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of the 11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the ❘ from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.

he me LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and ngs's upon the assembly of young men together: ver for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of eth days.

12 And their houses shall be turned unto seks others, with their fields and wives together: arst for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to 'covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, B. Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the rways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find "rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected

it.

20 "To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane

21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish

22 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with "sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes : make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

27 I have set thee for a tower and "a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are "brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

30 17 18 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.

8 Heb. bruise or breach. 12 Isa. 1. 11, and 66.3. 13 Chap. 1. 18, and 15. 20.

Isa 56. 11. Chap. 8. 10. 7 Chap. 8. 11. Ezek. 13. 10. 10 Isa. 8. 20. Malac. 44. Luke 16. 29. 11 Matt. 11. 29. 13 Chap. 1. 15 and 5. 15, and 10. 92. 14 Chap. 4. 8, and 25. 34. 18 Or, Refuse silver.

Chap. 3. 3, and 8. 12.
Amos 5.21. Mic. 6. 6, &c.
16 Ezek. 22 18. 17 Isa. 1. 22.

Verse 1. "Beth-haccerem." This name means, literally, "house of the vineyard." Jerome says that the place was between Jerusalem and Tekoa. The Targum gives the signification, "the house of the valley of vineyards." This valley perhaps took its name from the town, which may have been on a summit of its confining hills. The valley of Beth-haccerem is also mentioned in the Mishnah, which says that its dust was red, and that it became hard when water was poured upon it. R. Kimchi understands the word Beth-haccerem to denote a high tower, such as those in which the keepers of vineyards watched. It was evidently some elevated station, a "sign of fire" kindled on which could be seen afar. The passage clearly shows that it was customary among the Jews, as with other nations, in this manner to telegraph good or evil tidings from tower to tower and mountain to mountain. In the Agamemnon of Æschylus there is a fine passage describing such fire-signals, and the process of transmission, with reference to that series which made known in Greece that Troy was taken. The passage is rather long, but does not admit of abridgment.

"'Twas Vulcan, sending forth the blazing light

From Ida's grove, and thence along the way

Hither the estafette of fire ran quick:

Fire kindled fire, and beacon spoke to beacon,

Ida to Lemnos, and the Hermæan ridge:

Next Athos, craggy mountain, Jove's own steep,

Took the great torch held out by Vulcan's isle.

Standing sublime, the seas to overcast,
Shone the great strength of the transmitted lamp;
And the bright heraldry of burning pines
Shone with a light all golden like the sun
Rising at midnight on Macistus' watch-tower:
Nor did Macistus not bestir him soon,
Oppress'd with sleep, regardless of his watch;

But kindled fires, and sent the beacon blaze
To distance far beyond Euripus' flood,
To watchmen mounted on Messapian hills;
They answer'd blazing, and pass'd on the news
The grey heath burning on the mountain top.
And now the fiery unobscured lamp,
At distance far shot o'er Asopus' plain;
And up the steep, soft rising like the moon,
Stood spangling bright upon Cithæron's hill.
There rose, to give it conduct on the road,
Another meeting fire; nor did the watch
Sleep at the coming of the stranger light,
But burnt a greater blaze than those before;

9. " As a grape gatherer into the baskets." - Harmer doubts that a basket can be intended by the words since it would not retain the liquor draining from the bruised grapes. But he is mistaken, since close-wrought baskets are still much used by grape-gatherers in even the vine countries of Europe, although sometimes a wooden dosser is employed. (See Redding on Wines, p. 25.) They are very careful that the grapes shall not be bruised. The form of the baskets in which the Egyptian grape-gatherers put the grapes may be seen in the cuts at the end of Nehemiah.

20. "The sweet cane from a far country." -This sweet cane )קנה בשם kanch bosem is the same as our version, following the Septuagint, gives as "sweet calamus" in Exodus xxx. 23, where it is mentioned as one of the ingredients of the holy anointing oil. In the note on that text we have expressed some doubt of its being the acorus calamus, or calamus aromaticus, as is usually considered ; and this doubt is not lessened when we consider that sweet cane is said to come from a far country, whereas Pliny, speaking of the calamus aromaticus, says that it grew in Arabia, India, and Syria, and that the last was the best of all. He particularly describes its Syrian locality as near Mount Lebanon, at the distance of 150 stades from the sea. (Nat. Hist. lib. xii. 22.) In this case, it would of course be unnecessary to obtain it from "a far country." For the benefit of those, however, who prefer the established conclusion, we introduce a figure of the calamus aromaticus; and we are ourselves not very decided

in

our opinion against it; for, as there are two varieties, one growing in the Levant, and now known in England, and common enough in different parts of Europe, -it is possible that Pliny, or rather Theophrastus, from whom his statement is borrowed, knowing that the calamus grew in Syria, supposed it afforded the valuable sort which the Syrians used, but which they really obtained from the Arabians, who brought it either from India or their own country. This is the more probable, as the Indian variety is now allowed to be more valuable than the common sort, from which it differs less in form than in its more pungent taste and stronger perfume. The leaves diffuse a strong fragrance; but the chief seat of the perfume is in the root, which is the part chiefly employed, being dried and powdered, and exhibited in various preparations.

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"Sweet Cane," Calamus aramaticus.

a vessel over a charcoal fire, to each

29. "The bellows."-Bellows are scarcely at all used in the East, except by workers of metal. The mouth is there much employed for common purposes, where bellows would be used in than could be given by blowing naturally with the mouth, a hollow reed, and afterwards a metal tube, seems to have England. When a stronger blast was required been at first employed, through which the blast from the mouth was impelled. In the figures of Rosellini, from Egyptian paintings, we sometimes observe such tubes in action, some of them terminating in a sort of funnel. complicated and apparently effective implement of this class is shown in Rosellini. The manner of the operation in these bellows is best seen in the cut. The men are heating side of which is applied a pair of bellows. These are worked by the feet, the operator standing upon and pressing them alternately, while he pulls up each exhausted skin by a string he holds in his hand. In one instance the man has left the bellows, which are raised as if full of air; which would imply a pography of Thebes,' p. 155.) Our common bellows, consisting of two boards joined together by a piece of leather, knowledge of the valve. (See Wilkinson's 'To were known very early to the Greeks; and it also appears, from a representation on an ancient Roman lamp, engraved in Montfaucon, that even the wooden bellows were not anciently unknown; although Beckmann affirms that they were invented in the seventeenth (or perhaps the sixteenth) century, by the Germans.

"The lead is consumed of the fire," &c. The description here given by the prophet seems to be very well explained by the process called " cupellation; ;" in which the precious metal, known to prophet beer baser kind, is put, together with a due proportion of lead, into a shallow crucible, made of burnt bones, called a cupel; after which the fusion or melting of the two metals is effected by exposing them to a considerable degree of heat in a muffle, or a

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d the small earthen oven, fixed in the midst of a furnace. The lead, during this exposure, vitrifies or becomes converted into

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a glassy calx, which dissolves and attracts all the imperfect metals, and leaves the precious metal free from alloys.

In the instance alluded to by the prophet, all the lead had been consumed, and the bellows burnt up in urging the fire muenchals of the furnace, but no scoriæ were seen running down the sides of the cupel, to inform the operator that all was going on well. Every method of chastisement had been tried, every species of instruction exhausted, but no reformation, no amendment, no repentance succeeded.

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CHAPTER VII.

| Jeremiah is sent to call for true repentance, to pre-
vent the Jews' captivity. 8 He rejecteth their vain
confidence, 12 by the example of Shiloh. 17 He
threateneth them for their idolatry. 21 He re-
jecteth the sacrifices of the disobedient. 29 He
exhorteth to mourn for their abominations in To-
phet, 32 and the judgments for the same.

THE word that came to Jeremiah from the
LORD, saying,

2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the

LORD.

3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the Lord, are these.

5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt :

7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this

place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a 'den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see 'what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;

14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to 'Shiloh.

1 Chap. 18. 11, and 26. 13. * Heb. whereupon my name is called. 3 Isa. 56. 7. 1 Sam. 4. 10, 11. Psal. 78.60. Chap. 26. 6. Prov. 1. 24. Isa. 65. 12, and 66. 4.

Matt, 21. 13. Mark 11. 17. Luke 19. 46. 71 Sam. 4. 10, 11. Psal. 78. 60, and 132. 6. Chap. 26. 6.

15 And I will cast you out of my sight, ❘ the prophets, daily rising up early and

as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

16 Therefore "pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the "queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and beast, and upon t the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

upon

21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; "Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning | burnt offerings or sacrifices:

23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, "Obey my voice, and "I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and 1went backward, and not forward.

25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants

8 Exod. 32. 10. Chap. 11. 14, and 14. 11. Chap. 44. 19.

sending them:

26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.

23 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth "correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their

mouth.

29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither "came it into my heart.

32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son o Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.

33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

34 Then will I cause to "cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

10 Or, frame, or workmanship of heaven. 11 Isa. 1. 11. Chap. 6. 20. Amos 5. 21.

12 Heb, concerning the matter of. 13 Deut. 6. 3. 14 Exod. 19.5. Levit. 26.12. 15 Or, stubbornness. 16 Heb. were.

179 Chron. 36. 15.

18 Chap. 16. 12. 19 Or, instruction. 20 2 Kings 23. 10. Chap. 19. 5. Heb. came it upon my heart. 22 Chap. 19. 6.
23 Psal. 79. 2. Chap. 16. 4, and 34. 20. 24 Isa. 24.7. Chap. 16. 9, and 25. 10, and 33. 11. Ezek. 26. 13. Hos. 2. 11.

Verse 18. "Make cakes to the queen of heaven." The heathen writers consider that the first offerings to their gods consisted of the simple products of the field; then, as a further progress, of cakes baked with salt, and honey, oil, and wine; to which, in due course, followed animal sacrifices. Some of the idols, however, always continued to be honoured with cakes only; and others, to whom animal victims were offered, received also offerings of cakes. Horace finely alludes to the practice:

"A graceful cake, when on the hallow'd shrine
Offer'd by hands that know no guilty stain,
Shall reconcile th' offended powers divine,
When bleeds the pompous hecatomb in vain."

The act of these apostate Israelites was thus notoriously idolatrous; but it may be hard to say whether this cake animal sacrifice, offering was intended substitute for an as a or as a presentation offering. to be laid before the idol, like the shew-bread in the temple, of which it was perhaps a most profane imitation. Our present cut, from specimens

:

earl in Mr. Salt's collection, will be considered interesting, as showing the forms which the Egyptians gave to their cakes, and which probably offer a resemblance to the present and other cakes mentioned in Scripture.

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There has been some discussion as to the idol intended by the title of "the queen of heaven;" but that it was the moon, is the most common and seems the most probable opinion.

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CHAPTER VIII.

FORMS OF EGYPTIAN CAKES.

1 The calamity of the Jews, both dead and alive. 4 He upbraideth their foolish and shameless impenitency. 13 He sheweth their grievous judgment, 18 and bewaileth their desperate estate.

Ar that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

2 And they shall spread them before the -sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? 5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

7 Yea, 'the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the

crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and 'what wisdom is in them?

10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to 'covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

12 Were they 'ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

13 I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes "on the vine, nor figs on the "fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of "gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

8 Chap. 6. 15.

1 Isa. 1. 3. Or, the false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood. Heb. the wisdom of what thing. Isa. 56. 11. Chap. 6. 13. 7 Chap. 6. 14. 10 Or, in gathering I will consume. 11 Isa. 5, 1, &c. 12 Matt. 21. 19. Luke 13. 6. &c.

Or, have they been ashamed, &c. 8 Ezek. 13. 10. Chap. 3. 3, and 6. 15. 13 Chap. 9. 15, and 23. 15. 14 Or, poison.

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