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21. They heard how I sighed, there was none that comforted me] y has no subject expressed, but it is implied in the turn of the phrase, which seems to denote, that none of those who heard of his sighing came to bring him any comfort.

Ibid.---they rejoiced that thou hadst wrought [it] See Jer. xlviii. 27, Ezek. xxv. 3, 6, &c. xxxv. 15. Obad, 12.---Two MSS. for nowy read nwy, supplying the affix; but the Ellipsis is quite conformable to the Hebrew idiom.

Ibid, Thou hast brought the day, thou hast pronounced, &c.] We have here again the like turn of phrase as in the first line of this period; for the meaning evidently is, that the enemies of Jerusalem would in the end find little cause for their triumph, since the same Almighty being, who had caused her evil day to come, had declared that after a while they should also suffer the like fate. Thou that hast brought the day [of adversity upon me] hast pronounced that they shall become even as I."

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CHAP. II.

THE prophet gives a melancholy detail of the dire effects of the divine anger in the subversion of both the civil and religious constitution of the Jews, and in that extreme wretchedness and distress, to which individuals of every denomination were thereby reduced. He represents the misery of his country as without a parallel, and charges her prophets with having betrayed her into ruin by their false and flattering suggestions. He describes the astonishment of passengers on viewing the desolated condition of Jerusalem. They call out to her to implore God's compassion for the removal of those heavy judgments, which in the height of his displeasure he had brought upon her.

1. JEHOVAH-] Twenty four MSS. and two Editions read m

אדני here for

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Ibid. his footstool-] The ark of the covenant is called God's footstool, 1 Chron. xxviii. 2. Ps. xcix, 5. cxxxii. 7. And for this obvious reason, that when the glory of God appeared sitting as it were inthron ed upon the mercy seat between the Cherubim, the ark below was as it were a base or footstool to the throne. See Exod. xxv. 21, 22. and Bishop Lowth's Note on Isa. Ix. 13,

2. JEHOVAH] Sixteen MSS. and one Edition here also read Ibid.-without pity] hon--The Masoretes with thirty three, perhaps thirty six, MSS. and six Editions read. But the Asyndeton, we may observe, is much used in this species of verse at the halfpause, as Bishop Lowth styles it in his Preliminary Dissertation on Isaiah, p. xxxi. And the same in nhanh occurs again, yer. 21. where the Masoretes have made no correction, although the conjunction is expressed there also in several MSS. and Editions.

Ibid.-the pleasant places-] 2, if derived from 1718, will signify either places or things that are the objects of desire,

3. He hath turned back his right hand-] It is rather doubtful whose right hand is here intended; whether God's own right hand, his aid and assistance withheld from Israel; or the right hand of Israel himself, his exertions of strength rendered ineffectual by God, or turned away from obstructing or opposing the progress of the enemy. Both senses might be supported with authorities; and both would almost equally suit the context. But the latter I think rather preferable; just as God says, Jer. xxi. 4. that he would turn aside the weapons of war, which were in the hands of the Jews, so as to prevent their hindering the Chaldean army from entering the city.

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4. And hath slain every youth all that were desirable to the eye] The words 5, "every youth,' are not found at present in the Hebrew text, but are necessary to the metre at least, and are supplied from the Chaldee Paraphrase, where they have been preserved. See Bishop Lowth's Prelim. Dissert. on Isaiah, p. xxxi. in the Note.

5. JEHOVAH-] Eighteen MSS. and one Edition here read m

6. as it were the garden of his own hedging] Though ɔw has been generally supposed to be meant for D, and is so written in twenty two MSS. and 1510 in five others, and is also in all the ancient versions, as well as in our English Bibles, rendered, "his tabernacle," or tent; it seems rather to be a verb of the infinitive mood with the pronoun affix, used as a noun. 71 signifies to hedge or fence by way of security, Job i. 10. And the garden of God's own hedging answers to his vineyard which he had fenced and hedged about, Isa. v. 2, 5. The LXX. as the garden," seem to have read, waλOV, as the vine." Compare Ps. lxxx. 8, &c.

,כגן instead of

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Ibid. his congregation] For 7 sixty MSS. and one Edition read at large. I rather take the congregation of JEHOVAH to be, intended, than the place of their assembly, in which latter sense is seldom, if ever, used. But the congregation of JEHOVAH was the people of Israel, the same garden, or vineyard, which he had heretofore. kept under his special protection.

Ibid.-hath forgotten-1 Our Translators render, "hath caused to be forgotten," as if they had read own. But now in Kal signifies simply, "hath forgotten;" that is, he holds those services no longer in esteem, but slights and disregards them. Compare Isa. i. 14, 15.

7. JEHOVAH-] Here again twenty eight MSS. and two Editions.

יהוה אדני,and one MS. reads both ; אדני instead of יהוה read

Ibid. is accursed-] So N signifies in Hiphal from 8 to curse. But the LXX. here render axerwater, which renders it not improbable, that the true reading may have been ; and we have often observed the N and to be interchangeably used by mistake. See a used Neh. v. 13. in a sense, which would not ill suit this place and Ps, ixxxix. 40. the only places where occurs as a verb. It also deserves notice, that is used in Pihel both Neh. v. 13. and also Exod. xiv. 27. Ps. cxxxvi. 15. and that in the latter of these texts nineteen MSS. and one Edition read 11, the standing in the place of the vowel. And in like manner 78 is found in one MS. here, and in

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seven MSS. n, Ps. lxxxix. 40. So that if this emendation of the text be admitted, we may render, "he hath shaken off his sanctuary."

Ibid. the walls-] For non sixteen, perhaps seventeen, MSS. and three Editions, read nnn, and nine MSS. read in. The LXX. render in the singular number, Texos.

Ibid. They have lifted up the voice-] That is, the enemies triumphed in the desolation of the temple with as loud a noise, as the people were wont to make there in celebrating the praises of God on a solemn festival. Compare Ps. lxxiv. 4.

8. He hath stretched out a line-] Called emphatically, nn P, "the line of devastation ;" Isa. xxxiv. 11. being designed to mark out the extent of what was to be pulled down.

9.-are sunk-] Seventy six MSS. and eight Editions read way; which the Masoretic Editors have written with a of a smaller size than the rest of the letters. The u, it should seem, had by some accident been lost in the Copies they revised; and though both the sense and the alphabetical order of the initials required it, they were scrupulous of restoring it without some mark of their doubting concerning its authenticity.

10.--they keep silence] The Syr. version favours 17"; the other ancient interpreters seem to have read 11. I construe both 12w and in the present tense, as denoting the same posture and silence continued.

11. My liver is poured out upon the ground] That the mental pasions have a considerable influence upon the habit of the body in various instances, is a fact not to be questioned. And experience daily shews, that a violent uneasiness of mind tends greatly to promote a redundancy and overflowing of vitiated bile. The liver is the proper seat of the bile, where its secretions are carried on. Hence the prophet's meaning in this place seems to be, that he felt as if his whole liver was dissolved, and carried off in bile, on account of the copious discharge brought on by continual vexation and fretting. Job expresses the same thing, when he says, Ch. xvi. 13. "He poureth out my gall upon the ground.”

perhaps seventy, MSS. for 77. It signi

13. What shall I urge to thee? Sixty eight, and eight Editions, read with the Masora 7 fies making a solemn asseveration of what one knows to be true.

"the

cup.

Ibid.thy breach is wide like the sea] For, like the sea," the LXX. appear to have read DD, TOTARION, "And as a cup is used to denote any allotment of divine providence, whether good or bad, so 112 012, “the cup of thy destruction," would mean, the destruction allotted thee. But is the more probable reading, being justified by all the Hebrew copies, and by the rest of the ancient versions; and aw, signifying "the breach," or wound, which Jerusalem had received, is by an Hyperbole said to be "great," deep, or wide, "like the sea," which is as it were a breach made in the earth.

14. For they have not laid open to thee-] For

the Syr. seems

to have preserved the true reading . And the last word in the next line,, I conceive not to be a noun, as it is generally represented by interpreters, but the participle preter in Pyhal from 7, to thrust or cast out. In the preceding verse the prophet condoled with his country on the breach made in her, asking, "Who shall heal thee ?" In this verse he answers the question negatively, "Not thy prophets, who have taught thee nothing solid or to the purpose." is rendered, “untempered mortar," Ezek. xiii. 10, 11. and both there and here denotes a teaching deficient in that due seasoning of truth and plain dealing, which alone could render it adequate to any useful or salutary purpose. For continues the prophet, they have not laid open to thy view thy sinfulness, the true cause of the evil brought upon thee, as they ought to have done in order to point out the proper cure by repentance and amendment; but they have amused thee with burdens of delusion, false and fallacious prophecies, and that even after as well as before their exile. See Jer. xxix. 8, &c. NWA a burden," usually signifies a prophecy of a calamitous import: see Note on Jer. xxiii. 33. But in this place w immediately following new seems rather to denote the contents of the burdens to be vanity and delusion.

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15.-- Perfect in beauty, the delight of the whole earth] See Ps. xlviii. 2. 1. 2. It was at least a pardonable partiality in the Jews, which led them to bestow these encomiums upon their capital, and to suppose that all strangers would be equally delighted with its beauty as they themselves were.

16, 17.] In these verses the alphabetical order of the initials is inverted, coming before ; and the same occurs in the two following Chapters. Grotius's conjecture on this head is not very satisfactory; namely, that the Chaldeans may possibly have ranged their letters differently from the Hebrews; and that in the first Chapter Jeremiah wrote as an Hebrew, but in the three following as a subject of the Chaldeans, conforming himself to their usage. Now admitting what I think is without proof, that the Chaldean Alphabet was ranged differently from the Hebrew; and that Jeremiah was more of a Chaldean subject, when he wrote the second, third, and fourth Chapters, than when he wrote the first, which also I very much doubt of; yet what a ridiculous obligation is he here supposed to lie under, of disposing the lines of his Hebrew Elegies in a new order, in consequence of his living under a new government ?---On the other hand, Houbigant is of opinion, that the order of the verses was originally the same in all the Chapters, but disturbed by the subsequent mistake of the Transcriber, proceeding from a cause, which did not affect the first, but extended alike to the other three Chapters in succession. Accordingly in the Syriac version the customary order of the Alphabet takes place uniformly in all the Chapters. And some few MSS. affect the like transposition, not indeed with the same uniformity throughout all the Chapters, but severally, some in one, and some in another. But the probability of such transposition. must depend on the relation, which the verses bear to each other, and to those which precede and follow, in point of sense and connexion.

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And although in this present Chapter the change might take place, perhaps without any apparent inconvenience, I question whether this would be altogether the case in the two following. It seems therefore most advisable not to introduce any alteration without better grounds, however unable we may be to discover the motives that led to the present arrangement.

16. We have swallowed her up---] The LXX. and Syr. appear to

.בלענו with the affix, instead of בלענוה have read

Ibid. which we looked for---] For pw nineteen MSS. and one Edition, the most ancient, read more perfectly impw.

17. What he constituted in days of old, he hath destroyed---] To this construction we are determined by the Metre. The sense is good, and perfectly adapted to the place; and corresponds nearly with what is expressed, Jer. xlv. 4.

18. Their heart cried out, Before JEHOVAH, &c.] The same are the speakers here, who are said to have made the foregoing remarks concerning the distressed condition of Jerusalem, namely, the passengers, ver. 15. whose heart, being deeply affected with what they saw, urged them to break forth into the following passionate exclamation addressed to the daughter of Sion---All the ancient versions, and most of the modern, our English ones in particular, have agreed in rendering npin wall, or walls. But give it this signification, and, as Houbigant justly observes, construct it afterwards in the sentence as you please, it will not be easy to make out any tolerable sense with it. But without changing the word (which is what Houbigant proposes to do) noin (or non, as it is read in four MSS. one a pretty ancient one) may be an adjective, or adverb, from , to be warm, and may denote that fervour of spirit, that warmth of feeling, with which the daughter of Sion is exhorted to shower down her tears before God, to move his compassion, and deprecate his severe judgments---For '7 no less than forty three MSS. here read

Ibid.---let not the daughter of thine eye stand still] By " the daugh ter of thine eye" I understand the tear, and not the pupil, or apple of the eye, although it is usually interpreted in the latter sense, because ws, which indeed means the pupil, seems to be called " the daughter of the eye," -na, Ps. xvii. 8. But perhaps we ought there to read, "within the eye," "" or in the socket of it. "Keep me as safe and secure, as the pupil in the socket of the eye.” ---But the tear may with great propriety and elegance be called "the daughter of the eye," from which it issues.

בית עין .as in one MS

19.in the night] For 2, forty one, perhaps forty five, MSS. and three Editions, read with the Masora, m2.

Ibid.--before the face of JEHOVAH] Thirty nine MSS. and two Edi

,פני יהיה read פני אדני tions for

Ibid.---at the head of all the streets] This phrase occurs Ch. iv. 1. Isai. li. 20. Nahum iii. 10. and perhaps signifies, at the extremity of the streets at either end.---Here we have a supernumerary line, as before, Ch. i. 7. See Note there.

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