ABSTRACT

WHEN King Josiah began his work of reform, Jeremiah, as we have seen, 1 apparently supported it resolutely, making it the burden of his preaching in the towns of Judah. 2 But it did not take him long to realize that the improvement resulting from the king's decrees was on the surface, and only served to nourish illusions. By observing a few of the laws dealing with externals, such as the centralization of worship, men were to be able to pay off all their debts to Jahweh, though morally the last state was the same as the first. Or, to make use ofthe prophet's own imagery, the thorns had not been removed before the seed was sown, and the field had not been thoroughly ploughed. 3 The possession of a written torah constituted a pretext for rejecting the“ word of the Lord ”—that is to say, the message delivered verbally by the prophet—and with it the real “ law of the Lord ”, those things which he had always required of his followers.

“ Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times 4 ; and the turtle and the swallow 5 and the crane observe the time of their coming, but my people know not the ordinance of the Lord. How do ye say : We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us ? But behold, the false pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken : lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord ; and what manner of wisdom is in them ? ” “ 6 And yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.” 7