of the epithets _Inhabitress of the
Vale_ and _Rock of the Plain_, that are quite inappropriate to Jerusalem.
This is another proof of how the editors of the Book have swept into it a
number of separate Oracles, whether relevant to each other or not, and
whether Jeremiah's own or from some one else.

From Chs. XXII-XXIII. 8, a series of Oracles on the kings of Judah, we
have had before us the elegy on Jehoahaz, XXII. 10 (with a prose note on
11, 12) and the denunciation of Jehoiakim, 13-19.(450) There remain the
warning (in prose) to do judgment and justice with the threat on the
king's house, XXII. 1-5, and the following Oracles:--

XXII. 6. For thus saith the Lord concerning the house of the king
of Judah(451)--

A Gilead art thou to Me,
Or head of Lebanon,
Yet shall I make thee a desert
Of tenantless cities.
I will hallow against thee destroyers, 7
Each with his weapons,
They shall cut down the choice of thy cedars
And fell them for fuel.

8. [And(452) nations shall pass by this city and shall say each to
his mate, For what hath the Lord done thus to this great city? 9.
And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Covenant of the
Lord their God, and bowed themselves to other gods and served
them.]

Whether this piece of prose be from Jeremiah himself or from another is
uncertain and of no importance. It is a true statement of his own
interpretation of the cause of his people's doom. The next Oracle
addressed to the nation is upon King Jeconiah, or Koniyahu. I follow
mainly the Greek.

Up to Lebanon and cry, XXII. 20
Give forth thy voice in Bashan,
And cry from Abarim(453) that broken
Be all thy lovers.
I spake to thee in thy prosperity, 21
Thou saidst, I hear not!
This was thy way from thy youth,
Not to hark to My Voice.
All thy shepherds the wind shall shepherd, 22
Thy lovers go captive.
Then shamed shalt thou be and confounded
For all thine ill-doing.
Thou in Lebanon that dwellest, 23
Nested on cedars,
How shalt thou groan(454) when come on thee pangs,
Anguish as hers that beareth.
As I live--'t is the Rede of the Lord-- 24
Though Konyahu were
Upon My right hand the signet,
Thence would I tear him.(455)

25. And I shall give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life
and into the hand of them thou dreade