[68] The figure recalls the Persian custom of sweeping off the whole population of an island, by forming a line and marching over it, a process of extermination called by the Greek writers σαγηνεύειν, "fishing with a seine or drag-net" (Herod. iii. 149, iv. 9, vi. 31).
[69] For the construction, cf. Gen. i. 22; Jer. li. 11. Or "With their abominations they filled, etc.," a double accusative.
[70] i.e., Loose thine hold of ... let go ... release. Read ידך for ובך. The uses of שִמט "to throw down," "let fall," resemble those of the Greek ἵημι and its compounds. I corrected the passage thus, to find afterwards that I had been anticipated by J. D. Michaelis, Graf, and others.
[71] There is something strange about the phrase "by (upon, `al) the evergreen tree." Twenty-five Heb. MSS., the Targ., and the Syriac, read "every" (kol) for "upon" (`al). We still feel the want of a preposition, and may confidently restore "under" (taḫath), from the nine other passages in which "evergreen tree" (`ec̰ ra`anan) occurs in connexion with idolatrous worship. In all these instances the expression is "under every evergreen tree" (taḫath kol `ec̰ ra`anan); from the Book of the Law (Deut. xii. 2), whence Jeremiah probably drew the phrase, to 2 Chron. xxviii. 4. Jeremiah has already used the phrase thrice (ii. 20, iii. 6, 13), in exactly the same form. The other passages are Ezek. vi. 13; Isa. lvii. 5; 2 Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10. The corruption of kol into `al is found elsewhere. Probably taḫath had dropt out of the text, before the change took place here.
[72] A popular opinion of the time.
[73] Isa. xxii. 23.
[74] The Heb. term is probably written with omission of the final mem, a common abbreviation; and the right reading may be וסורים "and apostates."
[75] מלא for מרעה.
[76] מִרְעֵה for מֵרֹעִה.
[77] I have left this paragraph as I wrote it, although I feel great doubts upon the subject. What I have remarked elsewhere on similar passages, should be considered along with the present suggestions. We have especially to remember, (i) the peculiar status of the speaker as a true prophet; and (ii) the terrible invectives of Christ Himself on certain occasions (St. Matt. xxiii. 33-35; St. Luke x. 15; St. John viii. 44).