damp; similarly bottles are used nowadays to preserve the documents
that are built up into the memorial stones of public buildings. In
both cases the object is that "they may continue many days."
So far the prophet had proceeded in simple obedience to a Divine
command to fulfil an obligation which otherwise might excusably have
been neglected. He felt that his action was a parable which suggested
that Judah might retain its ancient inheritance,[358] but Jeremiah
hesitated to accept an interpretation seemingly at variance with the
judgments he had pronounced upon the guilty people. When he had handed
over the deed to Baruch, and his mind was no longer occupied with
legal minutiæ, he could ponder at leisure on the significance of his
purchase. The prophet's meditations naturally shaped themselves into a
prayer; he laid his perplexity before Jehovah.[359] Possibly, even
from the court of the guard, he could see something of the works of
the besiegers; and certainly men would talk constantly of the progress
of the siege. Outside the Chaldeans were pushing their mounds and
engines nearer and nearer to the walls, within famine and pestilence
decimated and enfeebled the defenders; the city was virtually in the
enemy's hands. All this was in accordance with the will of Jehovah and
the mission entrusted to His prophet. "What thou hast spoken of is
come to pass, and, behold, thou seest it." And yet, in spite of all
this, "Thou hast said unto me, O Lord Jehovah, Buy the field for money
and take witnesses--and the city is in the hands of the Chaldeans!"
Jeremiah had already predicted the ruin of Babylon and the return of
the captives at the end of seventy years.[360] It is clear, therefore,
that he did not at first understand the sign of the purchase as
referring to restoration from the Captivity. His mind, at the moment,
was preoccupied with the approaching capture of Jerusalem; apparently
his first thought was that his prophecies of doom were to be set
aside, and at the last moment some wonderful deliverance might be
wrought out for Zion. In the Book of Jonah, Nineveh is spared in spite
of the prophet's unconditional and vehement declaration: "Yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Was it possible, thought
Jeremiah, that after all that had been said and done, buying and
selling, building and planting, marrying and giving in marriage, were
to go on as if nothing had happened? He was bewildered and confounded
by the idea of such a revolution in the Divine purposes.
Jehovah in His answer at once repudiates this idea. He asserts His
universal sovereignty and omnipotence; these are to be manifested,
first in judgment and then in mercy. He declares afresh that all the
judgments predicted by Jeremiah shall speedily come to pass. Then He
unfolds His gracious purpose of redemption and deliverance. He will
gather the exiles from all lands and bring them back to Judah, and
they shall dwell there securely. They shall be His people and He will
be their God. Henceforth He will make an everlasting covenant with
them, that He will never again abandon them to misery and destruction,
but will always do them good. By Divine grace they shall be united in
purpose and action to serve Jehovah; He Himself will put His fear in
their hearts.
And then returning to the symbol of the purchased field, Jehovah
declares that fields shall be bought, with all the legal formalities
usual in settled and orderly societies, deeds shall be signed, sealed,
and delivered in the presence of witnesses. This restored social order
shall extend throughout the territory of the Southern Kingdom,
Benjamin, the environs of Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, of the hill
country, of the Shephelah and the Negeb. The exhaustive enumeration
partakes of the legal character of the purchase of Hanameel's field.
Thus the symbol is expounded: Israel's tenure of the Promised Land
will survive the Captivity; the Jews will return to resume their
inheritance, and will again deal with the old fields and vineyards and
oliveyards, according to the solemn forms of ancient custom.
The familiar classical parallel to this incident is found in Livy,
xxvi. 11, where we are told that when Hannibal was encamped three
miles from Rome, the ground he occupied was sold in the Forum by
public auction, and fetched a good price.
Both at Rome and at Jerusalem the sale of land was a symbol that the
control of the land would remain with or return to its original
inhabitants. The symbol recognised that access to land is essential to
all industry, and that whoever controls this access can determine the
conditions of national life. This obvious and often forgotten truth
was constantly present to the minds of the inspired writers: to them
the Holy Land was almost as sacred as the Chosen People; its right use
was a matter of religious obligation, and the prophets and legislators
always sought to secure for every Israelite family some rights in
their native soil.
The selection of a legal ceremony and the stress laid upon its forms
emphasise the truth that social order is the necessary basis of morality
and religion. The opportunity to live healthily, honestly, and purely is
an antecedent condition of the spiritual life. This opportunity was
denied to slaves in the great heathen empires, just as it is denied to
the children in our slums. Both here and more fully in the sections we
shall deal with in the following chapters, Jeremiah shows that he was
chiefly interested in the restoration of the Jews because they could
only fulfil the Divine purpose as a separate community in Judah.
Moreover, to use a modern term, he was no anarchist; spiritual
regeneration might come through material ruin, but the prophet did not
look for salvation either in anarchy or through anarchy. While any
fragment of the State held together, its laws were to be observed; as
soon as the exiles were re-established in Judah, they would resume the
forms and habits of an organised community. The discipline of society,
like that of an army, is most necessary in times of difficulty and
danger, and, above all, in the crisis of defeat.
FOOTNOTES:
[346] i. 10.
[347] xiv. 8, xvii. 13.
[348] Amos v. 18, 20.
[349] xxxvii. 12 (R.V.).
[350] 1 Kings xxi. 3.
[351] Lev. xxv. 25, Law of Holiness; Ruth iv.
[352] 2 Sam. xxiv. 24: cf. 1 Chron. xxi. 25, where the price is six
hundred shekels of _gold_. It is scarcely necessary to point out that
"threshing-floor" (Sam.) and "place of the threshing-floor" (Chron.)
are synonymous.
[353] By _value_ here is meant purchasing power, to which the weight
denoted by the term shekel is now no clue.
[354] Gen. xxiii. (_P._).
[355] ἀνεγνωσμένον probably a corruption of ἀνεωγμένον.
[356] The text varies in different MSS. of the LXX.
[357] Cf. Cheyne, etc., _in loco_.
[358] Verse 15 anticipates by way of summary verses 42-44, and is
apparently ignored in verse 25. It probably represents Jeremiah's
interpretation of God's command at the time when he wrote the chapter.
In the actual development of the incident, the conviction of the
Divine promise of restoration came to him somewhat later.
[359] What was said of verse 15 partly applies to verses 17-23 (with
the exception of the introductory words: "Ah, Lord Jehovah!"). These
verses are not dealt with in the text, because they largely anticipate
the ideas and language of the following Divine utterance. Kautzsch and
Cornill, following Stade, mark these verses as a later addition;
Giesebrecht is doubtful. Cf. v. 20 ff. and xxvii. 5 f.
[360] xxv. 12, xxix. 10.
CHAPTER XXXI
_RESTORATION--II. THE NEW ISRAEL_
xxiii. 3-8, xxiv. 6, 7, xxx., xxxi., xxxiii.[361]
"In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely: and this is the name whereby she shall be called."--JER.
xxxiii. 16.
The Divine utterances in chapter xxxiii. were given to Jeremiah when
he was shut up in the "court of the guard" during the last days of the
siege. It may, however, have been committed to writing at a later
date, possibly in connection with chapters xxx. and xxxi., when the
destruction of Jerusalem was already past. It is in accordance with
all analogy that the final record of a "word of Jehovah" should
include any further light which had come to the prophet through his
inspired meditations on the original message. Chapters xxx., xxxi.,
and xxxiii. mostly expound and enforce leading ideas contained in
xxxii. 37-44 and in earlier utterances of Jeremiah. They have much in
common with II. Isaiah. The ruin of Judah and the captivity of the
people were accomplished facts to both writers, and they were both
looking forward to the return of the exiles and the restoration of the
kingdom of Jehovah. We shall have occasion to notice individual points
of resemblance later on.
In xxx. 2 Jeremiah is commanded to write in a book all that Jehovah
has spoken to him; and according to the present context the "all," in
this case, refers merely to the following four chapters. These
prophecies of restoration would be specially precious to the exiles;
and now that the Jews were scattered through many distant lands, they
could only be transmitted and preserved in writing. After the command
"to write in a book" there follows, by way of title, a repetition of
the statement that Jehovah would bring back His people to their
fatherland. Here, in the very forefront of the Book of Promise, Israel
and Judah are named as being recalled together from exile. As we read
twice[362] elsewhere in Jeremiah, the promised deliverance from
Assyria and Babylon was to surpass all earlier manifestations of the
Divine power and mercy. The Exodus would not be named in the same
breath with it: "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall
no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the Israelites out
of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the
Israelites from the land of the north, and from all the countries
whither He had driven them." This prediction has waited for fulfilment
to our own times: hitherto the Exodus has occupied men's minds much
more than the Return; we are now coming to estimate the supreme
religious importance of the latter event.
Elsewhere again Jeremiah connects his promise with the clause in his
original commission "to build and to plant":[363] "I will set My eyes
upon them (the captives) for good, and I will bring them again to this
land; and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant
them, and not pluck them up."[364] As in xxxii. 28-35, the picture of
restoration is rendered more vivid by contrast with Judah's present
state of wretchedness; the marvellousness of Jehovah's mercy is made
apparent by reminding Israel of the multitude of its iniquities. The
agony of Jacob is like that of a woman in travail. But travail shall be
followed by deliverance and triumph. In the second Psalm the subject
nations took counsel against Jehovah and against His Anointed:--
"Let us break their bands asunder,
And cast away their cords from us";
but now this is the counsel of Jehovah concerning His people and their
Babylonian conqueror:--
"I will break his yoke from off thy neck,
And break thy bands asunder."[365]
Judah's lovers, her foreign allies, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and all
the other states with whom she had intrigued, had betrayed her; they
had cruelly chastised her, so that her wounds were grievous and her
bruises incurable. She was left without a champion to plead her cause,
without a friend to bind up her wounds, without balm to allay the pain
of her bruises. "Because thy sins were increased, I have done these
things unto thee, saith Jehovah." Jerusalem was an outcast, of whom
men said contemptuously: "This is Zion, whom no man seeketh
after."[366] But man's extremity was God's opportunity; because Judah
was helpless and despised, therefore Jehovah said, "I will restore
health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds."[367]
While Jeremiah was still watching from his prison the progress of the
siege, he had seen the houses and palaces beyond the walls destroyed by
the Chaldeans to be used for their mounds; and had known that every
sally of the besieged was but another opportunity for the enemy to
satiate themselves with slaughter, as they executed Jehovah's judgments
upon the guilty city. Even at this extremity He announced solemnly and
emphatically the restoration and pardon of His people. "Thus saith
Jehovah, who established the earth, when He made and fashioned
it--Jehovah is His name: Call upon Me, and I will answer thee, and will
show thee great mysteries, which thou knowest not."[368]
"I will bring to this city healing and cure, and will cause them to
know all the fulness of steadfast peace.... I will cleanse them from
all their iniquities, and will pardon all their iniquities, whereby
they have sinned and transgressed against Me."[369]
The healing of Zion naturally involved the punishment of her cruel and
treacherous lovers.[370] The Return, like other revolutions, was not
wrought by rose-water; the yokes were broken and the bands rent
asunder by main force. Jehovah would make a full end of all the
nations whither He had scattered them. Their devourers should be
devoured, all their adversaries should go into captivity, those who
had spoiled and preyed upon them should become a spoil and a prey.
Jeremiah had been commissioned from the beginning to pull down foreign
nations and kingdoms as well as his native Judah.[371] Judah was only
one of Israel's evil neighbours who were to be plucked up out of their
land.[372] And at the Return, as at the Exodus, the waves at one and
the same time opened a path of safety for Israel and overwhelmed her
oppressors.
Israel, pardoned and restored, would again be governed by legitimate
kings of the House of David. In the dying days of the monarchy Israel
and Judah had received their rulers from the hands of foreigners.
Menahem and Hoshea bought the confirmation of their usurped authority
from Assyria. Jehoiakim was appointed by Pharaoh Necho, and Zedekiah
by Nebuchadnezzar. We cannot doubt that the kings of Egypt and Babylon
were also careful to surround their nominees with ministers who were
devoted to the interests of their suzerains. But now "their nobles
were to be of themselves, and their ruler was to proceed out of their
midst,"[373] _i.e._ nobles and rulers were to hold their offices
according to national custom and tradition.
Jeremiah was fond of speaking of the leaders of Judah as shepherds. We
have had occasion already[374] to consider his controversy with the
"shepherds" of his own time. In his picture of the New Israel he uses
the same figure. In denouncing the evil shepherds, he predicts that,
when the remnant of Jehovah's flock is brought again to their folds,
He will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them,[375]
shepherds according to Jehovah's own heart, who should feed them with
knowledge and understanding.[376]
Over them Jehovah would establish as Chief Shepherd a Prince of the
House of David. Isaiah had already included in his picture of
Messianic times the fertility of Palestine; its vegetation,[377] by
the blessing of Jehovah, should be beautiful and glorious: he had also
described the Messianic King as a fruitful Branch[378] out of the root
of Jesse. Jeremiah takes the idea of the latter passage, but uses the
language of the former. For him the King of the New Israel is, as it
were, a Growth (çemaḥ) out of the sacred soil, or perhaps more
definitely from the roots of the House of David, that ancient tree
whose trunk had been hewn down and burnt. Both the Growth (çemaḥ) and
the Branch (neçer) had the same vital connection with the soil of
Palestine and the root of David. Our English versions exercised a wise
discretion when they sacrificed literal accuracy and indicated the
identity of idea by translating both "çemaḥ" and "neçer" by "Branch."
"Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise up unto David a
righteous Branch; and He shall be a wise and prudent King, and He shall
execute justice and maintain the right. In His days Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell securely, and His name shall be Jehovah
'Çidqenu,' Jehovah is our righteousness."[379] Jehovah Çidqenu might
very well be the personal name of a Jewish king, though the form would
be unusual; but what is chiefly intended is that His character shall be
such as the "name" describes. The "name" is a brief and pointed censure
upon a king whose character was the opposite of that described in these
verses, yet who bore a name of almost identical meaning--Zedekiah,
Jehovah is my righteousness. The name of the last reigning Prince of the
House of David had been a standing condemnation of his unworthy life,
but the King of the New Israel, Jehovah's true Messiah, would realise in
His administration all that such a name promised. Sovereigns delight to
accumulate sonorous epithets in their official designations--Highness,
High and Mighty, Majesty, Serene, Gracious. The glaring contrast between
character and titles often only serves to advertise the worthlessness of
those who are labelled with such epithets: the Majesty of James I., the
Graciousness of Richard III. Yet these titles point to a standard of
true royalty, whether the sovereign be an individual or a class or the
people; they describe that Divine Sovereignty which will be realised in
the Kingdom of God.[380]
The material prosperity of the restored community is set forth with
wealth of glowing imagery. Cities and palaces are to be rebuilt on their
former sites with more than their ancient splendour. "Out of them shall
proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry: and I will
multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and
they shall not be small. And the children of Jacob shall be as of old,
and their assembly shall be established before Me."[381] The figure
often used of the utter desolation of the deserted country is now used
to illustrate its complete restoration: "Yet again there shall be heard
in this place ... the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice
of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride." Throughout all the land
"which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities
thereof," shepherds shall dwell and pasture and fold their flocks; and
in the cities of all the districts of the Southern Kingdom (enumerated
as exhaustively as in xxxii. 44) shall the flocks again pass under the
shepherd's hands to be told.[382]
Jehovah's own peculiar flock, His Chosen People, shall be fruitful and
multiply according to the primæval blessing; under their new shepherds
they shall no more fear nor be dismayed, neither shall any be
lacking.[383] Jeremiah recurs again and again to the quiet, the
restfulness, the freedom from fear and dismay of the restored Israel. In
this, as in all else, the New Dispensation was to be an entire contrast
to those long weary years of alternate suspense and panic, when men's
hearts were shaken by the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of
war.[384] Israel is to dwell securely at rest from fear of harm.[385]
When Jacob returns, he "shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make
him afraid."[386] Egyptian, Assyrian, and Chaldean shall all cease from
troubling; the memory of past misery shall become dim and shadowy.
The finest expansion of this idea is a passage which always fills the
soul with a sense of utter rest. "He shall dwell on high: his refuge
shall be the inaccessible rocks: his bread shall be given him; his
waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty:
they shall behold a far-stretching land. Thine heart shall muse on the
terror: where is he that counted, where is he that weighed the
tribute? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see the
fierce people, a people of a deep speech that thou canst not perceive;
of a strange tongue that thou canst not understand. Look upon Zion,
the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet
habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall
never be plucked up, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
There Jehovah will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and
streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant
ship pass thereby."[387]
For Jeremiah too the presence of Jehovah in majesty was the only
possible guarantee of the peace and prosperity of Israel. The voices of
joy and gladness in the New Jerusalem were not only those of bride and
bridegroom, but also of those that said, "Give thanks to Jehovah
Sabaoth, for Jehovah is good, for His mercy endureth for ever," and of
those that "came to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving in the house of
Jehovah."[388] This new David, as the Messianic King is called,[389] is
to have the priestly right of immediate access to God: "I will cause Him
to draw near, and He shall approach unto Me: for else who would risk his
life by daring to approach Me?"[390] Israel is liberated from foreign
conquerors to serve Jehovah their God and David their King; and the Lord
Himself rejoices in His restored and ransomed people.
The city that was once a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a
curse among all nations shall now be to Jehovah "a name of joy, a
praise and a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall
hear all the good that I do unto them, and shall tremble with fear for
all the good and all the peace that I procure unto it."[391]
FOOTNOTES:
[361] Vatke and Stade reject chapters xxx., xxxi., xxxiii., but they
are accepted by Driver, Cornill, Kautzsch (for the most part).
Giesebrecht assigns them partly to Baruch and partly to a later
editor. It is on this account that the full exposition of certain
points in xxxii. and elsewhere has been reserved for the present
chapter. Moreover, if the cardinal ideas come from Jeremiah, we need
not be over-anxious to decide whether the expansion, illustration, and
enforcing of them is due to the prophet himself, or to his disciple
Baruch, or to some other editor. The question is somewhat parallel to
that relating to the discourses of our Lord in the Fourth Gospel.
[362] xvi. 14, 15, xxiii. 7, 8.
[363] i. 10.
[364] xxiv. 6.
[365] xxx. 5-8.
[366] xxx. 12-17.
[367] The two verses xxx. 10, 11, present some difficulty here.
According to Kautzsch, and of course Giesebrecht, they are a later
addition. The ideas can mostly be paralleled elsewhere in Jeremiah.
Verse 11 _b_, "I will correct thee with judgment, and will in no wise
leave thee unpunished," seems inconsistent with the context, which
represents the punishment as actually inflicted. Still, the verses
might be a genuine fragment misplaced. Driver (_Introduction_, 246)
says: "The title of honour 'My servant' ... appears to have formed the
basis upon which II. Isaiah constructs his great conception of
Jehovah's ideal servant."
[368] xxxiii. 2, 3; "earth" is inserted with the LXX. Many regard these
verses as a later addition, based on II. Isaiah: cf. Isa. xlviii. 6. The
phrase "Jehovah is His name" and the terms "make" and "fashion" are
specially common in II. Isaiah. xxxiii. so largely repeats the ideas of
xxx. that it is most convenient to deal with them together.
[369] xxxiii. 6-8, slightly paraphrased and condensed.
[370] xxx. 8, 11, 16, 20. Cf. also the chapters on the prophecies
concerning foreign nations.
[371] i. 10.
[372] xii. 14. xxx. 23, 24, is apparently a gloss, added as a suitable
illustration of this chapter, from xxiii. 19, 20, which are almost
identical with these two verses.
[373] xxx. 21.
[374] Cf. Chap. VIII.
[375] xxiii. 3, 4.
[376] iii. 15.
[377] Isa. iv. 2, çemaḥ; A.V. and R.V. Branch, R.V. margin Shoot or Bud.
[378] Isa. xi. 1.
[379] xxv. 5, 6; repeated in xxxiii. 15, 16, with slight variations.
[380] In xxxiii. 14-26 the permanence of the Davidic dynasty, the
Levitical priests, and the people of Israel is solemnly assured by a
Divine promise. These verses are not found in the LXX., and are
considered by many to be a later addition; see Kautzsch, Giesebrecht,
Cheyne, etc. They are mostly of a secondary character--15, 16, =
xxiii. 5, 6; here Jerusalem and not its king is called Jehovah
C̦idqenu, possibly because the addition was made when there was no
visible prospect of the restoration of the Davidic dynasty. Verse 17
is based on the original promise in 2 Sam. vii. 14-16, and is
equivalent to Jer. xxii. 4, 30. The form and substance of the Divine
promise imitate xxxi. 35-37.
[381] xxx. 18-20.
[382] xxxiii. 10-13.
[383] xxiii. 3, 4.
[384] iv. 19.
[385] xxiii. 6.
[386] xxx. 10.
[387] Isa. xxxiii. 16-21: cf. xxxii. 15-18.
[388] xxxiii. 11.
[389] xxx. 9.
[390] xxx. 21, as Kautzsch.
[391] xxxiii. 9.
CHAPTER XXXII
_RESTORATION--III. REUNION_
xxxi.
"I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the
seed of man, and with the seed of beast."--JER. xxxi. 27.
In his prophecies of restoration, Jeremiah continually couples
together Judah and Israel.[392] Israel, it is true, often stands for
the whole elect nation, and is so used by Jeremiah. After the
disappearance of the Ten Tribes, the Jewish community is spoken of as
Israel. But Israel, in contrast to Judah, will naturally mean the
Northern Kingdom or its exiled inhabitants. In this chapter Jeremiah
clearly refers to this Israel; he speaks of it under its distinctive
title of Ephraim, and promises that vineyards shall again be planted
on the mountains of Samaria. Jehovah had declared that He would cast
Judah out of His sight, as He had cast out the whole seed of
Ephraim.[393] In the days to come Jehovah would make His new covenant
with the House of Israel, as well as with the House of Judah.
Amos,[394] who was sent to declare the captivity of Israel, also
prophesied its return; and similar promises are found in Micah and
Isaiah.[395] But, in his attitude towards Ephraim, Jeremiah, as in so
much else, is a disciple of Hosea. Both prophets have the same
tender, affectionate interest in this wayward child of God. Hosea
mourns over Ephraim's sin and punishment: "How shall I give thee up,
Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee to thine enemies, O Israel? how
shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim?"[396]
Jeremiah exults in the glory of Ephraim's restoration. Hosea barely
attains to the hope that Israel will return from captivity, or
possibly that its doom may yet be averted. "Mine heart is turned
within Me, My compassions are kindled together. I will not execute the
fierceness of Mine anger, I will not again any more destroy Ephraim:
for I am God, and not man; the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee."[397] But Jehovah rather longs to pardon than finds any sign of
the repentance that makes pardon possible; and similarly the
promise--"I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall blossom as the
lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread,
and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as
Lebanon"--is conditioned upon the very doubtful response to the appeal
"O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God."[398] But Jeremiah's
confidence in the glorious future of Ephraim is dimmed by no shade of
misgiving. "They shall be My people, and I will be their God," is the
refrain of Jeremiah's prophecies of restoration; this chapter opens
with a special modification of the formula, which emphatically and
expressly includes both Ephraim and Judah--"I will be the God of all
the clans of Israel, and they shall be My people."
The Assyrian and Chaldean captivities carried men's thoughts back to
the bondage in Egypt; and the experiences of the Exodus provided
phrases and figures to describe the expected Return. The judges had
delivered individual tribes or groups of tribes. Jeroboam II. had been
the saviour of Samaria; and the overthrow of Sennacherib had rescued
Jerusalem. But the Exodus stood out from all later deliverances as the
birth of the whole people. Hence the prophets often speak of the
Return as a New Exodus.
This prophecy takes the form of a dialogue between Jehovah and the
Virgin of Israel, _i.e._ the nation personified. Jehovah announces that
the Israelite exiles, the remnant left by the sword of Shalmaneser and
Sargon, were to be more highly favoured than the fugitives from the
sword of Pharaoh, of whom Jehovah sware in His wrath "that they should
not enter into My rest; whose carcases fell in the wilderness." "A
people that hath survived the sword hath found favour in the wilderness;
Israel hath entered into his rest,"[399]--_hath_ found favour--_hath_
entered--because Jehovah regards His purpose as already accomplished.
Jehovah speaks from his ancient dwelling-place in Jerusalem, and, when
the Virgin of Israel hears Him in her distant exile, she answers:--
"From afar hath Jehovah appeared unto me (saying),
With My ancient love do I love thee;
Therefore My lovingkindness is enduring toward thee."[400]
His love is as old as the Exodus, His mercy has endured all through
the long, weary ages of Israel's sin and suffering.
Then Jehovah replies:--
"Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of
Israel;
Again shalt thou take thy tabrets, and go forth in the dances
of them that make merry;
Again shalt thou plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria,
while they that plant shall enjoy the fruit."
This contrasts with the times of invasion when the vintage was
destroyed or carried off by the enemy. Then follows the Divine
purpose, the crowning mercy of Israel's renewed prosperity:--
"For the day cometh when the vintagers[401] shall cry in the
hill-country of Ephraim,
Arise, let us go up to Zion, to Jehovah our God."
Israel will no longer keep her vintage feasts in schism at Samaria and
Bethel and her countless high places, but will join with Judah in the
worship of the Temple, which Josiah's covenant had accepted as the one
sanctuary of Jehovah.
The exultant strain continues stanza after stanza:--
"Thus saith Jehovah:
Exult joyously for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the
nations;
Make your praises heard, and say, Jehovah hath saved His
people,[402] even the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I bring them from the land of the north, and gather
them from the uttermost ends of the earth;
Among them blind and lame, pregnant women and women in
travail together."
None are left behind, not even those least fit for the journey.
"A great company shall return hither.
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I
lead them."
Of old, weeping and supplication had been heard upon the heights of
Israel because of her waywardness and apostasy;[403] but now the
returning exiles offer prayers and thanksgiving mingled with tears,
weeping partly for joy, partly for pathetic memories.
"I will bring them to streams of water, by a plain path,
wherein they cannot stumble:
For I am become once more a father to Israel, and Ephraim is
My first-born son."
Of the two Israelite states, Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, had long
been superior in power, wealth, and religion. Judah was often little
more than a vassal of Samaria, and owed her prosperity and even her
existence to the barrier which Samaria interposed between Jerusalem
and invaders from Assyria or Damascus. Until the latter days of
Samaria, Judah had no prophets that could compare with Elijah and
Elisha. The Jewish prophet is tenacious of the rights of Zion, but he
does not base any claim for the ascendency of Judah on the
geographical position of the Temple; he does not even mention the
sacerdotal tribe of Levi. Jew and priest as he was, he acknowledges
the political and religious hegemony of Ephraim. The fact is a
striking illustration of the stress laid by the prophets on the unity
of Israel, to which all sectional interests were to be sacrificed. If
Ephraim was required to forsake his ancient shrines, Jeremiah was
equally ready to forego any pride of tribe or caste. Did we, in all
our different Churches, possess the same generous spirit, Christian
reunion would no longer be a vain and distant dream. But, passing on
to the next stanza,--
"Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye nations, and make it known in
the distant islands.
Say, He that scattered Israel doth gather him, and watcheth
over him as a shepherd over his flock.
For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the
hand of him that was too strong for him.
They shall come and sing for joy in the height of Zion;
They shall come in streams to the bounty of Jehovah, for corn
and new wine and oil and lambs and calves."
Jeremiah does not dwell, in any grasping sacerdotal spirit, on the
contributions which these reconciled schismatics would pay to the
Temple revenues, but rather delights to make mention of their share in
the common blessings of God's obedient children.
"They shall be like a well-watered garden; they shall no more
be faint and weary:
Then shall they rejoice--the damsels in the dance--the young
men and the old together.
I will turn their mourning into gladness, and will comfort
them, and will bring joy out of their wretchedness.
I will fill the priests with plenty, and My people shall be
satisfied with My bounty--
It is the utterance of Jehovah."
It is not quite clear how far, in this chapter, Israel is to be
understood exclusively of Ephraim. If the foregoing stanza is, as it
seems, perfectly general, the priests are simply those of the restored
community, ministering at the Temple; but if the reference is
specially to Ephraim, the priests belong to families involved in the
captivity of the ten tribes, and we have further evidence of the
catholic spirit of the Jewish prophet.
Another stanza:--
"Thus saith Jehovah:
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuseth to be comforted for her children, for they are
not."
Rachel, as the mother of Benjamin and Joseph, claimed an interest in
both the Israelite kingdoms. Jeremiah shows special concern for
Benjamin, in whose territory his native Anathoth was situated.[404]
"Her children" would be chiefly the Ephraimites and Manassites, who
formed the bulk of the Northern Kingdom; but the phrase was doubtless
intended to include other Jews, that Rachel might be a symbol of
national unity.
The connection of Rachel with Ramah is not obvious; there is no
precedent for it. Possibly Ramah is not intended for a proper name,
and we might translate "A voice is heard upon the heights." In Gen.
xxxv. 19, Rachel's grave is placed between Bethel and Ephrath,[405]
and in 1 Sam. x. 2, in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; only here has
Rachel anything to do with Ramah. The name, however, in its various
forms, was not uncommon. Ramah, to the north of Jerusalem, seems to
have been a frontier town, and debatable territory[406] between the
two kingdoms; and Rachel's appearance there might symbolise her
relation to both. This Ramah was also a slave depot for the
Chaldeans[407] after the fall of Jerusalem, and Rachel might well
revisit the glimpses of the moon at a spot where her descendants had
drunk the first bitter draught of the cup of exile. In any case, the
lines are a fresh appeal to the spirit of national unity. The prophet
seems to say: "Children of the same mother, sharers in the same fate,
whether of ruin or restoration, remember the ties that bind you and
forget your ancient feuds." Rachel, wailing in ghostly fashion, was
yet a name to conjure with, and the prophet hoped that her symbolic
tears could water the renewed growth of Israel's national life.
Christ, present in His living Spirit, lacerated at heart by the bitter
feuds of those who call Him Lord, should temper the harsh judgments
that Christians pass on servants of their One Master. The Jewish
prophet lamenting the miseries of schismatic Israel contrasts with the
Pope singing _Te Deums_ over the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Then comes the answer:--
"Thus saith Jehovah:
Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears.
Thou shalt have wages for thy labour--it is the utterance of
Jehovah--they shall return from the enemy's land.
There is hope for thee in the days to come--it is the
utterance of Jehovah--thy children shall return to
their own border."[408]
The Niobe of the nation is comforted, but now is heard another voice:--
"Surely I hear Ephraim bemoaning himself: Thou hast chastised
me; I am chastised like a calf not yet broken to the
yoke.
Restore me to Thy favour, that I may return unto Thee, for
Thou art Jehovah my God.
In returning unto Thee, I repent; when I come to myself, I
smite upon my thigh in penitence."[409]
The image of the calf is another reminiscence of Hosea, with whom
Israel figures as a "backsliding heifer" and Ephraim as a "heifer that
has been broken in and loveth to tread out the corn"; though
apparently in Hosea Ephraim is broken in to wickedness. Possibly this
figure was suggested by the calves at Bethel and Dan.
The moaning of Ephraim, like the wailing of Rachel, is met and
answered by the Divine compassion. By a bold and touching figure,
Jehovah is represented as surprised at the depth of His passionate
affection for His prodigal son:--
"Can it be that Ephraim is indeed a son that is precious to
Me? is he indeed a darling child?
As often as I speak against him, I cannot cease to remember
him,[410]
Wherefore My tender compassion is moved towards him: verily I
will have mercy on him--
It is the utterance of Jehovah."
As with Hosea, Israel is still the child whom Jehovah loved, the son
whom He called out of Egypt. But now Israel is called with a more
effectual calling:--
"Set thee up pillars of stone,[411] to mark the way; make thee
guide-posts: set thy heart toward the highway
whereby thou wentest.
Return, O Virgin of Israel, return unto these thy cities."
The following verse strikes a note of discord, that suggests the
revulsion of feeling, the sudden access of doubt, that sometimes
follows the most ecstatic moods:--
"How long wilt thou wander to and fro, O backsliding daughter?
Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth--a woman shall
compass a man."
It is just possible that this verse is not intended to express doubt
of Israel's cordial response, but is merely an affectionate urgency
that presses the immediate appropriation of the promised blessings.
But such an exegesis seems forced, and the verse is a strange
termination to the glowing stanzas that precede. It may have been
added when all hope of the return of the ten tribes was over.[412]
The meaning of the concluding enigma is as profound a mystery as the
fate of the lost tribes, and the solutions rather more unsatisfactory.
The words apparently denote that the male and the female shall
interchange functions, and an explanation often given is that, in the
profound peace of the New Dispensation, the women will protect the men.
This portent seems to be the sign which is to win the Virgin of Israel
from her vacillation and induce her to return at once to Palestine.
In Isaiah xliii. 19 the "new thing" which Jehovah does is to make a
way in the untrodden desert and rivers in the parched wilderness. A
parallel interpretation, suggested for our passage, is that women
should develop manly strength and courage, as abnormal to them as
roads and rivers to a wilderness. When women were thus endowed, men
could not for shame shrink from the perils of the Return.
In Isaiah iv. 1 seven women court one man, and it has been
suggested[413] that the sense here is "women shall court men," but it
is difficult to see how this would be relevant. Another parallel has
been sought for in the Immanuel and other prophecies of Isaiah, in
which the birth of a child is set forth as a sign. Our passage would
then assume a Messianic character; the return of the Virgin of Israel
would be postponed till her doubts and difficulties should be solved
by the appearance of a new Moses.[414] This view has much to commend
it, but does not very readily follow from the usage of the word
translated "compass." Still less can we regard these words as a
prediction of the miraculous conception of our Lord.
The next stanza connects the restoration of Judah with that of
Ephraim, and, for the most part, goes over ground already traversed in
our previous chapters; one or two points only need be noticed here. It
is in accordance with the catholic and gracious spirit which
characterises this chapter that the restoration of Judah is expressly
connected with that of Ephraim. The combination of the future fortunes
of both in a single prophecy emphasises their reunion. The heading of
this stanza, "Thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, the God of Israel," is
different from that hitherto used, and has a special significance in
its present context. It is "the God of Israel" to whom Ephraim is a
darling child and a first-born son, the God of that Israel which for
centuries stood before the world as Ephraim; it is this God who
blesses and redeems Judah. Her faint and weary soul is also to be
satisfied with His plenty; Zion is to be honoured as the habitation of
justice and the mountain of holiness.
"Hereupon," saith the prophet, "I awaked and looked about me, and felt
that my sleep had been pleasant to me." The vision had come to him, in
some sense, as a dream. Zechariah[415] had to be aroused, like a man
wakened out of his sleep, in order to receive the Divine message; and
possibly Zechariah's sleep was the ecstatic trance in which he had
beheld previous visions. Jeremiah, however, shows scant
confidence[416] in the inspiration of those who dream dreams, and it
does not seem likely that this is a unique exception to his ordinary
experience. Perhaps we may say with Orelli that the prophet had become
lost in the vision of future blessedness as in some sweet dream.
In the following stanza Jehovah promises to recruit the dwindled
numbers of Israel and Judah; with a sowing more gracious and fortunate
than that of Cadmus, He will scatter[417] over the land, not dragons'
teeth, but the seed of man and beast. Recurring[418] to Jeremiah's
original commission, He promises that as He watched over Judah to
pluck up and to break down, to overthrow and to destroy and to
afflict, so now He will watch over them to build and to plant.
The next verse is directed against a lingering dread, by which men's
minds were still possessed. More than half a century elapsed between
the death of Manasseh and the fall of Jerusalem. He was succeeded by
Josiah, who "turned to Jehovah with all his heart, and with all his
soul, and with all his might."[419] Yet Jehovah declared to Jeremiah
that Manasseh's sins had irrevocably fixed the doom of Judah, so that
not even the intercession of Moses and Samuel could procure her
pardon.[420] Men might well doubt whether the guilt of that wicked
reign was even yet fully expiated, whether their teeth might not still
be set on edge because of the sour grapes which Manasseh had eaten.
Therefore the prophet continues: "In those days men shall no longer
say, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are
set on edge; but every man shall die for his own transgression, all
who eat sour grapes shall have their own teeth set on edge." Or to use
the explicit words of Ezekiel, in the great chapter in which he
discusses this permanent theological difficulty: "The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the
father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness
of the wicked shall be upon him."[421] With the fall of Jerusalem, a
chapter in the history of Israel was concluded for ever; Jehovah
blotted out the damning record of the past, and turned over a new leaf
in the annals of His people. The account between Jehovah and the
Israel of the monarchy was finally closed, and no penal balance was
carried over to stand against the restored community.
The last portion of this chapter is so important that we must reserve
it for separate treatment, but we may pause for a moment to consider
the prophecy of the restoration of Ephraim from two points of
view--the unity of Israel and the return of the ten tribes.
In the first place, this chapter is an eirenicon, intended to consign
to oblivion the divisions and feuds of the Chosen People. After the
fall of Samaria, the remnant of Israel had naturally looked to Judah
for support and protection, and the growing weakness of Assyria had
allowed the Jewish kings to exercise a certain authority over the
territory of northern tribes. The same fate--the sack of the capital
and the deportation of most of the inhabitants--had successively
befallen Ephraim and Judah. His sense of the unity of the race was too
strong to allow the prophet to be satisfied with the return of Judah
and Benjamin, apart from the other tribes. Yet it would have been
monstrous to suppose that Jehovah would bring back Ephraim from
Assyria, and Judah from Babylon, only that they might resume their
mutual hatred and suspicion. Even wild beasts are said not to rend one
another when they are driven by floods to the same hill-top.
Thus various causes contributed to produce a kindlier feeling between
the survivors of the catastrophes of Samaria and Jerusalem; and from
henceforth those of the ten tribes who found their way back to Palestine
lived in brotherly union with the other Jews. And, on the whole, the
Jews have since remained united both as a race and a religious
community. It is true that the relations of the later Jews to Samaria
were somewhat at variance both with the letter and spirit of this
prophecy, but that Samaria had only the slightest claim to be included
in Israel. Otherwise the divisions between Hillel and Shammai, Sadducees
and Pharisees, Karaites, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Reformed and
Unreformed Jews, have rather been legitimate varieties of opinion and
practice within Judaism than a rending asunder of the Israel of God.
Matters stand very differently with regard to the restoration of
Ephraim. We know that individual members and families of the ten
tribes were included in the new Jewish community, and that the Jews
reoccupied Galilee and portions of Eastern Palestine. But the
husbandmen who had planted vineyards on the hills of Samaria were
violently repulsed by Ezra and Nehemiah, and were denied any part or
lot in the restored Israel. The tribal inheritance of Ephraim and
Manasseh was never reoccupied by Ephraimites and Manassites who came
to worship Jehovah in His Temple at Jerusalem. There was no return of
the ten tribes that in any way corresponded to the terms of this
prophecy or that could rank with the return of their brethren. Our
growing acquaintance with the races of the world seems likely to
exclude even the possibility of any such restoration of Ephraim. Of
the two divisions of Israel, so long united in common experiences of
grace and chastisement, the one has been taken and the other left.
Christendom is the true heir of the ideals of Israel, but she is
mostly content to inherit them as counsels of perfection. Isaiah[422]
struck the keynote of this chapter when he prophesied that Ephraim
should not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim. Our prophet, in the
same generous spirit, propounds a programme of reconciliation. It
might serve for a model to those who construct schemes for Christian
Reunion. When two denominations are able to unite on such terms that
the one admits the other to be the first-born of God, His darling
child and precious in His sight, and the latter is willing to accept
the former's central sanctuary as the headquarters of the united body,
we shall have come some way towards realising this ancient Jewish
ideal. Meanwhile Ephraim remains consumed with envy of Judah; and
Judah apparently considers it her most sacred duty to vex Ephraim.
Moreover the disappearance of what was at one time the most
flourishing branch of the Hebrew Church has many parallels in Church
History. Again and again religious dissension has been one of the
causes of political ruin, and the overthrow of a Christian state has
sometimes involved the extinction of its religion. Christian thought
and doctrine owe an immense debt to the great Churches of Northern
Africa and Egypt. But these provinces were torn by the dissensions of
ecclesiastical parties; and the quarrels of Donatists, Arians, and
Catholics in North Africa, the endless controversies over the Person
of Christ in Egypt, left them helpless before the Saracen invader.
To-day the Church of Tertullian and Augustine is blotted out, and the
Church of Origen and Clement is a miserable remnant. Similarly the
ecclesiastical strife between Rome and Constantinople lost to
Christendom some of the fairest provinces of Europe and Asia, and
placed Christian races under the rule of the Turk.
Even now the cause of Christians in heathen and Mohammedan countries
suffers from the jealousy of Christian states, and modern Churches
sometimes avail themselves of this jealousy to try and oust their
rivals from promising fields for mission work.
It is a melancholy reflection that Jeremiah's effort at reconciliation
came too late, when the tribes whom it sought to reunite were hopelessly
set asunder. Reconciliation, which involves a kind of mutual repentance,
can ill afford to be deferred to the eleventh hour. In the last agonies
of the Greek Empire, there was more than one formal reconciliation
between the Eastern and Western Churches; but they also came too late,
and could not survive the Empire which they failed to preserve.
FOOTNOTES:
[392] xxxiii., 7, etc.
[393] vii. 15.
[394] Amos ix. 14.
[395] Micah ii. 12; Isa. xi. 10-16.
[396] Hosea xi. 8.
[397] Hosea xi. 9.
[398] Hosea xiv.
[399] So _Giesebrecht_, reading with Jerome and Targum _l'margô'ô_ for
the obscure and obviously corrupt _l'hargî'ô_. The other versions vary
widely in their readings.
[400] R.V. "with lovingkindness have I drawn thee," R.V. margin "have
I continued lovingkindness unto thee"; the word for "drawn" occurs
also in Hosea xi. 4, "I drew them ... with bands of love."
[401] So Giesebrecht's conjecture of _bocerim_ (vintages), for the
_nocerim_ (watchmen, R.V.). The latter is usually explained of the
watcher who looked for the appearance of the new moon, in order to
determine the time of the feasts. The practice is stated on negative
grounds to be post-exilic, but seems likely to be ancient. On the other
hand "vintagers" seems a natural sequel to the preceding clauses.
[402] According to the reading of the LXX. and the Targum, the Hebrew
Text has (as R.V.) "O Jehovah, save Thy people."
[403] iii. 21.
[404] Isaiah does not mention Benjamin.
[405] "Which is Bethlehem," in Genesis, is probably a later
explanatory addition; and the explanation is not necessarily a
mistake. Cf. Matt. ii. 18.
[406] 1 Kings xv. 17.
[407] xl. 1.
[408] LXX. omits verse 17 _b_, _i.e._ from "Jehovah" to "border."
[409] Slightly paraphrased.
[410] More literally as R.V., "I do earnestly remember him still."
[411] The Hebrew Text has the same word, "tamrurim," here that is used
in verse 15 in the phrase "bekhi tamrurim," "weeping of bitternesses" or
"bitter weeping." It is difficult to believe that the coincidence is
accidental, and Hebrew literature is given to paronomasia; at the same
time the distance of the words and the complete absence of point in this
particular instance are remarkable. The LXX., not understanding the
word, represented it _more suo_ by the similar Greek word τιμωρίαν,
which may indicate that the original reading was "timorim," and the
assimilation to "tamrurim" may be a scribe's caprice. In any case, the
word here connects with "tamar," a palm, the post being made of or like
a palm tree. Cf. Giesebrecht, Orelli, Cheyne, etc.
[412] Giesebrecht treats verses 21-26 as a later addition, but this
seems unnecessary.
[413] So Kautzsch.
[414] Cf. Streane, Cambridge Bible.
[415] Zech. iv. 1.
[416] xxiii, 25-32, xxvii. 9, xxix. 8: cf. Deut. xiii. 1-5.
[417] Cf. Hosea ii. 23, "I will sow her unto Me in the earth" (or
land), in reference to _Jezreel_, understood as "Whom God soweth"
(R.V. margin).
[418] i. 10-12.
[419] 2 Kings xxiii. 25.
[420] xv. 1-4.
[421] Ezek. xviii. 20: cf. Cheyne, _Jeremiah_ (Men of the Bible), p.
150.
[422] Isa. xi. 13.
CHAPTER XXXIII
_RESTORATION--IV. THE NEW COVENANT_
xxxi. 31-38: cf. Hebrews viii.
"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house
of Judah."--JER. xxxi. 31.
The religious history of Israel in the Old Testament has for its
epochs a series of covenants: Jehovah declared His gracious purposes
towards His people, and made known the conditions upon which they were
to enjoy His promised blessings; they, on their part, undertook to
observe faithfully all that Jehovah commanded. We are told that
covenants were made with Noah, after the Flood; with Abraham, when he
was assured that his descendants should inherit the land of Canaan; at
Sinai, when Israel first became a nation; with Joshua, after the
Promised Land was conquered; and, at the close of Old Testament
history, when Ezra and Nehemiah established the Pentateuch as the Code
and Canon of Judaism.
One of the oldest sections of the Pentateuch, Exodus xx. 20-xxiii. 33,
is called the "Book of the Covenant,"[423] and Ewald named the
Priestly Code the "Book of the Four Covenants." Judges and Samuel
record no covenants between Jehovah and Israel; but the promise of
permanence to the Davidic dynasty is spoken of as an everlasting
covenant. Isaiah,[424] Amos, and Micah make no mention of the Divine
covenants. Jeremiah, however, imitates Hosea[425] in emphasising this
aspect of Jehovah's relation to Israel, and is followed in his turn by
Ezekiel and II. Isaiah.
Jeremiah had played his part in establishing covenants between Israel
and its God. He is not, indeed, even so much as mentioned in the account
of Josiah's reformation; and it is not clear that he himself makes any
express reference to it; so that some doubt must still be felt as to his
share in that great movement. At the same time indirect evidence seems
to afford proof of the common opinion that Jeremiah was active in the
proceedings which resulted in the solemn engagement to observe the code
of Deuteronomy. But yet another covenant occupies a chapter[426] in the
Book of Jeremiah, and in this case there is no doubt that the prophet
was the prime mover in inducing the Jews to release their Hebrew slaves.
This act of emancipation was adopted in obedience to an ordinance of
Deuteronomy,[427] so that Jeremiah's experience of former covenants was
chiefly connected with the code of Deuteronomy and the older Book of the
Covenant upon which it was based.
The Restoration to which Jeremiah looked forward was to throw the
Exodus into the shade, and to constitute a new epoch in the history of
Israel more remarkable than the first settlement in Canaan. The nation
was to be founded anew, and its regeneration would necessarily rest
upon a New Covenant, which would supersede the Covenant of Sinai.
"Behold, the days come--it is the utterance of Jehovah--when I will
enter into a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of
Judah: not according to the covenant into which I entered with your
fathers, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of
Egypt."
The Book of the Covenant and Deuteronomy had both been editions of the
Mosaic Covenant, and had neither been intended nor regarded as
anything new. Whatever was fresh in them, either in form or substance,
was merely the adaptation of existing ordinances to altered
circumstances. But now the Mosaic Covenant was declared obsolete, the
New Covenant was not to be, like Deuteronomy, merely a fresh edition
of the earliest code. The Return from Babylon, like the primitive
Migration from Ur and like the Exodus from Egypt, was to be the
occasion of a new Revelation, placing the relations of Jehovah and His
people on a new footing.
When Ezra and Nehemiah established, as the Covenant of the
Restoration, yet another edition of the Mosaic ordinances, they were
acting in the teeth of this prophecy--not because Jehovah had changed
His purpose, but because the time of fulfilment had not yet come.[428]
The rendering of the next clause is uncertain, and, in any case, the
reason given for setting aside the old covenant is not quite what
might have been expected. The Authorised and Revised Versions
translate: "Which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband
unto them";[429] thus introducing that Old Testament figure of
marriage between Jehovah and Israel which is transferred in Ephesians
and the Apocalypse to Christ and the Church. The margin of the Revised
Version has: "Forasmuch as they brake My covenant, although I was lord
over them." There is little difference between these two translations,
both of which imply that in breaking the covenant Israel was setting
aside Jehovah's legitimate claim to obedience. A third translation, on
much the same lines, would be "although I was Baal unto _or_ over
them";[430] Baal or ba'al being found for lord, husband, in ancient
times as a name of Jehovah, and in Jeremiah's time as a name of
heathen gods. Jeremiah is fond of paronomasia, and frequently refers
to Baal, so that he may have been here deliberately ambiguous. The
phrase might suggest to the Hebrew reader that Jehovah was the true
lord or husband of Israel, and the true Baal or God, but that Israel
had come to regard Him as a mere Baal, like one of the Baals of the
heathen. "Forasmuch as they, on their part, set at nought My covenant;
so that I, their true Lord, became to them as a mere heathen Baal."
The covenant and the God who gave it were alike treated with contempt.
The Septuagint, which is quoted in Hebrews viii. 9, has another
translation: "And I regarded them not."[431] Unless this represents a
different reading,[432] it is probably due to a feeling that the form
of the Hebrew sentence required a close parallelism. Israel neglected
to observe the covenant, and Jehovah ceased to feel any interest in
Israel. But the idea of the latter clause seems alien to the context.
In any case, the new and better covenant is offered to Israel, after
it has failed to observe the first covenant. This Divine procedure is
not quite according to many of our theories. The law of ordinances is
often spoken of as adapted to the childhood of the race. We set
children easy tasks, and when these are successfully performed we
require of them something more difficult. We grant them limited
privileges, and if they make a good use of them the children are
promoted to higher opportunities. We might perhaps have expected that
when the Israelites failed to observe the Mosaic ordinances, they
would have been placed under a narrower and harsher dispensation; yet
their very failure leads to the promise of a better covenant still.
Subsequent history, indeed, qualifies the strangeness of the Divine
dealing. Only a remnant of Israel survived as the people of God. The
Covenant of Ezra was very different from the New Covenant of Jeremiah;
and the later Jews, as a community,[433] did not accept that
dispensation of grace which ultimately realised Jeremiah's prophecy.
In a narrow and unspiritual fashion the Jews of the Restoration
observed the covenant of external ordinances; so that, in a certain
sense, the Law was fulfilled before the new Kingdom of God was
inaugurated. But if Isaiah and Jeremiah had reviewed the history of
the restored community, they would have declined to receive it as, in
any sense, the fulfilling of a Divine covenant. The Law of Moses was
not fulfilled, but made void, by the traditions of the Pharisees. The
fact therefore remains, that failure in the lower forms, so to speak,
of God's school is still followed by promotion to higher privileges.
However little we may be able to reconcile this truth with _a priori_
views of Providence, it has analogies in nature, and reveals new
depths of Divine love and greater resourcefulness of Divine grace.
Boys whose early life is unsatisfactory nevertheless grow up into the
responsibilities and privileges of manhood; and the wilful,
disobedient child does not always make a bad man. We are apt to think
that the highest form of development is steady, continuous, and
serene, from good to better, from better to best. The real order is
more awful and stupendous, combining good and evil, success and
failure, victory and defeat, in its continuous advance through the
ages. The wrath of man is not the only evil passion that praises God
by its ultimate subservience to His purpose. We need not fear lest
such Divine overruling of sin should prove any temptation to
wrongdoing, seeing that it works, as in the exile of Israel, through
the anguish and humiliation of the sinner.
The next verse explains the character of the New Covenant; once
Jehovah wrote His law on tables of stone, but now:--
"This is the covenant which I will conclude with the House of
Israel after those days--it is the utterance of
Jehovah--
I will put My law within them, and will write it upon their
heart;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
These last words were an ancient formula for the immemorial relation
of Jehovah and Israel, but they were to receive new fulness of
meaning. The inner law, written on the heart, is in contrast to Mosaic
ordinances. It has, therefore, two essential characteristics: first,
it governs life, not by fixed external regulations, but by the
continual control of heart and conscience by the Divine Spirit;
secondly, obedience is rendered to the Divine Will, not from external
compulsion, but because man's inmost nature is possessed by entire
loyalty to God. The new law involves no alteration of the standards of
morality or of theological doctrine, but it lays stress on the
spiritual character of man's relation to God, and therefore on the
fact that God is a spiritual and moral being. When man's obedience is
claimed on the ground of God's irresistible power, and appeal is made
to material rewards and punishments, God's personality is obscured and
the way is opened for the deification of political or material Force.
This doctrine of setting aside of ancient codes by the authority of
the Inner Law is implied in many passages of our book. The superseding
of the Mosaic Law is set forth by a most expressive symbol,[434] "When
ye are multiplied and increased in the land, 'The Ark of the Covenant
of Jehovah' shall no longer be the watchword of Israel: men shall
neither think of the ark nor remember it; they shall neither miss the
ark nor make another in its place." The Ark and the Mosaic Torah were
inseparably connected; if the Ark was to perish and be forgotten, the
Law must also be annulled.
Jeremiah moreover discerned with Paul that there was a law in the
members warring against the Law of Jehovah: "The sin of Judah is written
with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon
the table of their heart, and upon the horns of their altars."[435]
Hence the heart of the people had to be changed before they could
enter into the blessings of the Restoration: "I will give them an
heart to know Me, that I am Jehovah: and they shall be My people, and
I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole
heart."[436] In the exposition of the symbolic purchase of Hanameel's
field, Jehovah promises to make an everlasting covenant with His
people, that He will always do them good and never forsake them. Such
continual blessings imply that Israel will always be faithful. Jehovah
no longer seeks to ensure their fidelity by an external law, with its
alternate threats and promises: He will rather control the inner life
by His grace. "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may
fear Me for ever; ... I will put My fear in their hearts, that they
may not depart from Me."[437]
We must not, of course, suppose that these principles--of obedience from
loyal enthusiasm, and of the guidance of heart and conscience by the
Spirit of Jehovah--were new to the religion of Israel. They are implied
in the idea of prophetic inspiration. When Saul went home to Gibeah,
"there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched."[438]
In Deuteronomy, Israel is commanded to "love Jehovah thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these
words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart."[439]
The novelty of Jeremiah's teaching is that these principles are made
central in the New Covenant. Even Deuteronomy, which approaches so
closely to the teaching of Jeremiah, was a new edition of the Covenant
of the Exodus, an attempt to secure a righteous life by exhaustive
rules and by external sanctions. Jeremiah had witnessed and probably
assisted the effort to reform Judah by the enforcement of the
Deuteronomic Code. But when Josiah's religious policy collapsed after
his defeat and death at Megiddo, Jeremiah lost faith in elaborate
codes, and turned from the letter to the spirit.
The next feature of the New Covenant naturally follows from its being
written upon men's hearts by the finger of Jehovah:--
"Men shall no longer teach one another and teach each other,
saying, Know ye Jehovah!
For all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest--it is
the utterance of Jehovah."
In ancient times men could only "know Jehovah" and ascertain His will by
resorting to some sanctuary, where the priests preserved and transmitted
the sacred tradition and delivered the Divine oracles. Written codes
scarcely altered the situation; copies would be few and far between, and
still mostly in the custody of the priests. Whatever drawbacks arise
from attaching supreme religious authority to a printed book were
multiplied a thousandfold when codes could only be copied. But, in the
New Israel, men's spiritual life would not be at the mercy of pen, ink,
and paper, of scribe and priest. The man who had a book and could read
would no longer be able, with the self-importance of exclusive
knowledge, to bid his less fortunate brethren to know Jehovah. He
Himself would be the one teacher, and His instruction would fall, like
the sunshine and the rain, upon all hearts alike.
And yet again Israel is assured that past sin shall not hinder the
fulfilment of this glorious vision:--
"For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I
remember no more."
Recurring to the general topic of the Restoration of Israel, the
prophet affixes the double seal of two solemn Divine asseverations. Of
old, Jehovah had promised Noah: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime
and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall
not cease."[440] Now He promises that while sun and moon and stars and
sea continue in their appointed order, Israel shall not cease from
being a nation. And, again, Jehovah will not cast off Israel on
account of its sin till the height of heaven can be measured and the
foundations of the earth searched out.[441]
FOOTNOTES:
[423] Exod. xxiv. 7.
[424] _I.e._ in the sections generally acknowledged.
[425] Hosea ii. 18, vi. 7, viii. 1.
[426] xxxiv.
[427] Cf. xxxiv. 14 with Deut. xv. 12 and Exod. xxi. 2.
[428] Cf. Prof. Adeney's _Ezra_, _Nehemiah_, etc., in this series.
[429] So also Kautzsch, Reuss, Sugfried, and Stade. The same phrase is
thus translated in iii. 14.
[430] "I was Baal" = "ba'alti."
[431] ἠμέλησα.
[432] נצלתי; נצל occurs in xiv. 19, and is translated by A.V. and R.V.
"loathed."
[433] We usually underrate the proportion of Jews who embraced
Christianity. Hellenistic Judaism disappeared as Christianity became
widely diffused, and was probably for the most part absorbed into the
new faith.
[434] iii. 16, slightly paraphrased.
[435] xvii. 1.
[436] xxiv. 7.
[437] xxxii. 39, 40.
[438] 1 Sam. x. 26.
[439] Deut. vi. 5, 6.
[440] Gen. viii. 22 (J.).
[441] Verses 35-37 occur in the LXX. in the order 37, 35, 36. They are
considered by many critics to be a later addition. The most remarkable
feature of the paragraph is the clause translated by the Authorised
Version "which divideth [Revised Version, text "stirreth up," margin
"stilleth"] the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of Hosts is
His name." This whole clause is taken word for word from Isa. li. 15,
"I am Jehovah thy God, which stirreth up," etc. It seems clear that
either this clause or 35-37 as a whole were added by an editor
acquainted with II. Isaiah. The prophecy, as it stands in the
Masoretic text, is concluded by a detailed description of the site of
the restored Jerusalem. The contrast between the glorious vision of
the New Israel and these architectural specifications is almost
grotesque. Verses 38-40 are regarded by many as a later addition; and
even if they are by Jeremiah, they form an independent prophecy and
have no connection with the rest of the chapter. Our knowledge of the
geographical points mentioned is not sufficient to enable us to define
the site assigned to the restored city. The point of verse 40 is that
the most unclean districts of the ancient city shall partake of the
sanctity of the New Jerusalem.
CHAPTER XXXIV
_RESTORATION--V. REVIEW_
xxx.-xxxiii.
In reviewing these chapters we must be careful not to suppose that
Jeremiah knew all that would ultimately result from his teaching. When
he declared that the conditions of the New Covenant would be written,
not in a few parchments, but on every heart, he laid down a principle
which involved the most characteristic teaching of the New Testament and
the Reformers, and which might seem to justify extreme mysticism. When
we read these prophecies in the light of history, they seem to lead by a
short and direct path to the Pauline doctrines of Faith and Grace.
Constraining grace is described in the words: "I will put My fear in
their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."[442] Justification by
faith instead of works substitutes the response of the soul to the
Spirit of God for conformity to a set of external regulations--the
writing on the heart for the carving of ordinances on stone. Yet, as
Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation did not make him aware of
all that later astronomers have discovered, so Jeremiah did not
anticipate Paul and Augustine, Luther and Calvin: he was only their
forerunner. Still less did he intend to affirm all that has been taught
by the Brothers of the Common Life or the Society of Friends. We have
followed the Epistle to the Hebrews in interpreting his prophecy of the
New Covenant as abrogating the Mosaic code and inaugurating a new
departure upon entirely different lines. This view is supported by his
attitude towards the Temple, and especially the Ark. At the same time we
must not suppose that Jeremiah contemplated the summary and entire
abolition of the previous dispensation. He simply delivers his latest
message from Jehovah, without bringing its contents into relation with
earlier truth, without indeed waiting to ascertain for himself how the
old and the new were to be combined. But we may be sure that the Divine
writing on the heart would have included much that was already written
in Deuteronomy, and that both books and teachers would have had their
place in helping men to recognise and interpret the inner leadings of
the Spirit.
In rising from the perusal of these chapters the reader is tempted to
use the prophet's words with a somewhat different meaning: "I awaked
and looked about me, and felt that I had had a pleasant dream."[443]
Renan, with cynical frankness, heads a chapter on such prophecies with
the title "Pious Dreams." While Jeremiah's glowing utterances rivet
our attention, the gracious words fall like balm upon our aching
hearts, and we seem, like the Apostle, caught up into Paradise. But as
soon as we try to connect our visions with any realities, past,
present, or in prospect, there comes a rude awakening. The restored
community attained to no New Covenant, but was only found worthy of a
fresh edition of the written code. Instead of being committed to the
guidance of the ever-present Spirit of Jehovah, they were placed under
a rigid and elaborate system of externals--"carnal ordinances,
concerned with meats and drinks and divers washings, imposed until a
time of reformation."[444] They still remained under the covenant
"from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now
this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem
that now is: for she is in bondage with her children."[445]
For these bondservants of the letter, there arose no David, no glorious
Scion of the ancient stock. For a moment the hopes of Zechariah rested
on Zerubbabel, but this Branch quickly withered away and was forgotten.
We need not underrate the merits and services of Ezra and Nehemiah, of
Simon the Just and Judas Maccabæus; and yet we cannot find any one of
them who answers to the Priestly King of Jeremiah's visions. The new
Growth of Jewish royalty came to an ignominious end in Aristobulus,
Hyrcanus, and the Herods, Antichrists rather than Messiahs.
The Reunion of long-divided Israel is for the most part a misnomer;
there was no healing of the wound, and the offending member was cut off.
Even now, when the leaven of the Kingdom has been working in the lump
of humanity for nearly two thousand years, any suggestion that these
chapters are realised in Modern Christianity would seem cruel irony.
Renan accuses Christianity of having quickly forgotten the programme
which its Founder borrowed from the prophets, and of having become a
religion like other religions, a religion of priests and sacrifices,
of external observances and superstitions.[446] It is sometimes
asserted that Protestants lack faith and courage to trust to any law
written on the heart, and cling to a printed book, as if there were no
Holy Spirit--as if the Branch of David had borne fruit once for all,
and Christ were dead. The movement for Christian Reunion seems thus
far chiefly to emphasise the feuds that make the Church a kingdom
divided against itself.
But we must not allow the obvious shortcomings of Christendom to blind
us to brighter aspects of truth. Both in the Jews of the Restoration
and in the Church of Christ we have a real fulfilment of Jeremiah's
prophecies. The fulfilment is no less real because it is utterly
inadequate. Prophecy is a guide-post and not a mile-stone; it shows
the way to be trodden, not the duration of the journey. Jews and
Christians have fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecies because they have
advanced by the road along which he pointed towards the spiritual city
of his vision. The "pious dreams" of a little group of enthusiasts
have become the ideals and hopes of humanity. Even Renan ranks himself
among the disciples of Jeremiah: "The seed sown in religious tradition
by inspired Israelites will not perish; all of us who seek a God
without priests, a revelation without prophets, a covenant written in
the heart, are in many respects the disciples of these ancient
fanatics (_ces vieux égarés_)."[447]
The Judaism of the Return, with all its faults and shortcomings, was
still an advance in the direction Jeremiah had indicated. However
ritualistic the Pentateuch may seem to us, it was far removed from
exclusive trust in ritual. Where the ancient Israelite had relied upon
correct observance of the forms of his sanctuary, the Torah of Ezra
introduced a large moral and spiritual element, which served to bring
the soul into direct fellowship with Jehovah. "Pity and humanity are
pushed to their utmost limits, always of course in the bosom of the
family of Israel."[448] The Torah moreover included the great commands
to love God and man, which once for all placed the religion of Israel
on a spiritual basis. If the Jews often attached more importance to
the letter and form of Revelation than to its substance, and were more
careful for ritual and external observances than for inner
righteousness, we have no right to cast a stone at them.
It is a curious phenomenon that after the time of Ezra the further
developments of the Torah were written no longer on parchment, but, in
a certain sense, on the heart. The decisions of the rabbis
interpreting the Pentateuch, "the fence which they made round the
law," were not committed to writing, but learnt by heart and handed
down by oral tradition. Possibly this custom was partly due to
Jeremiah's prophecy. It is a strange illustration of the way in which
theology sometimes wrests the Scriptures to its own destruction, that
the very prophecy of the triumph of the spirit over the letter was
made of none effect by a literal interpretation.
Nevertheless, though Judaism moved only a very little way towards
Jeremiah's ideal, yet it did move, its religion was distinctly more
spiritual than that of ancient Israel. Although Judaism claimed finality
and did its best to secure that no future generation should make further
progress, yet in spite of, nay, even by means of, Pharisee and Sadducee,
the Jews were prepared to receive and transmit that great resurrection
of prophetic teaching which came through Christ.
If even Judaism did not altogether fail to conform itself to
Jeremiah's picture of the New Israel, clearly Christianity must have
shaped itself still more fully according to his pattern. In the Old
Testament both the idea and the name of a "New Covenant,"[449]
superseding that of Moses, are peculiar to Jeremiah, and the New
Testament consistently represents the Christian dispensation as a
fulfilment of Jeremiah's prophecy. Besides the express and detailed
application in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ instituted the
Lord's Supper as the Sacrament of His New Covenant--"This cup is the
New Covenant in My blood";[450] and St. Paul speaks of himself as "a
minister of the New Covenant."[451] Christianity has not been unworthy
of the claim made on its behalf by its Founder, but has realised, at
any rate in some measure, the visible peace, prosperity, and unity of
Jeremiah's New Israel, as well as the spirituality of his New
Covenant. Christendom has its hideous blots of misery and sin, but, on
the whole, the standard of material comfort and intellectual culture
has been raised to a high average throughout the bulk of a vast
population. Internal order and international concord have made
enormous strides since the time of Jeremiah. If an ancient Israelite
could witness the happy security of a large proportion of English
workmen and French peasants, he would think that many of the
predictions of his prophets had been fulfilled. But the advance of
large classes to a prosperity once beyond the dreams of the most
sanguine only brings out in darker relief the wretchedness of their
less fortunate brethren. In view of the growing knowledge and enormous
resources of modern society, any toleration of its cruel wrongs is an
unpardonable sin. Social problems are doubtless urgent because a large
minority are miserable, but they are rendered still more urgent by the
luxury of many and the comfort of most. The high average of prosperity
shows that we fail to right our social evils, not for want of power,
but for want of devotion. Our civilisation is a Dives, at whose gate
Lazarus often finds no crumbs.
Again Christ's Kingdom of the New Covenant has brought about a larger
unity. We have said enough elsewhere on the divisions of the Church.
Doubtless we are still far from realising the ideals of chapter xxxi.,
but, at any rate, they have been recognised as supreme, and have worked
for harmony and fellowship in the world. Ephraim and Judah are
forgotten, but the New Covenant has united into brotherhood a worldwide
array of races and nations. There are still divisions in the Church, and
a common religion will not always do away with national enmities; but in
spite of all, the influence of our common Christianity has done much to
knit the nations together and promote mutual amity and goodwill. The
vanguard of the modern world has accepted Christ as its standard and
ideal, and has thus attained an essential unity, which is not destroyed
by minor differences and external divisions.
And, finally, the promise that the New Covenant should be written on
the heart is far on the way towards fulfilment. If Roman and Greek
orthodoxy interposes the Church between the soul and Christ, yet the
inspiration claimed for the Church to-day is, at any rate in some
measure, that of the living Spirit of Christ speaking to the souls of
living men. On the other hand, a predilection for Rabbinical methods
of exegesis sometimes interferes with the influence and authority of
the Bible. Yet in reality there is no serious attempt to take away the
key of knowledge or to forbid the individual soul to receive the
direct teaching of the Holy Ghost. The Reformers established the right
of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures; and the
interpretation of the Library of Sacred Literature, the spiritual
harvest of a thousand years, affords ample scope for reverent
development of our knowledge of God.
One group of Jeremiah's prophecies has indeed been entirely
fulfilled.[452] In Christ, God has raised up a Branch of Righteousness
unto David, and through Him judgment and righteousness are wrought in
the earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[442] xxxii. 40.
[443] xxxi. 26.
[444] Heb. ix. 10.
[445] Gal. iv. 24, 25.
[446] _Histoire du Peuple d'Israel_, iii., 340.
[447] Renan, iii., 340.
[448] Renan, iii., 425.
[449] We have the idea of a spiritual covenant in Isa. lix. 21, "This
is My covenant with them: ... My spirit that is upon thee, and My
words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy
mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy
seed's seed, ... from henceforth and for ever"; but nothing is said as
to a _new_ covenant.
[450] Luke xxii. 20; 1 Cor. xi. 25. The word "new" is omitted by Codd.
Sin. and Vat. and the R.V. in Matt. xxvi. 28 and Mark xiv. 24.
[451] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[452] xxxiii. 15.
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER XXXV
_JEREMIAH AND CHRIST_
"Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from amongst
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye
hearken."--DEUT. xviii. 15.
"Jesus ... asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the
Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some,
Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets."--MATT. xvi.
13, 14.
English feeling about Jeremiah has long ago been summed up and
stereotyped in the single word "jeremiad." The contempt and dislike
which this word implies are partly due to his supposed authorship of
Lamentations; but, to say the least, the Book of Jeremiah is not
sufficiently cheerful to remove the impression created by the linked
wailing, long drawn out, which has been commonly regarded as an
appendix to its prophecies. We can easily understand the unpopularity
of the prophet of doom in modern Christendom. Such prophets are seldom
acceptable, except to the enemies of the people whom they denounce;
and even ardent modern advocates of Jew-baiting would not be entirely
satisfied with Jeremiah--they would resent his patriotic sympathy with
sinful and suffering Judah. Most modern Christians have ceased to
regard the Jews as monsters of iniquity, whose chastisement should
give profound satisfaction to every sincere believer. History has
recorded but few of the crimes which provoked and justified our
prophet's fierce indignation, and those of which we do read repel our
interest by a certain lack of the picturesque, so that we do not take
the trouble to realise their actual and intense wickedness. Ahab is a
by-word, but how many people know anything about Ishmael ben
Nethaniah? The cruelty of the nobles and the unctuous cant of their
prophetic allies are forgotten in--nay, they seem almost atoned for
by--the awful calamities that befell Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah's
memory may even be said to have suffered from the speedy and complete
fulfilment of his prophecies. The national ruin was a triumphant
vindication of his teaching, and his disciples were eager to record
every utterance in which he had foretold the coming doom. Probably the
book, in its present form, gives an exaggerated impression of the
stress which Jeremiah laid upon this topic.
Moreover, while the prophet's life is essentially tragic, its drama
lacks an artistic close and climax. Again and again Jeremiah took his
life in his hand, but the good confession which he witnessed for so
long does not culminate in the crown of martyrdom. A final scene like
the death of John the Baptist would have won our sympathy and
conciliated our criticism.
We thus gather that the popular attitude towards Jeremiah rests on a
superficial appreciation of his character and work; it is not
difficult to discern that a careful examination of his history
establishes important claims on the veneration and gratitude of the
Christian Church.
For Judaism was not slow to pay her tribute of admiration and
reverence to Jeremiah as to a Patron Saint and Confessor. His prophecy
of the Restoration of Israel is appealed to in Ezra and Daniel; and
the Hebrew Chronicler, who says as little as he can of Isaiah, adds
to the references made by the Book of Kings to Jeremiah. We have
already seen that apocryphal legends clustered round his honoured
name. He was credited with having concealed the Tabernacle and the Ark
in the caves of Sinai.[453] On the eve of a great victory, he appeared
to Judas Maccabæus, in a vision, as "a man distinguished by grey
hairs, and a majestic appearance; but something wonderful and
exceedingly magnificent was the grandeur about him," and was made
known to Judas as a "lover of the brethren, who prayeth much for the
people and for the holy city, to wit, Jeremiah the prophet of God. And
Jeremiah stretching forth his right hand delivered over to Judas a
sword of gold."[454] The Son of Sirach does not fail to include
Jeremiah in his praise of famous men;[455] and there is an apocryphal
epistle purporting to be written by our prophet.[456] It is noteworthy
that in the New Testament Jeremiah is only mentioned by name in the
Judaistic Gospel of St. Matthew.
In the Christian Church, notwithstanding the lack of popular sympathy,
earnest students of the prophet's life and words have ranked him with
some of the noblest characters of history. A modern writer enumerates
as amongst those with whom he has been compared Cassandra, Phocion,
Demosthenes, Dante, Milton, and Savonarola.[457] The list might easily
be enlarged, but another parallel has been drawn which has supreme
claims on our consideration. The Jews in New Testament times looked
for the return of Elijah or Jeremiah to usher in Messiah's reign; and
it seemed to some among them that the character and teaching of Jesus
of Nazareth identified him with the ancient prophet who had been
commissioned "to root out, pull down, destroy and throw down, to build
and to plant." The suggested comparison has often been developed, but
undue stress has been laid on such accidental and external
circumstances as the prophet's celibacy and the statement that he was
"sanctified from the womb." The discussion of such details does not
greatly lend itself to edification. But it has also been pointed out
that there is an essential resemblance between the circumstances and
mission of Jeremiah and his Divine Successor, and to this some little
space may be devoted.
Jeremiah and our Lord appeared at similar crises in the history of
Israel and of revealed religion. The prophet foretold the end of the
Jewish monarchy, the destruction of the First Temple and of ancient
Jerusalem; Christ, in like manner, announced the end of the restored
Israel, the destruction of the Second Temple and of the newer
Jerusalem. In both cases the doom of the city was followed by the
dispersion and captivity of the people. At both eras the religion of
Jehovah was supposed to be indissolubly bound up with the Temple and
its ritual; and, as we have seen, Jeremiah, like Stephen and Paul and
our Lord Himself, was charged with blasphemy because he predicted its
coming ruin. The prophet, like Christ, was at variance with the
prevalent religious sentiment of his time and with what claimed to be
orthodoxy. Both were regarded and treated by the great body of
contemporary religious teachers as dangerous and intolerable heretics;
and their heresy, as we have said, was practically one and the same.
To the champions of the Temple, their teaching seemed purely
destructive, an irreverent attack upon fundamental doctrines and
indispensable institutions. But the very opposite was the truth; they
destroyed nothing but what deserved to perish. Both in Jeremiah's time
and in our Lord's, men tried to assure themselves of the permanence of
erroneous dogmas and obsolete rites by proclaiming that these were of
the essence of Divine Revelation. In either age to succeed in this
effort would have been to plunge the world into spiritual darkness:
the light of Hebrew prophecy would have been extinguished by the
Captivity, or, again, the hope of the Messiah would have melted away
like a mirage, when the legions of Titus and Hadrian dispelled so many
Jewish dreams. But before the catastrophe came, Jeremiah had taught
men that Jehovah's Temple and city were destroyed of His own set
purpose, because of the sins of His people; there was no excuse for
supposing that He was discredited by the ruin of the place where He
had once chosen to set His Name. Thus the Captivity was not the final
page in the history of Hebrew religion, but the opening of a new
chapter. In like manner Christ and His Apostles, more especially Paul,
finally dissociated Revelation from the Temple and its ritual, so that
the light of Divine truth was not hidden under the bushel of Judaism,
but shone forth upon the whole world from the many-branched
candlestick of the Universal Church.
Again, in both cases, not only was ancient faith rescued from the ruin
of human corruption and commentary, but the purging away of the old
leaven made room for a positive statement of new teaching. Jeremiah
announced a new covenant--that is, a formal and complete change in
the conditions and method of man's service to God and God's
beneficence to men. The ancient Church, with its sanctuary, its
clergy, and its ritual, was to be superseded by a new order, without
sanctuary, clergy, or ritual, wherein every man would enjoy immediate
fellowship with his God. This great ideal was virtually ignored by the
Jews of the Restoration, but it was set forth afresh by Christ and His
Apostles. The "New Covenant" was declared to be ratified by His
sacrifice, and was confirmed anew at every commemoration of His death.
We read in John iv. 21-23: "The hour cometh, when neither in this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.... The hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and truth."
Thus when we confess that the Church is built upon the foundation of
the Prophets and Apostles, we have to recognise that to this
foundation Jeremiah's ministry supplied indispensable elements, alike
by its positive and in its negative parts. This fact was manifest even
to Renan, who fully shared the popular prejudices against Jeremiah.
Nothing short of Christianity, according to him, is the realisation of
the prophet's dream: "Il ajoute un facteur essentiel à l'œuvre
humaine; Jérémie est, avant Jean-Baptiste, l'homme qui a le plus
contribué à la fondation du Christianisme; il doit compter, malgré la
distance des siècles, entre les précurseurs immédiats de Jésus."[458]
_Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
FOOTNOTES:
[453] 2 Macc. ii. 1-8.
[454] 2 Macc. xv. 12-16.
[455] Ecclus. xlix. 6, 7.
[456] Sometimes appended to the Book of Baruch as a sixth chapter.
[457] Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_, art. "Jeremiah."
[458] _Hist._, iii., 251, 305.
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.
Inconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text.
Footnote 101: Anchor was missing from original text, added anchor.
Footnote 452: Anchor was missing from original text, added anchor.