Jeremiah 6

1. O ye children of Benjamin. The Benjamites are addressed, most probably because, when assailed from the north, they would naturally seek shelter in Jerusalem; which they are here instructed to leave, and to flee southwards to the mountain fastnesses. Tekoa, on a hill about twelve miles from Jerusalem, still retains its name. Beth-haccerem, “the house of the vineyard,” is thought by Condor to be Ain Karim, west of Jerusalem.

3. The shepherds with their flocks. The Babylonian and other generals (see xxv. 34) and their armies, who will cover the land like sheep and cattle, and devour everything.

4. Prepare. Lit., “Sanctify”; i.e., by the sacrifices usually offered before a battle, to propitiate the Deity: see Ezek. xxi. 21-23. This is the language of the enemy generals.

at noon. The two impatient exclamations of the soldiers in this verse were made at different times of the day.

Woe unto us! Or, “Alas for us!” The soldiers, eager for plunder, regret the close of day; but resolve to renew the attack at night (5).

8 depart. Rather, as R.V., “be alienated.”

9. Turn back thine hand. i.e., Put it again and again into them; do the work thoroughly. The phrase refers, probably, to the successive removals of the people. See 2 Kings xxiv. 14; xxv. 11. An address to the invaders.

10 uncircumcised. Unprepared to listen to God’s word.

14 slightly. They treat it as a light matter.

15 they were not at all ashamed. Rather, “They have been put to shame because they have committed abomination; yet surely they are not at all ashamed, nor do they know how to blush”: see R.V. marg. They are so hardened as to be utterly insensible to the disgrace which they have brought upon themselves.

16 ask for the old paths. Act as travellers would when they find themselves going wrong: ask for the “old paths,” which God marked out in His law, and in which your ancestors found peace and happiness.

17 watchmen. The prophets: see Ezek. iii. 17-21.

18 what is among them. i.e., “what is going on among them”; their evil doings and My punishments (19).

21 stumblingblocks. i.e., causes of overthrow or ruin.

22 sides. Or, “extremities”; i.e., from a distant land.

23. They shall lay hold on bow and spear. This description of the Babylonian cavalry is illustrated by sculptures still remaining.

24. We have heard the fame thereof. The prophet speaks in the name of the people on hearing the tidings.

27. I have set thee [for] a tower. Rather, “I have appointed thee a trier among My people, an assayer (or separator), that thou,” etc.: see 28-30. The Vulgate, followed by Luther, has “Probatorem dedi te in populo meo.”

28. Walking with slanders. i.e., “going about as slanderers.”

brass and iron. “Copper and iron,” the baser metals; no silver or gold in them.

29. The bellows are burned. Or, as R.V., “The bellows blow fiercely.” Yet the dross could not be separated. The severest measures of correction have been used in vain.