The Lord exhorts those who are anxious to be saved, to appropriate the
blessings of salvation which are so liberally offered, and which,
although bestowed without money and price, can alone truly satisfy the
soul, vers. 1 and 2. For He is to make with them a covenant of
everlasting duration, in which the eternal mercy promised to the family
of David is to be realized, ver. 3. David--such is the salvation in
store for the Church--is to be a witness, prince, and lawgiver of all
the Gentiles who, with joyful readiness, shall unite themselves to
Israel.
[Pg 343]
Ver. 1. "_Ho, all ye that thirst, come ye to the water, and ye that
have no silver, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk
without silver and without price._"
The discourse is addressed to the members of the Church pining away in
misery. By the water, salvation is denoted, as is not unfrequently the
case, comp. chap. xii. 3: "And with joy ye shall draw water out of the
wells of salvation," xliv. 3; Ps. lxxxvii. 7, lxxxiv. 7, cvii. 35. The
thirsty one is he who stands in need of salvation. To the words: "Ho,
all ye that thirst, come ye to the water," the Lord refers in John vii.
37: [Greek: ean tis dipsa erchesthô pros me kai pinetô], where the
[Greek: pros me] had been added from ver. 3. It is to be observed that
Christ there appropriates to himself what Jehovah is here speaking.
_Michaelis_ says: "Christ, in consequence of the highest identity,
makes the words of the Father His own." There is an evident reference
to the same words in Rev. xxi. 6 also: [Greek: egô tô dipsônti dôsô ek
tês pêgês tou hudatos tês zôês dôrean]. Similarly in Rev. xxii. 17:
[Greek: kai ho dipsôn erchesthô, ho thelôn labetô hudôr zôês dôrean].
In a somewhat more distant relation to the words before us, but yet
undeniably depending upon them, is John iv. 10: [Greek: su an êtêsas
auton kai edôken an soi hudôr zôn]. Vers. 13, 14: [Greek: pas ho pinôn
ek tou hudatos toutou dipsêsei palin. hos d'an piê ek tou hudatos, hou
egô dôsô autô ou mê dipsêsê eis ton aiôna]. And so does, in another
aspect. Matt. xi. 28: [Greek: deute pros me hoi kopiôntes kai
pephortismenoi kagô anapausô humas], which, however, has still nearer
points of resemblance to ver. 3; for [Greek: deute pros me] corresponds
to [Hebrew: lkv ali] in that verse; the words [Greek: kagô anapausô
humas], to: "Your soul shall live" there, but yet in such a way that
there is, at the same time, a reference to Jer. vi. 16; the [Greek:
kopiôntes kai pephortismenoi] are the thirsty ones in the verse before
us. It is remarkable to see how important this unassuming declaration
was to our Lord, and how much He had it at heart. We are thereby
urgently called upon, by means of deep and earnest study and
meditation, to arrive at the full meaning of the Old Testament, which
is everywhere connected with the New Testament, not only by the strong
and firm ties of express quotations, but also by the nicest and most
tender threads of gentle allusions. Even Matt. v. 6: [Greek: makarioi
hoi peinôntes kai dipsôntes tên dikaiosunên] comes into a close
relation to our passage, as soon as it is recognized that [Greek:
dikaiosunên] is not the subjective righteousness [Pg 344] which is
excluded from that context, but rather righteousness as a gift of God,
the actual justification, such as takes place in the bestowal of
salvation; so that, hence, the righteousness there corresponds with the
_water_ here. The subsequent "eat" furnishes the foundation for the
fact, that the need of and desire for salvation, is designated by
_hunger_ also,--"_Come ye, buy and eat._" [Hebrew: wbr] "to break," is
used of the appeasing of thirst (comp. Ps. civ. 11), and hunger (comp.
Gen. xlii. 19); and corn is called [Hebrew: wbr] for this reason that
it breaks the hunger. The verb never means "to buy" in general, but
only such a buying as affords the means of appeasing hunger and thirst.
Nor does it, in itself, stand in any relation to corn, except in so far
only as the latter is a chief moans of appeasing hunger. This we see
not only from Ps. civ. 11, but also from that which here immediately
follows, where it is used of the buying of wine and milk. The buying of
necessary provisions is commonly designated by the _Kal_; the selling
by the _Hiphil_. In Gen. xli. 26, the selling too is designated by the
_Kal_. He who causes that one can break or appease, may himself also be
designated as he who breaks or appeases. This verb, so very peculiar,
and the noun [Hebrew: wbr], occur in a certain accumulation, in the
history of Joseph only; elsewhere, their occurrence is sporadic only.
It is then to the hunger of Israel in ancient times, and to its being
appeased by Joseph, that the double [Hebrew: wbrv] alludes; and from
this circumstance also the fact is to be explained, that it is first
used in reference to food; comp. [Hebrew: wbrv vaklv] in our verse,
with [Hebrew: wbr akl] in Gen. xlii. 7-10. Christ is the true Joseph,
who puts an end to the hunger and thirst of the people of God, by
offering true food and true drink.--The word "eat" suggests substantial
food, bread in contrast to the drink by which it is surrounded on both
sides; compare John vi. 35: [Greek: egô eimi ho artos tês zôês. ho
erchomenos pros me ou mê peinasê] [Hebrew: wbrv] [Greek: kai ho
pisteuôn eis eme ou mê dipsêsê pôpote]. Ver. 55: [Greek: hê gar
sarx mou alêthôs esti brôsis, kai to hima mou alêthôs esti posis]. From
the sequel (comp. vers. 6, 7), it appears that the thrice repeated
_coming_ and the _buying_ are accomplished by true repentance, the
[Greek: metanoia], which is the indispensable condition of the
participation in the salvation. In John vi. 35, the words: [Greek: ho
erchomenos pros me] are explained by: [Greek: ho pisteuôn eis eme].
Faith is the soul of repentance.--The circumstance that the [Pg 345]
buying is done without money, intimates that the blessings of salvation
are a pure gift of divine grace. These blessings of salvation are first
designated by water; afterwards, by _wine_ and _milk_,--thus
approximating to those passages in which the blessings of the Kingdom
of Christ appear under the image of a rich repast, to which the members
of the Kingdom are invited as guests, Ps. xxii. 26-30; Matt. viii. 11,
xxii. 2; Luke xiv. 16; Rev. xix. 9.--Some Rationalistic interpreters
understand, by the offered blessings, the salutary admonitions of the
Prophet; but decisive against these are vers. 3 and 11, according to
which it is not present, but future blessings, not words, but real
things which are spoken of, viz., the salvation which is to be brought
through Christ. What that is which constitutes the substance of this
salvation, we learn from chap. liii. It is the redemption and
reconciliation by the Servant of God. Yet we must not, after the manner
of several ancient interpreters, limit ourselves to the "evangelical
righteousness." On the contrary, the whole fulness of the salvation in
Christ is comprehended in it; and according to vers. 4 and 5, this
includes the dominion over the world by the Kingdom of God,--its
dominion over the Gentile world, and the investiture of its members
with the full liberty and glory of the children of God.
Ver. 2. "_Wherefore do ye weigh money for that which is not bread, and
your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken, hearken unto me,
and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in
fatness._"
From ver. 3, we see that it is not the Prophet, but the Lord who
speaks. "That which is not bread," and "that which satisfieth not," is
something which outwardly has the appearance of good and nutritious
food, and to obtain which the hungry ones therefore strive, and exert
themselves with all their might, but which afterwards shows itself to
be food in appearance only, and which has not the power of satisfying.
"That which is not bread," is, in the first instance, the imagined
salvation which they sought to obtain from idols for much money. This
appears from the intentional literal reference to chap. xlvi. 6, where
the Prophet reproves the folly of those who, in the face of the living
God, "lavish gold out of the bag, and _weigh silver_ in the balance,
and hire a goldsmith, [Pg 346] that he make it a god, work also and
fall down." With perfect justice _Stier_ remarks: "Notwithstanding the
connection with, and allusion to, the circumstances of that time, the
word of the Prophet is to be understood in a general, spiritual way, as
a melancholy, bitter lamentation over the general misery, and man's
deep-rooted perverseness in running with effort and exertion, after
that which is pernicious to the soul, and in serving some Baal better
than Jehovah." "Fatness" occurs as a figurative designation of the
glorious gifts of God, in Ps. xxxvi. 9 also.
Ver. 3. "_Incline your ears and come unto me, hear and your soul shall
live, and I will grant to you an everlasting covenant, the constant
mercies of David._"
The introductory words allude, in a graceful manner, to two Messianic
psalms, and remind us of the fact, that the prophecy before us moves on
the same ground as these psalms. On "incline your ear, and come unto
me, hear," comp. Ps. xlv. 11: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and _incline
thine ear_ (from the fundamental passage, the Singular is here
retained), and forget thy people and thy father's house." On "your soul
shall live," comp. Ps. xxii. 27: "The meek shall eat and be satisfied,
they shall praise the Lord that seek Him, _your heart shall live for
ever_." Analogous are the references to Ps. lxxii. in chap. xi. The
soul _dies_ in care and grief In the words: "I will grant to you," &c.,
there follow the glad tidings which are to heal the dying hearts.
[Hebrew: krt brit] is used of God, even where no reciprocal agreement
takes place, but where He simply confers grace; because every grace
which He bestows imposes, at the same time, an obligation, and may
hence be considered as a covenant. The onesidedness is, in such a case,
indicated by the construction with [Hebrew: l], comp. chap. lxi. 8:
"And I give them their reward in truth, and I make (grant) to them an
everlasting covenant," Jer. xxxii. 40; Ezek. xxxiv. 25; Ps. lxxxix. 4.
Since _to make a covenant_ is here identical with _granting mercy_,
[Hebrew: akrth] may also be connected with the subsequent "the constant
mercies of David," and there is no necessity for supposing a Zeugma.
The everlasting covenant here, is the new covenant in Jer. xxxi. 31-34;
for the words "I _will_ make" show that, here too, a new covenant is
spoken of. The substance of the covenant to be made is expressed in the
words: [Pg 347] "The constant mercies of David," &c. By "David," many
interpreters here understand the descendant of David, the Messiah, who,
in other passages also, _e.g._, Jer. xxx. 9, bears the name of His
type. Even _Abenezra_ refers to the fact that, in ver. 4, the Messiah
is necessarily required as the subject. The _constant_ mercies of David
are, according to this view--in parallelism with the "everlasting
covenant"--the mercies constantly continuing, in contrast to the merely
transitory mercies, such as had been those of the first David.
According to the opinion of other interpreters, David designates here,
as in Hos. iii. 5, the family of David who, in Ps. xviii., and in a
series of other psalms, speaks in the name of his whole family. As
regards the sense, this explanation arrives at the same result. For,
according to it, the Messiah is He in whom the Davidic house attains to
its fall destiny, the channel through which the mercies of David flow
in upon the Church. For the latter interpretation, however, is decisive
the evident reference to the divine promise to David, in 2 Sam. vii.,
especially vers. 15, 16: "And my mercy shall not depart from him (thy
race) ... and constant ([Hebrew: namN]) is thine house, and thy kingdom
for ever before thee, thy throne shall be firm for ever;" compare Ps.
lxxxix. 29: "My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant
is constant in him." Ps. lxxxix. 2, 50: "Lord, where are thy former
mercies which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?" likewise suggest
that, by David, not simply Christ is to be understood, but the Davidic
family. The constant mercies of David are, accordingly, the mercies
which have been sworn to the Davidic house as _constant_, which,
therefore, can never rest until Christ has appeared with His
everlasting Kingdom, in which they find their true and full
realization. In the expectation of the Messiah from the house of David,
the prophecy under consideration goes hand in hand with chap. xi. 1,
where the Messiah appears as a twig which proceeds from the cut-down
tree of Jesse; and with chap. ix. 6, according to which He sits on the
throne of David. This passage alone is fully sufficient against those
(_Ewald_, _Umbreit_, and others) who advance the strange assertion,
that the Prophet had altogether given up the idea of a Messiah from the
house of David, and had distributed His property between Cyrus and the
prophetic order, [Pg 348] or the pious portion of the people. It is of
the greatest importance for the explanation of those passages which
treat of the Servant of God, and forms a point of union for the
Messianic passages of the first and second part. The passage before us
is quoted in Acts xiii. 34: [Greek: hoti de anestêsen auton ek nekrôn,
mêketi mellonta hupostrephein eis diaphthoran houtôs, eirêken. hoti
dôsô humin ta hosia Dabid ta pista]. [Greek: hOsia Dabid], _sancta
Davidis_, are the sacred, inviolable, inalienably guaranteed mercies
and blessings which have been promised to the house of David. As
certainly as these must be granted, so certainly Christ, who was to
bring them, could not remain in the power of death.
Ver. 4. "_Behold, I give him for a witness to the people, for a prince
and lawgiver of the people._"
Here, and in ver. 5, we have the expansion of the mercies of David.
Their greatness and glory appear from the circumstance that, around his
scion, the whole heathen world, which hitherto was hostile and
pernicious to the Church of God, will gather. The Suffix in [Hebrew:
nttiv] can refer only to David, or the family of David. From the
connection with chap. liii., it appears that it is in his descendant,
the righteous One, to whom the heathen and their kings do homage, that
David will attain to the dignity here announced. [Hebrew: ed] has no
other signification than "witness." Every true doctrine bears the
character of a witness. The teacher sent by God does not teach on his
own authority, [Greek: a mê eôraken embateuôn], but only witnesses what
he has seen and heard. With a reference to, and in explanation of the
passage before us, Christ says to Pilate, in John xviii. 37: "For this
end was I born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should
bear _witness_ unto the truth." And the passages, Rev. i. 5: "And from
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness," and Rev. iii. 14: "These
things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness," likewise point
back to the passage before us; compare farther, John iii. 11, 32, 33.
In John xviii. 37, Rev. i. 5, His being a witness is, just as in the
passage before us, connected with His being a King; so that the
reference to this passage cannot be at all doubtful. It is
intentionally that [Hebrew: ed] is put at the head. It is intended to
intimate that the future dominion of the Davidic dynasty over the
heathen world shall be essentially different from that which, in former
times, it exercised [Pg 349] over some neighbouring people. It is not
based upon the power of arms, but upon the power of truth. He in whom
the Davidic dynasty is to centre shall connect the prophetic with the
regal office; just as already, in the prophecy of the Shiloh, in Gen.
xlix. 10, the prophetic office is concealed behind the royal. The
contrast to the first David can the less be doubtful, that, while
[Hebrew: ed] is never applied to him, it is just the subsequent
[Hebrew: ngid] which, in a series of passages, is ascribed to him. In 2
Sam. vi. 21, David himself says that the Lord appointed him to be
_ruler_ over the people of the Lord, over Israel; in 2 Sam. vii. 8,
Nathan says: "I took thee from the sheep-cot to be _ruler_ over my
people, over Israel;" comp. 1 Sam. xxv. 30; 2 Sam. v. 5. In those
passages, however, David is always spoken of as a ruler over Israel; so
that even as regards the [Hebrew: ngid], the second David, the prince
of the _people_, is not only placed on a level with the first David,
but is elevate d above him. For the dominion by force which David
exercised over some heathen nations, [Hebrew: ngid] was the less
appropriate designation, inasmuch as it designates the ruler as the
chief of his people.
Ver. 5. "_Behold, thou shall call a nation that thou knowest not, and
nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy
God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for He adorneth thee._"
The words here are addressed to the true Israel, to the exclusion of
those souls who are cut off from among their people, compare Ps.
lxxiii. 1, where Israel and those that are of a clean heart go hand in
hand,--and, in substance, they also were addressed in vers. 1 and 2.
For the thirsty ones, who are there called upon to partake of the
blessings so liberally offered by the Lord, are just the members of the
Church. In connection with that glorification of David, the Church
shall invite nations from a great distance, who were hitherto unknown
to it, to its communion; and those nations who hitherto scarcely knew
by name the Church of God shall joyfully and willingly comply with the
invitation; comp. chap. ii. 2. This great change proceeds from the
Lord, the Almighty and Holy One, who, as the protector and Covenant-God
of His Church, has resolved to glorify it; for _He adorneth thee_. This
glorification consists, according to chap. iv. 2, in the appearance of
[Pg 350] Christ, the immediate consequence of which is the conversion
of the heathen world.
We must now review that exposition by which Rationalism has endeavoured
to deprive our passage of its Messianic import,--an attempt in which
_Grotius_ led the way. _Gesenius_, whom _Hitzig_, _Maurer_, _Ewald_,
and _Knobel_ follow, translates in vers. 3 and 4: "That I may make with
you an everlasting covenant, may show to you constant mercies, as once
to David. Behold, I have made him a ruler of the nations, a prince and
lawgiver of the nations," and refers both of the verses to the first
David. In ver. 5, then, the mercy is to follow which, in some future
time, God will bestow upon the whole people, as gloriously as once upon
the single David. But this explanation proves itself to be, in every
aspect, untenable.[1]
We are the less entitled to put "mercies _like_ David's" instead of
"the mercies of David," that these mercies are, elsewhere also,
mentioned in reference to the eternal dominion promised to David for
his family; comp. Ps. lxxxix. 2, 50. With the epithet, "constant,"
these interpreters do not know what to do. Apart from the promise of
the eternal dominion of his house, no constant mercies can, in the case
of David, be pointed out which would be equally bestowed upon the
people, and upon him. Moreover, [Hebrew: namniM] distinctly points back
to 2 Sam. vii. Ver. 4 forms, according to this explanation, "a
historical reminiscence, most unsuitable in the flow of a prophetic
discourse" (_Umbreit_). But what in itself is quite conclusive is the
circumstance, that the first David could not by any possibility be
designated as the _witness_ of the Gentile nations. It indeed sounds
rather _naïve_ that _Knobel_, after having endeavoured to explain
[Hebrew: ed] of the "opening up of the law," feels himself obliged to
add: "The word does not, however, occur anywhere else in this
signification." Nor could David, without farther limitation, be
designated as "the prince and lawgiver of the _peoples_;" and that so
much the more [Pg 351] that, in ver. 5, there is an invitation to the
Gentile world, and that, in ver. 4, too, the Gentile world, in the
widest sense, is to be thought of.
After the promise, there follows, in vers. 6-13, the admonition to
repentance based upon it. Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at
hand, vers. 6, 7. Do not doubt that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand,
because it does not seem probable to you. For the counsels of God go
beyond all the thoughts of men; and, therefore. He and His work must
not be judged by a human measure, vers. 8, 9. With Him, word and deed
are inseparably connected, vers. 10, 11. This will be manifested in
your redemption and glorification, vers. 12, 13.
[Footnote 1: _Vitringa_ already remarked in opposition to it: "This
exposition is rather far fetched, and is the weakest of all that can be
advanced. I add, that the constancy of the promises given to David does
not appear, if we exclude the Kingdom of the Messiah. But are any other
promises of constant and eternal blessings, such as are here promised,
to be thought of?"]
THE PROPHECY--CHAP. LXI. 1-3.
As in chaps. xlix. and l., so here, the Servant of God is introduced as
speaking, and announces to the Church what a glorious office the Lord
had bestowed upon Him, namely, to deliver them from the misery in which
they had hitherto been lying, and to work a wonderful change in their
condition. In vers. 4-9, the Prophet takes the word, and describes the
salvation to be bestowed by the Servant of God. In vers. 10 and 11, the
Church appears, and expresses her joy and gratitude.
According to the Jewish and Rationalistic interpreters, the Prophet
himself is supposed to be speaking in vers. 1-3. That opinion was last
expressed by _Knobel_: "The author places before his promises a
remembrance of his vocation as a preacher of consolation." In favour of
the Messianic interpretation, in which our Lord himself preceded His
Church (Luke iv. 17-19), are conclusive, not only the parallel
passages, but also the contents of the prophecy itself, which go far
beyond the prophetic territory, and the human territory generally. The
speaker designates himself as He who is called, not merely to announce
the highest blessings to the Church, [Pg 352] but actually to grant
them. He does not represent himself as a mere Evangelist, but rather as
a Saviour.
Ver. 1. "_The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach glad tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me
to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
opening to them that are bound._"
On the words: "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me," compare
chap. xi. 2, xlii. 1. [Hebrew: ieN] always means "because of" The whole
succeeding clause stands instead of a noun, so that, in substance,
"because of" is equivalent to "because;" but it never can mean
"therefore." Nor would the latter signification afford a good sense.
The verb [Hebrew: mwH] must, in that case, be subjected to arbitrary
explanations. The anointing, whether it occurs as a symbolical action
really carried out, or as a mere figure, is always a designation of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit; compare 1 Sam. x. 1, xvi. 13, 14, and remarks
on Dan. ix. 24. Since, then, the anointing is identical with the
bestowal of the Spirit, the words: "because the Lord hath anointed me"
must not be isolated, but must be understood in close connection with
the subsequent words; so that the sense is: And He hath, for this
reason, endowed me with His Spirit, in order that I may preach good
tidings, &c. The [Hebrew: enviM] are the [Greek: praeis] in Matt. v. 5;
[Hebrew: eni] and [Hebrew: env] are never confounded with one another.
The LXX., whom Luke follows, have [Greek: ptôchois]. This rendering
does not differ so much from the original text as to make it appear
expedient to give up the version at that time received. In the world of
sin, the meek are, at the same time, those who are suffering; and the
glad tidings which imply a contrast to their misery, show that, here
especially, the meek are to be conceived of as sufferers. The [Hebrew:
enviM], in contrast to the wicked, appear, in chap. xi. also, as the
people of the Messiah.--"The binding up"--_Stier_ remarks--"already
passes over into the actual bestowal of that which is announced." The
term [Hebrew: qra drvr] is taken from the Jubilee year, which was a
year of general deliverance for all those who, on account of debts, had
become slaves; compare Lev. xxv. 10: "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth
year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land for all the inhabitants
thereof; it shall be a jubilee year unto you, and ye [Pg 353] shall
return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man
unto his family." Such a great year of liberty is both to be proclaimed
and to be brought about by the Servant of God. For He does not announce
any thing which He does not, at the same time, grant, as is clearly
shown by ver. 3. His saying is based upon His being and nature; He
delivers from the service of the world, and brings into the glorious
liberty of the children of God.--Most of the modern interpreters agree
with the ancient versions in declaring it to be wrong to divide the
word [Hebrew: pqHqvH], although this writing is found in most of the
manuscripts. The word is, "by its form of reduplication, the most
emphatic term for the most complete opening," and designates, "opening,
unclosing of every kind, of the eyes, ears, and heart, of every barrier
and tie from within, or from without." The LXX., proceeding upon the
fact that [Hebrew: pqH] occurs, with especial frequency, of the opening
of the eyes, translate: [Greek: kai tuphlois anablepsin]. Luke does not
wish to set aside this version, because it gives one feature of the
sense; and partly also because of the close resemblance to the parallel
passage, chap. xlii. 7, which, in this way, was brought in and
connected with the passage under consideration. But since outward
deliverance and redemption are, in the first instance, to be thought
of, when opening to the captives is spoken of, be, in order to complete
the sense, adds: [Greek: aposteilai tethrausmenous en aphesei],
borrowing the expression from the Alexand. Vers. itself in chap. lviii.
6.
Ver. 2. "_To proclaim a year of acceptance to the Lord, and a day of
vengeance to our God, to comfort all that mourn._"
"A year ... to the Lord" is a year when the Lord shows himself gracious
and merciful to His people; compare chap. xlix. 8. The words farther
still allude to the Jubilee year; and it is in consequence of this
allusion, that we can account for its being a _year_ instead of a
_time_, indefinitely. In that year, a complete _restitutio in integrum_
took place. It was, for all in misery, a year of mercy, a type of the
times of refreshing (Acts iii. 19) which the Lord grants to His Church,
after it has been exercised by the Cross. Hand in hand with the year of
mercy goes the day of vengeance. When the Lord shows mercy to the meek,
and to them that mourn, this shall, at the same time, be accompanied by
a manifestation of anger [Pg 354] against the enemies of God, and of
His Church. The one cannot be thought of without the other. The mercy
of the Lord towards His people is, among other things also, manifested
in His sitting in judgment upon His and their enemies, upon the proud
world which afflicts and oppresses them. It is only in this respect
that the vengeance here comes into consideration; and it is for this
reason also, that the first feature at once reappears in the third
verse. The Lord, in quoting the verse, limits himself to the first
clause, "His first coming into the world was in the form of meekness,"
and, therefore, in the meantime, the bright side only is brought out.
Ver. 3. "_To put upon them that mourn in Zion,--to give them a crown
for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, garment of praise for a spirit of
heaviness; and they shall be called terebinths of righteousness,
planting of the Lord for glorifying._"
It is in this verse that it comes clearly out, that the speaker is not
merely to announce the mercy of God, 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
[Hebrew: wvM] and [Hebrew: ntN] is to be accounted for from the
circumstance, that the pronoun suited the first noun only--the ornament
for the head. It is only when [Hebrew: wvM] is understood in the sense,
"to put upon," or, "to put on," that there is a sufficient reason for
adding [Hebrew: ntN]; but that is not the case when it is taken in the
signification "to grant," "to appoint." [Hebrew: par] "crown," and
[Hebrew: apr] "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; God 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
circumstance which proves that it forms one whole. The threatening is
distinguished from that of Habakkuk by the circumstance, 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 circumstance, 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 principal passage 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 assemble 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 circumstance 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 God, 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 God,
invoked their idols, Ps. xvi. 4. On the words: "To serve Him with one
shoulder," comp. Is. xix. 23: "And Egypt serves with Asshur." The
words: "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," in ver. 10, rest on Is.
xviii. 1. In both of the passages, 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
God. [Hebrew: etr] 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. xxxi. 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
passages, 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 passage, 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 God 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 [Hebrew: bhM] can refer to those only from
among the nations and tongues who have come and seen the glory of God.
They are sent out to bring the message of the living God, 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 God
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 pass 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 assigned. 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.
[Hebrew: ki] in ver. 13 is to be accounted for from the fact, that
wherever there exists the blessing promised by the Law of God (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 anticipation, 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 God 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 God, 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-God, 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
assistance 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 Manasseh, 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
entitled altogether to pass 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. xxxii. 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 God upon Judah became more
perceptible. The former Asiatic dominion of the Assyrians passed over
entirely to the Chaldeans, whose fresh and youthful strength so much
the more threatened Judah with destruction, that from the Assyrians
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 assigned 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 God, 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 destitute not only
of love to God, but also of the fear of God; he furnishes the complete
image of a king whom God 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 ungodly, 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 circumstance, that God 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 God, 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 circumstance that, while other prophets, _e.g._,
Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, exhort to a vigorous opposition to the enemies,
and, in that case, promise divine assistance, 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. God 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 God. 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. xxxii. 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
God, 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 God. Suspicions
against his fidelity arose; a Chaldean army anew entered the city, and
carried away the king, and, along with him, the great mass of the
people. This was the first great deportation. In the providence of God
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 God's anger were soon to discharge themselves, into
the land of the Chaldeans, and formed there the nucleus for the Kingdom
of God, in its impending new form, Jer. xxiv. Nothing now seemed to
stand in the way of the divine judgment upon the wicked mass 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_ assigned to him in the words:
"Jehoiakim was of an obdurate and wild disposition; Zedekiah had some
fear of God, 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 God 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 nobles; 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 God, 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 God 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 assassinated. 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 circumstances, 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 mass 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 assembly 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 passages, 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 circumstance 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 God 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, xxx.
9, xxxiii. 15), Jeremiah agrees with the former prophets. The Messianic
features peculiar to him are the following:--The announcement of a
revelation of God, 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. xxxi. 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. xxxiii. 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 passages 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.
[Pg 373]
THE SECTION, CHAP. III, 14-17.
The whole Section, from chap. iii. 6, to the end of chap. vi., forms
one connected discourse, separated from the preceding context by the
inscription in chap. iii. 6, and from the subsequent context, by the
inscription in chap. vii. 1. This separation, however, is more external
than internal. The contents and tone remain the same through the whole
series of chapters which open the collection of the prophecies of
Jeremiah, and that to such a degree, that we are compelled to doubt the
correctness of the proceeding of those interpreters, who would
determine the chronological order of the single portions, and fix the
exact period in the reign of Josiah to which every single portion
belongs. If such a proceeding were admissible, why should the Prophet
have expressed himself, in the inscription of the Section before us, in
terms so general as: "And the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah
the king?" Every thing on which these interpreters endeavour to found
more accurate determinations in regard to the single Sections,
disappears upon a closer consideration. Thus, _e.g._, the twofold
reference to the seeking of help from Egypt, in chap. ii. 16 ff.,
xxxvi., xxxvii., on which _Eichhorn_ and _Dahler_ lay so much stress.
We are not entitled here to suppose a reference to a definite
historical event, which, moreover, cannot be historically pointed
out in the whole time of Josiah, but can only be supposed on unsafe
and unfounded conjectures. In both of the passages something future
is spoken of, as is evident from vers. 16 and 19. The thought is
this:--that Asshur, _i.e._, the power on the Euphrates (compare 2 Kings
xxiii. 29), which had. for a long time opened its mouth to swallow up
Judah, just as it had already swallowed up the kingdom of the ten
tribes, would not be conciliated, and that Egypt could not grant help
against him. This thought refers to historical circumstances which had
already existed, and continued to exist for some centuries, and which,
in reference to Israel, is given utterance to as early as by Hosea,
compare Vol. i. p. 164, f. Our view is this: We have here before us,
not so much a series of prophecies, each of which had literally been so
uttered at some particular [Pg 374] period in the reign of Josiah, as
rather a _resumé_ of the whole prophetic ministry of Jeremiah under
Josiah; a collection of all which, being independent of particular
circumstances of that time, had, in general, the destiny to give an
inward support to the outward reforming activity of Josiah, a specimen
of the manner in which the Prophet discharged the divine commission
which he had received a year after the first reformation of Josiah.
Even the manner in which chap ii. is connected with chap. i. places
this relation to his call beyond any doubt. We have thus before us here
the same phenomenon which we have already perceived in several of the
minor prophets; comp. _e.g._, the introduction to Micah.
In the section before us, the Prophet is engaged with a two-fold
object,--first, with the proclamation of salvation for Israel, chap.
iii. 6-iv. 2; secondly, with the threatening for Judah, chap. iv. 3, to
the end of chap. vi. It is only incidentally, in chap. iii. 18, that it
is intimated that Judah also, after the threatening has been fulfilled
upon them, shall partake in the salvation. It is self-evident that
these two objects must not be considered as lying beside one another.
According to the whole context, the announcement of salvation for
Israel cannot have any other object than that of wounding Judah. This
object even comes out distinctly in ver. 6-11, and the import of the
discourse may, therefore, be thus stated: Israel does not continue to
be rejected as pharisaical Judah imagined; Judah does not continue to
be spared.--When the Prophet entered upon his ministry, ninety-four
years had already elapsed since the divine judgment had broken in upon
Israel; every hope of restoration seemed to have vanished. Judah,
instead of being thereby warned; instead of beholding, in the sin of
others, the image of its own; instead of perceiving, in the destruction
of the kingdom of its brethren, a prophecy of its own destruction, was,
on the contrary, strengthened in its obduracy. The fact that it still
existed, after Israel had, long ago, hopelessly perished, as they
imagined, appeared to them as a seal which God impressed upon their
ways. They rejoiced at Israel's calamity, because, in it, they thought
that they saw a proof of their own excellency, just as, at the time of
Christ, the blindness of the Jews was increased by the circumstance
that they still considered themselves as the sole members of [Pg 375]
the Kingdom of God, and imagined the Gentiles to be excluded from it.
The Saviour's announcement of the calling of the Gentiles stands in the
same relation as the Prophet's announcement of the restoration of
Israel.
* * * * * * * * * *
Ver. 14. "_Turn, O apostate children, saith the Lord, for I marry
myself unto you, and I take one of a city, and two of a family, and
bring you to Zion._"
The question here is:--To whom is the discourse here addressed,--to the
members of Israel, _i.e._, the kingdom of the ten tribes, as most of
the interpreters suppose (_Abarbanel_, _Calvin_, _Schmid_, and others),
or, as others assume, to the inhabitants of Judea? The decision has
considerable influence upon the exposition of the whole passage; but it
must unhesitatingly and unconditionally be given in favour of the first
view. There is not one word to indicate a transition; the very same
phrase, "turn, O apostate children," occurs, in ver. 22, of Israel.
Apostate Israel is, in the preceding verses (6, 8, 11,) the standing
expression, while Judah is designated as treacherous, ver. 8-11. The
measure of guilt is determined by the measure of grace. The relation of
the Lord to Judah was closer, and hence, her apostacy was so much the
more culpable. _Farther_--A detailed announcement of salvation for
Judah would here not be suitable, inasmuch as no threatening preceded;
and ver. 18 ("In those days, the house of Judah shall come by the side
of [literally, 'over'] the house of Israel," according to which the
return of Judah is, in the meantime, a subordinate point which has here
been mentioned incidentally) clearly shows that that announcement of
salvation, contained in vers. 14-17, refers to Israel. To Israel the
Prophet immediately returns in ver. 19; for, from the contrast to the
house of Judah in ver. 18, and to Judah and Jerusalem in chap. iv. 3,
it is evident that by the house of Israel in ver. 20, and by the sons
of Israel in ver. 21, Israel, in the stricter sense, is to be
understood. _Finally_--It will be seen from the exposition, that it is
only on the supposition that Israel is addressed, that the contents of
ver. 16, 17, become intelligible.--In our explanation of the words
[Hebrew: ki anki belti atkM], we follow the precedent of the Vulgate
(_quia ego vir vester_), of _Luther_ ("I will [Pg 376] marry you to
me"), of _Calvin_, _Schimd_, and others. On the other hand, others,
especially _Pococke_, _ad P.M._ p. 2, _Schultens_ on Prov. xxx. 22,
_Venema_, _Schnurrer_, _Gesenius_, _Winer_, _Bleek_, have made every
endeavour to prove that [Hebrew: bel] is used _sensu malo_ here, as
well as in chap. xxxi. 32, where it occurs in a connection altogether
similar; so that the decision must be valid for both of the passages at
the same time. This signification they seek to make out in a twofold
way. Some altogether give up the derivation from the Hebrew _usus
loquendi_, and refer solely to the Arabic, where [Hebrew: bel] means
_fastidire_. Others derive from the Hebrew signification, "to rule,"
that of a tyrannical dominion, and support their right in so doing, by
referring, with _Gesenius_, to other verbs in which the signification,
_to subdue_, _to be distinguished_, _to rule_, has been changed into
that of _looking down_, _despising_, and _contemning_. As regards the
_first_ derivation, even if the Arabic _usus loquendi_ were proved, we
could not from it make any certain inference as regards the Hebrew
_usus loquendi_. But with respect to this Arabic _usus loquendi_, it is
far from being proved and established. It is true that such would not
be the case if there indeed occurred in Arabic the expression [Arabic:
**] _fastidivit vir mulierem eamque expulit, s. repudiavit_; but it is
only by a strange _quid pro quo_ that interpreters, even _Schultens_
among them, following the example of _Kimchi_, have saddled this
expression upon the Arabic. The error lies in a hasty view of _Adul
Walid_, who, instead of it, has [Arabic: **] _any one is embarrassed in
his affair_. The signification _fastidire_, _rejicere_, is, in general,
quite foreign to the Arabic. The verb [Arabic: **] denotes only: _mente
turbatus_, _attonitus fuit_, _i.e._, _to be possessed_, _deprived of
the use of one's strength_, _to be embarrassed_, _not to know how to
help one's self_: compare the _Camus_ in _Schultens_ and _Freytag_. As
soon as the plain connection of this signification with the ordinary
one is perceived, it is seen at once, that it is here out of the
question. As regards the second derivation, we must bring this
objection against it, that the fundamental signification of _ruling_,
from which that of _ruling tyrannically_ is said to have arisen, is
entirely foreign to the Hebrew. More clearly than by modern
Lexicographers it was seen by _Cocceius_, that the fundamental, yea the
only signification of [Hebrew: bel], is that of _possessing_, [Pg 377]
_occupying_. It may, indeed, be used also of rulers, as, _e.g._ Isa.
xxvi. 13, and 1 Chron. iv. 22; but not in so far as they rule, but in
so far as they possess. On the former passage: "Jehovah our God,
[Hebrew: belvnv advniM zvltiM], Lords beside thee have dominion over
us," _Schultens_, it is true, remarks: "Every one here easily
recognizes a severe and tyrannical dominion;" but it is rather the
circumstance that the land of the Lord has at all foreign possessors,
which is the real sting of the grief of those lamenting, and which so
much occupies them, that they scarcely think of the way and manner of
the possessing.--Passages such as Is. liv. 1,[1] lxii. 4, compare Job
i. 8, where a relation is spoken of, founded on most cordial love, show
that the signification "_to marry_," does not by any means proceed from
that of ruling, and is not to be explained from the absolute, slavish
dependence of the wife in the East, but rather from the signification
"to possess." And this is farther proved by passages such as Deut. xxi.
10-13, xxvi. 1, where the _copula carnalis_ is pointed out as that by
which the [Hebrew: bel] is completed. And, finally, it is seen from the
Arabic, where the wife is also called, [Hebrew: belh], [Arabic: **],
just as the husband is called [Hebrew: bel], [Arabic: **].--It is
farther obvious that, in the frequent compositions of [Hebrew: bel]
with other nouns, in order, by way of paraphrasis, to form adjectives,
the signification "lord" is far less suitable than that of "possessor,"
_e.g._, [Hebrew: bel Hlmvt], _the dreamer_, [Hebrew: bel aP], _the
angry one_, [Hebrew: bel npw], _the covetous one_, [Hebrew: bel mzmzt],
_the deceitful one_, [Hebrew: beli eir] _oppidani_, [Hebrew: beli
brit], _the members of the covenant_, etc. We arrive at the same
conclusion, if we look to the dialects. Here, too, the signification
"to possess" appears as the proper and original signification. In the
Ethiopic, the verb signifies _multum possedit, dives fuit._ In Arabic,
the significations are more varied; but they may all be traced back to
one root. Thus, _e.g._ [Arabic: **], [Hebrew: bel], according to the
_Camus_, "a high and elevated land which requires only one annual rain;
farther, a palm-tree, or any other tree or plant which is not watered,
or which the sky alone irrigates;" _i.e._, a land, a tree, a plant
which themselves _possess_, which do not require to _borrow_ from
others. This reason of the appellation clearly appears in _Dsheuhari_
(compare [Pg 378] _Schultens_ l. c.): "It is used of the palm-tree,
which, by its roots, provides for itself drink and sap, so that there
is no need for watering it." In favour of the signification "to rule"
in this verb, the following gloss from the _Camus_ only can be quoted:
"Both (the 1st and 10th conjugations) when construed with [Hebrew:
elih] _super illum_, denote: he has taken possession of a thing, and
behaved himself proudly towards it." But the latter clause must be
struck out; for it has flowed only from the false reading [Arabic: **]
in _Schultens_, for which (compare _Freytag_) [Arabic: **] _noluit_
must be read, [Hebrew: bel] with [Hebrew: el] accordingly signifies "to
be the possessor of a thing, and, as such, not to be willing to give it
up to another." And thus every ground has been taken from those who,
from the Hebrew _usus loquendi_, would interpret [Hebrew: bel] in a bad
sense,--The same result, however, which we have reached upon
philological grounds, we shall obtain also, when we look to the
context. From it, they are most easily refuted, who, like _Schultens_,
understand the whole verse as a threatening. That which precedes, as
well as that which follows, breathes nothing but pure love to poor
Israel. She is not terrified by threatenings, like Judah who has not
yet drunk of the cup of God's wrath, but allured by the call: "Come
unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, _for_ I will give you
rest." But they also labour under great difficulties who, after the
example of _Kimchi_ ("_ego fastidivi vos, eo scil. quod praeteriit
tempore, ac jam colligam vos_"), refer the [Hebrew: ki] not so much to
[Hebrew: belti], as rather to [Hebrew: lqhti]: "For I have, it is true,
rejected you formerly, but now I take," &c. This is the only shape in
which this interpretation can still appear; for it is altogether
arbitrary to explain [Hebrew: ki] by "although," an interpretation
still found in _De Wette_. If it had been the intention of the Prophet
to express this sense, nothing surely was less admissible, than to omit
just those words, upon which everything depended--the words _formerly_
and _now_. [Hebrew: lqHti] and [Hebrew: belti] evidently stand here in
the same relation; both together form the ground for the return to the
Lord. To these reasons we may still add the circumstance that,
according to our explanation, we obtain the beautiful parallelism with
ver. 12: "Return thou, apostate Israel, saith the Lord; I will not
cause mine anger to fall upon you; _for_ I am merciful; I do not keep
anger for ever,"--a circumstance which has already been [Pg 379]
pointed out by _Calvin_. Israel's haughtiness is broken; but
despondency now keeps them from returning to the Lord. He, therefore,
ever anew repeats His invitation, ever anew founds it upon the fact,
that He delights in showing mercy and love to those who have forsaken
Him. The rejection of Israel had, in ver. 8, been represented under the
image of divorce: "Because apostate Israel had committed adultery, I
had put her away, and given her the bill of divorce." What, therefore,
is more natural, than that her being received again, which was offered
to her out of pure mercy, should appear under the image of a new
marriage; and that so much the more, that the apostacy had, even in the
preceding verse, been represented as adultery and whoredom? ("_Thou
hast scattered thy ways_, _i.e._, thou hast been running about
to various places after the manner of an impudent whore seeking
lovers"--_Schmid_; compare ver. 6.) Farther to be compared is ver. 22:
"Return ye apostate children, (for) I will heal your apostacy. Behold
we come unto thee, _for_ thou art the Lord our God." The objection that
[Hebrew: bel], in the signification "to take in marriage" is construed
with the Accusative only, is of no weight. In a manner altogether
similar, [Hebrew: zkr], which else is connected with the simple
Accusative, is, in ver. 16, followed by the Preposition [Hebrew: b].
[Hebrew: bel] with [Hebrew: b] altogether corresponds to our "to join
onesself in marriage;" and the construction has perhaps a certain
emphasis, and indicates the close and indissoluble connection. Of still
less weight is another objection, viz., that, in that case, the _Suffix
Plur._ is inadmissible. It is just the Israelites who are the wife; and
this is so much the more evident that, in the preceding verses, and
even still in ver. 13, they had been treated as such. Hence nothing
remains but to determine the sense of our passage, as was done by
_Calvin_: "Because despair might take hold of them, in such a manner
that they might be afraid of approaching Him.... He saith that He would
marry himself to them, and that He had not yet forgotten that union
which He once had bestowed upon them." This is the only correct view;
and by thus determining the sense, we at the same time obtain the sure
foundation for the exposition of chap. xxxi. 32; just as, _vice versa_,
the sense which will result from an independent consideration of that
passage, [Pg 380] will serve to confirm that which was here
established.[2] In the right determination of the sense of the
subsequent words, too, _Calvin_ distinguishes himself advantageously
from the earlier, and most of the later interpreters: "God shows that
there was no reason why some should wait for others; and farther,
although the very body of the people might be utterly corrupted in
their sins, yet, if even a few were to return. He would show himself
merciful to them. The covenant had been entered into with the _whole_
people. The single individual might, therefore, have been disposed to
imagine that his repentance was in vain. But in opposition to such
fears, the Prophet says: 'Although only one of a town should come to
me, he shall find an open door; although only two of one tribe come to
me, I will admit even them.'" After him _Loscanus_ too (in his
Dissertation on this passage, Frankf. 1720) has thus correctly stated
the sense: "The small number shall not prevent God from carrying out
His counsel." Thus it is seen--and this is alone suitable in this
context--that the apparent limitation of the promise is, in truth, an
extension of it. How great must God's love and mercy be to Israel, in
how wide an extent must the declaration be true: [Greek: ametamelêta ta
charismata kai hê klêsis tou Theo], Rom. xi. 29, if even a single
righteous Lot is by God delivered from the Sodom of Israel; if Joshua
and Caleb, untouched by the pefunishment of the sins of the thousands,
reach the Holy Land; if every penitent heart at once finds a gracious
God! Thus it appears that this passage is not by any means in
contradiction to other passages by which a complete restoration of
Israel is promised. On the contrary, the [Greek: epitunchanein] of the
[Greek: eklogê] (Rom. xi. 7) announced here, is a pledge and guarantee
for the more comprehensive and general mercy.--Expositors are at
variance as to the historical reference of the prophecy. Some, _e.g._
_Theodoret_, _Grotius_, think exclusively of the return from the
Babylonish captivity. Others (after the example of _Jerome_ and the
Jewish interpreters) think of the Messianic time. It need [Pg 381]
scarcely be remarked, that here, as in so many other passages, this
alternative is out of place. The prophecy has just the very same extent
as the matter itself, and, hence, refers to all eternity. It was a
commencement, that, at the time of Cyrus, many from among the ten
tribes, induced by true love to the God of Israel, joined themselves to
the returning Judeans, and were hence again engrafted by God into the
olive-tree. It was a continuation of the fulfilment that, in later
times, especially those of the Maccabees, this took place more and more
frequently. It was a preparation and prelude of the complete
fulfilment, although not the complete fulfilment itself, that, at the
time of Christ, the blessings of God were poured upon the whole [Greek:
dôdekaphulon], Acts xxvi. 7. The words: "I bring you to Zion," in the
verse under consideration, and: "They shall come out of the land of the
North to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto their
fathers," in ver. 18, do not at all oblige us to limit ourselves to
those feeble beginnings; the idea appears here only in that form, in
which it must be realised, in so far as its realisation belonged to the
time of the Old Testament. Zion and the Holy Land were, at that time,
the seat of the Kingdom of God; so that the return to the latter was
inseparable from the return to the former. Those from among Israel who
were converted to the true God, either returned altogether to Judea,
or, at least, there offered up their sacrifices. But Zion and the Holy
Land likewise come into consideration, as the seat of the Kingdom of
God _only_; and, for that very reason, the course of the fulfilment
goes on incessantly, even in those times when even the North has become
Zion and Holy Land.--The circumstance that two are assigned to a
family, while only one is assigned to a town, shows that we must here
think of a larger family which occupied several towns; and the
circumstance that the town is put together with the family, shows that
it is cities of the land of Israel which are here spoken of, and not
those which the exiled ones inhabited.
Ver. 15. "_And I give you shepherds according to mine heart, and they
feed you with knowledge and understanding._"
The question is:--Who are here to be understood by the shepherds?
_Calvin_ thinks that it is especially the prophets and priests,
inasmuch as it was just the bad condition of these [Pg 382] which had
been the principal cause of the ruin of the people; and that it is the
greatest blessing for the Church, when God raises up true and sincere
teachers. Similar is the opinion of _Vitringa_ (_obs._ lib. vi., p.
417), who, in a lower sense, refers it to Ezra and the learned men of
that time, and, in a higher sense, to Christ. Among the Fathers of the
Church, _Jerome_ remarked: "These are the apostolical men who did not
feed the multitude of the believers with Jewish ceremonies, but with
knowledge and doctrine." Others refer it to leaders of every kind; thus
_Venema_: _Pastores sunt rectores, ductores._ Others, finally, limit
themselves to rulers; thus _Kimchi_ (_gubernatores Israelis cum rege
Messia_), _Grotius_, and _Clericus_. The latter interpretation is, for
the following reasons, to be unconditionally preferred. 1. The image of
the shepherd and of feeding occurs sometimes, indeed, in a wider sense,
but ordinarily of the ruler specially. Thus, in the fundamental
passage, 2 Sam. v. 2, it occurs of David, compare Micah v. 3. Thus also
in Jeremiah ii. 8: "The _priests_ said not. Where is the Lord, and they
that handle the law knew me not, and the shepherds transgressed against
me, and the prophets prophesied in the name of Baal;" comp. ver. 26:
"They, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their
prophets." 2. The word [Hebrew: klbi] contains an evident allusion to 1
Sam. xiii. 14, where it is said of David: "The Lord hath sought him, a
man after His own heart, and the Lord hath appointed him to be a prince
over His people." 3. All doubt is removed by the parallel passage,
chap. xxiii. 4: "And I raise shepherds over them, and they feed them,
and they fear no more, nor are dismayed." That, by the shepherds, in
this verse, only the rulers can be understood, is evident from the
contrast to the bad rulers of the present, who were spoken of in chap.
xxii., no less than from the connection with ver. 5, where that which,
in ver. 4, was expressed in general, is circumscribed within narrow
limits, and the concentration of the fulfilment of the preceding
promise is placed in the Messiah: "Behold, days come, saith the Lord,
and I raise unto David a righteous _Branch_, and He reigneth as a king
and acteth wisely, and setteth up judgment and justice in the land."
This parallel passage is, in so far also, of importance, as it shews
that the prophecy under consideration likewise had its final reference
to the [Pg 383] Messiah. The kingdom of the ten tribes was punished by
bad kings for its apostacy from the Lord, and from His visible
representative. In the whole long series of Israelitish kings, we do
not find any one like Jehoshaphat, or Hezekiah, or Josiah. And that is
very natural, for the foundation of the Israelitish throne was
rebellion. But, with the cessation of sin, punishment too shall cease.
Israel again turns to that family which is the medium and channel
through which all the divine mercies flow upon the Church of the Lord;
and so they receive again a share in them, and particularly in their
richest fulness in the exalted scion of David, the Messiah. The passage
under consideration is thus completely parallel to Hosea iii. 5: "And
they seek Jehovah their God, and David their king;" and that which we
remarked on that passage is here more particularly applicable; compare
also Ezek. xxxiv. 23: "And I raise over them one Shepherd, and He
feedeth them, my servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be
their shepherd." The antithesis to the words: "According to mine
heart," is formed by the words in Hos. viii. 4: "They have set up kings
not by me, princes whom I knew not,"--words which refer to the past
history of Israel. Formerly, the rebellious chose for themselves kings
according to the desires of their own hearts. Now, they choose Him whom
God hath chosen, and who, according to the same necessity, must be an
instrument of blessing, as the former were of cursing.--[Hebrew: deh]
and [Hebrew: hwkil] stand adverbially. [Hebrew: hwkil] "to act wisely"
is, in appearance only, intransitive in _Hiphil_. The foundation of
wisdom and knowledge is the living communion with the Lord, being
according to His heart, walking after Him. The foolish counsels of the
former rulers of Israel, by which they brought ruin upon their people,
were a consequence of their apostacy from the Lord. The two fundamental
passages are, Deut. iv. 6: "And ye shall keep and do (the law); for
this is your wisdom and understanding;" xxix. 8 (9): "Ye shall keep the
words of this covenant and do them, that ye may act wisely." Besides
the passage under consideration, the passages Josh. i. 7; 1 Sam. xviii.
14, 15; 1 Kings ii. 3; Is. lii. 13; Jer. x. 21, xxiii. 5, are founded
upon these two passages. If all these passages are compared with one
another, and with the fundamental passages, one cannot but wonder at
the arbitrariness [Pg 384] of interpreters and lexicographers who,
severing several of these passages from the others, have forced upon
the verb [Hebrew: hwkil] the signification "to prosper,"--a
signification altogether fanciful _God's_ servants act wisely, because
they look up to God; and he who acts wisely finds prosperity for
himself and his people. Hence, it is a proof of the greatest mercy of
God towards His people, when He gives them His _servants_ for kings.
Ver. 16. "_And it cometh to pass, when ye be multiplied and fruitful in
the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord! And it will not come into the heart,
neither shall they remember it, nor miss it, nor shall it be made
again._"