Jeremiah 4:5-6 | |
5. Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defensed cities. | 5. Nuntiate (vel, promulgate) in Jehudah, et Jerusalem facite audire, (hoc est, publicate,) et dicite et clangite tuba in terra; vocate, colligite et dicite, Congregamini, et intremus civitates munitas. |
6. Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. | 6. Tollite signum (vel, vexilium) in Sion; congregamini (vel, confugite; alii vertunt, viriliter agite, deducunt enim hoc verbum ab |
Jeremiah treats his own people here with more severity, for he saw that they were refractory, and so obstinate in their vices, that they could not by wise counsels be restored to the way of safety. Hence he addresses them here as men wholly irreclaimable, and to whom instruction proved useless. But though according to the manner of the prophets, he sounds a trumpet for the sake of filling them with terror, he seems yet to speak tauntingly, when he bids them to
Some improperly give this rendering, "Fulfill ye, "but the common version is, "Assemble yourselves." But interpreters seem not to me to have regarded the etymology of the word; for it is of the same meaning in Hebrew as when we say, Amassez-vous, Gather yourselves.
The words
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that as we cease not daily to alienate ourselves from thee by our sins, and as thou yet kindly exhortest us to repent, and promisest to be appeasable and propitious to us, -- O grant, that we may not perversely go on in our sins, and be ungrateful to thee for thy great kindness; but that we may so return to thee, that our whole life may testify that our repentance has been unfeigned, and that we may so acquiesce in thee alone, that the depraved lusts of our flesh may not draw us here and there, but that we may continue fixed and immovable in our purpose, and so labor to obey thee through the whole course of our life, that we may at length partake of the fruit of our obedience in thy celestial kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. -- Amen.
1 These two verses contain a very spirited address, in a style truly poetical,-
5. Announce ye in Judah, And in Jerusalem publish, and say,- Yea, sound the trumpet in the land, Proclaim, do it fully, and say,- " Be assembled, and let us enter into fortified cities;
6. Raise a banner towards Sion; Hasten ye, stay not: " For an evil am I bringing from the north, And a great destruction.
The people of Judah were summoned to enter into fortified cities, and Mount Sion was to be the resort of the inhabitants of Jerusalem: "Hasten ye, "