was 490 years. During this time the Sabbath was but ill observed. The duration of the captivity in Babylon seems to have been regulated by the number of Sabbaths nonobserved, for in 490 years there are exactly seventy years of Sabbath-days. Comp. Lev. xxvi. 34; 2 Chr. xxxvi. 21; and chapter xxv. 9-12, with Ezek. xx. 12.

"If ye diligently hearken,” v. 24.—If obedient, their city should remain for ever, v. 25; if disobedient, the fire of wrath must consume--Heb. xii. 29 and v. 27.

B.C. 610.]

CHAPTER XVIII. [1st of Jehoiakim.

Jehovah's right to deal with nations according to their conduct towards Him illustrated by the Potter's moulding of vessels from clay, 1-5. His prediction thereupon, 6-23.

He goes to the Potter's house.-(v. 1) "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, (v. 2) Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. (v. 3) Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels."

The marred vessel is remade.—(v. 4) "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. (v. 5) Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, (v. 6) O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. (v. 7) At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; (v. 8) If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. (v. 9) And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; (v. 10) If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them "

"Down to the potter's house," v. 2.-" Down," because the ground on which the Temple stood, where Jeremiah exercised his prophetic office, was high. "The potter's house." Some well-known potter-the potter-had his workshop there. Compare the potter's field, Zech. xi. 11-13; Matt. xxvii. 10.

On the wheels," v. 3.-The potter's lathe consisted of two round plates-at first stones, afterwards wood. On the upper one he moulded the clay. The word here used, rendered in our version by wheels, is literally stones-on both stones.

"Marred," v. 4.-Spoiled.

"Made it again another vessel," v. 4.-Contrast with this chap. xix. 10, 11, where the bottle "cannot be made whole again." Here Jehovah's power to mould, as He pleases, nations and kingdoms is symbolised. See v. 6-12.

B.C. 610.]

CHAPTER XIX. [1st of Jehoiakim. The desolation of the Jews for sin foretold in the Valley of Hinnom, 1-9. The potter's earthen bottle is broken, "not remade,' 10-13. He stands in the Temple Court to announce their destruction, 14, 15.

Jeremiah in the Valley of Hinnom.-(v. 1) "Thus saith the Lord, Go, and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; (v. 2) And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, (v. 3) And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle."

His Proclamation there to the Kings of Judah.—(v. 4) “Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; (v. 5) They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their

sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which 1 commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind: (v. 6) Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. (v. 7) And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. (v. 8) And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. (v. 9) And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them."

The earthen bottle broken.-(v. 10) "Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, (v. 11) And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. (v. 12) Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet (v. 13) And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods."

His prophecy in the Temple Court.-(v. 14) "Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house; and said to all the people, (v. 15) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words."

"A potter's earthen bottle," v. 1.-Bottles were usually made of skins, Mark ii. 22; here jars of earthenware are referred to, v. 10.

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"Of the ancients," v. 1.-Elders of the people and of the priests, as witnesses of this symbolical action-v. 10; Isai. viii. 1, 2-lest they should afterwards pretend never to have heard of it. These elders were members of the Council of the Sanhedrim, which, in number 72, consisted of elders of the people and of the priests-the former presiding over secular, the latter over spiritual matters. It represented thus the whole nation. 2 Ks. xix. 2; Josh.

vii. 6.

"The valley of the son of Hinnom," v. 2.-Called also, by some, Tophet-from toph, a drum-because drums were beaten there to drown the cries of murdered children-see v. 5. It lay to the south-east of Jerusalem. See also v. 6.

"The east gate," v. 2.-See margin, the sun gate; but as the Valley of Hinnom lay to the south, it might mean the south gate. The road to the valley lay through this gate, Josh. xv. 8.

"Proclaim there," v. 2.-In that valley they had sinned, and there they must receive punishment. See note, v. 4.

"O kings of Judah," v. 3.-As in ch. xvii. 20, the words are addressed not to the reigning king, but to the whole house of David. A few years more and their kingdom must cease until the rightful king come to restore it. Chap. xxii. 30, and xxiii. 6; John xviii. 37.

"His ears shall tingle," v. 3,-as when struck by a peal of thunder. The words evidently refer to 1 Sam. iii. 11, where punishment was inflicted on Shiloh-ch. vii. 14 they seem, also, to reaffirm the denunciations pronounced in Manasseh's reign. 2 Ks. xxi. 12.

"Have estranged this place," v. 4.-By alienating it from God, its rightful Lord, by idolatry.

"Other gods," v. 4.-The idols or false gods worshipped by the Syrians and other nations; 1 Cor. viii. 4-6.

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They nor their fathers have known," v. 4.-Idolatry prevailed both among themselves and their fathers, 1 Ks. xi. 5; 2 Ks. xvi. 3, 4-10. The meaning is, therefore, either that the Lord does not reckon the ungodly idolaters as really of the nation-Rom. ix. 6, 7—or, if the nation be referred to as a whole, then the word known may be emphatic,— "could have any real knowledge of,"-Isa. xliv. 10.

"The blood of innocents," v. 4.-Of guiltless persons, ch. ii. 34, vii. 6, &c. The sacrifice of children is not referred to here, but in the next verse (v. 5).

C

“Their sons . . unto Baal,” v. 5.—The apparent identity of these verses with ch. vii. 31, 32, make it manifest that Baal and Moloch are different names for the same idol; Moloch (or Melek) is "king," and Baal is "lord;" hence, Baalbec or Heliopolis, in Coele-Syria, between Lebanon and Antilebanon, where the worship of Baal was chiefly carried on, ch. ii. 23.

"Which I commanded not," v. 5.-God had especially forbidden it, Lev. xviii. 21.

"No more called Tophet," v. 6.-In "Smith's Dictionary of the Bible," it means a "tabret," and was probably the king's "music grove or garden-near, if not forming part of, the "king's gardens ;" and although it was in the valley of the son of Hinnom" (ch. vii. 31), yet it was not identical with it. The word "Tophet" is found only in the Old Testament.

"The valley of slaughter," v. 6.—In this valley one of the severest battles was fought, and there the slaughter of the Jewish army was immense, the besiegers occupying the valley of Hinnom so as to cut off the water-supply, the besieged defending it as their last hope. Thus they were "in this place" (v. 7) rightfully punished. There they degraded themselves by idolatry, and there they suffered for it.-Sp. Com.

"I will make void the counsel of Judah," v. 7.-Their plans for repelling the enemy (see last note); the word "make void" is that from which bottle-BAKKUK-is derived. It represents the sound made by the water in running out, and Jeremiah is supposed by some commentators to pour out the water as he speaks these words, water being the symbol of life. Isai. xxxv. 6, xli. 18 ; and John iv. 14; and above, v. 1, also v. 10.

"Because of all the plagues," v. 8.-Blows from God.

"To eat the flesh," v. 9.-Quoted from Deut. xxviii. 53, and Lev. xxvi. 29; and fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem at this time under Nebuchadnezzar, and (nearly 700 years later) in the siege by Titus and the Romans A.D. 70. See also Lam. ii. 20, and iv. 10.

"Break the bottle," v. 10.-Explained in v. 11; see note

on v. 7.

"That cannot be made whole again," v. 11.—The people were restored after 70 years (B.c. 536) under Zerubbabel; but the bottle seems to represent the generation then exist