27, PATERNOSTER ROW

MDCCCXCV

Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

[PREFACE]

The present work deals primarily with Jeremiah xxi.-lii., thus forming a supplement to the volume of the Expositor's Bible on Jeremiah by the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A. References to the earlier chapters are only introduced where they are necessary to illustrate and explain the later sections.

I regret that two important works, Prof. Skinner's Ezekiel in this series, and Cornill's Jeremiah in Dr. Haupt's Sacred Books of the Old Testament, were published too late to be used in the preparation of this volume.

I have again to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Rev. T. H. Darlow, M.A., for a careful reading and much valuable criticism of my MS.

[INDEX]

(The larger figures in black type are the chief references. Passages in i.-xx. are only noticed by way of illustration of later sections)

chap.		page

i.	7	[295]
	10	[295], [308]
	10-12	[340]
	15	[295]
	18	[82]

ii.	10, 11	[51]
	27	[290]
	34	[272]

iii.	14	[352]
	15	[324]

iv.	19	[327]
	21	[302]

v.	31	[15]

vi.	28	[275]

vii.	4	[20]
	5-9	[272]
	12-14	[14]

viii.	28	[275]

ix.	11, x. 22	[306]

xi.	19	[6]

xii.	14	[323]

xiii.	18	[90]

xiv.	8	[308]

xv.	1	[296]
	1-4	[240]
	4	[202]

xvi.	1	[6]
	10	[274]
	13	[308]
	14, 15	[320]

xvii.	1	[353]
	23	[291]

xix.	4	[272]
	15	[304]

xx.	2	[272]

xxi.	1-10	[141]
	3-6	[303]

xxii.	1-9	[295]
	10-12	[3]
	13-19	[63]
	17	[272]
	20-30	[80]

xxiii.,	xxiv.	[96]

xxiii.	3-8	[319]
	12	[299], [302]
	14	[272]
	25-27	[288]
	25-32	[340]
	33, 34	[304]
	40	[307]

xxiv.		[99]
	6, 7	[319]

xxv.	5	[297]
	9	[215]
	10	[306], [307]
	12	[316]
	15-38	[211]
	34-38	[101]

xxvi.		[10]
	3	[298]
	6	[307]

xxvii.,	xxviii.	[115]

xxvii.	9	[340]

xxix.		[131]
	8	[340]
	10	[316]
	4-14	[259]
	23	[273]

xxx.,	xxxi.	[319]

xxxi.	31-38	[346]

xxxii.		[308]
	26-35	[274]
	34, 35	[285]

xxxiii.		[319]

xxxiv.		[141]
	2	[305]
	21	[304]
	22	[305]

xxxv.		[44]
	15	[297]
	17	[304]

xxxvi.		[28]
	2	[298]
	30, 31	[63]
	31	[83], [304]

xxxvii.	1-10	[141]
	8	[305]
	11-21	[155]
	12	[309]

xxxix.		[172]
	15-18	[155]

xl.		[172]

xli.		[172]

xlii.,	xliii.	[187]
	8-13	[220]

xliv.		[197]
	30	[220], [229]

xlv.		[54]

xlvi.		[220]
	25	[229]

xlvii.		[230]

xlviii.		[234]

xlix.	1-6	[242]
	7-22	[243]
	23-27	[248]
	28-33	[251]
	34-39	[255]

l.,	li.	[258]

lii.		[172]

[CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE]

In the present stage of investigation of Old Testament Chronology, absolute accuracy cannot be claimed for such a table as the following. Hardly any, if any, of these dates are supported by a general consensus of opinion. On the other hand, the range of variation is, for the most part, not more than three or four years, and the table will furnish an approximately accurate idea of sequences and synchronisms. In other respects also the data admit of alternative interpretations, and the course of events is partly a matter of theory—hence the occasional insertion of (?).

CLASSICAL SYNCHRONISMS	JUDAH AND JEREMIAH	ASSYRIA	EGYPT
Traditional date of the foundation of Rome, 753	MANASSEH (?)
		Esarhaddon, 681 Assurbanipal, 668
			XXVIth Dynasty Psammetichus I., 666
	Jeremiah born, probably between 655 and 645 AMON, 640 JOSIAH, 638

	Jeremiah's call in the 13th year of Josiah, 626 Scythian inroad into Western Asia	Last kings of Assyria, number and names uncertain, 626-607-6	Psammetichus besieges Ashdod for twenty-nine years

	Habakkuk Zephaniah Publication of Deuteronomy, 621	BABYLON. Nabopolassar, 626

	Josiah slain at Megiddo, 608 JEHOAHAZ, 608 (xxii. 10-12, Ch. I.) Deposed by Necho, who appoints JEHOIAKIM, 608 (xxii. 13-19, xxxvi. 30, 31, VI.) Jeremiah predicts ruin of Judah and is tried for blasphemy (xxvi., II.)	FALL OF NINEVEH, 607-6	Necho, 612

	FOURTH YEAR OF JEHOIAKIM, 605-4	BATTLE OF CARCHEMISH (xlvi., XVII.)

	Nebuchadnezzar [1] advances into Syria, is suddenly recalled to Babylon—before subduing Judah (?)	Nebuchadnezzar, 604

	Baruch writes Jeremiah's prophecies in a roll, which is read successively to the people, the nobles, and Jehoiakim, and destroyed by the king (xxxvi., III.; xlv., V.)

	Nebuchadnezzar invades Judah (?), the Rechabites take refuge in Jerusalem (?), the Jews rebuked by their example (xxxv., IV.)

	Jehoiakim submits to Nebuchadnezzar, revolts after three years, is attacked by various "bands," but dies before Nebuchadnezzar arrives

	JEHOIACHIN, 597 (xxii. 20-30, VII.) Continues revolt, but surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar on hisarrival; is deposed and carried to Babylon with many of his subjects. Nebuchadnezzar appoints

	ZEDEKIAH, 596		Psammetichus II., 596

	Jeremiah attempts to keep Zedekiah loyal to Nebuchadnezzar, and contends with priests and prophets who support Egyptian party (xxiii., xxiv., VIII.)	Ezekial

Solon's legislation, 594	Proposed confederation against Nebuchadnezzar denounced by Jeremiah, but supported by Hananiah; proposal abandoned; Hananiah dies (xxvii., xxviii., IX.), 593-2

	Controversy by letter with hostile prophets at Babylon (xxix., X.)

	Judah revolts, encouraged by Hophra. Jerusalem is beseiged by Chaldeans. There bing no prospect of relief by Egypt, Jeremiah regains his influence and pledges the people by covenant to release their slaves.

	On the news of Hophra's advance, the Chaldeans raise the siege; the Egyptian party again become supreme and annul the covenant (xxi. 1-10, xxxiv., xxxvii. 1-10, XI.)

	Jeremiah attempts to leave the city, is arrested and imprisoned

	Hophra retreats into Egypt and the Chaldeans renew the siege (xxxvii. 11-21, xxxviii., xxxix. 15-18, XII.)

	While imprisoned Jeremiah buys his kinsman's inheritance (xxxii., XXX.)

	DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, 586	Siege of Tyre

	Jeremiah remains for a month a prisoner amongst the other captives. Nebuzaradan arrives; arranges for deportation of bulk of population; appoints Gedaliah governor of residue; releases Jeremiah, who elects to join Gedaliah at Mizpah. Gedaliah murdered. Jeremioah carried off, but rescued by Johanan (xxxix.-xli., lii., XIII.)

	Johanan, in spite of Jeremiah's protest, goes down to Egypt and takes Jeremiah with him (xlii., xliii., XIV.)

	Jews in Egypt hold festival in honour of Queen of Heaven. Ineffectual protest of Jeremiah (xliv., XV.)		Amasis, 570

		Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt, (?) 568

		Evil-Merodach, 561

Pistratus, 560-527	Release of Jehoiachin

	CYRUS CONQUERS BABYLON AND GIVES THE JEWS PERMISSION TO RETURN, 538

[CONTENTS]

	page

PREFACE	[v]

INDEX OF CHAPTERS	[vii]

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE	[ix]


BOOK I

PERSONAL UTTERANCES AND NARRATIVES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY: JEHOAHAZ. xxii. 10-12	[3]
"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: butweep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return nomore."—xxii, 10

CHAPTER II

A TRIAL FOR HERESY. xxvi.: cf. vii.-x.	[10]
"When Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all thatJehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people,the priests and the prophets and all the people laid holdon him, saying, Thou shalt surely die."—xxvi. 8

CHAPTER III

THE ROLL. xxxvi.	[28]
"Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee."—xxxvi. 2

CHAPTER IV

THE RECHABITES. xxxv.	[44]
"Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man tostand before Me for ever."—xxxv. 19

CHAPTER V

BARUCH. xlv.	[54]
"Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey."—xlv. 5

CHAPTER VI

THE JUDGMENT ON JEHOIAKIM. xxii. 13-19, xxxvi. 30, 31	[63]
"Jehoiakim ... slew him (Uriah) with the sword,and cast his dead body into the graves of the commonpeople."—xxvi. 23 "Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim,... He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawnand cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."—xxii. 18, 19 Jehoiakim ... did that which was evil in the sightof Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.—2Kings xxiii. 36, 37

CHAPTER V

BARUCH. xlv.	[54]
"Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey."—xlv. 5

CHAPTER VII

JEHOIACHIN. xxii. 20-30	[80]
"A despised broken vessel."—xxii. 28 "A young lion. And he went up and down among thelions, he became a young lion and he learned to catchthe prey, he devoured men."—Ezek. xix. 5, 6 "Jehoiachin ... did evil in the sight of Jehovah, accordingto all that his father had done."—2 Kings xxiv. 8, 9

CHAPTER VIII

BAD SHEPHERDS AND FALSE PROPHETS. xxiii.; xxiv.	[96]
"Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter thesheep of My pasture!"—xxii. 1 "Of what avail is straw instead of grain?... Is notMy word like fire, ... like a hammer that shattereth therocks?"—xxiii. 28, 29

CHAPTER IX

HANANIAH. xxvii., xxviii.	[115]
"Hear now, Hananiah; Jehovah hath not sent thee, butthou makest this people to trust in a lie."—xxviii. 15

CHAPTER X

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE EXILES. xxix.	[131]
"Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and Ahab, whomthe king of Babylon roasted in the fire."—xxix. 22

CHAPTER XI

A BROKEN COVENANT. xxi. 1-10, xxxiv.; xxxvii. 1-10	[141]
"All the princes and people ... changed their mindsand reduced to bondage again all the slaves whom they hadset free."—xxxiv. 10, 11

CHAPTER XII

JEREMIAH'S IMPRISONMENT. xxxvii. 11-21, xxxviii.,xxxix. 15-18	[155]
"Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the daythat Jerusalem was taken."—xxxviii. 28

CHAPTER XIII

GEDALIAH. xxxix.-xli., lii.	[172]
"Then arose Ishmael ben Nethaniah, and the ten menthat were with him, and smote with the sword and slewGedaliah ben Ahikam ben Shaphan, whom the king ofBabylon had made king over the land."—xli. 2

CHAPTER XIV

THE DESCENT INTO EGYPT. xlii., xliii.	[187]
"They came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed notthe voice of Jehovah."—xliii. 7

CHAPTER XV

THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. xliv.	[197]
"Since we left off burning incense and offering libationsto the Queen of Heaven, we have been in want of everything,and have been consumed by the sword and thefamine."—xliv. 18


BOOK II

PROPHECIES CONCERNING FOREIGN NATIONS

CHAPTER XVI

JEHOVAH AND THE NATIONS. xxv. 15-38	[211]
"Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations."—xxv. 31

CHAPTER XVII

EGYPT. xliii. 8-13, xliv. 30, xlvi.	[220]
"I will visit Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, withtheir gods and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them thattrust in him."—xlvi. 25

CHAPTER XVIII

THE PHILISTINES. xlvii.	[230]
"O sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou bequiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still."—xlvii. 6

CHAPTER XIX

MOAB. xlviii.	[234]
"Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, becausehe hath magnified himself against Jehovah."—xlviii. 42 "Chemosh said to me, Go, take Nebo against Israel ...and I took it ... and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah,and offered them before Chemosh."—Moabite Stone. "Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in thelatter days."—xlviii. 47

CHAPTER XX

AMMON. xlix. 1-6	[242]
"Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why thendoth Moloch possess Gad, and his people dwell in the citiesthereof?"—xlix. 1

CHAPTER XXI

EDOM. xlix. 7-22	[243]
"Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, awaste, and a curse."—xlix. 13

CHAPTER XXII

DAMASCUS. xlix. 23-27	[248]
"I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shalldevour the palaces of Benhadad."—xlix. 27

CHAPTER XXIII

KEDAR AND HAZOR. xlix. 28-33	[251]
"Concerning Kedar, and the kingdoms of Hazor whichNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote."—xlix. 28

CHAPTER XXIV

ELAM. xlix. 34-39	[255]
"I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might."—xlix. 35

CHAPTER XXV

BABYLON. l., li.	[258]
"Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is brokenin pieces."—l. 2


BOOK III

JEREMIAH'S TEACHING CONCERNING ISRAEL AND JUDAH

CHAPTER XXVI

INTRODUCTORY	[267]
"I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and theyshall be My people."—xxxi. 1

CHAPTER XXVII

SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CORRUPTION	[270]
"Very bad figs, ... too bad to be eaten."—xxiv. 2, 8,xxix. 17

CHAPTER XXVIII

PERSISTENT APOSTASY	[283]
"They have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God,and worshipped other gods, and served them."—xxii. 9 "Every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his heart."—xxiii. 17

CHAPTER XXIX

RUIN. xxii. 1-9, xxvi. 14	[295]
"The sword, the pestilence, and the famine."—xxi, 9 andpassim. "Terror on every side."—vi. 25, xx. 10, xlvi. 5, xlix. 29;also as proper name, MAGOR-MISSABIB, xx. 3

CHAPTER XXX

RESTORATION—I. THE SYMBOL. xxxii.	[308]
"And I bought the field of Hanameel."—xxxii. 9

CHAPTER XXXI

RESTORATION—II. THE NEW ISRAEL. xxiii. 3-8, xxiv.6, 7, xxx., xxxi., xxxiii.	[319]
"In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shalldwell safely: and this is the name whereby she shall becalled, Jehovah our Righteousness."—xxxiii. 16

CHAPTER XXXII

RESTORATION—III. REUNION. xxxi.	[329]
"I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judahwith the seed of man, and with the seed of beast."—xxxi. 27

CHAPTER XXXIII

RESTORATION—IV. THE NEW COVENANT. xxxi. 31-38:cf. Hebrews viii.	[346]
"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israeland the house of Judah."—xxxi. 31

CHAPTER XXXIV

RESTORATION—V. REVIEW. xxx.-xxxiii.	[357]


EPILOGUE

CHAPTER XXXV

JEREMIAH AND CHRIST	[367]
"Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet fromamongst thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shallye hearken."—Deut. xviii. 15 "Jesus ... asked His disciples, saying, Who do mensay that the Son of Man is? And they said, Some sayJohn the Baptist; some, Elijah: and others, Jeremiah, orone of the prophets."—Matt. xvi. 13, 14

"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more."—xxii, 10

"When Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt surely die."—xxvi. 8

"Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee."—xxxvi. 2

"Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before Me for ever."—xxxv. 19

"Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey."—xlv. 5

"Jehoiakim ... slew him (Uriah) with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people."—xxvi. 23

"Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim, ... He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."—xxii. 18, 19

Jehoiakim ... did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.—2 Kings xxiii. 36, 37

"Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey."—xlv. 5

"A despised broken vessel."—xxii. 28

"A young lion. And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men."—Ezek. xix. 5, 6

"Jehoiachin ... did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father had done."—2 Kings xxiv. 8, 9

"Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!"—xxii. 1

"Of what avail is straw instead of grain?... Is not My word like fire, ... like a hammer that shattereth the rocks?"—xxiii. 28, 29

"Hear now, Hananiah; Jehovah hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie."—xxviii. 15

"Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire."—xxix. 22

"All the princes and people ... changed their minds and reduced to bondage again all the slaves whom they had set free."—xxxiv. 10, 11

"Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken."—xxxviii. 28

"Then arose Ishmael ben Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote with the sword and slew Gedaliah ben Ahikam ben Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made king over the land."—xli. 2

"They came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of Jehovah."—xliii. 7

"Since we left off burning incense and offering libations to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in want of everything, and have been consumed by the sword and the famine."—xliv. 18

"Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations."—xxv. 31

"I will visit Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him."—xlvi. 25

"O sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still."—xlvii. 6

"Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against Jehovah."—xlviii. 42

"Chemosh said to me, Go, take Nebo against Israel ... and I took it ... and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh."—Moabite Stone.

"Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days."—xlviii. 47

"Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth Moloch possess Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof?"—xlix. 1

"Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse."—xlix. 13

"I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Benhadad."—xlix. 27

"Concerning Kedar, and the kingdoms of Hazor which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote."—xlix. 28

"I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might."—xlix. 35

"Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces."—l. 2

"I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."—xxxi. 1

"Very bad figs, ... too bad to be eaten."—xxiv. 2, 8, xxix. 17

"They have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them."—xxii. 9

"Every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his heart."—xxiii. 17

"The sword, the pestilence, and the famine."—xxi, 9 and passim.

"Terror on every side."—vi. 25, xx. 10, xlvi. 5, xlix. 29; also as proper name, MAGOR-MISSABIB, xx. 3

"And I bought the field of Hanameel."—xxxii. 9

"In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby she shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness."—xxxiii. 16

"I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast."—xxxi. 27

"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."—xxxi. 31

"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

[BOOK I]

PERSONAL UTTERANCES AND NARRATIVES

[CHAPTER I]

INTRODUCTORY:[2] JEHOAHAZ

xxii. 10-12.

"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more."—Jer. xxii. 10.

As the prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the order in which they were delivered, there is no absolute chronological division between the first twenty chapters and those which follow. For the most part, however, chapters xxi.-lii. fall in or after the fourth year of Jehoiakim (b.c. 605). We will therefore briefly consider the situation at Jerusalem in this crisis. The period immediately preceding b.c. 605 somewhat resembles the era of the dissolution of the Roman Empire or of the Wars of the French Revolution. An old-established international system was breaking in pieces, and men were quite uncertain what form the new order would take. For centuries the futile assaults of the Pharaohs had only served to illustrate the stability of the Assyrian supremacy in Western Asia. Then in the last two decades of the seventh century b.c. the Assyrian Empire collapsed, like the Roman Empire under Honorius and his successors. It was as if by some swift succession of disasters modern France or Germany were to become suddenly and permanently annihilated as a military power. For the moment, all the traditions and principles of European statesmanship would lose their meaning, and the shrewdest diplomatist would be entirely at fault. Men's reason would totter, their minds would lose their balance at the stupendous spectacle of so unparalleled a catastrophe. The wildest hopes would alternate with the extremity of fear; everything would seem possible to the conqueror.

Such was the situation in b.c. 605, to which our first great group of prophecies belongs. Two oppressors of Israel—Assyria and Egypt—had been struck down in rapid succession. When Nebuchadnezzar [3] was suddenly recalled to Babylon by the death of his father, the Jews would readily imagine that the Divine judgment had fallen upon Chaldea and its king. Sanguine prophets announced that Jehovah was about to deliver His people from all foreign dominion, and establish the supremacy of the Kingdom of God. Court and people would be equally possessed with patriotic hope and enthusiasm. Jehoiakim, it is true, was a nominee of Pharaoh Necho; but his gratitude would be far too slight to override the hopes and aspirations natural to a Prince of the House of David.

In Hezekiah's time, there had been an Egyptian and an Assyrian party at the court of Judah; the recent supremacy of Egypt had probably increased the number of her partisans. Assyria had disappeared, but her former adherents would retain their antipathy to Egypt, and their personal feuds with Jews of the opposite faction; they were as tools lying ready to any hand that cared to use them. When Babylon succeeded Assyria in the overlordship of Asia, she doubtless inherited the allegiance of the anti-Egyptian party in the various Syrian states. Jeremiah, like Isaiah, steadily opposed any dependence upon Egypt; it was probably by his advice that Josiah undertook his ill-fated expedition against Pharaoh Necho. The partisans of Egypt would be the prophet's enemies; and though Jeremiah never became a mere dependent and agent of Nebuchadnezzar, yet the friends of Babylon would be his friends, if only because her enemies were his enemies.

We are told in 2 Kings xxiii. 37 that Jehoiakim did evil in the sight of Jehovah according to all that his father had done. Whatever other sins may be implied by this condemnation, we certainly learn that the king favoured a corrupt form of the religion of Jehovah in opposition to the purer teaching which Jeremiah inherited from Isaiah.

When we turn to Jeremiah himself, the date "the fourth year of Jehoiakim" reminds us that by this time the prophet could look back upon a long and sad experience; he had been called in the thirteenth year of Josiah, some twenty-four years before. With what sometimes seems to our limited intelligence the strange irony of Providence, this lover of peace and quietness was called to deliver a message of ruin and condemnation, a message that could not fail to be extremely offensive to most of his hearers, and to make him the object of bitter hostility.

Much of this Jeremiah must have anticipated, but there were some from whose position and character the prophet expected acceptance, even of the most unpalatable teaching of the Spirit of Jehovah. The personal vindictiveness with which priests and prophets repaid his loyalty to the Divine mission and his zeal for truth came to him with a shock of surprise and bewilderment, which was all the greater because his most determined persecutors were his sacerdotal kinsmen and neighbours at Anathoth. "Let us destroy the tree," they said, "with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."[4]

He was not only repudiated by his clan, but also forbidden by Jehovah to seek consolation and sympathy in the closer ties of family life: "Thou shalt not take a wife, thou shalt have no sons or daughters."[5] Like Paul, it was good for Jeremiah "by reason of the present distress" to deny himself these blessings. He found some compensation in the fellowship of kindred souls at Jerusalem. We can well believe that, in those early days, he was acquainted with Zephaniah, and that they were associated with Hilkiah and Shaphan and King Josiah in the publication of Deuteronomy and its recognition as the law of Israel. Later on Shaphan's son Ahikam protected Jeremiah when his life was in imminent danger.

The twelve years that intervened between Josiah's Reformation and his defeat at Megiddo were the happiest part of Jeremiah's ministry. It is not certain that any of the extant prophecies belong to this period. With Josiah on the throne and Deuteronomy accepted as the standard of the national life, the prophet felt absolved for a season from his mission to pluck up and break down, and perhaps began to indulge in hopes that the time had come to build and to plant. Yet it is difficult to believe that he had implicit confidence in the permanence of the Reformation or the influence of Deuteronomy. The silence of Isaiah and Jeremiah as to the ecclesiastical reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah stands in glaring contrast to the great importance attached to them by the Books of Kings and Chronicles. But, in any case, Jeremiah must have found life brighter and easier than in the reigns that followed. Probably, in these happier days, he was encouraged by the sympathy and devotion of disciples like Baruch and Ezekiel.

But Josiah's attempt to realise a Kingdom of God was short-lived; and, in a few months, Jeremiah saw the whole fabric swept away. The king was defeated and slain; and his religious policy was at once reversed either by a popular revolution or a court intrigue. The people of the land made Josiah's son Shallum king, under the name of Jehoahaz. This young prince of twenty-three only reigned three months, and was then deposed and carried into captivity by Pharaoh Necho; yet it is recorded of him, that he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.[6] He—or, more probably, his ministers, especially the queen-mother [7]—must have been in a hurry to undo Josiah's work. Jeremiah utters no condemnation of Jehoahaz; he merely declares that the young king will never return from his exile, and bids the people lament over his captivity as a more grievous fate than the death of Josiah:—

"Weep not for the dead,
Neither lament over him:
But weep sore for him that goeth into captivity;
For he shall return no more,
Neither shall he behold his native land."[8]

Ezekiel adds admiration to sympathy: Jehoahaz was a young lion skilled to catch the prey, he devoured men, the nations heard of him, he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with hooks into the land of Egypt.[9] Jeremiah and Ezekiel could not but feel some tenderness towards the son of Josiah; and probably they had faith in his personal character, and believed that in time he would shake off the yoke of evil counsellors and follow in his father's footsteps. But any such hopes were promptly disappointed by Pharaoh Necho, and Jeremiah's spirit bowed beneath a new burden as he saw his country completely subservient to the dreaded influence of Egypt.

Thus, at the time when we take up the narrative, the government was in the hands of the party hostile to Jeremiah, and the king, Jehoiakim, seems to have been his personal enemy. Jeremiah himself was somewhere between forty and fifty years old, a solitary man without wife or child. His awful mission as the herald of ruin clouded his spirit with inevitable gloom. Men resented the stern sadness of his words and looks, and turned from him with aversion and dislike. His unpopularity had made him somewhat harsh; for intolerance is twice curst, in that it inoculates its victims with the virus of its own bitterness. His hopes and illusions lay behind him; he could only watch with melancholy pity the eager excitement of these stirring times. If he came across some group busily discussing the rout of the Egyptians at Carchemish, or the report that Nebuchadnezzar was posting in hot haste to Babylon, and wondering as to all that this might mean for Judah, his countrymen would turn to look with contemptuous curiosity at the bitter, disappointed man who had had his chance and failed, and now grudged them their prospect of renewed happiness and prosperity. Nevertheless Jeremiah's greatest work still lay before him. Jerusalem was past saving; but more was at stake than the existence of Judah and its capital. But for Jeremiah the religion of Jehovah might have perished with His Chosen People. It was his mission to save Revelation from the wreck of Israel. Humanly speaking, the religious future of the world depended upon this stern solitary prophet.

[CHAPTER II]

A TRIAL FOR HERESY

xxvi.: cf. vii.-x.

"When Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt surely die."—Jer. xxvi. 8.

The date of this incident is given, somewhat vaguely, as the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. It was, therefore, earlier than b.c. 605, the point reached in the previous chapter. Jeremiah could offer no political resistance to Jehoiakim and his Egyptian suzerain; yet it was impossible for him to allow Josiah's policy to be reversed without a protest. Moreover, something, perhaps much, might yet be saved for Jehovah. The king, with his court and prophets and priests, was not everything. Jeremiah was only concerned with sanctuaries, ritual, and priesthoods as means to an end. For him the most important result of the work he had shared with Josiah was a pure and holy life for the nation and individuals. Renan—in some passages, for he is not always consistent—is inclined to minimise the significance of the change from Josiah to Jehoiakim; in fact, he writes very much as a cavalier might have done of the change from Cromwell to Charles II. Both the Jewish kings worshipped Jehovah, each in his own fashion: Josiah was inclined to a narrow puritan severity of a life; Jehoiakim was a liberal, practical man of the world. Probably this is a fair modern equivalent of the current estimate of the kings and their policy, especially on the part of Jehoiakim's friends; but then, as unhappily still in some quarters, "narrow puritan severity" was a convenient designation for a decent and honourable life, for a scrupulous and self-denying care for the welfare of others. Jeremiah dreaded a relapse into the old half-heathen ideas that Jehovah would be pleased with homage and service that satisfied Baal, Moloch, and Chemosh. Such a relapse would lower the ethical standard, and corrupt or even destroy any beginnings of spiritual life. Our English Restoration is an object-lesson as to the immoral effects of political and ecclesiastical reaction; if such things were done in sober England, what must have been possible to hot Eastern blood! In protesting against the attitude of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah would also seek to save the people from the evil effects of the king's policy. He knew from his own experience that a subject might trust and serve God with his whole heart, even when the king was false to Jehovah. What was possible for him was possible for others. He understood his countrymen too well to expect that the nation would continue to advance in paths of righteousness which its leaders and teachers had forsaken; but, scattered here and there through the mass of the people, was Isaiah's remnant, the seed of the New Israel, men and women to whom the Revelation of Jehovah had been the beginning of a higher life. He would not leave them without a word of counsel and encouragement.

At the command of Jehovah, Jeremiah appeared before the concourse of Jews, assembled at the Temple for some great fast or festival. No feast is expressly mentioned, but he is charged to address "all the cities of Judah"[10]; all the outlying population would only meet at the Temple on some specially holy day. Such an occasion would naturally be chosen by Jeremiah for his deliverance, just as Christ availed Himself of the opportunities offered by the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, just as modern philanthropists seek to find a place for their favourite topics on the platform of May Meetings.

The prophet was to stand in the court of the Temple and repeat once more to the Jews his message of warning and judgment, "all that I have charged thee to speak unto them, thou shalt not keep back a single word." The substance of this address is found in the various prophecies which expose the sin and predict the ruin of Judah. They have been dealt with in the former volume [11] on Jeremiah in this series, and are also referred to in Book III.

According to the universal principle of Hebrew prophecy, the predictions of ruin were conditional; they were still coupled with the offer of pardon to repentance, and Jehovah did not forbid his prophet to cherish a lingering hope that "perchance they may hearken and turn every one from his evil way, so that I may repent Me of the evil I purpose to inflict upon them because of the evil of their doings." Probably the phrase "every one from his evil way" is primarily collective rather than individual, and is intended to describe a national reformation, which would embrace all the individual citizens; but the actual words suggest another truth, which must also have been in Jeremiah's mind. The nation is, after all, an aggregate of men and women; there can be no national reformation, except through the repentance and amendment of individuals.

Jeremiah's audience, it must be observed, consisted of worshippers on the way to the Temple, and would correspond to an ordinary congregation of church-goers, rather than to the casual crowd gathered round a street preacher, or to the throngs of miners and labourers who listened to Whitfield and Wesley. As an acknowledged prophet, he was well within his rights in expecting a hearing from the attendants at the feast, and men would be curious to see and hear one who had been the dominant influence in Judah during the reign of Josiah. Moreover, in the absence of evening newspapers and shop-windows, a prophet was too exciting a distraction to be lightly neglected. From Jehovah's charge to speak all that He had commanded him to speak and not to keep back a word, we may assume that Jeremiah's discourse was long: it was also avowedly an old sermon [12]; most of his audience had heard it before, all of them were quite familiar with its main topics. They listened in the various moods of a modern congregation "sitting under" a distinguished preacher. Jeremiah's friends and disciples welcomed the ideas and phrases that had become part of their spiritual life. Many enjoyed the speaker's earnestness and eloquence, without troubling themselves about the ideas at all. There was nothing specially startling about the well-known threats and warnings; they had become

"A tale of little meaning tho' the words were strong."

Men hardened their hearts against inspired prophets as easily as they do against the most pathetic appeals of modern evangelists. Mingled with the crowd were Jeremiah's professional rivals, who detested both him and his teaching—priests who regarded him as a traitor to his own caste, prophets who envied his superior gifts and his force of passionate feeling. To these almost every word he uttered was offensive, but for a while there was nothing that roused them to very vehement anger. He was allowed to finish what he had to say, "to make an end of speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him." But in this peroration he had insisted on a subject that stung the indifferent into resentment and roused the priests and prophets to fury.

"Go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not: therefore will I do unto the house, that is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh."[13]

The Ephraimite sanctuary of Shiloh, long the home of the Ark and its priesthood, had been overthrown in some national catastrophe. Apparently when it was destroyed it was no mere tent, but a substantial building of stone, and its ruins remained as a permanent monument of the fugitive glory of even the most sacred shrine.

The very presence of his audience in the place where they were met showed their reverence for the Temple: the priests were naturally devotees of their own shrine; of the prophets Jeremiah himself had said, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule in accordance with their teaching."[14] Can we wonder that "the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt surely die"? For the moment there was an appearance of religious unity in Jerusalem; the priests, the prophets, and the pious laity on one side, and only the solitary heretic on the other. It was, though on a small scale, as if the obnoxious teaching of some nineteenth-century prophet of God had given an unexpected stimulus to the movement for Christian reunion; as if cardinals and bishops, chairmen of unions, presidents of conferences, moderators of assemblies, with great preachers and distinguished laymen, united to hold monster meetings and denounce the Divine message as heresy and blasphemy. In like manner Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians found a basis of common action in their hatred of Christ, and Pilate and Herod were reconciled by His cross.

Meanwhile the crowd was increasing: new worshippers were arriving, and others as they left the Temple were attracted to the scene of the disturbance. Doubtless too the mob, always at the service of persecutors, hurried up in hope of finding opportunities for mischief and violence. Some six and a half centuries later, history repeated itself on the same spot, when the Asiatic Jews saw Paul in the Temple and "laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place, ... and all the city was moved, and the people ran together and laid hold on Paul."[15]

Our narrative, as it stands, is apparently incomplete: we find Jeremiah before the tribunal of the princes, but we are not told how he came there; whether the civil authorities intervened to protect him, as Claudius Lysias came down with his soldiers and centurions and rescued Paul, or whether Jeremiah's enemies observed legal forms, as Annas and Caiaphas did when they arrested Christ. But, in any case, "the princes of Judah, when they heard these things, came up from the palace into the Temple, and took their seats as judges at the entry of the new gate of the Temple." The "princes of Judah" play a conspicuous part in the last period of the Jewish monarchy: we have little definite information about them, and are left to conjecture that they were an aristocratic oligarchy or an official clique, or both; but it is clear that they were a dominant force in the state, with recognised constitutional status, and that they often controlled the king himself. We are also ignorant as to the "new gate"; it may possibly be the upper gate built by Jotham [16] about a hundred and fifty years earlier.

Before these judges, Jeremiah's ecclesiastical accusers brought a formal charge; they said, almost in the very words which the high priest and the Sanhedrin used of Christ, "This man is worthy of death, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears"—i.e. when he said, "This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without inhabitant." Such accusations have been always on the lips of those who have denounced Christ and His disciples as heretics. One charge against Himself was that He said, "I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands."[17] Stephen was accused of speaking incessantly against the Temple and the Law, and teaching that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the Temple and change the customs handed down from Moses. When he asserted that "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands," the impatience of his audience compelled him to bring his defence to an abrupt conclusion.[18] Of Paul we have already spoken.

How was it that these priests and prophets thought that their princes might be induced to condemn Jeremiah to death for predicting the destruction of the Temple? A prophet would not run much risk nowadays by announcing that St. Paul's should be made like Stonehenge, or St. Peter's like the Parthenon. Expositors of Daniel and the Apocalypse habitually fix the end of the world a few years in advance of the date at which they write, and yet they do not incur any appreciable unpopularity. It is true that Jeremiah's accusers were a little afraid that his predictions might be fulfilled, and the most bitter persecutors are those who have a lurking dread that their victims are right, while they themselves are wrong. But such fears could not very well be evidence or argument against Jeremiah before any court of law.

In order to realise the situation we must consider the place which the Temple held in the hopes and affections of the Jews. They had always been proud of their royal sanctuary at Jerusalem, but within the last hundred and fifty years it had acquired a unique importance for the religion of Israel. First Hezekiah, and then Josiah, had taken away the other high places and altars at which Jehovah was worshipped, and had said to Judah and Jerusalem, "Ye shall worship before this altar."[19] Doubtless the kings were following the advice of Isaiah and Jeremiah. These prophets were anxious to abolish the abuses of the local sanctuaries, which were a continual incentive to an extravagant and corrupt ritual. Yet they did not intend to assign any supreme importance to a priestly caste or a consecrated building. Certainly for them the hope of Israel and the assurance of its salvation did not consist in cedar and hewn stones, in silver and gold. And yet the unique position given to the Temple inevitably became the starting-point for fresh superstition. Once Jehovah could be worshipped not only at Jerusalem, but at Beersheba and Bethel and many other places where He had chosen to set His name. Even then, it was felt that the Divine Presence must afford some protection for His dwelling-places. But now that Jehovah dwelt nowhere else but at Jerusalem, and only accepted the worship of His people at this single shrine, how could any one doubt that He would protect His Temple and His Holy City against all enemies, even the most formidable? Had He not done so already?

When Hezekiah abolished the high places, did not Jehovah set the seal of approval upon his policy by destroying the army of Sennacherib? Was not this great deliverance wrought to guard the Temple against desecration and destruction, and would not Jehovah work out a like salvation in any future time of danger? The destruction of Sennacherib was essential to the religious future of Israel and of mankind; but it had a very mingled influence upon the generations immediately following. They were like a man who has won a great prize in a lottery, or who has, quite unexpectedly, come into an immense inheritance. They ignored the unwelcome thought that the Divine protection depended on spiritual and moral conditions, and they clung to the superstitious faith that at any moment, even in the last extremity of danger and at the eleventh hour, Jehovah might, nay, even must, intervene. The priests and the inhabitants of Jerusalem could look on with comparative composure while the country was ravaged, and the outlying towns were taken and pillaged; Jerusalem itself might seem on the verge of falling into the hands of the enemy, but they still trusted in their Palladium. Jerusalem could not perish, because it contained the one sanctuary of Jehovah; they sought to silence their own fears and to drown the warning voice of the prophet by vociferating their watchword: "The Temple of Jehovah! the Temple of Jehovah! The Temple of Jehovah is in our midst!"[20]

In prosperous times a nation may forget its Palladium, and may tolerate doubts as to its efficacy; but the strength of the Jews was broken, their resources were exhausted, and they were clinging in an agony of conflicting hopes and fears to their faith in the inviolability of the Temple. To destroy their confidence was like snatching away a plank from a drowning man. When Jeremiah made the attempt, they struck back with the fierce energy of despair. It does not seem that at this time the city was in any immediate danger; the incident rather falls in the period of quiet submission to Pharaoh Necho that preceded the battle of Carchemish. But the disaster of Megiddo was fresh in men's memories, and in the unsettled state of Eastern Asia no one knew how soon some other invader might advance against the city. On the other hand, in the quiet interval, hopes began to revive, and men were incensed when the prophet made haste to nip these hopes in the bud, all the more so because their excited anticipations of future glory had so little solid basis. Jeremiah's appeal to the ill-omened precedent of Shiloh naturally roused the sanguine and despondent alike into frenzy.

Jeremiah's defence was simple and direct: "Jehovah sent me to prophesy all that ye have heard against this house and against this city. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and hearken unto the voice of Jehovah your God, that He may repent Him of the evil that He hath spoken against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hands: do unto me as it seems good and right unto you. Only know assuredly that, if ye put me to death, ye will bring the guilt of innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city and its inhabitants: for of a truth Jehovah sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears." There is one curious feature in this defence. Jeremiah contemplates the possibility of two distinct acts of wickedness on the part of his persecutors: they may turn a deaf ear to his appeal that they should repent and reform, and their obstinacy will incur all the chastisements which Jeremiah had threatened; they may also put him to death and incur additional guilt. Scoffers might reply that his previous threats were so awful and comprehensive that they left no room for any addition to the punishment of the impenitent. Sinners sometimes find a grim comfort in the depth of their wickedness; their case is so bad that it cannot be made worse, they may now indulge their evil propensities with a kind of impunity. But Jeremiah's prophetic insight made him anxious to save his countrymen from further sin, even in their impenitence; the Divine discrimination is not taxed beyond its capabilities even by the extremity of human wickedness.

But to return to the main feature in Jeremiah's defence. His accusers' contention was that his teaching was so utterly blasphemous, so entirely opposed to every tradition and principle of true religion—or, as we should say, so much at variance with all orthodoxy—that it could not be a word of Jehovah. Jeremiah does not attempt to discuss the relation of his teaching to the possible limits of Jewish orthodoxy. He bases his defence on the bare assertion of his prophetic mission—Jehovah had sent him. He assumes that there is no room for evidence or discussion; it is a question of the relative authority of Jeremiah and his accusers, whether he or they had the better right to speak for God. The immediate result seemed to justify him in this attitude. He was no obscure novice, seeking for the first time to establish his right to speak in the Divine name. The princes and people had been accustomed for twenty years to listen to him, as to the most fully acknowledged mouthpiece of Heaven; they could not shake off their accustomed feeling of deference, and once more succumbed to the spell of his fervid and commanding personality. "Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and the prophets, This man is not worthy of death; for he hath spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God." For the moment the people were won over and the princes convinced; but priests and prophets were not so easily influenced by inspired utterances; some of these probably thought that they had an inspiration of their own, and their professional experience made them callous.

At this point again the sequence of events is not clear; possibly the account was compiled from the imperfect recollections of more than one of the spectators. The pronouncement of the princes and the people seems, at first sight, a formal acquittal that should have ended the trial, and left no room for the subsequent intervention of "certain of the elders," otherwise the trial seems to have come to no definite conclusion, and the incident simply terminated in the personal protection given to Jeremiah by Ahikam ben Shaphan. Possibly, however, the tribunal of the princes was not governed by any strict rules of procedure; and the force of the argument used by the elders does not depend on the exact stage of the trial at which it was introduced.

Either Jeremiah was not entirely successful in his attempt to get the matter disposed of on the sole ground of his own prophetic authority, or else the elders were anxious to secure weight and finality for the acquittal, by bringing forward arguments in its support. The elders were an ancient Israelite institution, and probably still represented the patriarchal side of the national life; nothing is said as to their relation to the princes, and this might not be very clearly defined. The elders appealed, by way of precedent, to an otherwise unrecorded incident of the reign of Hezekiah. Micah the Morasthite had uttered similar threats against Jerusalem and the Temple: "Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest."[21] But Hezekiah and his people, instead of slaying Micah, had repented, and the city had been spared. They evidently wished that the precedent could be wholly followed in the present instance; but, at any rate, it was clear that one of the most honoured and successful of the kings of Judah had accepted a threat against the Temple as a message from Jehovah. Therefore the mere fact that Jeremiah had uttered such a threat was certainly not primâ facie evidence that he was a false prophet. We are not told how this argument was received, but the writer of the chapter, possibly Baruch, does not attribute Jeremiah's escape either to his acquittal by the princes or to the reasoning of the elders. The people apparently changed sides once more, like the common people in the New Testament, who heard Christ gladly and with equal enthusiasm clamoured for His crucifixion. At the end of the chapter we find them eager to have the prophet delivered into their hands that they may put him to death. Apparently the prophets and priests, having brought matters into this satisfactory position, had retired from the scene of action; the heretic was to be delivered over to the secular arm. The princes, like Pilate, seemed inclined to yield to popular pressure; but Ahikam, a son of the Shaphan who had to do with the finding of Deuteronomy, stood by Jeremiah, as John of Gaunt stood by Wyclif, and the Protestant Princes by Luther, and the magistrates of Geneva by Calvin; and Jeremiah could say with the Psalmist:—

"I have heard the defaming of many,
Terror on every side:
While they took counsel together against me,
They devised to take away my life.
But I trusted in Thee, O Jehovah:
I said, Thou art my God.
My times are in Thy hand:
Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

Let the lying lips be dumb,
Which speak against the righteous insolently,
With pride and contempt.
Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee,
Which Thou hast wrought for them that put their trust in Thee, before the sons of men."[22]

We have here an early and rudimentary example of religious toleration, of the willingness, however reluctant, to hear as a possible Divine message unpalatable teaching, at variance with current theology; we see too the fountain-head of that freedom which since has "broadened down from precedent to precedent."

But unfortunately no precedent can bind succeeding generations, and both Judaism and Christianity have sinned grievously against the lesson of this chapter. Jehoiakim himself soon broke through the feeble restraint of this new-born tolerance. The writer adds an incident that must have happened somewhat later,[23] to show how real was Jeremiah's danger, and how transient was the liberal mood of the authorities. A certain Uriah ben Shemaiah of Kirjath Jearim had the courage to follow in Jeremiah's footsteps and speak against the city "according to all that Jeremiah had said." With the usual meanness of persecutors, Jehoiakim and his captains and princes vented upon this obscure prophet the ill-will which they had not dared to indulge in the case of Jeremiah, with his commanding personality and influential friends. Uriah fled into Egypt, but was brought back and slain, and his body cast out unburied into the common cemetery. We can understand Jeremiah's fierce and bitter indignation against the city where such things were possible.

This chapter is so full of suggestive teaching that we can only touch upon two or three of its more obvious lessons. The dogma which shaped the charge against Jeremiah and caused the martyrdom of Uriah was the inviolability of the Temple and the Holy City. This dogma was a perversion of the teaching of Isaiah, and especially of Jeremiah himself,[24] which assigned a unique position to the Temple in the religion of Israel. The carnal man shows a fatal ingenuity in sucking poison out of the most wholesome truth. He is always eager to discover that something external, material, physical, concrete—some building, organisation, ceremony, or form of words—is a fundamental basis of the faith and essential to salvation. If Jeremiah had died with Josiah, the "priests and prophets" would doubtless have quoted his authority against Uriah. The teaching of Christ and His apostles, of Luther and Calvin and their fellow-reformers, has often been twisted and forged into weapons to be used against their true followers. We are often tempted in the interest of our favourite views to lay undue stress on secondary and accidental statements of great teachers. We fail to keep the due proportion of truth which they themselves observed, and in applying their precepts to new problems we sacrifice the kernel and save the husk. The warning of Jeremiah's persecutors might often "give us pause." We need not be surprised at finding priests and prophets eager and interested champions of a perversion of revealed truth. Ecclesiastical office does not necessarily confer any inspiration from above. The hereditary priest follows the traditions of his caste, and even the prophet may become the mouthpiece of the passions and prejudices of those who accept and applaud him. When men will not endure sound doctrine, they heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; having itching ears, they turn away their ears from the truth and turn unto fables.[25] Jeremiah's experience shows that even an apparent consensus of clerical opinion is not always to be trusted. The history of councils and synods is stained by many foul and shameful blots; it was the Œcumenical Council at Constance that burnt Huss, and most Churches have found themselves, at some time or other, engaged in building the tombs of the prophets whom their own officials had stoned in days gone by. We forget that Athanasius contra mundum implies also Athanasius contra ecclesiam.