iii. 4, 5: "Hast thou not but lately called me: My Father, friend of my

youth, thou? Will He reserve His anger for ever, will He keep it to the end? Behold, thus thou spakest, and soon thou didst the evil, didst accomplish"--an _accomplishment_ quite different from that of the ancestor. Gen. xxxii. 29. Since the disease had not been healed, but had only been driven out from one part of the diseased organism, the foolish inclination to idolatry was followed by as foolish a confidence in the miserable righteousness by works, in the divine election,--the offering up of sacrifices, &c., being considered as the sole condition of its validity. "Trust ye not in lying words"--so [Pg 365] the Prophet is obliged to admonish them in chap. vii. 4--"saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are they" (the people imagined that they could not be destroyed, because the Lord had, according to their opinion, for ever established His residence among them; compare 1 Cor. iii. 17; 1 Tim. iii. 15). "Thou sayest, I am innocent; His anger hath entirely turned from me; behold I plead with thee, because thou sayest: I have not sinned," chap. ii. 35. "To what purpose shall there come for me incense from Sheba, and sweet cane, the goodly, from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasant unto me," chap. vi. 20. Towards the end of Josiah's reign, the approaching judgment of God upon Judah became more perceptible. The former Asiatic dominion of the Assyrians passed over entirely to the Chaldeans, whose fresh and youthful strength so much the more threatened Judah with destruction, that from the Assyrians they had inherited the enmity to Egypt, on account of which Judah obtained great importance in their eyes. According to the announcement of the prophets generally, and of Jeremiah especially, who, at his very vocation, had it assigned to him as his main task to announce the calamity from the North, it was by the Chaldeans that the deadly stroke should be inflicted upon the people implicated in the conflicts of these hostile powers; but it was the Egyptians who inflicted upon them the first severe wound. Josiah fell in the battle with Pharaoh Necho. The people, conscious of guilt, were, by his death, filled with a fearful expectation of the things that were to come. They had forebodings that they were now standing at the boundary line where grace and anger separate (compare remarks on Zech. xii. 11); and these forebodings were soon converted into bitter certainty by experience. Jehoiakim ascended the throne, after Jehoahaz or Shall um, had, after a short reign, been carried away by the Egyptians. He stood to his father Josiah in just the same relation as did the people to God, in reference to the mercy which He had offered to them in Josiah. A more glaring contrast (see its exhibition in chap. xxii.) can hardly be imagined. Throughout, Jehoiakim shows himself to be entirely destitute not only of love to God, but also of the fear of God; he furnishes the complete image of a king whom God had given in anger. He [Pg 366] is a blood-thirsty tyrant, an exasperated enemy to truth. At the beginning of his reign, some influence of Josiah's spirit is still seen. The priests and false prophets, rightly understanding the signs of the time, came forward with the manifestation of their long restrained hatred against Jeremiah, in whom they hate their own conscience. They bring against him a charge of life and death, because he had prophesied destruction to the city and temple; but the rulers of the people acquit him, chap. xxvi. This influence, however, soon ceased. The king became the centre around whom gathered all that was ungodly, which, under Josiah, had timorously withdrawn into concealment. Soon it became a power, a torrent overflowing the whole country; and that the more easily, the weaker were the dams which still existed from the time of Josiah. One of the first victims for truth who fell, was the prophet Urijah. The king, imagining that he was able to kill truth itself in those who proclaimed it, could not bear the thought that he was still living, although it was in distant Egypt, and caused him to be brought thence (see l. c). The fact that Jeremiah escaped every danger of death during the eleven years of this king's reign, although he ever anew threatened death to the king and destruction to the people, was a constant miracle, a glorious fulfilment of the divine promise given to him when he was called (i. 19): "They shall fight against thee, and they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith _the Lord_, to deliver thee." The threatened divine punishment advanced, under Jehoiakim, several steps towards its completion. In the fourth year of his reign, Jerusalem was, for the first time, taken by the Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 45 ff.), after the power of the Egyptian Empire had been for ever broken by the battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates. The victor this time acted with tolerable mildness; the sin of the people was to appear in its full light by the circumstance, that God gave them time for repentance, and did not at once proceed to the utmost rigour, but advanced, step by step, in His judgments. But here too it was seen that crime, in its highest degree, becomes madness; the more nearly that people and king approached the abyss, the greater became the speed with which they hastened towards it. It is true that they [Pg 367] did not remain altogether insensible when the threatenings of the Prophet began to be fulfilled. This is seen from the day of fasting and repentance which was appointed in remembrance of the first capture by the Chaldeans (compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 49); but fleeting emotions cannot stop the course of sin. Soon it became worse than it had been before; and therefore the divine judgments also reached a new station. Even political wisdom advised the king quietly to submit to dependence on the Chaldeans, which was, comparatively, little oppressive. It was obvious that, unsupported, he could effect nothing against the Chaldean power; and, to the _unprejudiced_ eye, it was as obvious that the Egyptians could not help him; and even had it been possible, he would only have changed masters. But, according to the counsel of God, who takes away the understanding of the wise, these political reasons, obvious though they were, should not exercise any influence upon him, because his obdurate heart prevented him from listening to the religious arguments which Jeremiah brought before him. _Melancthon_ (opp. ii., p. 407 ff.) points it out as a remarkable circumstance that, while other prophets, _e.g._, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, exhort to a vigorous opposition to the enemies, and, in that case, promise divine assistance, yea that, to some extent, they even took an active part in the deliverance, Jeremiah, on the other hand, always preaches unconditional submission. The issue, which is as different as the advice, shows that this difference has not, by any means, its foundation in the persons, but in the state of things. The seventy years of Chaldean servitude were irrevocably decreed upon Judah; even the exact statement of years, which else is so uncommon in reference to the fate of the covenant-people, shows how firm and determined was that decree. They had altogether, and more fully than at any other time, given themselves over to the internal power of heathenism; according to a divine necessity, they must therefore also be given over to the external power of the heathen, both for punishment and reform. God himself could not change that decree, for it rested on His nature. Hence, it would be in vain though even the greatest intercessors, Moses and Samuel, should stand before Him, Jer. xv. 1 ff. Intercessory prayer can be effectual, only if it be offered in [Pg 368] the name of God. But if such were the case, how foolish was it to rebel against the Chaldean power; to attempt to remove the effect, while they allowed the cause to remain; to stop the brook, while the source still continued to send forth its waters. It would have been foolish, even if the relative power of the Jews and Chaldeans had been altogether reversed. For when the Lord sells a people, one can chase a thousand, and two can put ten thousand to flight (Deut. xxxii. 30). But the shepherd of the people had become a fool, and did not enquire after the Lord. He could not, therefore, act wisely; and the whole flock was scattered, Jer. x. 21. Jehoiakim rebelled against the Chaldeans, and for some years he was allowed to continue in the delusion of having acted very wisely, for Nebuchadnezzar had more important things to mind and to settle. But then he went up against Jerusalem, and put an end to his reign and life, Jer. xxii. 1-12; 2 Kings xxiv. 2; "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of Daniel_," p. 49. As yet, the long-suffering of God, and, hence, the patience of the Chaldeans, were not at an end. Jehoiachin or Jeconiah was raised to the throne of his father. Even the short reign of three months gave to the youth sufficient occasion to manifest the wickedness of his heart, and his enmity to God. Suspicions against his fidelity arose; a Chaldean army anew entered the city, and carried away the king, and, along with him, the great mass of the people. This was the first great deportation. In the providence of God it was so arranged that, among those who were carried away, there was the very flower of the nation. The apparent suffering was to them a blessing. They were, for their good, sent away from the place over which the storms of God's anger were soon to discharge themselves, into the land of the Chaldeans, and formed there the nucleus for the Kingdom of God, in its impending new form, Jer. xxiv. Nothing now seemed to stand in the way of the divine judgment upon the wicked mass that had been left behind, like bad figs that no one can eat for badness,--they whom the Lord had threatened that He would give them over to hurt and calamity in all the kingdoms of the earth, to reproach, and a proverb, and a taunt, and a curse, in all places whither He would drive them, Jer. xxiv. 9. And still the Lord was waiting before He carried out this [Pg 369] threatening, and smote the land to cursing. Mattaniah or Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, who was given to them for a king, might, at least partially, have averted the evil. But he too had to learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. From various quarters, attempts have been made to exculpate him, on the plea that his fault was only weakness, which made him the tool of a corrupt party; but Scripture forms a different estimate of him, and he who looks deeper will find its judgment to be correct,--will be able to grant to him that preference only over Jehoiakim which _C. B. Michaelis_ assigned to him in the words: "Jehoiakim was of an obdurate and wild disposition; Zedekiah had some fear of God, although it was a servile, hypocritical fear, but Jehoiakim had none at all." And even this preference, when more narrowly examined, amounts to nothing, for it belongs to nature, and not to grace. Whether corruption manifests itself as weakness, or as a carnal, powerful opposition to divine truth, is accidental, and depends upon the diversity of mental and bodily organization. The fact that Zedekiah did not altogether put away from himself the truth and its messengers (_Dahler_ remarks: "He respected the Prophet, without having the power of following his advice; he even protected his life against his persecutors, but he did not venture to secure him against their vexation") cannot be put down to his credit; _he was, against his will, forced to do so_; and indeed he could not resist a powerful impression of any kind. In a man of Jehoiakim's character, the same measure of the fear of God would induce us to mitigate our opinion; for in such a one it could not exist without some support from within. Confiding in the help of the neighbouring nations, especially the Egyptians; persuaded by the false prophets and the nobles; himself seized by that spirit of giddiness and intoxication which, with irresistible power, carried away the people to the abyss, Zedekiah broke the holy oath which he had sworn to the Chaldeans, and, after an obstinate resistance, Jerusalem was taken and destroyed. As yet, the long suffering of God, and, hence, also that of man, was not _altogether_ at an end. The conquerors left a comparatively small portion of the inhabitants in the land. The grace of God gave them Gedaliah, an excellent man, for their civil superior, and Jeremiah for their ecclesiastical [Pg 370] superior. The latter preferred to remain in the smoking ruins, rather than follow the brilliant promises of the Chaldeans, and was willing to persevere to the last in the discharge of his duty, although he was by this time far advanced in life, and oppressed with deep grief But it appears as if the people had been bent upon emptying, to the last drop, the cup of divine wrath. Gedaliah is assassinated. Even those who did not partake in the crime fled to Egypt, disregarding the word of the Lord through the Prophet, who announced a curse upon them if they fled, but a blessing if they remained.

What the Prophet had to suffer under such circumstances, one may easily imagine even without consulting history. Even although he had remained free from all personal vexations and attacks, it could not but be an immeasurable grief to him to dwell in the midst of such a generation, to see their corruption increasing more and more, to see the abyss coming nearer and nearer, to find all his faithful warnings unheeded, and his whole ministry in vain, at least as far as the mass of the people were concerned. "O that they would give me in the wilderness a lodging-place for wayfaring men"--so he speaks as early as under Josiah, chap. ix. 1 (2)--"and I would leave my people and go from them; for they are all adulterer, an assembly of treacherous men." But from these personal vexations and attacks, he neither was, nor could be exempted. Mockery, hatred, calumny, ignominy, curses, imprisonment, bonds were his portion. To bear such a burden would have been difficult to any man, but most of all to a man of his disposition. "The more tender the heart, the deeper the smart." He was not a second Elijah; he had a soft disposition, a lively sensibility; his eyes were easily filled with tears. And he who would have liked so much to live in peace and love with all, having entered into the service of truth, was obliged to become a second Ishmael, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him. He who so ardently loved his people, must see this love misconstrued and rejected; must see himself branded as a traitor to the people, by those men who were themselves traitors. All these things were to him the cause of violent struggles and conflicts, which he candidly lays before us in various passages, especially in chap. xii. and [Pg 371] xx., because, by the victory, the Lord, who alone could give it, was glorified.

He was sustained by inward consolations, by wonderful deliverances, by the remarkable fulfilment of his prophecies which he himself lived to witness; but especially by the circumstance that the Lord caused him to behold His future salvation with the same clearness as His judgments; so that he could consider the latter only as transient, and, even by the most glaring contrast between the appearance and the idea, never lost the firm hope of the final victory of the former. This hope formed the centre of his whole life. For a long series of years, he is somewhat cautious in giving utterance to it; for, just as Hosea in the kingdom of the ten tribes, so he too has to do with secure and gross sinners, who must be terrified by the preaching of the Law, and the message of wrath. But, even here, single sunbeams everywhere constantly break through the dark clouds. But towards the close, when the total destruction is already at hand, and his commission to root out and destroy draws to an end, because now the Lord himself is to speak by deeds, he can, to the full desire of his heart, carry out the second part of his calling, viz., to plant and to build (compare chap. i.); and it is now, that his mouth is overflowing, that it is seen how full of it his heart had always been. The whole vocation of the Prophet, _Calvin_ strikingly expresses in these words: "I say simply that Jeremias was sent by God to announce to the people the last defeat, and, farther, to proclaim the future redemption, but in such a manner, that he always puts in the seventy years'exile." That, according to him, this redemption is not destined for Israel only, but that the Gentiles also partake in it, appears not incidentally only in the prophecies to his own people; but it is also prominently brought out in the prophecies against the foreign nations themselves, _e.g._, in the prophecy against Egypt, chap. xlvi. 26; against Moab, chap. xlviii. 47; against Ammon, xlix. 6.

In announcing the Messiah from the house of David (chap, xxii. 5, xxx. 9, xxxiii. 15), Jeremiah agrees with the former prophets. The Messianic features peculiar to him are the following:--The announcement of a revelation of God, which by far outshines the former one from above the Ark of the Covenant, and by which the Ark of the Covenant, with every [Pg 372] thing attached to it, shall become antiquated, chap. iii. 14-17; the announcement of a new covenant, distinguished from the former by greater richness in the forgiveness of sins, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: "I give my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their hearts," chap. xxxi. 31-34; the intimation of the impending realization of the promise of Moses: "Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests," with which the abolition of the poor form of the priesthood hitherto is connected, chap. xxxiii. 14-26.

As regards the style of Jeremiah, _Cunaeus_ (_de repub. Hebr._ i. 3, c. 7) pertinently remarks: "The whole majesty of Jeremiah lies in his negligent language; that rough diction becomes him exceedingly well." It is certainly very superficial in _Jerome_ to seek the cause of that _humilitas dictionis_ of the Prophet, whom he, at the same time, calls _in majestate sensuum profundissimum_, in his origin from the _viculus Anathoth_. It would be unnatural if it were otherwise. The style of Jeremiah stands on the same ground as the hairy garment and leather girdle of Elijah. He who is sorrowful and afflicted in his heart, whose eyes fail with tears (Lament. ii. 11), cannot adorn and decorate himself in his dress or speech.

From chap. xi. 21, xii. 5, 6, several interpreters have inferred, that the Prophet first came forward in his native place Anathoth, and that, because they there said to him: "Thou shalt not prophecy in the name of the Lord, else thou shalt die by our hand," he then went to Jerusalem. But those passages rather refer to an experience which the Prophet made at an incidental visit in his native place, quite similar to what our Saviour experienced at Nazareth, according to Luke iv. 24. For in chap.