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ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.

SCRIPTURE Continued from laft Volume.

Scripture.

55

J

EREMIAH was called to the prophetic office in the 13th year of the reign of Jofiah the fon of Amon, Jeremiah. A. M. 3376, A. C. 628, and continued to prophecy upwards of 40 years, during the reigns of the degenerate princes of Judah, to whom he boldly threatened those marks of the divine vengeance which their rebellious conduct drew on themselves and their country. After the destruction of Jerufalem by the Chaldeans, he was fuffered by Nebuchadnezzar to remain in the defolate land of Judea to lament the calamities of his infatuated countrymen. He was afterwards, as he himself informs us, carried with his difciple Baruch into Egypt, by Johanan the son of Kareah.

56

It appears from feveral paffages that Jeremiah committed his prophecies to writing. In the 36th chapter. we are informed, that the prophet was commanded to write upon a roll all the prophecies which he had uttered; and when the roll was deftroyed by Jehoiakim the king, Jeremiah dictated the fame prophecies to Baruch, who wrote them together with many additional circumftances. The works of Jeremiah extend to the laft verfe of the 51ft chapter; in which we have these words, "Thus far the words of Jeremiah." The 52d chapter was therefore added by fome other writer. It is, however, a very important fupplement, as it illuftrates the accomplishment of Jeremiah's prophecies refpecting the fate of Zedekiah.

Chronolo- The prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the gical ar chronological order in which they were delivered. argement What has occafioned this tranfpofition cannot now be determined. It is generally maintained, that if we confult their dates, they ought to be thus placed :

of his wri. ags.

In the reign of Jofiah the first 12 chapters,

In the reign of Jehoiakim, chapters xiii. xx. xxi. v. 11, 14. xxii. xxiii. xxv. xxvi. xxxv. xxxvi. xlv.-xlix. I-33.

In the reign of Zedekiah, chap. xxi. 1-10. xxiv. xxvii. xxxiv. xxxvii. xxxix. xlix. 34-39. 1. and li.

Under the government of Gedaliah, chapters xl. xliv. The prophecies which related to the Gentiles were conVOL. XIX. Part I.

tained in the 46th and five following chapters, being Scripture. placed at the end, as in fome measure unconnected with the reft. the reft. But in fome copies of the Septuagint thefe fix chapters follow immediately after the 13th verfe of the 25th chapter.

Jeremiah, though deficient neither in elegance nor fublimity, must give place in both to Ifaiah. Jerome feems to object against him a fort of rufticity of language, no veftige of which Dr Lowth was able to dif cover. His fentiments, it is true, are not always the most elevated, nor are his periods always neat and compact; but thefe are faults common to those writers whofe principal aim is to excite the gentler affections, and to call forth the tear of fympathy or forrow. This obfervation is very strongly exemplified in the Lamentations, where thefe are the prevailing paffions; it is, however, frequently inflanced in the prophecies of this author, and most of all in the beginning of the book (L), which is chiefly poetical. The middle of it is almost entirely hiftorical. The latter part, again, confifting of the last fix chapters, is altogether poetical (M); it contains feveral different predictions, which are diftinctly marked; and in thefe the prophet approaches very near the fublimity of Ifaiah. On the whole, however, not above half the book of Jeremiah is poetical.

57 The book of Lamentations, as we are informed in The book the title, was compofed by Jeremiah. We fhall prefent of Lamen. tations. to our reader an account of this elegiac poem from the elegant pen of Dr Lowth.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah (for the title is properly and fignificantly plural) consist of a number of plaintive effufions, compofed on the plan of the funeral dirges, all on the fame fubject, and uttered without connection as they rofe in the mind, in a long courfe of feparate ftanzas. Thefe have afterwards been put together, and formed into a collection or correfpondent whole. If any reader, however, fhould expect to find in them an artificial and methodical arrangement of the general fubject, a regular difpofition of the parts, a perfect connection and orderly fucceffion in the matter, A

and

(1) See the whole of chap. ix. chap. xiv. 17, &c. xx. 14-18.

(M) Chap. xlvi.-li. to ver. 59. Chap. lii. properly belongs to the Lamentations, to which it ferves as a511 exordium.

If there be any forrow, like unto my forrow, which is Scripture.
inflicted on me;
Which Jehovah inflicted on me in the day of the vio-
lence of his wrath.

For thefe things I weep, my eyes ftream with water;
Because the comforter is far away, that should tranqui-

Scripture. and with all this an uninterrupted feries of elegance and correctness, he will really expect what was foreign to the prophet's defign. In the character of a mourner, he celebrates in plaintive ftrains the obfequies of his ruined country: whatever prefented itself to his mind in the midst of defolation and mifery, whatever ftruck him as particularly wretched and calamitous, whatever. the inftant fentiment of forrow dictated, he pours forth in a kind of fpontaneous effufion. He frequently paufes, and, as it were, ruminates upon the fame object; frequently varies and illuftrates the fame thought with different imagery, and a different choice of language; fo that the whole bears rather the appearance of an accumulation of correfponding fentiments, than an accurate and connected feries of different ideas, arranged in the form of a regular treatife. There is, however, no wild incoherency in the poem; the tranfitions are eafy and elegant.

58

How divided.

Lowth.

59

The fib. ject and beauty of

jt.

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The work is divided into five parts: in the first, fecond, and fourth chapters, the prophet addreffes the people in his own perfon, or introduces Jerufalem as fpeaking. In the third chapter a chorus of the Jews is reprefented. In the fifth the whole captive Jews pour forth their united complaints to Almighty God. Each of these five parts is diftributed into 22 ftanzas, according to the number of the letters of the alphabet. In the first three chapters thefe ftanzas confist of three lines. In the first four chapters the initial letter of each period follows the order of the alphabet; and in the third chapter cach verfe of the fame ftanza begins with the fame letter. In the fourth chapter all the ftanzas are evidently diftichs, as alfo in the fifth, which is not acroftic. The intention of the acrostic was to affift the memory to retain fentences not much connected. It deferves to be remarked, that the verfes of the first four chapters are longer by almoft one half than Hebrew verfes generally are: The length of them feems to be on an average about 12 fyllables. The prophet appears to have chofen this measure as being folemn and melancholy.

"That the fubject of the Lamentations is the deftruction of the holy city and temple, the overthrow of the flate, the extermination of the people; and that these events are defcribed as actually accomplished, and not in the ftyle of prediction merely, muit be evident to every reader; though fome authors of confiderable reJofephus, putation * have imagined this poem to have been comFerome, pofed on the death of King Jofiah. The prophet, inUferius, deed, has fo copioufly, fo tenderly, and poetically, bewailed the misfortunes of his country, that he feems completely to have fulfilled the office and duty of a mourner. In my opinion, there is not extant any poem which difplays fuch a happy and fplendid felection of imagery in fo concentrated a ftate. What can be more elegant and poetical, than the defcription of that once flourishing city, lately chief among the nations, fitting in the character of a female, folitary, afflicted, in a flate of widowhood, deferted by her friends, betrayed by her dearest connections, imploring relief, and feeking confolation in vain? What a beautiful perfonification is that of "the ways of Sion mourning because none are come to her folemn feafts?" How tender and pathetic are the following complaints?

Chap. i. 12, 16.

lize my foul:

My children are defolate, because the enemy was strong.
But to detail its beauties would be to transcribe the
entire poem."

Ezekiel was carried to Babylon as a captive, and re-
ceived the firít revelations from heaven, in the fifth year
of Jehoiakim's captivity, A. C. 595. The book of
Ezekiel is fometimes diftributed under different heads.
In the three first chapters the commiffion of the prophet
is defcribed. From the fourth to the thirty-fecond
chapter inclufive, the calamities that befel the enemies of
the Jews are predicted, viz. the Ammonites, the Moab-
ites, and Philistines.
ites, and Philiftines. The ruin of Tyre and of Sidon,
and the fall of Egypt, are particularly foretold; prophe-

In

cies which have been fulfilled in the most literal and af-
tonishing manner, as we have been often affured by
the relation of hiftorians and travellers. From the 32d
chapter to the 40th he inveighs againft the hypocrify
and murmuring fpirit of his countrymen, admonishing
them to refignation by promifes of deliverance.
the 38th and 39th chapters he undoubtedly predicts the
final return of the Jews from their difperfion in the lat-
ter days, but in a language so obscure that it cannot be
understood till the event take place. The nine laft
chapters of this book furnish the defcription of a very
remarkable vifion of a new temple and city, of a new
religion and polity.

ter.

60 Ezekiel

61

"Ezekiel is much inferior to Jeremiah in elegance; Character in fublimity he is not even excelled by Ifaiah: but his as a wrifublimity is of a totally different kind. He is deep,' vehement, tragical; the only fenfation he affects to excite is the terrible; his fentiments are elevated, fervid, full of fire, indignant; his imagery is crouded, magnificent, terrific, fometimes almoft to difguft: his language is pompous, folemn, auftere, rough, and at times unpolifhed: he employs frequent repetitions, not for the fake of grace or elegance, but from the vehemence of paffion and indignation. Whatever fubject he treats Lowth. of, that he fedulously purfues, from that he rarely departs, but cleaves as it were to it; whence the connection is in general evident and well preferved. In many refpects he is perhaps excelled by the other prophets; but in that fpecies of compofition to which he seems by nature adapted, the forcible, the impetuous, the great and folemn, not one of the facred writers is fuperior to him. His diction is fufficiently perfpicuous; all his obfcurity confifts in the nature of the fubject. Vifions (as for inftance, among others, thofe of Hofea, Amos, and Jeremiah) are neceffarily dark and confufed. The greater part of Ezekiel, towards the middle of the book efpecially, is poetical, whether we regard the mat ter or the diction. His periods, however, are frequently fo rude and incompact, that I am often at a lofs how to pronounce concerning his performance in this respect.

"Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, as far as relates to ftyle, may be faid to hold the fame rank among the HeIs this nothing to all you who pafs along the way? be- brews, as Homer, Simonides, and Æfchylus among the hold and fee,

Greeks."

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