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                             THE PROPHECIES

                                   OF

                               JEREMIAH.

                 =With a Sketch of His Life and Times.=





                              BY THE REV.
                           C. J. BALL, M.A.,
                      _Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn_;
             CONTRIBUTOR TO BISHOP ELLICOTT'S "COMMENTARY,"
                    "THE SPEAKER'S COMMENTARY," ETC.






                              =New York:=
                         A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON,
                             714 BROADWAY.
                                 1890.




                               CONTENTS.
                                                                  PAGE

  PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEREMIAH                 1

                                   I.

  THE CALL AND CONSECRATION                                           58

                                  II.

  THE TRUST IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPT                                    74

                                  III.

  ISRAEL AND JUDAH--A CONTRAST                                       114

                                  IV.

  THE SCYTHIANS AS THE SCOURGE OF GOD                                134

                                   V.

  POPULAR AND TRUE RELIGION                                          149

                                  VI.

  THE IDOLS OF THE HEATHEN AND THE GOD OF ISRAEL                     215

                                  VII.

  THE BROKEN COVENANT                                                248

                                 VIII.

  THE FALL OF PRIDE                                                  280

                                  IX.

  THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS                             300

                                   X.

  THE SABBATH--A WARNING                                             364

                                  XI.

  THE DIVINE POTTER                                                  377

                                  XII.

  THE BROKEN VESSEL--A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT                            398

                                 XIII.

  JEREMIAH UNDER PERSECUTION                                         411




                   PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND
                           TIMES OF JEREMIAH.


A priest by birth, Jeremiah became a prophet by the special call
of God. His priestly origin implies a good literary training, in
times when literature was largely in the hands of the priests. The
priesthood, indeed, constituted a principal section of the Israelitish
nobility, as appears both from the history of those times, and from
the references in our prophet's writings, where kings and princes and
priests are often named together as the aristocracy of the land (i.
18, ii. 26, iv. 9); and this fact would ensure for the young prophet a
share in all the best learning of his age. The name of Jeremiah, like
other prophetic proper names, seems to have special significance in
connexion with the most illustrious of the persons recorded to have
borne it. It means _Iahvah foundeth_, and, as a proper name, The Man
that Iahvah foundeth; a designation which finds vivid illustration in
the words of Jeremiah's call: "Before I moulded thee in the belly, I
knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I consecrated
thee: a spokesman to the nations did I make thee" (i. 5). The not
uncommon name of Jeremiah--six other persons of the name are numbered
in the Old Testament--must have appeared to the prophet as invested
with new force and meaning, in the light of this revelation. Even
before his birth he had been "founded"[1] and predestined by God for
the work of his life.

The Hilkiah named as his father was not the high priest of that
name,[2] so famous in connexion with the reformation of king Josiah.
Interesting as such a relationship would be if established, the
following facts seem decisive against it. The prophet himself has
omitted to mention it, and no hint of it is to be found elsewhere. The
priestly family to which Jeremiah belonged was settled at Anathoth
(i. 1, xi. 21, xxix. 27). But Anathoth in Benjamin (xxxvii. 12), the
present _`Anata_, between two and three miles NNE. of Jerusalem,
belonged to the deposed line of Ithamar (1 Chron. xxiv. 3; comp.
with 1 Kings ii. 26, 35). After this it is needless to insist that
the prophet, and presumably his father, resided at Anathoth, whereas
Jerusalem was the usual residence of the high priest. Nor is the
identification of Jeremiah's family with that of the ruling high
priest helped by the observation that the father