Chs. 7–10. Address delivered by Jeremiah at the gate of the Temple

The first question to be answered in regard to these chapters as a whole is the date to which they are to be referred, whether to the reign of Josiah or Jehoiakim. This seems to be answered by ch. 26, for while its Jeremiah 7:1-6 have a marked resemblance to these, it is expressly stated (Jeremiah 7:1) to have been delivered in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (b.c. 608–7). Others (e.g. Wellhausen and Marti) place it as early as the crisis brought about by the death of Josiah at Megiddo (b.c. 608), but accepting the date in Jeremiah 26:1, we may conclude that the two are respectively a longer and shorter summary of the same discourse, while the latter adds (Jeremiah 26:7-24) the danger which resulted to the prophet and his rescue. The announcement that the fate of the Temple should be that which had befallen Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:8 ff., Jeremiah 26:4 ff.), while helping to identify the two discourses, accounts sufficiently for their hostile reception. Irregularities in metre or its absence in Jeremiah 7:4 to Jeremiah 8:3, compel Du. with his rigid metrical theories to make most of this section to be post-Jeremianic, while he also holds that there are considerable interpolations in the whole section. As Co. points out, however, we can hardly suppose that Jeremiah spoke, as well as wrote, in metre, and we may well nave here in substance his oral prophecy, not yet put into metrical form. It accords with the later date that (a) Jeremiah seems to be now dwelling not at Anathoth but at Jerusalem, since he is told not as in Jeremiah 2:2 to “go and cry,” etc. but simply (Jeremiah 7:2) to “stand in the gate of the Lord’s house,” etc.; (b) idolatry is represented as practised openly in the streets of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 7:17 f.) and in the Temple itself (Jeremiah 7:30); (c) children are burned in the valley of Topheth in honour of Molech (Jeremiah 7:31).

The discourse has five natural divisions. (a) Jeremiah 7:1 to Jeremiah 8:3, Denunciation for shameless idolatry and pollution of the very Temple. (b) Jeremiah 8:4 to Jeremiah 9:1, Forecast of punishment as the result of sin. (c) Jeremiah 9:2-26, Judah’s corruption described. Her consequent sufferings. The recognition of Jehovah alone secures the weal of any nation. (d) Jeremiah 10:1-16, The folly of idolatry. (e) Jeremiah 10:17-25, Exile is at hand. Appeal to Jehovah even in punishing to remember mercy.

Chs. Jeremiah 7:1 to Jeremiah 8:3. Contrast between real and false grounds for confidence. Warning of approaching judgements

This section may be broken up as follows. (i) Jeremiah 7:1-2. Introduction. (ii) Jeremiah 7:3-7. The guarantee for Judah’s security is not, as she imagines, the existence of the Temple, but loyalty to Jehovah. (iii) Jeremiah 7:8-11. Can it be that occasional worship of Him in the intervals of profligacy suffices to give them a sense of security? (iv) Jeremiah 7:12-15. Let them take warning from the fate of Shiloh and the northern kingdom. (v) Jeremiah 7:16-20. The people are past interceding for: their idolatry is too gross. (vi) Jeremiah 7:21-28. They have never realised that from the first God’s demands were not for sacrifices but for holiness of life. (vii) Jeremiah 7:29 to Jeremiah 8:3. Topheth, the scene of idolatrous excesses, shall also be that of terrible retribution.

Jeremiah 9:1. Cp. Jeremiah 13:16 f. This is the climax of the prophet’s lamentation, and so to be disconnected from the section that follows.

Ch. Jeremiah 9:2-26. Judah’s corruption described. Her consequent sufferings. The recognition of Jehovah alone secures the weal of any nation

The section may be subdivided as follows.

(i) Jeremiah 9:2-9. The prophet yearns for any retreat, even of the most dreary type, if it will deliver him from the sights he must behold in the city, viz., mutual distrust, treachery, and falsehood, which vitiate even the closest kinship, and lead to rejection of Jehovah, who must punish all this wickedness. (ii) Jeremiah 9:10-16. Disaster is set forth in detail. The land is laid waste. All vegetation and animate life have vanished. Jerusalem itself shall be sacked. Can the wise interpret this? It is because of idolatrous excesses. (iii) Jeremiah 9:17-22. The professional mourning women are bidden to come, and words are given them in which to bewail the fallen nation. Death steals in like a thief. No place is exempt; while the young are cut off in the open. (iv) Jeremiah 9:23-26 are foreign to the context. See notes.

2. a lodging place] a caravanserai, hospice (khan). Shelter was all that they afforded. The most desolate spot is to the prophet’s mind better than the sights which thrust themselves upon him in Jerusalem.

adulterers] See on last words of ch. Jeremiah 2:20.

3. falsehood] as the arrow. For the figure cp. Psalm 64:3 f.

truth] mg. faithfulness. See on Jeremiah 5:1.

4. Cp. Micah 7:5 f. “The mutual distrust, which had already in the time of Hezekiah broken up families and divided the nearest friends, and made a man’s worst enemies those of his own household, had now reached the highest degree of intensity” (Stanley, J. Ch. II. 437).

will utterly supplant] The Hebrew verb emphasizes the allusion to Genesis 27:36. We might render, “Every brother is a thorough Jacob.”

5. Here, and in Jeremiah 9:4, the verbs had best be rendered by present tenses.

deceive] better (as mg.) mock.

5, 6. The MT. has apparently suffered some corruption. The LXX yield a fairly good sense. Dividing the four consonants of the Hebrew word rendered “thine habitation,” so as to end Jeremiah 9:5 with the first two, which thus yield the meaning of turn, and then taking the second pair, which will thus mean oppression (as in Psalm 10:7; Psalm 55:11), they render the whole “they committed iniquity and Ceased not to turn aside. (Jeremiah 9:6) Oppression on oppression and deceit on deceit, etc.,” the latter pair of identical words suggesting the parallel preceding. As Gi. points out, this does not obviate the objection that the verb rendered “weary themselves” always elsewhere (e.g. Isaiah 16:12; Isaiah 47:13) means to do so to no purpose, which is unsuitable here. Hence, and for other reasons, he rejects Jeremiah 9:4-5.

7. melt] the same Hebrew word as “refining” in Jeremiah 6:29, where see note, and cp. Zechariah 13:9.

how else should] or, how (terribly) will.

because of the daughter] LXX probably rightly has because of the evil of the daughter, etc. Cp. Jeremiah 7:12, Jeremiah 32:32.

8. LXX, by a different arrangement of the words forming the second and third clauses, have the words of their mouth are deceitful, an improvement in symmetry, to which the original easily lends itself.

9. Here repeated from ch. Jeremiah 5:9; Jeremiah 5:29.

10. Cp. Jeremiah 4:23-26.

a lamentation] lit. a ḳinah, i.e. a composition carefully constructed in a definite rhythmical form. See Intr. p. xlix, also notes in C. B. on Amos 5:2; Amos 5:16, with pp. 232 ff. there.

burned up] better, laid waste.

10–16. See introd. summary to the section.

11. jackals] mentioned again chs. Jeremiah 10:22 [Jeremiah 14:6], Jeremiah 49:33 [Jeremiah 51:37].

12. Who is the wise man] meaning that there are none such found, with a hint at the would-be wise, the false prophets. Cp. Hosea 14:9, where however there is no suggestion of sarcasm.

12–16. Du. and Gi. consider this passage to be condemned by prosaic wording and the vagueness or absence of metre. Co. thinks it to contain Jeremianic elements, worked up later. It certainly forms a remarkable contrast to the poetical sub-section which follows.

13. I set before them] See e.g. Deuteronomy 4:8; Deuteronomy 4:44.

14. the Baalim] See on ch. Jeremiah 2:8.

15. The coming troubles are likened to wormwood and water of gall.

wormwood] a generic word for the species Artemisia, found chiefly in desert places. Cp. Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:15; Lamentations 3:19.

water of gall] See on ch. Jeremiah 8:14.

17. cunning] i.e. skilled. Cp. Genesis 25:27; 1 Samuel 16:18; 2 Chronicles 26:15.

17, 18. “There are in every city and community women exceedingly cunning in this business.… When a fresh company of sympathisers comes in, these women ‘make haste’ to ‘take up a wailing’ that the newly come may the more easily unite their tears with the mourners. They know the domestic history of each person, and immediately strike up an impromptu lamentation, in which they introduce the names of their relations who have recently died, touching some tender chord in every heart.” Thomson, p. 103, and see Jeremiah 16:5.

17–22. See summary introducing the section.

19. Co. considers that the v. is a gloss as breaking the connexion between the summons to the wailers and the words which they are bidden to use.

have forsaken] a prophetic perfect, meaning must forsake. Exile is regarded as inevitable.

20. No traditional formula will suffice; Jehovah will dictate a dirge, and it shall be for universal use.

21. is come up] Cp. Joel 2:9.

palaces] See on Jeremiah 6:5.

from without] Cp. Zechariah 8:5.

22. Speak, Thus saith the Lord] The words are not found in LXX and they break the connexion.

23–26. See summary introducing the section. Piety alone is the source of true glory. Circumcision, as the mere external mark of the covenant, of itself brings no man, Jew or otherwise, favour with God. 23, 24, and 25, 26 form two detached utterances, which have no relation to this context, and we cannot now say where they should be placed. The former is quite in agreement with other sayings of the prophet (Jeremiah 8:9, Jeremiah 17:5 f., Jeremiah 22:13 ff.). It is accordingly retained as his by Gi. and Co., while Du. rejects it.

24. Quoted freely 1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17.

25, 26. circumcised in their uncircumcision] probably meaning circumcised in body but not in heart. “Judah cannot rely on a rite which she shares with the heathen, indeed the corresponding inward circumcision is as lacking in her as in them,” Pe. See on Jeremiah 4:4. The statements in Jeremiah 9:26 are confirmed as to Egypt by Joshua 5:9 (where “reproach of Egypt” means that the Egyptians would despise them as long as they remained uncircumcised), and by Herod. II. 104. The other nations, as tracing their descent from Abraham, would naturally observe the rite; so too the Arabians, as claiming Ishmael (see Genesis 17:23 ff.) for ancestor. Josephus (Ant. I. xii. 2) also testifies as to these last. The Philistines, on the other hand, are frequently designated contemptuously as uncircumcised (e.g. 1 Samuel 14:6; 1 Samuel 17:26).

that have the corners of their hair polled] i.e. cut off from the temples. See also Jeremiah 25:23, Jeremiah 49:32. According to Herod. (III. 8) it had a religious significance with certain Arab tribes. Hence its prohibition in Leviticus 19:27.

the wilderness] the desert of Arabia, eastward of Palestine.

all the nations are uncircumcised] The true circumcision of the heart is as much lacking with them as with Judah.