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9 O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! 2 O that I had in the desert a traveler’s lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a band of traitors. 3 They bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the L ord.
4 Beware of your neighbors, and put no trust in any of your kin; for all your kin are supplanters, and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer. 5 They all deceive their neighbors, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent. 6 Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit! They refuse to know me, says the L ord.
7 Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts: I will now refine and test them, for what else can I do with my sinful people? 8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit through the mouth. They all speak friendly words to their neighbors, but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush. 9 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the L ord; and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?
10 Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the animals have fled and are gone. 11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
12 Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the L ord spoken, so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13And the L ord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, 14but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them. 15Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood, and giving them poisonous water to drink. 16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.
The People Mourn in Judgment17 Thus says the L ord of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come; 18 let them quickly raise a dirge over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water. 19 For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: “How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.”
20 Hear, O women, the word of the L ord, and let your ears receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a dirge, and each to her neighbor a lament. 21 “Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.” 22 Speak! Thus says the L ord: “Human corpses shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves behind the reaper, and no one shall gather them.”
23 Thus says the L ord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; 24but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the L ord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the L ord. 25 The days are surely coming, says the L ord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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Though Jeremiah continues the same subject, he yet introduces a preface, — that he had been commanded to declare what he says here; for on account of the strangeness of the event, the prophecy seemed incredible. He might, indeed, have proceeded with the subject, and omitted the words, “Thus saith Jehovah,”
and have begun thus: “Fall shall the carcase of man,” etc. But, as I have said, this prophecy seemed to the greatest part as worthless, as though it was a fable: it was therefore necessary to introduce these words, — that he came forth furnished with God’s command; and he at the same time shews that he introduced nothing of his own, but that God himself spoke. We now perceive why these few words were
introduced.
254254
Blayney and some others connect דבר with the former verse, and, on the authority of the Septuagint, leave out “thus saith Jehovah.” The Vulgate and the Targum retain the text as we have it, and the Syriac omits only the first word; and there is no MS. in favor of what has been proposed; and the meaning, as here represented by Calvin, is so evident, that no change is at all necessary, —
He afterwards says, that the carcases of men would be cast forth as dung He speaks by way of reproach, as though he had said, that all would without honor be laid prostrate by their enemies. And he adds a similitude, They shall fall, he says, on the face of the field, that is, everywhere through all the fields shall they fall as dung, which is cast forth, and which excites nausea by its sight and by its odor. Thus the Prophet here denotes foetor and a deformed sight by the comparison of dung: yet we know with what pride were they then filled. This threatening then was to them very disagreeable; but as they flattered themselves in their vices, it was the more necessary to treat them roughly; for thus ought hypocrites to be dealt with, who indulge their own delusions: the more boldly they rise up against God, the more violently ought they to be east down, so that they may at length humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. He adds another comparison, As a handful, etc. Jerome renders it “hay.” If עמיד omid, were found elsewhere in this sense, I would willingly adopt this meaning; but I rather think that it means those ears of corn which are not gathered while the reapers collect their handfuls. They do not, indeed, leave complete handfuls, nor east them away; but it happens, through carelessness, that a few ears escape them. Then the Prophet says, that the Jews would be like those ears of corn which the reapers pass by and leave behind; and there is no one afterwards to gather them: and those ears of corn which thus remain in the field either rot of themselves, or are devoured by cattle or wild beasts. He then means, that there would be no residue of the people, for all, from the least to the greatest, would be given up to destruction. This is the meaning; and at the same time he expresses contempt; for when reapers do not collect the whole produce of the field, there are still the poor, who gather the ears of corn; but when they are trodden under foot, and when there is no one to gather them, it betokens contempt; and this is what the Prophet intended to express. It now follows — |