sed quoniam {}קמע significat prfundum esse ideo {}םיקמע sunt profunditates; cur
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS he had before touched upon as to the city Rabbah. Gird yourselves, he says, with sackcloth, or put on sackcloth. He does not here exhort the citizens of Rabbah to repentance, but he speaks according to the customs of the people, as it has been stated elsewhere. Sackcloth was, indeed, a symbol of penitence; when the miserable wished humbly to flee to God's mercy, and to confess their sins, they put on sackcloth. But the unbelieving imitated the faithful without discretion or judgment.
Hence it was, that they scattered ashes on their heads, that without any reason they put on sackcloth. What was then commonly done is now mentioned by Jeremiah; Put on sackcloth, he says, lament and run here and there by the fences
He afterwards adds in the third person, for gone is their king into captivity. He expressed this, that the Israelites might know, that though that kingdom flourished for a time, yet the day of which the Prophet had spoken would come, when the condition of the Ammonites would be nothing better than that of the Israelites; whose king, as it was known, had been driven into exile, together with the priests and princes. The Prophet now denounces the same punishment on the Ammonites, that not only their king would be driven into another land, as a captive, but also their princes and their priests. It follows ---
Jeremiah 49:4
4. Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?
4. Quid gloriaris reconditis tuis? defluxit profunditas tua (ad verbum, vallis tua; sed quoniam {}קמעsignificat prfundum esse ideo {}םיקמעsunt profunditates; cur ergo gloriaris in tuis profunditatibus? sed non repugno quin transferamus, quid gloriaris in vallibus tuis? defluvit vallis tua, est idem nomen,) filia aversatrix, quae confidit in reconditis suis (in thesauris suis,) Quis veniet ad me?
As the minds of men continually vacillate, because they do not sufficiently consider the infinite power of God, the Prophet, that he might remove all obstacles which might have rendered his prophecy doubtful, now declares that the Ammonites gloried in vain in their valleys. Some understand by valleys a fertile land, well watered.
But the Prophet, as I think, refers rather to fortified places. He then says, that they in vain gloried in their deep valleys; as they were surrounded with mountains, so they thought that they could not be approached. He derides this vain confidence, Why, he says, dost thou glory in thy valleys, or, profundities? Flown down has thy valley.
By saying, that the valley, or depth, had flown down, he alludes to its situation: for when any one considers a region situated among mountains, the land appears as flowing, like a river gliding between its banks. It is then a striking allusion to a deep place, when he says that the valley flowed down 393 It was the same as though he
393The verb means to flow out, and to flow away, to waste. The latter seems to be the meaning here, "wasted has thy valley." (See Lamentations 4:9.) It has a noun after it, when it means to flow out in the sense of abounding; but when used intransitively, it means to flow away in the sense of wasting, — Why gloriest thou in deep valleys! Flown away has thy deep valley, O daughter, who hast turned aside, Who hast trusted in thy treasures, Who hast said in thine heart, "Who can come to me?" The participle {,{`` השובבהwho hast turned aside,'' or away, is rendered
by the Vulg., and ``beloved,'' by the Syr., and the idea of impudence or folly, is conveyed by the Sept. and Targ. How the word could be so rendered, it is difficult to say. The verb means to turn to or from. Being a reduplicate here, it means to turn away resolutely; hence ``rebellious'' would be no improper rendering. ``Her'' before ``treasures,'' refers to ``daughter,'' but in our language ``thy'' reads better, as adopted by the Vulg. and the Syr. There is an addition in several copies of the words, ``Who hast said in thine heart,'' and all the versions have what corresponds with them. --- Ed