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9. Sin and Punishment

¹ In Hebrew texts 9:1 is numbered 8:23, and 9:2-26 is numbered 9:1-25. Oh, that my head were a spring of water
   and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
   for the slain of my people.
² Oh, that I had in the desert
   a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
   and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
   a crowd of unfaithful people.

    ³ “They make ready their tongue
   like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
   that they triumph Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
   they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.
⁴ “Beware of your friends;
   do not trust anyone in your clan.
For every one of them is a deceiver, Or a deceiving Jacob
   and every friend a slanderer.
⁵ Friend deceives friend,
   and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
   they weary themselves with sinning.
⁶ You That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular) live in the midst of deception;
   in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.

⁷ Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “See, I will refine and test them,
   for what else can I do
   because of the sin of my people?
⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
   it speaks deceitfully.
With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors,
   but in their hearts they set traps for them.
⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?”

    ¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains
   and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands.
They are desolate and untraveled,
   and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds have all fled
   and the animals are gone.

    ¹¹ “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
   a haunt of jackals;
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
   so no one can live there.”

¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

¹³ The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. ¹⁴ Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.” ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. ¹⁶ I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”

¹⁷ This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
   send for the most skillful of them.
¹⁸ Let them come quickly
   and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
   and water streams from our eyelids.
¹⁹ The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
   ‘How ruined we are!
   How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
   because our houses are in ruins.’”

    ²⁰ Now, you women, hear the word of the LORD;
   open your ears to the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
   teach one another a lament.
²¹ Death has climbed in through our windows
   and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
   and the young men from the public squares.

²² Say, “This is what the LORD declares:

   “‘Dead bodies will lie
   like dung on the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
   with no one to gather them.’”

²³ This is what the LORD says:

   “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
   or the strong boast of their strength
   or the rich boast of their riches,
²⁴ but let the one who boasts boast about this:
   that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
   justice and righteousness on earth,
   for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

²⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. Or wilderness and who clip the hair by their foreheads For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

Jeremiah, speaking in God’s name, concludes that the chastisement, of which he had spoken, was necessary; And what I have already said appears more clearly from this verse, — that he brings to light their sins, that they might know that they could not escape God’s hand, who is a just avenger of wickedness; for they had extremely provoked him by their petulance and obstinacy.

I will try or melt them, he says, and I will prove them As they put on a false color, he says that there was a trial needful, as when any one shews copper or any other metal for gold, he is disproved by trial. Any impostor might otherwise sell dross for silver: the spurious metal, that is passed as gold or silver, must be proved; it must be cast into the fire and melted. As then the Jews thought that they had honest pretences to cover their baseness, God gives this answer, that he had yet a way to discover their deceitfulness, and as it were tells them, “The goldsmith, when any one brings dross for silver, or copper for gold, has a furnace, and he tries it; so will I try and melt you; for you think that you can dazzle ray eyes by false pretences: this will avail you nothing.” In short, God intimates that he had means ready at hand to discover their deceitfulness, and that thus their hypocrisy would be of no advantage to them, as his judgments would be like a furnace. As then stubble or wood, cast into the furnace, is immediately burnt, so hypocrites cannot endure God’s judgment. They indeed at first exhibit some brightness, until God tries them; but their deceits must eventually be discovered; and they themselves will be consumed when they come to be really proved. This is the meaning.

And the reason is added, For how should I do with the daughter of my people? This may be applied to Jeremiah himself; but it would be a strained meaning. He then continues, I have no doubt, to speak in God’s name; How then should I do, or act, with the daughter of my people? God speaks here as one deliberating; and thus he more fully proves the Jews guilty; for since he admits them as judges or counsellors, they could give no other reply. We hence see that this question is very emphatic; for the Prophet intimates, that except the Jews were beyond measure stupid, they could no longer flatter themselves in their sins, so as to demand to be otherwise treated by God, as they had in so many ways and with s.uch perversity procured vengeance for themselves. ²⁴⁰²⁴⁰     All the ancient versions (except the Vulgate) and the Targum read, as though בת “daughter,” were רעת “wickedness,” as in Jeremiah 7:12. Both Houbigant and Horsley adopt this reading; and the first gives the meaning of “thus” to איך, and not “how.” Then the verse would be,
   Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — Behold I will melt them that I may try them;
For thus will I do because of the wickedness of my people.
   The rendering of the last line, according; to the received text, might be this, which is nearly the Vulgate, —
   For how should I deal otherwise with the daughter of my people?
   The passage runs better in this way, than according to the proposed emendation. — Ed.

But we hence learn that it is right that judgment should begin at the house of God, as it is elsewhere said. (1 Peter 4:17.) God indeed will not pass by anytliing without punishing it: hence the heathens must at last stand before his tribunal. But as he is nearer to his Church, their impiety, who profess themselves to be as it were his domestics, is less tolerable, as though he had said, “I have chosen you to be my peculiar people, and have taken you under my care and protection; when ye become intractable, what remains for me to do, but to try you, as ye act so unfaithfully towards me.” It follows —