Ephraim (alii vertunt, iniquitatem {.)}און
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
called the thoughts of trouble or sorrow from the effect; for how could it have been otherwise, but they must have found that they had procured a heavier judgment for themselves, by trifling with the indulgence and forbearance of God? Too strained is the explanation given by some, who render the words, ``thoughts of grief, ``because the Jews had done many wrongs to their neighbors, and caused them unjust vexations. I therefore doubt not but that the Prophet refers to those deceptive hopes, by which the Jews grew more perverse against God, so as not to fear any punishment.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that since thou art pleased daily to invite us to repentance, and since our own conscience is a witness, how we have in various ways provoked thy vengeance, --- O grant, that we may not remain obstinate in our sins, nor harden our minds by perverse delusions, but suffer ourselves to be subdued by thy word, and so offer ourselves to thee with a pure and sincere heart, that our whole life may be nothing else but a striving for that newness which thou requirest; so that, being consecrated to thee in mind and body, we may ever labor to glorify thy name, until we be made partakers of that glory, which has been obtained for us by the blood of thy only --- begotten Son. --- Amen.
Lecture Sixteenth
Jeremiah 4:15
15. For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
15. Quia vox annuntians e Dan, et promulgans cladem (vel, poenam) e monte
Ephraim (alii vertunt, iniquitatem {.)}און
The Prophet again repeats what he had said, --- that the Jews were given up, on account of their perverseness, to final ruin; for they had so often and for so long a time provoked God, and had not attended to pious admonitions, when God by his servants the prophets offered pardon to them on their repentance. But the whole passage, which I shall now explain, gives a lively representation of the ruin that was at hand; for we see that in this verse there is a scene presented to us, as the Prophet sets before our eyes what could not be fully expressed in words.
A voice, he says, declares from Daniel This was the extreme border on the north
He had before said, that an evil was coming from that quarter, that is, from the north; for God had chosen the Chaldeans as the executors of his vengeance: hence he says, ``a voice is heard from Dan;'' not that there was an army already prepared to attack the Jews, but Jeremiah speaks here by the prophetic spirit; and he sets the event as present before the Jews, who thought not that so grievous an evil was nigh.
For we said yesterday, that when God for a time spares hypocrites, they become more hardened, and with haughty contempt deride his prophets. When, therefore, Jeremiah saw that he had to do with blocks, he deemed it necessary to use figurative language, which exhibited to them more clearly that the judgment, which the Jews imagined they had no reason to fear, was near at hand: hence he says, a voice is heard from Dan
And proclaims {,}אוןaun, that is, trouble, or punishment, or ruin. The other rendering, to which I have referred, is not suitable. The word {,}אוןaun, does indeed y hetya o'th fewn Dy feddyliau drygionus! If the verb had followed its nominative case, it would have been in the same number; but as it precedes it, it is singular while the noun is plural. --- Ed.