Jeremiah 5:27 | |
27. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. | 27. Sicuti cavea plena est ave (hoc est, avibus,) sic domus eorum plenae sunt fraude: propterea aucti sunt et ditati. |
Jeremiah goes on with the same subject. He made use, as we have said, of a similitude taken from fowling: he now applies this similitude to the Jews, -- that
We now perceive, that the meaning of the Prophet is, -- that there was no longer a proof required, that the Jews circumvented the helpless and the poor, for their houses were filled with such spoils as made evident their wickedness: they had scraped together their riches by depriving the helpless and the poor of their substance. And hence he adds,
1 It is so rendered in Amos 8:1, 2. This was no doubt a wicker-basket or cage for birds, to keep them, and not a trap-cage, as suggested by the Septuagint and Vulgate versions. The Targum is, "the house of feeding." The comparison is between a cage full of birds, which had been caught by snares, nets, or traps, and houses filled with spoils, which had been procured by frauds. And were "full" rendered "filled, "as it might be, there would be no need of the metonymy supposed to be in the word "fraud, "-
As the cage is filled with birds, So their houses are filled by means of fraud: Hence they have become great and grown rich.-Ed.