4 You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don't know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Here, as it is a concise mode of speaking, there seems to be some obscurity; but as to the subject handled, the meaning of the Prophet is evident, that they would be dismissed from their inheritance, and as it were from their own bowels. Hence he says, You shall be dismissed from your inheritance; that is, though ye think yourselves to be beyond the reach of danger, because as yet the city remains safe, and ye continue in it; yet ye shall perish, as they say, living and seeing. There shall then be a dismissal from the inheritance even as to thee; that is, "Though the Lord should delay the time and suffer you to remain, yet ye shall be like the dead, for God will destroy you, though he may leave you a pining life." It seems an emphatical expression when the Prophet says that there would be at length a dismissal even as to herself: he intimates, that though some of the people would remain alive, they would yet be given up to exile and dispersion. And it was a condition worse than death for the Jews to have their lives continued and to be scattered among their enemies. And he says, From the inheritance which I gave to thee; and he says this that they might not expostulate with him, that their own was taken away from them. "How has the land," he says, "become your inheritance? even because ye have obtained it through my bounty. And now, since ye are so ungrateful, why should I be blamed for taking away what I had given you? or what wrong is done to you? and what can ye object to me? for it has always been my heritage, though for a time I granted it to you. Had ye been thankful to me it would have been yours perpetually; but now when I deprive you of it, this you must ascribe to your own fault." For the same purpose he adds, I will make thee to serve thine enemies: and this was much more grievous than to serve their neighbors by whom they were not hated. But he shews here how dreadful would be their calamity, they being constrained to serve their enemies. He adds, In a land which thou knowest not. This is a repetition of what has been said before, and it requires no remark. He in the last place confirms what he had said of their wickedness; Burn, he says, shall fire in my nostril: but 'ph, aph, may be taken for God's countenance, though it often means anger. As however he says, "Ye have kindled a fire," it seems better to render it here, In my face. Further, by the word I never, he intimates that God would be implacable to the Jews, for they had so deserved. [1]
1 - The whole of this passage, from the first to the end of the fourth verse, is wanting in the Septuagint and Arabic, but is found in the other versions and the Targum. The many emendations of Houbigant and Horsley are quite unwarrantable; the first makes his mostly from the Syriac; and the second from various readings, and those of no value, except in one or two instances, as "their" instead of "your altars" in the first verse, countenanced by very many MSS.; the other nine emendations have, for the most part, nothing of any weight in their favor. The transpositions of Houbigant are quite irreconcilable with any thing like errors incidentally committed by scribes. The same objection does not lie against the emendations of Horsley; but that ten mistakes should occur in the space of four verses is not credible; nor are most of the emendations at all necessary. The received text is no doubt materially correct, there being no different readings of any weight or suitable, except the one noticed above. The Vulgate, the Syriac, and Targum, differ from one another as much as they do from the Hebrew. They indeed all agree materially as to the beginning of the third verse, in regarding "the mountain" and "the field" as places where the people worshipped idols; and the Vulgate and the Syriac connect the words with the former verse; and this, I believe, is what ought to be done. Then the passage will read as follows: -- 1. The sin of Judah is written by a pen of iron, By the point of adamant it is graven, On the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of their altars: 2. As a memorial to their children Are their altars and their idols, Near the green tree, on the high hills, On the mountains, in the field. -- 3. Thy substance, all thy treasures For a plunder will I give, Thy high places also for sin in all thy borders; 4. And thou shalt be removed, even for thyself, From thine inheritance which I gave thee; And I will make thee to serve thine enemies In a land which thou knowest not; For a fire have ye kindled in mine anger, Perpetually shall it burn. According to the frequent manner of the prophets, the last line in the first verse is connected with the first line, and the third with the second. The sin of Judah was "written" on "the horns of the altars;" it was "graven" on "the tablet of their heart." The services at the altars were visible; the impressions within were seen only by God. They left their altars and their idols to their children. The genitive case in Hebrew may often be rendered by a dative, as here, "A memorial to their children." All emendations as to the beginning of the third verse are unsatisfactory: it will bear the rendering above; "for thyself," that is, for thine own fault. -- Ed.
The verb rendered "discontinue" is that used of letting the land rest Exodus 23:11, and of releasing creditors Deuteronomy 15:2 in the sabbatical year. As Judah had not kept these sabbatical years she must now discontinue the tillage of God's inheritance until the land had had its rest. "Even thyself may mean and that through thyself," through thine own fault.
And thou, even (f) thyself, shall discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thy enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in my anger, [which] shall burn for ever.
(f) Because you would not give the land rest, at such times, days and years as I appointed, you will after this be carried away and it will rest for lack of labourers.
And thou, even thyself,.... Or, "thou, and in thee" (l); that is, thou and those that are in thee, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea; or, "thou even through thyself" (m); through thine own fault, by reason of thy sins and iniquities:
shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; be removed from it, and no longer enjoy it: or, "shalt intermit from thine heritage" (n); shall not till the land, plough and sow, and reap, and gather the fruits of it: this was enjoined on every seventh year, when the land was to have its rest, or sabbath, Exodus 23:10, but this law they did not observe; and now, therefore, whether they would or not, the land should be intermitted, and not tilled and enjoyed by them. The Targum takes in the whole of the sense,
"and I will bring an enemy upon your land; and it shall be desolate as in the year of intermission: and I will take vengeance of judgment upon you, until I remove you from your inheritance which I have given unto you;''
the land of Canaan, which was given them for an inheritance:
I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not; the Babylonians in Chaldea; or, as Jerom thinks; the Romans. Of the different reading of these words; see Gill on Jeremiah 15:13,
for ye have I kindled a fire in mine anger; or by their sins had caused the anger of the Lord to burn like fire:
which shall burn for ever; as it will in hell, and therefore called everlasting fire: here it only means until these people and their country were consumed by the enemy; perhaps some reference is had to the burning of the city and temple by the Babylonians, or Romans, or both. These first four verses are left out by the Septuagint interpreters, Jerom thinks, to spare their own people.
(l) "qui sunt apud te", Junius & Tremellius. (m) "Per te", Piscator. (n) "ita intermissionen facies", Junius & Tremellius; so Schmidt.
even thyself--rather, "owing to thyself," that is, by thy own fault (Jeremiah 15:13).
discontinue from--be dispossessed of. Not only thy substance, but thyself shall be carried off to a strange land (Jeremiah 15:14).
And thou shalt discontinue from thine inheritance. There is in שׁמטתּה an allusion to the law in Exodus 23:11, to let the ground lie untilled in the seventh year, and in Deuteronomy 15:2, to let loans go, not to exact from one's neighbour what has been lent to him. Because Judah has transgressed this law, the Lord will compel the people to let go their hold of their inheritance, i.e., He will cast them out of it. וּבך seems strange, interposed between the verb and the "from thine inheritance" dependent on it. The later Greek translators (for the entire passage Jeremiah 17:1-4 is wanting in the lxx) render it μόνη, and Jerome sola. Ew. therefore conjectures לבדד, but without due reason, since the translation is only a free rendering of: and that by thyself. J. D. Mich., Gr., and Ng. propose to read ידך, on the ground of the connection wrongly made between שׁמט and ידו, to let go his hand, Deuteronomy 15:2, given in Ges. Lex. s.v. For ידו in this case is not object to שׁמט, but belongs to משׁה, hand-lending; and in Deuteronomy 15:3 ידך is subject to תּשׁמט, the hand shall quit hold. וּבך sig. and that by thee, i.e., by thine own fault; cf. Ezekiel 22:16. Meaning: by thine own fault thou must needs leave behind thee thine inheritance, thy land, and serve thine enemies in a foreign land. On the last clause, "for a fire," etc., cf. Jeremiah 15:14, where is also discussed the relation of the present Jeremiah 17:3 and Jeremiah 17:4 to Jeremiah 15:13-14. For ever burns the fire, i.e., until the sin is blotted out by the punishment, and for ever inasmuch as the wicked are to be punished for ever.
For ever - For a long time; so the word ever is often taken.
*More commentary available at chapter level.