Jeremiah 13

1 a linen girdle. The girdles now most common in the East consist of long pieces of linen, cotton, or silk, wound in numerous folds round the waist.

6 after many days. During which the girdle is represented as rotting.

10 good for nothing. The girdle was thus an emblem, first, of the close relation between God and the Jewish people, and then of their utter deprivation and consequent degradation and ruin. “Surrendered to the Babylonish captivity because of their impurity” (Orelli).

12. Every bottle. In this case the words mean “every jar.” The jars knocked against each other, so as to be burst and shattered, and therefore destroyed. As the Jews mocked at the symbolic instruction (“Do we not certainly know,” etc.?), the prophet explains it in a fearful threatening.

13 with drunkenness. That is, with God’s wrath (see Psa. lxxv. 8).

16 before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. That is, “before you are involved in ruin.”

18 your principalities. This should read, “your head-dresses.” “The queen” is probably the queen-mother (so R.V.), whose influence is always powerful in Oriental courts: see 1 Kings xv. 13, and note. The king at this time was probably Jehoiachin, who was still very young: see 2 Kings xxiv. 8; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5.

19. The cities of the south, etc. “An army entering from the north would march along the Shefèlah, or fertile plain near the sea-coast, and would capture the outlying cities, before it attacked Jerusalem . . . Cp. the actual march of Sennacherib, 2 Kings xviii. 13” (Payne-Smith).

20 given thee. The address is to Zion, under a feminine personation. The “flock” denotes the towns, among which there was the metropolis, or “mother-city.”

21 when He shall punish thee? For thou hast taught them, etc. Rather, “when He shall set thy friends over thee as head, seeing thou thyself hast instructed them against thee”? (R.V.). These “friends” are the heathen allies of Judah, now become her masters.

22 made bare. Or, “violently stripped,” as those of a captive.

23. Can the Ethiopian, etc.? It is interesting to note that both the French and the German versions translate the Hebrew word as “the Moor.” This means, that the depravity of the people was so inveterate that there was no hope of reformation, and therefore there must be punishment.

25 the portion of thy measures. That is, “the portion to be measured out to thee.” Thy punishment shall be proportioned to thy sin.

26. Therefore will I, etc. Lit., “And I also will,”

etc. As thou hast dishonoured Me, so will I dishonour thee.

27. Will thou not be made clean? etc. Lit., “Thou wilt not be made clean—after yet how long!” Cp. R.V.