them with knowledge and understanding. Here, a compensation is promised for the second, infinitely greater loss, which had, at all times, been acknowledged as such by the faithful in the kingdom of the ten tribes. The revelation of the Lord over the Ark of the Covenant was the magnet which constantly drew them to Jerusalem. Many sacrificed all their earthly possessions, and took up their abode in Judea. Others went on a pilgrimage from their natural to their spiritual home, to the "throne of the glory exalted from the beginning," Jer. xvii. 12. In vain was every thing which the kings of Israel did in order to stifle their indestructible longing. Every new event by which "the glory of Israel" manifested itself as such, kindled their ardour anew. But here also the great blessing and privilege, which the believers missed with sorrow, the unbelievers without it, is to the returning ones given back, not in its previous form, but in a glorious completion. The whole people have now received eyes to recognise the value of the matter in its previous form; and yet this previous form is now looked upon by them as nothing, because the new, infinitely more glorious form of the same matter occupied their attention.

Ver. 17. "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered into it, because the name of the Lord is ut Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the wickedness of their evil heart."

Many interpreters, proceeding upon the supposition that the emphasis rests upon Jerusalem, have been led to give an altogether erroneous explanation. It is no more the Ark of the Covenant which will then be the throne of the Lord, but all Jerusalem. Thus, e.g., after the example of Jarchi and Abarbanel, Menasseh ben Israel, Conciliator, p. 196: "If we keep in mind that, in the tabernacle or temple, the Ark was the place where the Lord dwelt (hence Ex. xxv. 22: 'I will speak with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim'), we shall find that the Lord here says, that the Ark indeed had formerly been the dwelling-place of the Godhead, but that, at the time of Messiah, not some one part of the temple only would be filled with the Godhead, but that this glory should be given to all Jerusalem; so that whosoever would be in her, would have the prophetic spirit." If it had been the intention of the

Prophet to convey this meaning, the word all could not have been omitted. The throne of the Lord, Jerusalem had been even formerly, in so far as she possessed in her midst the Ark of the Covenant, and hence was the residence of Jehovah, the city of the great King, Ps. xlviii. 3. The words in the parallel member: "Because the name of the Lord is at Jerusalem," show that Jerusalem is called the throne of the Lord, because there is now in her the true throne of the Lord, just as, formerly, the Ark of the Covenant. The antithesis to what precedes leads us to expect a gradation, not in point of quantity, but of quality. The emphasis rests rather on: "The throne of the Lord;" and these words receive from the antithesis the more definite qualification: the true throne of the Lord. Quite similarly, those who boasted that over the Cherubim was the throne of God, and that the Ark of the Covenant was His footstool, are told in Is. lxvi. 1: "The heaven is my (true) throne, and the earth my (true) footstool;" comp. the passages according to which the Ark of the Covenant is designated as the footstool of God, and, hence, the place over the Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant as the throne of the Lord, p. 387; and farther, Is. lx. 13; Ezra i. 26. The highest prerogative of the covenant-people, their highest privilege over the world, is to have God in the midst of them; and this prerogative, this privilege, is now to be bestowed upon them in the most perfect manner; so that idea and reality shall coincide. Perfectly parallel in substance are such passages as Ezek. xliii., in which the Shechinah which, at the destruction of the temple, had withdrawn, returns to the new temple, the Kingdom of God in its new and more glorious form. Ver. 2. "And behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the East; and its voice was like the voice of great waters, and the earth shone with its splendour." Ver. 7. "And He said unto me, son of man, behold the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy place." Zech. ii. 14 (10): "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come and dwell in the midst of thee," with an allusion to Exod. xxix. 45: "And I dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God." The Prophet declares that the full realization of this promise is reserved for

the future; but it could not be so, unless it had already been realised, throughout all past history, in God's dwelling over the Ark of the Covenant; compare Zech. viii. 3: "Thus saith the Lord, I return unto Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem."If we enquire after the fulfilment, we are at once met by the words in John i. 14: καὶ ὁ λόγος σάρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ TаTρós; and that so much the more that these words contain an evident allusion to the former dwelling of God in the temple, of which the incarnation of the Logos is looked upon as the highest consummation. It is true that the dwelling of God among His people by means of the πveûμa Xploтoû must not be separated from the personal manifestation of God in Christ, in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily, σωματικῶς. The former stands to the latter in the same relation, as does the river to the fountain; it is the river of living water flowing forth from the body of Christ. Both together form the true tabernacle of God among men, the new true Ark of the Covenant; for the old things are the σκιὰ τῶν μελλόντων, τὸ δὲ σῶμα Χριστοῦ, Col. ii. 17 ; comp. Rev. xxi. 22 : καὶ ναὸν οὐκ εἶδον ἐν αὐτῇ· ὁ γὰρ Κύριος, ὁ Θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ ναὸς αὐτῆς ἐστι, καὶ τὸ ἀρνίον. The typical import of the Ark of the Covenant is expressly declared in Heb. ix. 4, 5, and that which was typified thereby is intimated in chap. iv. 16: προςερχώμεθα δὲ μετὰ παῤῥησίας τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς Xápitos, where Christ is designated as the true mercy-seat, as the true Ark of the Covenant. Just as, formerly, God could be found over the Ark of the Covenant only, by those from among His people who sought Him; so we have now, through Christ, boldness and access with confidence in God (Eph. iii. 12); and it is only when offered in His name, in living union with Him, that our prayers are acceptable, John xvi. 23. A consequence of that highest realization of the idea of the Kingdom of God, and, at the same time, a sign that it has taken place, and a measure of the blessings which Israel has to expect from its re-union with the Church of God, is the gathering of the Gentiles into it, such by way of type and prelude, took place even at the lower manifestations of the presence of God among the people; compare, e.g., Josh. ix. 9: "And they (the Gibeonites) said unto him: From a very far country thy servants are comc, because of the name (o)

as,

of Jehovah thy God, for we have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites," &c. In a manner quite similar, it is, in Zech. ii. 15 (11) also, connected with the Lord's dwelling in Jerusalem: "And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day; and they shall be my people; and I dwell in the midst of

: must be literally translated לשם יהוה לירושלים ".thee

"On account of the name of the Lord (belonging) to Jerusalem," for: because the name of the Lord belongs to Jerusalemis there at home. The name of the Lord is the Lord himself, in so far as He reveals His invisible nature, manifests himself. In the name, His deeds are comprehended; and hence it forms a bridge betwixt existing and knowing. A God without a name is a beòs ayvwoTos, Acts xviii. 23. There is an allusion to Deut. xii. 5: "But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, to dwell in it, unto it ye shall seek, and thither ye shall come." Formerly, when God put His name in an imperfect manner only, Israel only assembled themselves; but now, all the Gentiles.-The last words: "Neither shall they walk any more," &c., are not by any means to refer to the Gentiles, but to the members of the kingdom of Israel, or also to the whole of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to all the members of the Kingdom of God, including the subjects of the kingdom of Israel. This appears from a comparison of the fundamental passage of the Pentateuch, as well as of the parallel passages in Jeremiah. Wherever occurs, the covenant-people are spoken of; everywhere the walking after the of the heart is opposed to the walking after the revealed law of Jehovah, which Israel alone possessed., which properly means "firmness," is then used of hardness in sin, of wickedness."

1 In a certain sense, one may say that is a anag deyóμενον. It occurs independently in one single passage only, in Deut. xxix. 18; in the other passages (eight times in Jeremiah, and besides, in Ps. lxxxi. 13), it was evidently not taken from the living usus loquendi, from which it had disappeared, but from the fundamental passage in the written code of law. This fact will, a priori, appear probable, when we keep in mind that, among all the books of the Pentateuch, Jeremiah has chiefly Deuteronomy before his eyes; and, among all the chapters of Deuteronomy, none more than the 29th; and that

CHAPTER XXIII. 1-8.

These verses form a portion only of a greater whole, to which, besides the whole of chap. xxii., chap. xxiii. 9-40 also belongs. For these verses contain a prophecy against the false prophets, and by the way also, against the degenerated priesthood (comp. ver. 11); and this prophecy easily unites itself with the preceding prophecy against the kings, so as to form one prophecy against the corrupt leaders of the people of God. But, for the exposition of the verses before us, it is only the connection with chap. xxii. which is of importance, and that so much so that, without carefully attending to it, they cannot at all be thoroughly understood. For this reason, we shall confine ourselves to bring it out more clearly.

The Prophet reproves and warns the kings of Judah, first, in general, announcing to them the judgments of the Lord upon them and their people,—the fulfilment of the threatenings, Deut. xxix. 22 ff.—if they are to continue in their hitherto ungodly course, chap. xxii. 1-9. In order to make a stronger impression, he then particularizes the general threatening, showing how God's recompensing justice manifests itself in the fate of the individual apostate kings. First, Jehoahaz is brought forward, the son and the immediate successor of Josiah, whom PharaohNecho dethroned and carried with him to Egypt, vers. 10-12.

Ps. lxxxi. is pervaded by literal allusions to the Pentateuch. But it is put beyond all doubt, when we enter upon a comparison of the passage in Deuteronomy with the parallel passages. Here we must

begin with Jer. xxiii. 17, where the verbal agreement comes out most strongly, and then we shall, in the other passages also (vii. 24, ix. 13, xi. 8, xvi. 12, xviii. 12, and the passage under consideration), easily perceive that the word has been borrowed. From a comparison with the fundamental passage, it appears that it is the intention of the Prophet to convey here the promise of an eternal duration of the regained blessing, and to keep off the thought that possibly the people might again, as formerly, fall from grace. Of him who walks after the

of his heart, it is said in Deut. xxix. 19 (20): "The Lord will not be willing to forgive him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord blots out His name from under heaven."