[61] Lit. "all these things," i.e., this visible world. There is no Heb. special term for the "universe" or "world." "The all" or "heaven and earth," or the phrase in the text, are used in this sense.
[62] The reference to an eclipse of the sun in the words
"Her sun went down, while it yet was day;
He blushed and paled."
appears fairly certain. Such an event is said to have occurred in that part of the world, Sept. 30, b.c. 610.
[63] 13. Read במתיך "Thine high places" for לא במחיר "without price"; and transpose בחטאת (xvii. 3).
[64] 14. Read והעברתיך "and I will make thee serve" (xvii. 4) for והעברתי "and I will make to pass through...."
The third member is a quotation from Deut. xxxii. 22. In the fourth, read על־עולם "for ever" (xvii. 4) instead of עליכם "upon you."
[65] The tone of all this indicates that the prophet was no novice in his office. It does not suit the time of Josiah; but agrees very well with the time of confusion and popular dismay which followed his death. That event must have brought great discredit upon Jeremiah and upon all who had been instrumental in the religious changes of his reign.
[66] Practices forbidden, Lev. xxi. 5; Deut. xiv. 1. Jeremiah mentions them as ordinary signs of mourning, and doubtless they were general in his time. An ancient usage, having its root in natural feeling, is not easily extirpated.
[67] Naegelsbach.