kings" they are, where they are worshipped
as such. The heathen in general, and the Babylonians in particular,
ascribed wisdom to their gods. But there is no impropriety from an
Old Testament point of view in comparing Iahvah's wisdom with the
wisdom of man. The meaning of the prophet may be simply this, that
no earthly wisdom, craft or political sagacity, not even in the most
powerful empires such as Babylon, can be a match for Iahvah the
All-wise, or avail to thwart His purposes (Isa. xxxi. 1, 2). "Wise"
and "sagacious" are titles which the kings of Babylon continually
assert for themselves in their extant inscriptions; and the wisdom and
learning of the Chaldeans was famous in the ancient world. Either view
will agree with what follows: _But in one thing they_--the nations,
or their wise men--_will turn out brutish and besotted_: (in) _the
teaching of Vanities which are wood_. The verse is difficult; but the
expression "the teaching (or doctrine) of Vanities" may perhaps be
regarded as equivalent to _the idols taught of_; and then the second
half of the verse is constructed like the first member of ver. 3:
_The ordinances of the peoples are Vanity_, and may be rendered, _the
idols taught of are mere wood_ (cf. ver. 3 _b_, ii. 27, iii. 9). It
is possible also that the right reading is "foundation" (_mûsad_) not
"doctrine" (_mûsar_): _the foundation_ (basis, substratum, substance)
_of idols is wood_. (The term "Vanities"--_habalim_--is used for
"idols," viii. 19, xiv. 22; Ps. xxxi. 7). And, lastly, I think, the
clause might be rendered: _a doctrine of Vanities, of mere wood,
it_--their religion--_is_![41] This supreme folly is the "one thing"
that discredits all the boasted wisdom of the Chaldeans; and their
folly will hereafter be demonstrated by events (ver. 14).
The body of the idol is wood, and outwardly it is decorated with silver
and gold and costly apparel; but the whole and every part of it is the
work of man. _Silver plate_ (lit. _beaten out_) _from Tarshish_--from
far away Tartessus in Spain--_is brought, and gold from Uphaz_ (Dan.
x. 5), _the work of the smith, and of the hands of the founder_--who
have beaten out the silver and smelted the gold: _blue and purple is
their clothing_ (Ex. xxvi. 31, xxviii. 8): _the work of the wise_--of
skilled artists (Isa. xl. 20)--_is every part of them_. Possibly the
verse might better be translated: _Silver to be beaten out_--argentum
malleo diducendum--_which is brought from Tarshish, and gold_ which is
brought _from Uphaz_, are _the work of the smith and of the hands of the
smelter; the blue and purple_ which are _their clothing_, are _the work
of the wise all of them_. At all events, the point of the verse seems to
be that, whether you look at the inside or the outside of the idol, his
heart of wood or his casing of gold and silver and his gorgeous robes,
the whole and every bit of him as he stands before you is a manufactured
article, the work of men's hands. The supernatural comes in nowhere. In
sharpest contrast with this lifeless fetish, _Iahvah is a God that is
truth_, _i.e._, a true God (cf. Prov. xxii. 21), or _Iahvah is God in
truth_--is really God--_He is a_ _living God, and an eternal King_; the
sovereign whose rule is independent of the vicissitudes of time, and the
caprices of temporal creatures: _at His wrath the earth quaketh, and
nations cannot abide His indignation_: the world of nature and the world
of man are alike dependent upon His Will, and He exhibits His power and
his righteous anger in the disturbances of the one and the disasters of
the other.
According to the Hebrew punctuation, we should rather translate:
_But Iahvah Elohim_ (the designation of God in the second account of
creation, Gen. ii. 4-iii. 24) _is truth_, _i.e._, reality; as opposed to
the falsity and nothingness of the idols; or _permanence, lastingness_
(Ps. xix. 10), as opposed to their transitoriness (vv. 11-15).
The statement of the tenth verse respecting the eternal power and
godhead of Iahvah is confirmed in the twelfth and thirteenth by
instances of His creative energy and continual activity as exhibited
in the world of nature. _The Maker of the earth by His power,
Establishing the habitable world by His wisdom, And by His insight He
did stretch out the heavens: At the sound of His giving voice_ (Ps.
lxxvii. 18; _i.e._, thundering) _there is an uproar of waters in the
heavens, And He causeth the vapours to rise from the end of the earth;
Lightnings for the rain He maketh, And causeth the wind to go forth
out of His treasuries._ There is no break in the sense between these
sentences and the tenth verse. The construction resembles that of Amos
v. 8, ix. 5, 6, and is interrupted by the eleventh verse, which in all
probability was, to begin with, a marginal annotation.
The solid earth is itself a natural symbol of strength and stability.
The original creation of this mighty and enduring structure argues
the omnipotence of the Creator; while the "establishing" or "founding"
of it upon the waters of the great deep is a proof of supreme wisdom
(Ps. xxiv. 2; cxxxvi. 6), and the "spreading out" of the visible
heavens or atmosphere like a vast canopy or tent over the earth (Ps.
civ. 2; Isa. xl. 22), is evidence of a perfect insight into the
conditions essential to the existence and wellbeing of man.
It is, of course, clear enough that physical facts and phenomena are
here described in popular language as they appear to the eye, and
by no means with the severe precision of a scientific treatise. It
is not to be supposed that this prophet knew more about the actual
constitution of the physical universe than the wise men of his time
could impart. But such knowledge was not necessary to the enforcement
of the spiritual truths which it was his mission to proclaim; and
the fact that his brief oracle presents those truths in a garb which
we can only regard as poetical, and which it would argue a want of
judgment to treat as scientific prose, does not affect their eternal
validity, nor at all impair their universal importance. The passage
refers us to God as the ultimate source of the world of nature.
It teaches us that the stability of things is a reflexion of His
eternal being; that the persistence of matter is an embodiment of His
strength; that the indestructibility which science ascribes to the
materials of the physical universe is the seal which authenticates
their Divine original. Persistence, permanence, indestructibleness,
are properly sole attributes of the eternal Creator, which He
communicates to His creation. Things are indestructible as regards
man, not as regards the Author of their being.
Thus the wisdom enshrined in the laws of the visible world, all its
strength and all its stability, is a manifestation of the Unseen God.
Invisible in themselves, the eternal power and godhead of Iahvah
become visible in His creation. And, as the Hebrew mode of expression
indicates, His activity is never suspended, nor His presence
withdrawn. The conflict of the elements, the roar of the thunder,
the flash of the lightning, the downpour of waters, the rush of the
stormwind, are His work; and not less His work, because we have found
out the "natural" causes, that is, the established conditions of
their occurrence; not less His work, because we have, in the exercise
of faculties really though remotely akin to the Divine Nature,
discovered how to imitate, or rather mimic, even the more awful of
these marvellous phenomena. Mimicry it cannot but appear, when we
compare the overwhelming forces that rage in a tropical storm with
our electric toys. The lightnings in their glory and terror are still
God's arrows, and man cannot rob His quiver.