Jeremiah : Being The Baird Lecture for 1922. George Adam Smith
made thee? 28
Let them rise, if so they may save thee
In time of thy trouble;
For as thy townships in number,163
So be, O Judah, thy gods!
What quarrel have you against Me? 29
All you are the sinners;164
Against Me you all have rebelled—
Rede of the Lord.
In vain have I smitten your sons 30
Ye165 took not correction
Your166 sword has devoured your prophets,
Like a ravaging lion.
[pg 097]
O generation—you!—look at the Word of the Lord!167 31
Have I been a desert to Israel,
Or land of thick darkness?
Why say My folk “We are off,
No more to meet Thee!”
Can a maiden forget her adorning, 32
Or her girdle a bride?
Yet Me have My people forgotten,
Days without number!
Why trimmest thou still thy ways 33
To seek after love?
Therefore thou also to evil
Thy ways hast trained:168
Yea, on thy skirts is found blood 34
Of innocent souls,
Not only on felons(?) I find it
But over all these.169
Yet thou said'st, “I am assoiled, 35
Sure His wrath turns from me!”
Behold I am going to judge thee
For saying, “I'm sinless!”
[pg 098]
How very light dost thou take it, 36
To change thy ways!
E'en of Miṣraim shalt thou be ashamed170
As ashamed of Ashshúr.
Out of this too shalt thou come 37
With thy hands on thy head,
For spurned hath the Lord the things of thy trust,
Not by them shalt thou prosper!
III. 1. [Saying]:—If a man dismiss his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall she return to him?171 Is that woman172 not too polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers and—wouldest return unto Me? Rede of the Lord.
Lift to the clearings thine eyes, 2
Where not wast thou tumbled?
For them by the roads thou hast sate,
Like an Arab in desert,
Thou hast fouled the land with thy whoredoms
And with thy vices;
With thy lovers so many 3
It has meant but thy snare.173
The brow of a harlot was thine,
Shame thou hadst done with.
[pg 099]
But now—thou callest me “Father, 4
Friend of my youth!”
“Bears He a grudge for ever, 5
Stands on His guard for aye?”174
Lo, so thou hast spoken, yet done
Ills to thine utmost.
6. And the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah, the king,175 Hast thou seen what recreant Israel did to Me176 going up every high hill and under each rustling tree, and there playing the harlot. 7. And I said, After she has done all these things can she return to Me?—and she did not return. 8. And her treacherous sister Judah saw, yes she saw,177 that, all because recreant Israel committed adultery, I had dismissed her and given her the bill of her divorce; yet her sister treacherous Judah [pg 100] was not afraid, but also went and played the harlot. 9. And it came to pass that, through the wantonness of her harlotry, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stones and with stocks. 10. And yet, for all this, treacherous Judah178 has not returned to Me with all her heart, but only in feigning.179 11. And the Lord said to me, Recreant Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 12. Go and call out these words toward the North and say,
Turn thee to Me,180 recreant Israel,
I frown181 not upon thee;
For gracious am I (Rede of the Lord),
Nor for ever bear grudge.
Only acknowledge thy guilt, 13
That defying the Lord thy God,
Thou hast scattered to strangers thy ways
Under each rustling tree,
And hast182 not obeyed My voice—
Rede of the Lord.
14. [Return ye backsliding children, Rede of the Lord, for I am your Baal,183 and I will take you, one from a city and two from a clan, and [pg 101] will bring you to Ṣion. 15. And I will give you Shepherds after My heart, and they shall shepherd you with knowledge and with skill. 16. And it shall be, when ye multiply and increase in the land in those days (Rede of the Lord), they shall not again say, “The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord!” It shall not come to mind, it shall be neither remembered nor missed,184 nor shall it be made again. 17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord and all nations shall gather to her,185 nor walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18. In those days the House of Judah shall walk with the House of Israel, that together they may come from the land of the North to the land which I gave their186 fathers for a heritage.]
But I187 had declared the How(?) 19
I should set thee188 among the sons,
And should give thee a land of delight,
Fairest domain of the nations.
[pg 102]
And said, Thou would'st call Me Father,
Nor from after Me turn.
As a woman plays false to her fere,189 20
So to Me ye played false!
[O House of Israel, Rede of the Lord.]
Hark! 21
From the clearings weeping is heard,
Wailing of Israel's sons,
That they have perverted their way,
Forgotten the Lord their God.
Return ye oft-turning children, 22
Let me heal your back-turnings!
“Here are we! to Thee we are come,
Thou Lord art our God.
“Surely the heights are a fraud 23
The hills and their hubbub!190
“Alone in the Lord our God
Is Israel's safety.
“The Baal hath devoured our toil 24
And our sires' from their youth,
“Their flocks and their herds,
Their