Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Scripture continued from laft Volume.
ss
Taremiah.
Scripture. TEREMIAH was called to the prophetic office in the
» ^ 13th year of the reign of Jofiah the fon of Amon,
A. M. 3376, A. C. 628, and continued to prophecy
upwards of 40 years, during the reigns of the degene¬
rate princes of Judah, to whom he boldly threatened
thofe marks of the divine vengeance which their rebelli¬
ous conduft drew on themfelves and their country. Af¬
ter the deftru&ion of Jerufalem by the Chaldeans, he
was fuffered by Nebuchadnezzar to remain in the defo¬
late land of Judea to lament the calamities of his infatu¬
ated countrymen. He was afterwards, as he himfelf in¬
forms us, carried with his difciple Baruch into Egypt,
by Johanan the fon of Kareah.
It appears from feveral paflages that Jeremiah com¬
mitted 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 ut¬
tered ; and when the roll was deftroyed by Jehoiakim
the king, Jeremiah di&ated the fame prophecies to Ba¬
ruch, 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 thefe
words, “ Thus far the Words of Jeremiah.” The 52ft
chapter was therefore added by fome other writer. It
is, however, a very important fupplement, as it illuftrates
the accompliftiment of Jeremiah’s prophecies refpe£ling
the fate of Zedekiah.
The prophecies of Jeremiah are not arranged in the
chronological order in which they were delivered.
onus'wr'T ^^iat ^ias occa^oned this tranfpofition cannot now be
determined. It is generally maintained, that if we con-
fult their dates, they ought to be thus placed :
In the reign of Jofiah the firft t 2 chapters.
In the reign of Jehoiakim, chapters xiii. xx. xxi. v.
li, 14. ; xxft. xxiii. xxv. Xxvi. xxxv. xxxvi. xlv.—-xlix.
1—33-
In the reign of Zedekiah, chap. xxi. T—10. xxiv.
'Xxvii. xxxiv. xxxvii. xxxix. xlix. 34—39. 1. and li.
Under the government of Gedaliah, chapters xl. xliv.
The oropheeies which related to the Gentiles were con-
Vol. XIX. Part I.
Chronolo-
gi*al ar-
tings.
tained in the 46th and five following chapters, being Scripture,
placed at the end, as in fome meafure unconnefted with —~v——
the reft. But in fome copies of the Septuagint thefe fix
chanters follow immediately after the 13th verfe of the
25th chapter.
Jeremiah, though deficient neither in elegance nor
fublimity, muft give place in both to Ifaiah. Jerome
feems to objeft againft him a fort of rufticity of lan¬
guage, no veftige of which Dr Lowth was able to dif-
cover. His fentiments, it is true, are not always the
moft elevated, nor are his periods always neat and com-
pa& y but thefe are faults common to thofe writers whofe
principal aim is to excite the gentler affeftions, and to
call forth the tear of fympathy or forrow. This obfer-
vation is very ftrongly exemplified in the Lamentations!,
where thefe are the prevailing paffions j it is, however,
frequently inftanced in the prophecies of this author,
and moft of all in the beginning of the book (l), which
is chiefly poetical. The middle of it is almoft entirely
hiftorical. The latter part, again, confifting of the laft
fix chapters, is altogether poetical (m) ; it contains fe¬
veral different predictions, which are diftinCtly marked ,
and in thefe the prophet approaches very near the fubli¬
mity 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 f,arnen'
to our reader an account of this elegiac poem from the
elegant pen of Dr Lowth.
TheC amentations of Jeremiah (for the title is pro¬
perly and fignificantly plural) confift of a number of
plaintive effufions, compofed on the plan of the funeral
dirges, all on the fame fubjeft, 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, fllould expeCt to find
in them an artificial and methodical arrangement of the
general fubjeCt, a regular difpofition of the parts, a per-
feCt connection and orderly fucceffion in the matter,
A and
(l.) See the whole of chap. ix. chap. xiv. 17, &c. xx. 14—18.
(m^i Chap. xlvi.—li. to ver. 59. Chap. Hi. properly belongs to the Lamentations, to which it ferves as an
exordium.