very men that prepare them cannot last long; how then are the things prepared by them likely to do so? for they left lies and a reproach to them that come after. For whenever war and evils come upon them, the priests consult together where to hide with them. How then is it possible not to perceive that they are not gods, who neither save themselves from war nor from evils? For being of wood and overlaid with gold and silver they will be known hereafter, that they are lies. To all the nations and to the kings it will be manifest that they are not gods but works of men's hands, and no work of God is in them" (45-51; cf. Jer. x. 14-15). "_A wooden pillar in a palace_ is more useful than the false gods" (59). "_Signs_ among nations they will not shew _in heaven_, nor yet will they shine like the sun, nor give light as the moon" (67). "_For as a scarecrow in a cucumber-bed guarding nothing, so their gods are wooden and overlaid with gold and with silver_" (70; cf. Jer. x. 5). The mention of the sun, moon and stars, the lightning, the wind, the clouds, and fire "sent forth from above," as totally unlike the idols in "forms and powers," seems to shew that the author had verses 12, 13 before him. When we turn to the Septuagint, we are immediately struck by its remarkable omissions. The four verses 6-8 and 10 do not appear at all in this oldest of the versions; while the ninth is inserted between the first clause and the remainder of the fifth verse. Now, on the one hand, it is just the verses which the LXX. translates, which both in style and matter contrast so strongly with Jeremiah's authentic work, and are plainly incongruous with the context and occasion; while, on the other hand, the omitted verses contain nothing which points positively to another author than Jeremiah, and, taken by themselves, harmonise very well with what may be supposed to have been the prophet's feeling at the actual juncture of affairs. "There is none at all like Thee, O Iahvah! Great art Thou, and great is Thy Name in might! Who should not fear Thee, O King of the nations? for 'tis Thy due For among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdom there is none at all like Thee. And in one thing they are brute-like and dull; In the doctrine of Vanities, which are wood! But Iahvah Elohim is truth; He is a living God, and an eternal King: At His wrath the earth quaketh, And nations abide not His indignation." As Hitzig has observed, it is natural that now, as the terrible decision approaches, the prophet should seek and find comfort in the thought of the all-overshadowing greatness of the God of Israel. If, however, we suppose these verses to be Jeremiah's, we can hardly extend the same assumption to verses 12-16, in spite of one or two expressions of his which occur in them; and, upon the whole, the linguistic argument seems to weigh decisively against Jeremiah's authorship of this piece (see Naegelsbach).