11 ¶ And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD; * Chap. 38. 2. 3 Chap. 39. 18, and 45. 5. ♦ Chap. 22. 3. 5 Heb. Judge.

CHAP. XXI.-There appears to be considerable disorder in the present arrangement of Jeremiah's prophecies; but in many instances the means of rectification are offered through the historical indications in the misplaced chapters. The disorder seems to begin with this chapter. From the two first verses we learn that it was delivered in answer to a message sent by King Zedekiah, when Nebuchadnezzar was coming to make war against him, that is, in the ninth year of his reign. All the intermediate prophecies of Jehoiakim's and of the first eight years of Zedekiah's reign should therefore, if the chronological order be regarded, precede this. For this reason, Dr. Blaney places this chapter after chap. xxviii. As some of our readers would like to see the manner in which this translator has arranged the chapters from xx. to xlvi., we transcribe his distribution.

It may, however, be right to add, that arrangements considerably different from this have been suggested by Calmet, Professor Dahler of Strasburg, and others.

10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

5 But if ye will not hear these words, I
I Chap. 21. 12. * Chap. 17. 25. 3 Heb. for David upon his throne. • Deut. 29. 24. 1 Kings 9. 8.

13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and 'large chambers, and cutteth him out 'windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20 ¶ Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages for all thy lovers are destroyed.

21 I spake unto thee in thy 'prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not obeyedst not my voice.

22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail !

24 As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall die.

ye

27 But to the land whereunto they "desire to return, thither shall they not re

turn.

28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Heb. prosperities.

5 Lev. 19. 13. Deut. 24. 14, 15. Hab. 2.9. "Heb. thorough-aired. 7 Or, my windows. 8 Or, incursion. 10 Heb. inhabitress. 11 Heb. lift up their mind. Verse 18. "They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister !...Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!"—This doubtless describes some of the more customary cries of the women and children when a person died, or of the people on the demise of some chief person, especially a king. Of the professional mourners we have already spoken under chap. ix. 17; but the present case seems more especially to refer to the lamentations of actual mourners. When a death takes place in a family, particularly of one of its chief members, the sudden cry which is raised in the house, and continued at intervals, is most appalling; and it is interspersed with such exclamations as the present, praising the dead aud lamenting his loss. Mohammed endeavoured to put down this practice, considering the outrageous lamentation which usually took place as an act of rebellion against the Divine will, although he allowed tears and silent sorrow to be becoming; but he failed in this and many other of his attempts against ancient usages, which still continue in as full operation as ever. The following, from the Mishat-ul-Musabih, will show the ancient Arabian usages in this matter. "Omm Salmah said, When Abu Salmah, who was my first husband before the prophet, died, I said he was a stranger, and died in a strange land. Verily I will cry a cry for him, which shall be related among men, saying, 'She cried as no person ever did.* Then I was ready to cry for Abù Salmah; when unexpectedly a woman came to me, and wished to assist and accompany me in crying. Then the prophet came and said, Do you wish, O woman! to bring the devil into the house, from which God has brought him forth twice?"...When his highness said this, I desisted from crying, and did not cry afterwards." From this it seems that Mohammed had heard in the street the cry by which she expected to gain renown.-" Abdullah-bin-Rawahah was senseless when he was ill and near dying; and his sister, whose name was Amrah, stood crying, and said, 'O mountain! O that! and O the other!' when she was enumerating his accomplishments, and praised him, wailing. And Abdullah said to Amrah, when he recovered, 'There is not one of those qualities, which you have ascribed to me, but will be spoken of to me in a troublesome way."" Again, “Abu

Musa-al-Ashari said, I heard the prophet say, There is no dead person, the people of whose tribe stood crying and saying, O mountain! O chief! (and such like, which is said in wailing); but God appoints two angels for him, to shake him, and to say in a taunting manner, Were you as they said?" It is very remarkable that Mohammed, in mentioning his dislike to the custom, lets us know that it was in his time exhibited in a most exaggerated form by the Jews in Arabia. Compare this with what Mr. Lane says of the modern Egyptian practice. Before the spirit has departed, or the moment after, the women of the family raise the cries of lamentation, called wel 'wel'eh, or wilwa'l; uttering the most piercing shrieks, and calling upon the name of the deceased. The most common cries that are heard upon the death of the master of the family, from the lips of his wife, or wives, and children, are, 'O my master!' O my camel!' (that is. O thou that broughtest my provisions, and hast carried my burdens!) O my lion!' 'O camel of the house!' 'O my dear one!' 'O my only one!' O my father!' 'O my misfortune!'"

CHAPTER XXIII.

1 He prophesieth a restoration of the scattered flock. 5 Christ shall rule and save them. 9 Against false prophets, 33 and mockers of the true prophets.

WOE be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.

3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and

increase.

4 And I will set up 'shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.

5 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

6 'In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

7 Therefore, behold, 'the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

9¶Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the

LORD, and because of the words of his holi

ness.

10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of 'swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their "course is evil, and their force is not right.

11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

910.

13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem "an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is "profaneness gone forth into all the land.

16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, "Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the "imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

18 For who hath stood in the "counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?

Ezek. 34. 11, &c. 3 Isa. 4. 2, and 40. 11. Chap. 33. 14, 15. Dan. 9. 24. John 1. 45. 4 Deut. 33. 28,
Chap. 16. 14, 15. 7 Or, cursing. 8 Or, violence. Or, an absurd thing. 10 Heb unsavoury.

13 Chap. 8. 14, and 9. 15. 14 Or, hypocrisy. 15 Chap. 6. 14, and 8. 11. Ezek. 13. 10. Zech. 10. 2
16 Or, stubbornness.
17 Ör, secret.

41

18 Chap. 30. 23. 19 Chap 30 24. 20 Chap. 14. 14, and 27. 15. 1 Psal. 139. 7, &c. Amos 9. 2,3. 22 Judg. 3. 7, and 8. 33, 34. 23 Heb. with whom is. 24 Deut. 18.20. Chap. 14. 14, 15. 25 Or, that smooth their tongues. 26 Heb. visit upon. 27 Chap. 20. 11. Verse 15. "Wormwood," laana, the absinthium of the Vulgate, and the five of the Greek versions. The Artemisia absinthium, or common wormwood, is a plant well known among ancient and modern writers for its intense bitterness; though the wholesome nature of the herb, when used as a stomachic, might almost lead us to doubt whether that be the plant intended by the sacred writers, did we not find the ive, or "wormwood," treated as the emblem of the bitter potion of misery in the Revelations. Dioscorides speaks of it as a well-known herb, and very bitter ; βαθυ πικρον. γνώριμος ἡ πόα.

25. "That prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed."-They professed to have received dreams from God; or having had dreams, pretended that they were oracles and intimations from God. The facility of this kind of imposition, and the impossibility of immediate detection, rendered this a common method by which the old Pagan priests and prophets deluded the people. Besides extraordinary and professedly unsought dreams, there were some of the heathen gods which were considered to deliver their oracles principally, if not exclusively, through their instrumentality, such as Osiris, Isis, and Serapis, in Egypt; Hercules (so called by Tacitus, but perhaps Baal), in Mesopotamia; Amphiaraus, in Attica; Pasiphae, in Sparta, and many others. When a responsive dream was sought, some observances were practised; after which the dream was supposed to give the required answer. Often the dream-seeker slept in the

temple of the idol, and sometimes upon the skins of the victims which had been offered in sacrifice. Those who sought a prophetic dream sometimes fasted the previous day, and abstained three days from wine; those who did not fast, were careful to eat nothing difficult of digestion, such as beans and raw fruit. It was sometimes considered necessary that the dreamer should wear a white garment; and the dreams of the morning were those to which most attention was paid. Such were some of the practices of the Heathen dreamers, and which were very probably adopted by the false prophets of the Hebrews. See Banier (Mythology,' i. 345, 353); Rosinus ( Antiq. Romanarum,' lib. ii. cap. 2); and Harwood ( Grec. Antiq.' p. 192). Similar practices, for similar purposes, still prevail in different parts of Pagan

Verse 2. "The figs that are first ripe."-The figs here called becorah, or first-ripe figs, still bear the same name in the Levant. There are three sorts of figs: the first, that here mentioned, makes its appearance about the vernal equinox. and comes to maturity about the middle or latter end of June. Before it is ripe it is called, in Scripture, the green fig, but when ripe, the untimely (i. e. precocious) fig. It is generally considered to have a flavour superior to any other, and is deemed a great delicacy-partly perhaps from its earliness, which renders it the more prized, as all early fruits are. Then there is, second, the summer or dry fig (called kermes), which appears about the middle of June, and is ripe in August. This is the sort which is dried in the sun and preserved in masses, called "cakes" in our version; and which is to be considered as the proper and regular fig. Lastly, there is the winter fig, which appears in August, and is not ripe till towards the end of November. This is usually of a longer figure and darker colour than the others. When the weather is favourable, some of these figs will hang ripening upon the tree after the leaves are shed, and through the winter, being gathered as delicious morsels early in the spring. All figs fall when they are ripe, and especially the early figs. This circumstance is alluded to in Ñahum iii. 12.