耶利米書註釋 第 1 章 第 9/12 段

Let not the swift flee, and let not the mighty escape to the north;

toward the Euphrates they grew weak and have fallen.

Then He reminds them of their former prosperity:

Who is this that comes up as a river, and as rivers his waters surge—Egypt that comes up like a river, and like a river stirs up her waters?

And He displays her boastful words as well.

And she said, 'I will go up, and I will cover the earth, and I will destroy the city and those who dwell in it.' And, teaching that events do not correspond to the fancy of their reasonings, He says ironically:

Mount upon the horses, make ready the chariots, go forth, you warriors.

By 'the warriors' He means the Egyptians' mercenary auxiliaries.

'Ethiopians and Libyans armed with weapons, and you Lydians, come up, draw the bow.' Then he teaches that, at the nod of God, the boldness of the Egyptians is dissolved.

'And that day shall be to the Lord our God a day of vengeance, to take vengeance on His enemies;'

'and My sword shall devour flesh, and shall be filled, and made drunk with their blood.'

'For it is a sacrifice to the Lord of Sabaoth from the land of the north, upon the river Euphrates.' Since the Egyptians paid the penalty for their impiety and were destroyed at God's will, for this reason He has called that slaughter of theirs a sacrifice.

'Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt.'

And the brothers of Joseph carried off balm and stacte down into Egypt.

Now balm is the sap of trees, well suited for medicines;

and Gilead in particular cultivates it.

He has said these things by way of irony, showing the incurable nature of the calamity.

For what follows also makes this plain.

'In vain you have multiplied your remedies;'

'there is no healing for you.' And, showing the magnitude of the blow, he added:

'The nations have heard your voice, and the earth has been filled with your cry, for warrior has grown weak against warrior;'

'both have fallen together.'

Through these words he has foretold also the coming overthrow of the victors.

These things, then, the prophet prophesied concerning the former defeat.

But in what follows he foretells the campaign of Nebuchadnezzar against Egypt, and enjoins that the prediction be announced to Migdol, and to Memphis, and to Tahpanhes, and indeed to the whole kingdom of the Egyptians; and he says:

'Stand and prepare yourself, for the sword has devoured your bindweed.' The Syrian rendered 'the bindweed' as 'the things round about you;'

and this same thing the bindweed too hints at;

so figuratively he named in this way the allies of the Egyptians, whose defeat and flight he foretold.

By 'the choice calf' he means Apis;

for this was an ox, reared and worshipped by them;

so the prophetic word teaches the cause of the defeat;

for making a calf into a god, and putting their confidence in it, they obtained no help.

'Because the Lord has weakened him.' That is, the calf.

And He also weakened the one working in it, and deceiving men.

'And your multitude has grown weak and fallen.'

He speaks also of the cowardice that fell upon them, and how they urged one another to flight, fearing the enemies and their allies.

'For let us arise,' he says, 'and return to our people, and to our fatherland, from before the Greek sword.' It is likely that some of the Greeks also fought together with the king of the Babylonians;

but I think that in this passage he also foretells the dominion of the Macedonians;

for Alexander, having overthrown the kingdom of the Egyptians, forced them to be subject to the Macedonians.

'Call the name of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt Saon Esebeir Emoed.'

But the Syrian rendered these things thus:

'Call his name: he who troubles, and who overturns seasons;' for of old the kingdom of the Egyptians was mighty, and it kept troubling the neighbouring nations, and turned the prosperity of many into adversity.

'As I live, says the Lord God, whose name is the King of hosts.'

And His eternity and His power He taught us at one and the same time.

'For as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel is by the sea, so shall he come.' This is as much as to say: Do not doubt;

for just as all men indisputably agree both that Tabor is a mountain and that Carmel borders on the sea,

so the prediction possesses its truth.

'Make yourself vessels of removal, O dweller, daughter of Egypt;'

that is, get ready for captivity;

and he speaks also of the desolation of the royal city;

for Memphis at that time had become a royal city;

and this the divine Isaiah taught us.

'For the princes of Tanis have failed,' he says, 'and the princes of Memphis have been exalted.'

Her untamable, unyoked, and luxurious character he has made plain through these words;

and, exposing their great weakness, he teaches that even when very few enemies came upon them, they were unable to hold out.

'A dividing came from the north upon her.' [verse] 21

'And her hired men are in her midst, like calves.'

He has made plain the weakness of the allies;

for the fatted calf does not till the earth, but is eaten by others;

and he speaks also of their flight.

'For they turned back,' he says, 'and fled with one accord;'

'they did not stand.' He adds also the cause:

'Because the day of destruction has come upon them, and the time of their vengeance.' For it was necessary that they should pay the penalty of their impiety.

'Their voice is like that of a hissing serpent.'

It is characteristic of those in distress to groan and hiss, and, being heated by despondency, to give forth breath.

'For they shall march in sand.' Their rottenness he has made plain through these words;

for indeed the Lord likened the one who hears His word and does not do it to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

'With axes they shall come upon her, like those who cut wood.' Then, in the imperative mood:

'Cut down her forest, says the Lord God, for God will by no means be propitiated, because it multiplies beyond the locust.'

'The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame, she has been delivered into the hands of a people from the north, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.'

The prophet uttered his prophecy to those who had gone down into Egypt, at the time when he also hid the stones in the entrances of the royal palace. [verse] 25

'Behold, I take vengeance on Ammon her son.'

from whom also the land was named Ammoniac;

to him they built a very great sacred precinct.

And he calls Ammon her son, as one deified by her;

for the idol was made by hands.

He therefore threatens that He will deliver up Ammon the idol to the Babylonians, and indeed their other gods as well:

'And upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings;'

And against Pharaoh and against those who trusted in him. All at once, he says, the enemies shall prevail over them all together: over the king, over the rulers, over the idols, and over the auxiliaries.

Yet after she has been handed over to the king of the Babylonians, she shall recover her former dominion.

For after these things, he says, she shall be at rest as in the days of old, says the Lord.

After this he foretells to Israel also things that will bring gladness, and prophesies the return from Babylon.

He also announces beforehand the destruction of the Babylonians.

For you too, he says, do not fear, my servant Jacob, says the Lord, for I am with you.

For I will make a full end of every nation into which I have driven you there.

But you I will by no means make to fail; I will chasten you with judgment, and I will by no means hold you guiltless.

I will bring upon you a healing discipline.

For this is what he means by 'I will chasten you with judgment, and I will not leave you unpunished.' For this is what is signified by 'And I will by no means hold you guiltless.'

From here he transfers the prophecy to the foreigners (Philistines).

By 'foreigners' he means those who dwell in Ashkelon, Gaza, Azotus, Gath, and Ekron.

He says that the prediction was made before Pharaoh struck Gaza, and he likens the army of the Babylonians to a torrent overflowing.

By this the cities are flooded over, and the inhabitants destroyed, uttering a wailing cry, and unable to endure even the din of the weapons and the chariots.

He teaches that, because of their terror, fathers even forgot nature itself and neglected their sons.

For fathers, he says, did not turn back to their sons, because of the feebleness of their hands.

In the day that is coming, to destroy all the foreigners.

He also foretells destruction to the Tyrians and Sidonians, as having come to the aid of these.

For I will lay waste, he says, Tyre and Sidon and the remnant of their help.

For the Lord will utterly destroy the foreigners, the remnant of the islands and of Cappadocia. And when we interpreted the other prophets, we showed that colonists from the Cypriots and the Cappadocians of old inhabited Palestine.

That is: you shall be stripped of your ancient renown.

And it often signifies mourning as well.

For shave your head, he says, and take up a lamentation upon your lips.

Ashkelon is cast off, and the remnant of the Anakim. And the descendants of that man inhabited Ashkelon.

How long will you gather yourselves together? (v. 6) How long will the sword of the Lord cut? He called Nebuchadnezzar 'the sword of the Lord.'

For with His permission he wrought those things, and by one another's hand the impious paid the penalty for their impiety.

Return to your sheath.

Rest and be lifted up. And showing who it was that commanded it to act, he added:

And the Lord gave it a charge to go against Ashkelon, and against the regions by the sea, and against the remnant.

He has employed personification, teaching more clearly that the creation is not without a pilot, but that its Maker presides over all things, and at one time supplies them with an abundance of good things, and at another permits them to fall into calamities.

And the prophet transfers the prediction to Moab.

Concerning Moab thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

Woe to Nebo, for it is destroyed.

This was an idol, and Isaiah the prophet also mentions it.

Bel is fallen, Nebo is broken; and there is also a city named after the idol.

Masigath was put to shame and was defeated.

(v. 2) There is no longer any healing for Moab, no boasting in Heshbon.

These were splendid cities, in which the Moabites took great pride.

They devised evils against her.

Behind you the sword shall march. And this signifies the pursuers.

For there is a voice of men crying out from Horonaim.

He says that Zoar too will receive the grievous tidings, and that the other cities will be filled with wailing.

He urges them to flee, and to pass their lives in the wilderness like the wild asses.

Since you trusted in your stronghold, afflictions shall come upon you.

And not only shall you be taken captive by the enemies, but Chemosh also shall go forth into exile.

And this was an idol of the Moabites.

Its priests and its rulers together.

(v. 8) And destruction shall come upon every city.

He says that the valley and the plain shall suffer the same calamity.

He also foretells the utter desolation caused by the enemies.

In the deserts and utterly untrodden places, men set up certain signs made of stones, and thus make their journey, and looking to those they travel without going astray.

For it shall be kindled with fire. That is, it shall be burned up.

And its cities shall become untrodden. Because there is no one dwelling in it.

Cursed is he who does the works of God carelessly, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.

But if the prophetic word subjects to curses those who slay carelessly where God commands, what penalties shall we pay who are negligent in the spiritual labor?

Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has trusted in his glory, and he has not been poured from vessel to vessel.

That is, he did not change his dwelling, nor did he become a migrant.

And he did not go into captivity;

therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent did not depart. He continued in the figure, and since he had mentioned a vessel, necessarily also taste and scent.

as one who has always tarried in the same places. (v. 12)

and I will send to him men who tilt, and they shall tilt him, and shall thin out his vessels, and shall break his horns in pieces.

These things too he has set down parabolically and figuratively.

For he said 'they shall tilt' as concerning a vessel, meaning 'they shall empty out';

and it shall not suffice them to take what is in the vessels, but they shall break these in pieces as well.

By 'vessels' he calls the cities, and by the contents of the vessels the wealth;

and the enemies did both, for they both plundered and set on fire.

And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their hope.

In Bethel Jeroboam set up the calf;

the prophetic word therefore teaches that, just as Israel obtained no help from the idols, so too Moab profited nothing from Chemosh.

Then he shows them boasting proudly in their strength, yet undergoing destruction, since the God of all things had ordained this.

Having declared that the time of the punishment had come, he exhorts the neighboring peoples to rouse him up to manful courage and to restore him to his former strength.

And he charges them to say:

and the pride that exceeds your strength.

He also enumerates the cities which of old were splendid and renowned, and he teaches the reversal of their prosperity.

And he shows the cause as well.

'For make him drunk,' he says, 'because he magnified himself against the Lord.'

For when the Moabites learned of what had befallen the Jews, they jeered, charging the God of all with weakness.

For this is what the following words also teach.

'Moab shall clap with his hand'—that is, dancing and rejoicing over another's misfortune.

'And he too shall become a laughingstock.' Then more plainly:

'And was not Israel a derision to you?'

'And was he found among your thefts, that you made war upon him?' What wrong, he says, had he done you, that you warred against him? Did you catch them breaking through walls or stripping garments off men? 'You shall be removed for him'—that is, on account of the injustice done to him.

He also speaks of their flight.

'The inhabitants of Moab left the cities and dwelt in the rocks; they became like doves nesting in the rocks, at the mouth of a pit.'

For they took to the caves in the mountain-tops, being unable to withstand the assault of the enemy.

He also calls him insolent, and a braggart, and proud.

'And of these things,' he says, 'I myself was an eyewitness.' And teaching how the experience of the deeds refuted the pomp of the words, he added:

'Are not his arms according to his sufficiency thus? Has he not done thus?'

For before the battle, boasting and threatening to prove himself a champion, when he saw the enemy he fled.

As for the phrase 'shorn of drought,' the Syrian rendered it thus:

'Their heads shorn, and their beards shaven.' This is the appearance of captives.

The prophetic word concerning Moab also makes this plain:

'Wail for the men of the wall, shorn of drought.'

That is, those who of old possessed walls and ramparts, but now are shorn of their former prosperity and clothed with squalor.

'As the weeping of Jazer I shall weep for you.'

He recalled a certain history, and thereby indicated the exceeding greatness of the lament.

'O vine of Sibmah, your branches passed over the sea.' It was rich in wine and abundant in wine.

He therefore likens the multitude of the vine to the sea.

And he says that its land was laid waste and the vine destroyed.

'There was wine,' he says, 'in your winepresses;'

'in the morning they did not tread, nor in the evening did they make it.'

The Syrian rendered this thus:

'No longer treading the winepress and crying, Hurrah, hurrah.' And having said the same things in different ways, he interpreted the phrase 'shorn of drought.' (verses 37, 38)

'Every head in every place shall be shaven, and every beard shall be shaven;'

'and all hands shall be cut, and upon every loin sackcloth.'

'And upon all the housetops of Moab, and in its broad places, lamentation.'

'For I have broken Moab like a vessel for which there is no use, says the Lord.' He showed his utter uselessness.

He also clearly shows the swiftness of Nebuchadnezzar.

'Behold, like an eagle he shall swoop, and shall spread out his wings over Moab.'

The inspired Ezekiel also likens Nebuchadnezzar to an eagle;

for the creature is kingly, and the swiftest and most powerful of all winged things.

He foretells also the cowardice of Moab, and likens his heart to the heart of a woman in travail;

and he teaches his impiety as well.

'Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he magnified himself against the Lord.'

He foretells also the successive calamities.

'Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you who dwell in Moab, says the Lord.'

'He who flees from the face of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs up out of the pit shall be caught in the snare.'

'For I will bring these things upon Moab, in the year in which I will visit her, says the Lord.' He calls the appointed time a year;

'when,' he says, 'I purpose to punish them, I will envelop them in these calamities.'

He also prophesies to them their civil war.

'A fire went forth from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, and devoured the chief men of Moab.'

But he also foretells to them something agreeable.

'And I will restore the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says the Lord.'

He showed, both through the punishment and through his loving-kindness, that he himself is Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon him, and that he is God not of the Jews only, but of all mankind.

'Thus far the judgment of Moab'—that is, the sentence pronounced against him.

The word of prophecy then passes on to the sons of Ammon, and the Lord of all says to them:

When these people had thus been taken captive, the Ammonites seized this land.

To these God says:

'Did you despise the people, or me?' For he called himself the One who would take up their cause, in the sense of the One who would receive and defend them.

Milcom was an idol of the sons of Ammon.

'Do you suppose,' he says, 'that that which is not can prevail over me who ever am?' (verse 2)

Rabbah was a city of Arabia;

and the phrase 'I will cause to be heard' means 'I will make it to be heard.'

'And it shall become a desolation and a ruin;'

'and its altars shall be burned with fire, and Israel shall take possession of their dominion, says the Lord.' And he continues, foretelling what shall befall the Ammonites.

'Wail, O Heshbon, for your strength is perished;'

'cry out, O daughters of Rabbah;'

'gird yourselves with sackcloth, and lament, and run about upon the walls, for Milcom shall go into exile, and his priests, and his princes together.'

He showed also the weakness of the idols;

for they too went into captivity together with those who worshiped them.

Why do you exult in the plains of the Anakim? Your plains have flowed away, O daughter of dishonor.

He accuses her of shamelessness, and of the insolence she took in her wealth.

For this is what the following words also teach.

She who trusted in her treasures, who said, 'Who shall come against me?' And since she gave heed to the things that are seen and knew not the invisible God, he teaches who it is that chastises her.

Behold, I bring fear upon you, says the Lord of hosts, from all who dwell round about you.

From every side, he says, those who announce to you the army of your enemies shall come running.

And you shall be scattered, each one before his own face, and there shall be none to gather up the fugitive.

For you shall not flee in one direction together, but by reason of the excess of your terror you shall be dispersed.

But he foretells to these also a return, lest the Jews should be high-minded, as though they alone had obtained the return.

He foretells the grievous things to Idumaea as well.

And since they boasted in their wisdom, he says that they have been deprived of it.

There is no more wisdom in Teman; counsel has perished from the prudent. This was a city, and Eliphaz reigned over it.

For Eliphaz was king of the Temanites.

'I brought upon him in the time when I visited him.'

He exhorts them to hide themselves under the earth.

For this is the meaning of 'go deep to dwell.' And he teaches that it is he himself who brings the punishment upon them.

'Even if in the time that went before,' he says, 'I made use of long-suffering.'

Because grape-gatherers have come upon you, and they shall leave you no remnant.

He calls the enemies grape-gatherers, whom he says plunder and lay waste everything.

He teaches also the time of the assault.

As thieves in the night they shall lay their hand upon you. (10)

Because I have swept away Esau, I have uncovered their hidden places.

Very great and lofty mountains lie about Idumaea.

Digging caves therefore in these, they took refuge in them when their foes came upon them.

His seed is perished by the hand of his brother and his neighbor. He was ashamed, he says, neither of kinship nor of neighborliness.

For Jacob and Esau were brothers, and moreover they were also neighbors bordering one another.

For no other people came between to separate them from one another.

There is none who has pity, to leave your orphans behind that they may be saved, that I too may preserve them.

All men, he says, on account of your great wickedness are disposed with hatred toward you.

'And shall I, the righteous judge, become your helper?' 'And let your widows trust in me.' This too he has set down ironically, as the following words make clear.

Behold, those for whom it was not appointed to drink the cup have surely drunk it; and shall you, being held guiltless, go unpunished?

'It is a law with me to chastise those who live in impiety and wickedness,' he says.

'Those men then,' he says, 'were not subject to punishment on account of any virtue, yet they have become captives of the spear.'

'And do you expect to escape? But you shall not attain your hope, for drinking you shall surely drink.' (13)

Because I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that you shall be for desolation and a reproach, and for an untrodden waste and a curse.

Bosor is in the midst of her territory, and all her cities shall be desolate forever.

By Bosor he does not mean this Bostra, but another situated in Idumaea.

I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent messengers to the nations, saying: Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and arise to war against her.

Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and arise to war against her.

The words 'he sent messengers to the nations' he has set down in the sense of 'he commanded.'

And it is likely that angels ministering to the divine command also stir up the enemies.

He sent forth upon them the wrath of his anger.

Fury, and wrath, and affliction, a mission by evil angels. He calls them evil, not as being such by nature, but as being sent forth for the sake of punishment.

For we are accustomed to call 'evils' also the calamities that are brought upon men.

Thus an angel destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians.

And one may find many other such things in the divine Scripture. (15)

Behold, I have made you small among the nations.

Contemptible among men.

For the Idumaeans are obscure.

And they would have been utterly unknown, had not the divine Scripture made them manifest.

And it makes them manifest not to all, but to the diligent.

Your sport has brought these things upon you, and the dishonor of your heart.

By these words he accuses them of idolatry, and luxury, and licentiousness.

He has lodged in the clefts of the rocks. And we have already said before what kind of refuges they had.

He has laid hold of the strength of a lofty hill. He means the mountain peaks.

And these are very great and lofty.

For though you exalt your nest like an eagle.

From there I will bring you down, says the Lord. (17)

And Idumaea shall become an untrodden waste.

He says that those who pass through her shall marvel, and by their hissing shall make plain the exceeding measure of her desolation.

And that, like Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities which shared with these in their suffering, the aforementioned cities shall become desolate in like manner.

He says also that the Babylonian shall rush upon her like a lion, and shall make his way through the Jordan.

And he commands the chosen men to arm themselves against her, and he adds:

For who is like me? And who shall withstand me? Who is this shepherd that shall stand before my face? For neither the kings nor their idols, when I give command, shall be able to withstand.

Then he says that their sheep shall be few in number, and their land untrodden.

And that the Babylonian shall set upon them like an eagle, and shall prevail over their strongholds.

And that the Idumaeans shall fall into cowardice and anguish, so that their heart shall be likened to a woman in travail.

Hamath is ashamed, and Arphad, because they heard an evil report.

Hamath, as we have already said before, means Emesa.

But there is also another Hamath, which is now Epiphania.

As for Arphath, some say that these are the places now called Rhephanea.

'They were confounded in the sea, they were troubled, they can find no rest.' By 'the sea' he named the multitude of the host;

for concerning them he said, 'They were troubled'; and he exposes the cowardice that followed thereafter.

'Trembling took hold of her, and pangs seized her as of a woman in travail.'

'How has he not forsaken my cities, but has loved my village?' 'My cities,' he says, 'and villages he undertook to seize';

and by 'his own cities and villages' he names those of Israel;

for he was called Baradad in the Syrian tongue;

against whom he threatens the burning.

The prophet also foretells to the Ishmaelites, those now called Saracens, the calamities that were brought upon them.

'To Kedar, the queen of the court, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote, thus said the Lord.'

Kedar was one of the sons of Ishmael, and this the book of Genesis teaches;

and at that time, as is likely, this tribe held dominion over the others;

wherefore he also names her queen.

By 'court' he calls the whole encampment of the Saracens;

since they are nomads, dwelling in tents.

He commands to make war upon them, and to plunder their sheep and their camels, and moreover to lay waste their tents;

and Kedem also was a son of Ishmael;

and to these too he commands that they hide themselves beneath the earth,

so as to flee the onslaught of the enemy.

'Arise, go up against a nation dwelling at ease, sitting in security,' says the Lord.

'Who have neither doors nor bars';

'Easy,' he says, 'is your victory';

'you need no siege, nor blockade, nor long time;

they are easily captured and easily overcome.'

'And I will winnow them with every wind, them that shave their faces round about, and from every quarter of theirs I will bring their overthrow.' That is, in every direction they shall be turned to flight.

'Both those settled toward the rising sun, and those encamped toward the west.'

'And the court shall be a haunt of ostriches, and untrodden for ever.'

'No man shall settle there, nor shall any son of earth dwell there.'

And the events bear witness to the words;

for having forsaken the utter wilderness, they now draw near to the inhabited strongholds.

He also prophesies beforehand the things that befell Elam;

and he makes plain also the time of the prophecy.

For he says that this came to pass immediately upon Zedekiah's reigning.

'Thus says the Lord of hosts:

Behold, I break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.'

Elam is a city lying at the mouth of the Red Sea.

This was of old a splendid emporium, and even now those who sail off to the Indians set out from there.

'And I will bring upon Elam four winds from the four ends of heaven, and there shall be no nation to which they shall not come.'

an army gathered together from the more northerly and easterly parts;

and with him was also a multitude of islanders, who dwelt in the west;

and he took to himself besides, Egyptians and Libyans and Ethiopians, who had for their lot to dwell in the more southerly region.

These things the prophetic word foretold.

'And I will dismay them before their enemies, that seek their life;

and I will bring upon them, according to the wrath of my anger,' says the Lord, 'and I will send forth my sword after them, until I have consumed them.'

Again he called the Babylonians his sword;

for through them he also exacted justice from these.