The voices of bridegroom and bride.
There follows a passage in prose, 10-13, which in terms familiar to us, recites the nation's doom, their exile. Verses 14, 15 break the connection with 16 ff., and find their proper place in XXIII. 7-8, where they recur. Verses 16-18 predict, under the figures of fishers and hunters, the arrival of bands of invaders, who shall sweep the country of its inhabitants, because of the idolatries with which these have polluted it. There is no [pg 220] reason to deny these verses to Jeremiah. In 19, 20 we come to another metrical piece, singing of the conversion of the heathen from their idols—the only piece of its kind from Jeremiah—which we may more suitably consider later. Verse 21 seems more in place after 18.
The sin of Judah is writ XVII. 1
With pen of iron,
With the point of a diamond graven
On the plate of their heart—
And eke on the horns of their altars,[441]
And each spreading tree,
Upon all the lofty heights 2
And hills of the wild