Jeremiah : Being The Baird Lecture for 1922 Part 7

[Thus sayeth the Lord] 5 What wrong found your fathers in Me, That so far they broke from Me, And following after the Bubble(141) Bubbles became.

Nor said they: 6 Where is the Lord who carried us up From the land of Mi?raim?(142) Who led us through the desert, Land of waste and chasms, Land of drought and barren,(143) A land which n.o.body crosses, Nor mankind settles upon it.

And I brought you into a garden, 7 To feed on its fruit and its wealth.

But coming ye fouled My land, My heritage turned to loathing.

The priests never said, 8 Where is the Lord?

They who handle the Law knew Me not, The rulers(144) rebelled against Me; By Baal the prophets did prophesy, And followed the worthless.

So still with you must I strive,(145) 9 And strive with your sons.(146) For cross to the isles of Kittim and look 10 Send to Kedar, and think for yourselves,(147) And see, was ever like this?

Have any nations(148) changed their G.o.ds, 11 And these no G.o.ds at all?

Yet My people exchanged their(149) Glory For that which is worthless.

Be heavy,(150) O heavens, for this, 12 Shudder and shudder again!

Twain the wrongs My people have wrought- 13 Me have they left, The Fount of live water, To hew themselves cisterns, Cisterns broken, That cannot hold water!

Israel a slave! 14 Or house-born serf!

Why he for a prey?

Against him the young lions roar, 15 Give forth their voice, And his land they lay waste, Burned are his towns and tenantless.

The sons, too, of Noph and Ta?pan?es have forced, 16 Have abused thee.(151) Is not all this being done thee 17 For thy leaving of Me?(152) And now what to thee is the road to Mi?raim,(153) Nile's waters to drink?

Or what is to thee the road to a.s.shur, 18 To drink of the River?

Be thy scourge thine own sin, 19 Thy doublings convict thee!

Know and see how sore for thyself, How bitter to leave Me!

But never was awe of Me thine- Rede of the Lord thy G.o.d.(154)

From of old thou hast broken thy yoke, 20 Hast burst thy bonds, Saying, "I will not serve!"

While upon every high hill, And under each rustling tree, Harlot thou sprawlest!

Yet a n.o.ble vine did I plant thee, 21 Wholly true seed; How could'st thou change to a corrupt,(155) A wildling grape?

Yea, though thou scour thee with nitre, 22 And heap to thee lye, Ingrained is thy guilt before Me, Rede of the Lord, thy G.o.d.(156) How sayest thou, "I'm not defiled, 23 Nor gone after the Baals."

Look at thy ways in the Valley, And own thy deeds!

A young camel, light o' heel,(157) Zig-zagging her tracks, A heifer, schooled to the desert- 24 In the heat of her l.u.s.t, Snapping the wind in her pa.s.sion, Who is to turn her?

None that would seek her need strain them, In her month they shall find her.

Save thou thy feet from the peeling, 25 Thy throat from thirst!

But thou sayest, "No use!(158) For with strangers I'm fallen in love, Them must I after!"

Like the shame of the thief when he's caught, 26 Shall Israel's sons(159) be shamed.

[They and their kings and their princes, Their priests and their prophets](160) Who say to a stock "Thou my Father!" 27 To a stone "Thou hast borne me!"

Their(161) backs they have turned to Me Never their(162) faces.

Yet in time of their trouble they say "Rise up and save us!"

Where be thy G.o.ds thou hast made thee? 28 Let them rise, if so they may save thee In time of thy trouble; For as thy towns.h.i.+ps in number,(163) So be, O Judah, thy G.o.ds!

What quarrel have you against Me? 29 All you are the sinners;(164) Against Me you all have rebelled- Rede of the Lord.

In vain have I smitten your sons 30 Ye(165) took not correction Your(166) sword has devoured your prophets, Like a ravaging lion.

O generation-you!-look at the Word of the Lord!(167) 31 Have I been a desert to Israel, Or land of thick darkness?

Why say My folk "We are off, No more to meet Thee!"

Can a maiden forget her adorning, 32 Or her girdle a bride?

Yet Me have My people forgotten, Days without number!

Why trimmest thou still thy ways 33 To seek after love?

Therefore thou also to evil Thy ways hast trained:(168) Yea, on thy skirts is found blood 34 Of innocent souls, Not only on felons(?) I find it But over all these.(169) Yet thou said'st, "I am a.s.soiled, 35 Sure His wrath turns from me!"

Behold I am going to judge thee For saying, "I'm sinless!"

How very light dost thou take it, 36 To change thy ways!

E'en of Mi?raim shalt thou be ashamed(170) As ashamed of Ashshur.

Out of this too shalt thou come 37 With thy hands on thy head, For spurned hath the Lord the things of thy trust, Not by them shalt thou prosper!

III. 1. [Saying]:-If a man dismiss his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall she return to him?(171) Is that woman(172) not too polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers and-wouldest return unto Me? Rede of the Lord.

Lift to the clearings thine eyes, 2 Where not wast thou tumbled?

For them by the roads thou hast sate, Like an Arab in desert, Thou hast fouled the land with thy wh.o.r.edoms And with thy vices; With thy lovers so many 3 It has meant but thy snare.(173) The brow of a harlot was thine, Shame thou hadst done with.

But now-thou callest me "Father, 4 Friend of my youth!"

"Bears _He_ a grudge for ever, 5 Stands on His guard for aye?"(174) Lo, so thou hast spoken, yet done Ills to thine utmost.

6. And the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah, the king,(175) Hast thou seen what recreant Israel did to Me(176) going up every high hill and under each rustling tree, and there playing the harlot. 7. And I said, After she has done all these things can she return to Me?-and she did not return. 8. And her treacherous sister Judah saw, yes she saw,(177) that, all because recreant Israel committed adultery, I had dismissed her and given her the bill of her divorce; yet her sister treacherous Judah was not afraid, but also went and played the harlot. 9. And it came to pa.s.s that, through the wantonness of her harlotry, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stones and with stocks. 10. And yet, for all this, treacherous Judah(178) has not returned to Me with all her heart, but only in feigning.(179) 11. And the Lord said to me, Recreant Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 12. Go and call out these words toward the North and say,

Turn thee to Me,(180) recreant Israel, I frown(181) not upon thee; For gracious am I (Rede of the Lord), Nor for ever bear grudge.

Only acknowledge thy guilt, 13 That defying the Lord thy G.o.d, Thou hast scattered to strangers thy ways Under each rustling tree, And hast(182) not obeyed My voice- Rede of the Lord.

14. [Return ye backsliding children, Rede of the Lord, for I am your Baal,(183) and I will take you, one from a city and two from a clan, and will bring you to ?ion. 15. And I will give you Shepherds after My heart, and they shall shepherd you with knowledge and with skill. 16. And it shall be, when ye multiply and increase in the land in those days (Rede of the Lord), they shall not again say, "The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord!" It shall not come to mind, it shall be neither remembered nor missed,(184) nor shall it be made again. 17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord and all nations shall gather to her,(185) nor walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18. In those days the House of Judah shall walk with the House of Israel, that together they may come from the land of the North to the land which I gave their(186) fathers for a heritage.]

But I(187) had declared the How(?) 19 I should set thee(188) among the sons, And should give thee a land of delight, Fairest domain of the nations.

And said, Thou would'st call Me Father, Nor from after Me turn.

As a woman plays false to her fere,(189) 20 So to Me ye played false!

[O House of Israel, Rede of the Lord.]

Hark! 21 From the clearings weeping is heard, Wailing of Israel's sons, That they have perverted their way, Forgotten the Lord their G.o.d.

Return ye oft-turning children, 22 Let me heal your back-turnings!

"Here are we! to Thee we are come, Thou Lord art our G.o.d.

"Surely the heights are a fraud 23 The hills and their hubbub!(190) "Alone in the Lord our G.o.d Is Israel's safety.

"The Baal hath devoured our toil 24 And our sires' from their youth, "Their flocks and their herds, Their sons and daughters- "Lie we low in our shame, 25 Our dishonour enshroud us!

"For to our G.o.d(191) have we sinned, "[We and our sires from our youth]

Up to this day!

"Nor have heeded the voice Of the Lord our G.o.d."

[Israel, if thou wilt return, IV. 1 Return to Me, And thy loathly things put from thy mouth Nor stray from My face.(192) If in truth thou swear by the life of the Lord, 2 Honest and straight, Then the nations shall bless them by Him And in Him shall they glory.](193)

3. Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of(194) Jerusalem:

Fallow up your fallow-ground,(195) And sow not on thorns!

To your G.o.d(196) circ.u.mcise ye, 4 Off from your heart with the foreskin!

[O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem]

Lest My fury break out like fire, And burn with none to quench!

[Because of the ill of your doings.]

From his call the Prophet went forth, as we saw, with a heavy sense of the responsibility and the power of the single soul, so far as he himself was concerned; and while we study his ministry we shall find him coming to feel the same for each of his fellow-men. But in these his earliest utterances he follows his predecessors, and especially Hosea, in addressing his people as a whole, and treating Israel as a moral unit from the beginning of her history to the moment of his charge to her. He continues the figures which Hosea had used. Long ago in Egypt G.o.d chose Israel for His child, for His bride, and led her through the desert to a fair and fruitful land of her own. Then her love was true. The term used for it, _?e?edh_, is more than an affection; it is loyalty to a relation.

To translate it but _kindness_ or _mercy_, as is usually done, is wrong-_troth_ is our nearest word.

I remember the troth of thy youth, Thy love as a bride, Thy following Me through the desert, The land unsown.

Upon the unsown land there were no rival G.o.ds. But in fertile Canaan the nation encountered innumerable local deities, the Baalim, husbands of the land, begetters of its fruits and lords of its waters. We conceive how tempting these Baalim were both to the superst.i.tious prudence of tribes strange to agriculture and anxious to conciliate the traditional powers thereof; and to the people's pa.s.sions through the sensuous rites and feasts of the rural shrines. Among such distractions Israel lost her innocence, forgot what her own G.o.d was or had done for her, and ceased to enquire of Him. Hence her present vices and misery in contrast with her early troth and safety. Hence the twin evils of the time-on the one hand the nation's trust in heathen powers and silly oscillation between Egypt and a.s.syria; on the other the gross immoralities to which the Baals had seduced its sons. There was a double prost.i.tution, to G.o.ds and to men, so foul that the young prophet uses the rankest facts in the rural life which he is addressing in order to describe it.

The cardinal sin of the people, the source of all their woes is religious,

Is not this being done thee For thy leaving of Me?