?The Pulpit Commentaries ? Jeremiah (Vol. 3 ... - ccbiblestudy

?The Pulpit Commentaries - Jeremiah (Vol. 3)?(Joseph S. Exell)

18 Chapter 18

Verses 1-23
EXPOSITION
This chapter is the introduction of a group of prophecies (extending to
Jeremiah 25:1-38.) of various dates; their sequence has evidently not been
determined by chronological considerations. The prophet's first object is,
perhaps, to refute the scoffing inquiry (Jeremiah 17:15), "What has become
of the [threatening] word of Jehovah?" and to justify the glorious premise
given at the conclusion of the last chapter. The fulfillment of
threatenings and promises alike is conditioned by the moral attitude of the
people (comp. Ezekiel 33:11). God, as it were, holds them in either hand,
and there is still time (contrast Jeremiah 16:21) to choose the sweet and
reject the bitter by sincerely turning to their true Friend. Unhappily the
people misuses its day of grace, and, instead of listening to God's
messenger, seeks to rid itself of him by persecution. Upon this, Jeremiah
falls again into the tone of bitter complaint, and, so far from interceding
for his people, does the very opposite; on which painful and mysterious
phenomenon, see remarks in general Introduction.
Jeremiah 18:1-6
The simple and familiar craft of the potter becomes a parable of religious
truth (comp. Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8; Ecclesiasticus 33:13;
Romans 9:20; and the account of man's creation in Genesis 2:7, which has
doubtless given rise to the figure). God has the sovereign right to do as
he wills with his own handiwork; thus much can be expressed by the figure.
But the moral element in Jeremiah's teaching stands outside this, viz. that
the Divine action is governed, not by mere caprice, but a regard for
character. "The thought is not so much the arbitrariness as the patience of
God, who will bring men to be what he would have them be in the end, as the
potter eventually twists the clay to the shape he originally intended,
stubborn as the clay may be." But whether Jeremiah meant the lesson which
Mr. Maurice deduces from his words may be gravely doubted. It is not of
individuals that the prophet is thinking, but of the nation, and not of the
nation as destined to be all but certainly saved, but as placed before a
serious and awful decision. (For different lessons derived from the same
figure, see the ' Rabbi Ben Ezra' of Browning.) Egypt and Palestine were,
as it seems, at one in the extreme simplicity of the potter's art. Dr.
Birch has given us an account of the Egyptian potter at his work, as he
appears in the pictorial representations at Beni Hassan, and Dr. Thomson
has described the procedure of a potter in modern Palestine. The chief
difference between them seems to be that in Egypt the wheel was turned with
the left hand, and the vase shaped with the right, while in modern
Palestine the wheel is turned with the fool "Taking a lump in his hand,"
says Dr. Thomson, "he placed it on the top of the wheel (which revolves
horizontally), and smoothed it into a low cone, like the upper end of a
sugar-loaf; then thrusting his thumb into the top of it, he opened a hole
down through the center, and this he constantly widened by pressing the
edges of the revolving cone between his hands. As it enlarged and became
thinner, he gave it whatever shape he pleased with the utmost ease and
expedition." It should be observed that in verse 3 the "wheels," or rather
"two wheels," spoken of are simply the two round plates which formed the
horizontal lathe of the potter.
Jeremiah 18:4
And the vessel that he made, etc.; rather, And whensoever the vessel ...
was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel
Jeremiah 18:7, Jeremiah 18:8
At what instant, etc.; rather, One instant I may speak ... but if that
nation, against which 1 have spoken, turn from their evil, I repent of the
evil that I thought to do unto them. A similar rendering for the next
verse.
Jeremiah 18:12
And they said; rather, But they go on saying (comp. Ezekiel 33:17, Ezekiel
33:20). There is no hope. The rendering may be easily misunderstood. The
speakers are not, as we might suppose, despondent about their state and
prospects, but they seek to check the troublesome preacher by the warning
that he has no chance of success (so Jeremiah 2:25). Imagination; rather,
stubbornness (as constantly).
Jeremiah 18:14
Will a man leave the anew of Lebanon, etc.? This passage is unusually
obscure. Literally we must, it would seem, render, Doth the snow of Lebanon
fail from the rock of the field (or possibly, cease to flow from the rock
unto the field)? This is explained as pointing a contrast to the infidelity
of God's people. "The snow never leaves the summit of Lebanon; the waters
which take their rise therein never dry up; but my people have forgotten
the law of their being, the source of their prosperity." The rendering of
the first clause is, however, grammatically dubious (there is no example of
this construction of 'a?zabh), and all the old versions point to (or at
least favor) a reading, Shaddai (the Almighty) instead of sadai (the
field). If we keep the text, we must explain "the rock of the field" on the
analogy of "my mountain in the field" (Jeremiah 17:3), as meaning "the rock
which commands a wide prospect over the open lowland country," i.e. Mount
Lebanon. The cold flowing waters; i.e. the numerous "streams from Lebanon,"
referred to in Song of Solomon 4:15. That come from another place; i.e.
whoso sources are foreign. But as this does not suit the connection, it is
better to take the Hebrew word (za?r??m), usually rendered "foreign," in
the sense of "pressing or hurrying along," with Ewald, Graf, and virtually
Henderson. It thus becomes descriptive of these streams "as contracted
within narrow channels while descending through the gorges and defiles of
the rocks." Camp. "like an oppressing stream," Isaiah 59:19 (a cognate
verb). Be forsaken. The Hebrew text has "be plucked up' (i.e. destroyed?);
but as this is unsuitable, we must transpose two letters (as in not a few
other cases), and render, dry up. So Gesenius, Graf, Keil, Delitzsch, and
Payne Smith.
Jeremiah 18:15
Because my people hath forgotten me; rather, Surely, etc.; or better still,
Yet surely. It is not uncommon for a particle of asseveration to acquire a
contrasting force from the context; see e.g. Jeremiah 3:20; Isaiah 53:4;
and, still more completely parallel, Isaiah 2:6; Jeremiah 9:1, where
Authorized Version, with substantial correctness, has "nevertheless."
Israel "forgot" Jehovah (as Jeremiah 2:32); no doubt he was responsible for
so doing, but still it was not "of malice preponse." To vanity; i.e. to the
unreal idol-gods. And they have caused them to stumble; viz. the idol-gods;
these are responsible (.for they have a real existence in the consciousness
of their worshippers) for this interruption of Israel's spiritual progress.
In their ways from the ancient paths. "From," however, is interpolated by
the Authorized Version; the Hebrew places "the ancient paths" in apposition
to "their ways," "Stand ye in the ways," Jeremiah cried at an earlier
period, "and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way"
(Jeremiah 6:16). These "old" or "ancient" paths were ideally "their ways,"
the ways appointed for the Jews to walk in. To walk in paths; rather, in
tracks, footpaths leading up and down and often ending in nothing; or, in
other terms, in a way not cast up (Isaiah 40:3, Isaiah 40:4, gives a
graphic picture of the operation of "casting up a way").
Jeremiah 18:16
The effect of this is to make the land of the transgressors an object of
horror and astonishment (so render rather than desolate).
Jeremiah 18:17
As with an east wind. The east was a stormy wind (Psalms 48:7; Job 27:21).
I wilt show them the back; as they have done to Jehovah (Jeremiah 2:27;
Jeremiah 32:33).
Jeremiah 18:18-23
A fresh conspiracy (comp. Jeremiah 11:18), called forth by the preceding
discourse; Jeremiah's prayer.
Jeremiah 18:18
The law-or rather, direction, instruction, which was a special function of
the priests (Deuteronomy 33:10; Deuteronomy 17:9-11)-shall not perish from
the priest. The Jews were but obeying the Deuteronomic Law (on which
Jeremiah, as we have seen, laid so much stress) in alluding to the priests.
Unhappily, the priests in Jeremiah's time (Jeremiah 2:26), as in Isaiah's
(Isaiah 28:7), were forgetful of their high mission. Nor counsel from the
wise. The wise men formed an important order in Jewish society, the
importance of which in the Divine education of Israel has not been
sufficiently recognized. It was their custom to sit in public places,
generally in the chambered recess in the city gate, and give advice on
questions of moral practice to those who applied for it. But there were
wise men and wise men. Some appear, to have "mocked" at the earnest
preaching of the prophets (hence the solemn rebukes in the Book of
Proverbs), others to have as it were prepared the way for the latter by a
more or less distinct recognition of the religious foundation of morality,
and of these we have ample monuments in the canonical Proverbs. There may
also have been other shades and varieties of wise men, for their
characteristic was not a faculty of intuition, but rather of reflectively
applying fundamental moral principles. One highly esteemed branch of
"wisdom" would, of course, be political, and this would be the most liable
to perversion. It is of such (Proverbs 29:14). Nor the word from the
prophet. "The word" is a general term f