The third member is a quotation from Deut. xxxii. 22. In the fourth, read על־עולם "for ever" (xvii. 4) instead of עליכם "upon you." [65] The tone of all this indicates that the prophet was no novice in his office. It does not suit the time of Josiah; but agrees very well with the time of confusion and popular dismay which followed his death. That event must have brought great discredit upon Jeremiah and upon all who had been instrumental in the religious changes of his reign. [66] Practices forbidden, Lev. xxi. 5; Deut. xiv. 1. Jeremiah mentions them as ordinary signs of mourning, and doubtless they were general in his time. An ancient usage, having its root in natural feeling, is not easily extirpated. [67] Naegelsbach. [68] The figure recalls the Persian custom of sweeping off the whole population of an island, by forming a line and marching over it, a process of extermination called by the Greek writers σαγηνεύειν, "fishing with a seine or drag-net" (Herod. iii. 149, iv. 9, vi. 31). [69] For the construction, cf. Gen. i. 22; Jer. li. 11. Or "With their abominations they filled, etc.," a double accusative. [70] _i.e._, Loose thine hold of ... let go ... release. Read ידך for ובך. The uses of שִמט "to throw down," "let fall," resemble those of the Greek ἵημι and its compounds. I corrected the passage thus, to find afterwards that I had been anticipated by J. D. Michaelis, Graf, and others. [71] There is something strange about the phrase "by (upon, _`al_) the evergreen tree." Twenty-five Heb. MSS., the Targ., and the Syriac, read "every" (_kol_) for "upon" (_`al_). We still feel the want of a preposition, and may confidently restore "under" (_taḫath_), from the nine other passages in which "evergreen tree" (`_ec̰ ra`anan_) occurs in connexion with idolatrous worship. In all these instances the expression is "under every evergreen tree" (_taḫath kol `ec̰ ra`anan_); from the Book of the Law (Deut. xii. 2), whence Jeremiah probably drew the phrase, to 2 Chron. xxviii. 4. Jeremiah has already used the phrase thrice (ii. 20, iii. 6, 13), in exactly the same form. The other passages are Ezek. vi. 13; Isa. lvii. 5; 2 Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10. The corruption of _kol_ into _`al_ is found elsewhere. Probably _taḫath_ had dropt out of the text, before the change took place here. [72] A popular opinion of the time. [73] Isa. xxii. 23. [74] The Heb. term is probably written with omission of the final _mem_, a common abbreviation; and the right reading may be וסורים "and apostates." [75] מלא for מרעה. [76] מִרְעֵה for מֵרֹעִה. [77] I have left this paragraph as I wrote it, although I feel great doubts upon the subject. What I have remarked elsewhere on similar passages, should be considered along with the present suggestions. We have especially to remember, (i) the peculiar status of the speaker as a true prophet; and (ii) the terrible invectives of Christ Himself on certain occasions (St. Matt. xxiii. 33-35; St. Luke x. 15; St. John viii. 44).