Aquilonis, dicit Jehova, et Nebuchadnezer regem Babylonis servum meum, et indu- (continued)
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
At last he adds, that they would be for perpetual desolations He does afterwards, indeed, mitigate the severity of these words; for he confines God's vengeance to seventy years. But this mode of speaking is common in Scripture; for, {,}עולםoulam stands opposed to a short time. It is to be taken in different senses, according to the circumstances of the passage. It sometimes designates perpetuity, as when the Prophet says, from age to age, that is, through continued ages, or through a course of years, which shall last perpetually. But age, or {,}עולםoulam, is often to be taken for the time allotted to the people until the coming of Christ; and sometimes it means simply a long time, as here and in many other places. It follows, ---
Jeremiah 25:10
10. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
10. Et transire faciam (hoc est, auferam) ab ipsis vocem gaudii, et vocem laetitiae, vocem sponsi et vocem sponsae, vocem molarum (id est, strepitum molarum) et lumen lucernae.
He confirms here what I have just said, --- that the Jews were not to be chastised in a common manner, but be exposed to extreme distress. For though all things may not be with us prosperous and according to our wishes, yet marriages may still be celebrated, and some hilarity may remain; we may yet eat and drink and enjoy the necessaries of life, though we may have no pleasures; but the Prophet shews here that such would be the devastation of the land, that there would be no thoughts about marriages, that all hilarity and joy would cease, that there would be no preparations of food, no grinding of corn, and that, in short, all feasts usually kept by the light of candles would be no more celebrated. Here, then, he describes to the life that devastation which had been before mentioned. 131
The Prophet no doubt indirectly condemns that insensibility by which the devil had possessed the minds of the people; for though the prophets continually threatened them, yet there was no end to their exultations and no moderation in them, according to what is said by Isaiah, who complains of such wantonness, that they said, ``Let us feast, tomorrow we shall die;'' and who also says, ``I have called you to sackcloth and ashes, but ye went to the harp and to feastings.''
(Isaiah 22:12, 13)
When, therefore, the Prophet speaks here of the voice of joy and gladness, of the noise of millstones, and of lamps, he doubtless upbraids them with their stupid reproach;" by the Vulg., "astonishment — hissing — perpetual solitudes;" by the Targ., "waste — astonishment — perpetual desolations;" and by the Syr., "astonishment — hissing — waste for ever." The first word, {,{שמהmeans first, waste or desolation, and then what waste occasions, wonder or astonishment. It evidently means the latter here, as desolation is expressed by the last word; it is so rendered by the Vulg. the Syr., and in our version and by Blayney and others. The two words are again found together in the eleventh verse. Here the order, as often is the case, is inverted; the effect is first mentioned, then the cause: the cause of astonishment and hissing would be the desolations. --- Ed
131As this verse is connected with the foregoing, the {{וwould be better rendered for, --- 10. For I will make to cease from among them The voice of exultation and the voice of joy, The voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, The voice of the millstone, and the light of the lamp. The time for grinding was the morning; the earliest thing in the morning was this work, and was done every day. The time for the light of the lamp was the evening; when this disappears, it is an evidence that there are no inhabitants. --- Ed.