As we have seen, Jeremiah in the excitement of alarm falls on short lines, ejaculations of two stresses each, sometimes as here with one longer line.[417]
A quatrain follows of longer, equal lines as is usual with Jeremiah when expressing spiritual truths:—
Lord I know! Not to man is his way, 23
Not man's to walk or settle his steps.
Chasten me, Lord, but with judgment, 24
Not in wrath, lest Thou bring me to little!
The last verse of the chapter is of a temper unlike that of Jeremiah elsewhere towards other nations, and so like the temper against them felt by later generations in Israel, that most probably it is not his.
[Pour out Thy rage on the nations, 25
Who do not own Thee,
And out on the kingdoms