ith it their old obdurate
vices.

Whether, then, this address was delivered in Josiah's reign or early in
Jehoiakim's it affords no reason for our denying it to Jeremiah. As God's
tester of the people he has been watching their response to the Revelation
they had accepted, and has proved that their obedience was to the letter
of this and not to its spirit, that while they superstitiously revered its
institutions they shamelessly ignored its ethics. For just such vices as
they still practised God Himself must take vengeance. As those had
deranged the very seasons and were leading to the overthrow of the
state,(289) no one could hope that the Temple would escape their
consequences. And there was that precedent of the destruction of Israel's
first sanctuary in Shiloh, the ruins of which, as we have seen, lay not
far from Jeremiah's home at Anathoth.(290)

Another Oracle, XI. 15, 16, also undated, seems, like the last passage,
best explained as delivered by Jeremiah while he watched during the close
of Josiah's reign the hardening of the people's trust in their religious
institutions and felt its futility; or alternatively when that futility
was exposed by the defeat at Megiddo. It has, however, been woven by some
hand or other into a passage reflecting the revival of the Baal-worship
under Jehoiakim (verse 17; its connection with the prose sentence
preceding is also doubtful). Copyists have wrought havoc with the Hebrew
text, but as the marginal note of our Revisers indicates, the sense may be
restored from the Greek. _My Beloved_ is, of course, Israel.

What has My Beloved to do in My house, XI. 15
Working out mischief?
Vows, holy flesh! Can such things turn
Calamity from thee;
Or by these thou escape?(291)
Flourishing olive, fair with fruit, 16
God called thy name.
To the noise of a mighty roaring
He sets her on fire--
Blasted her branches!

The first of these verses repeats the charge of VII. 2-11: the people use
the Temple for their sins. The word rendered _mischief_ is literally
_devices_, and the meaning may be intrigues hatched from their false ideas
of the Temple's security. But the word is mostly used of _evil devices_
and here the Greek has _abomination_. As with their Temple so with their
vows and sacrifices. All are useless because of their wickedness. The
nation must be punished. The second verse may well have been uttered after
the defeat at Megiddo, or ma