CHAP. XXXI. 31-40.

The 30th and 31st chapters may rightly be called the grand hymn of Israel's deliverance. They are connected into one whole, not only by a material, but also by a formal unity; so that we must indeed wonder at views such as those of Venema and Rosenmüller, who assume that the section is composed of fragments loosely connected, and written at different times; but still more at the views of Movers and Hitzig, who assert that a whole number of strange interpolations had been introduced into the text; compare Küper, Jerem. S. 170 ff.

With respect to the time of the composition, we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the circumstance that, as a rule, Judah appears no less than Israel, already far away from the land of the Lord, in captivity. The Prophet, taking his stand in the time when the catastrophe has already taken place, speaks from an ideal Present. The fact that the destruction of Jerusalem was indeed imminent, and immediately in view, but had not yet taken place, becomes probable even from the inscriptions in chap. xxxii. and xxxiii., according to which these two chapters, which are so closely related to the two before us, belong to the tenth year of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans. This is rendered certain by chap. xxx. 5-7, where the final catastrophe upon the covenantpeople, which belongs to the time of Jeremiah, is represented as still impending. Hitherto the threatening had prevailed in the predictions of the Prophet; but now, in the view of their fulfilment, when the thunders of the judgment were already heard from the heavens, the promise flows in full streams. The false prophets had prophesied prosperity and salvation, at a time when, to the human eye, there was no cause for fear; but Jeremiah just steps forth to announce salvation, at a time when all human hope had vanished.

The Prophet begins, in chap. xxx., with the promise of salvation for all Israel; and after a detailed description, he comprehends and sums it up, in ver. 22, in the words, brief but infi

nitely rich and comprehensive: "And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." The majestic close of the promise for the true Israel is, in vers. 23, 24, formed by the threatening against those who are Israel in appearance only,- analogous to the words of Isaiah: "There is no peace to the wicked." Let them not, in their foolish delusion, seize the promise for themselves. The time of the highest blessing for the godly, and for those who are willing to become godly, the png, will be for them, at the same time, a time of the highest curse. The climax of the manifestation of grace has the climax of the manifestation of justice as its inseparable companion.

"Behold the storm of the Lord, glowing fire, goeth forth, a continuing storm, on the head of the wicked it shall remain. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have done, and until He have performed the intents of His heart; at the end of days ye shall consider it." Formerly, in chap. xxiii. 19, 20, in a threatening prophecy which referred to the exile, the Prophet had uttered the same words. By their verbal repetition, he intimates that the matter was not by any means settled with the exile; that the

The person of the Messiah meets us as the living centre of the salvation in ver. 9: "And they serve the Lord their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up unto them;" on which words Jonathan remarks: "And the Messiah the Son of David ;" and Abarbanel: "This is King Messiah, who is of the house of David, and is therefore called by his name." From the parallel passages, Hos. iii. 5; Is. lv. 3, our passage differs in this, that David here does not, as in those passages, designate the family of David which centres in Christ, but the person of the Messiah. The commentary is furnished by chap. xxiii. 5: "I raise unto David a righteous Sprout." The circumstance, that it is not the Sprout of David, but David, that is spoken of here, is explained from a reference to the words which the ten tribes spoke at their rebellion, 1 Kings xii. 16: "We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel." To the person of the Messiah the Prophet reverts once more towards the close also: "And their glorious one shall be out of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them (compare Mic. v. 1, 2, [2, 3]), and I cause him to draw near, and he approacheth unto me; for who is surety for his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord." God himself receives the King of the Future into the closest communion with Him,-"I and the Father are one"-a communion which no one can usurp by his own power, and which, in the case of the former kings, even in that of David, was frequently disturbed by their sinful weakness.

latter must not be considered as the absolute and final punishment for the sins of the whole nation, but that, as truly as God is Jehovah, so surely His words will revive, as often as the circumstances again exist, to which they originally referred.

The more specific the consolation is, the more impressive is it, and the more does it reach the heart. After having announced salvation, therefore, to all Israel, the Prophet now proceeds to the consolation for the two divisions of Israel. He begins with Israel in the restricted sense-the ten tribes (chap. xxxi. 1—22), and with them he continues longest, because, when looking to the outward appearance, they seemed to be lost beyond all hope of recovery, to be for ever rejected by the Lord. The thought, that we have here an original and independent announcement of salvation for Israel, is set aside even by the relation of ver. 1 to ver. 22 of the preceding chapter. For it is to this verse that the Prophet immediately connects his discourse; vers. 23 and 24 are only a parenthetical remark, an Odi profanum vulgus et urceo, addressed to those to whom the promise did not belong. Upon the words: "You shall be my people, and I will be your God," follow in an inverted order, the words: "At that time, saith the Lord, I will (specially) be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people." Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, weeping over her sons, vers. 15-17, is so much the more suited to represent Israel, that the tribe of Benjamin also, as to its principal portion, belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes; compare my commentary on Ps. lxxx. Upon Israel there follows, in vers. 23-26, Judah. The announcement closes in ver. 26 with the words so often misunderstood: "Upon this I awaked, and I beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me." The Prophet has lost sight of the Present; like a sleeping man, he is not susceptible of its impressions, compare remarks on Zech. iv. 1. Then he awakes for a moment from his sweet dream (an allusion to Prov. iii. 24), which, however, is not, like ordinary dreams, without foundation. He looks around; every thing is dark, dreary, and cold; nowhere is there consolation for the weary soul. "Ah," he exclaims, "I have sweetly dreamed,”—and immediately the hand of the Lord

again seizes him, and carries him away from the scenes of the Present.

There is not by any means a different salvation destined for Israel and Judah; it is one salvation to be partaken of by both, who are in future to be re-united into one covenant-people, into a nation of brethren. From the parts, therefore, the description returns, in vers. 27-40, to the whole from which it had proceeded, and is thus completely rounded off, especially by the circumstance that, just in this close, there is contained the crown of the promises, the substance and centre of the declaration recurring here in ver. 33: “And I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

The whole description in both chapters is Messianic; and after what we have already had frequent occasion to remark, no farther proof is necessary to show how inadmissible is a proceeding like that of Venema, who cuts it all up into small pieces, and here assumes an exclusive reference to the return from the captivity; there, to the Maccabees, whom he almost raises to Saviours; in another place, to Christ and His Kingdom. We ought therefore, indeed, to give an exposition of the whole section; but, for external reasons, we are obliged to limit ourselves to an exposition of the principal portion, chap. xxxi. 31-40.

It is chap. xxxi. 22 only which we shall briefly explain, because that passage was, in former times, understood by many interpreters to contain a personal Messianic prophecy. "How long wilt thou turn aside, O thou apostate daughter? for the Lord createth a new thing in the land, woman shall compass about man.” The last words of the verse are, by the ancient interpreters, commonly explained as referring to Christ's birth by a virgin. Thus, e.g., Cocceius: "It could not be said more distinctly, at least not without ceasing to be enigmatical, unless he had said that a virgin has born Christ the Son of God." But quite apart from other arguments, this explanation is opposed by the obvious consideration that, in that case, just that would here be stated which, in the birth of Christ by a virgin, is not peculiar. For and are a designation of the sex; the fact that the woman brings forth the man (since is asserted to designate proles mascula), is something altogether common; but the important

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feature is wanting, that the woman is to be a virgin, and the man, the Son of God. But certainly not a whit better than this explanation is that which modern interpreters (Schnurrer, Gesenius, Rosenmüller, Maurer), have advanced in its stead: "The woman shall protect the man, shall perform for him the munus excubitoris circumeuntis." This, surely, is a "ridiculus mus❞—an argument quite unique. We must fully agree with Schnurrer, who remarks: "This, surely, is something new, uncommon, unheard of;" but not every thing new is, for that reason, suitable for furnishing an effectual motive for conversion. The sense at which Ewald arrives: "A woman transforming herself into a man," is surely not worthy of being entertained at the expense of a change in the reading. The correct view is the following. The Prophet founds his exhortation to return to the Lord upon the most effectual argument possible, viz., upon the fact that the Lord was to return to them, that the time of wrath was now over, that they might hasten back into the open arms of God's love. Without hope of mercy, there cannot be a conversion. The perverse and desponding heart of man must, by His preventing love, be allured to come to God. How important and valuable the "new thing" is which the Lord is to create, the Prophet shows by the terms which he has selected. It is just the nomina sexus which here are suitable; the omission of the article also is intentional. The relation is represented in its general aspect; and thereby the look is more steadily directed to its fundamental nature and sub"Woman shall compass about (Ps. xxxii. 7, 10) man ;" the strong will again take the weak and tender into His intimate communion, under His protection and loving care. The woman art thou, O Israel, who hitherto hast sufficiently experienced, what a woman is without the man, how she is a reed exposed to, and a sport of, all winds. The man is the Lord. How foolish would it be on thy part, if thou wert to persevere any longer in thine independence and dissoluteness, and if thou didst refuse to return into the sweet relation of dependence and unconditional surrender, which alone, being the only natural relation, can be productive of happiness! In favour of this explanation is also the

stance.

,which השובבה and to תתחמקין to תסובב clear reference of

in the case of the latter word, is even outwardly expressed by the alliteration. How foolish would it be still farther to depart, as