the connection with what precedes. We may explain it either
by: "which my covenant they brake," as is done by _Ewald_; or, "since
(Deut. iii. 24) they brake my covenant," in which latter case, [Hebrew:
awr] refers at the same time to "I marry them unto me." We have here
farther carried out and detailed that which previously was said of the
making of a new covenant; and the sense is: Although they have broken
my former covenant, yet I marry them unto me, or make a new covenant
with them. Of greater importance is the difference in the
interpretation of [Hebrew: belti]. By far the greater number of
interpreters understand this _sensu malo_; the ancient interpreters in
doing so refer to the words [Greek: kago emelesa auton], (Heb. viii.
9); but these can scarcely prove anything. For the author of that
epistle, whose sole object it is to show that the new covenant stands
higher than the old--the insufficiency of the latter was, as the
Prophet's expressions show, sufficiently felt even by those who lived
under it--has, in these words, which do not stand in any relation to
the object which he has in view, followed the LXX. But it is a rather
doubtful and suspicious circumstance that, in determining the sense,
these interpreters greatly vary. Some, referring to the Arabic, explain
[Hebrew: bel] by "_fastidire_;" others, as they allege, from the Hebrew
_usus loquendi_, by "to tyrannize." Thus, _e.g._ _Buddeus_ (_de
praerogat. fidelium N. T._ in the Miscell. p. 106): "We may readily
understand thereby every severe chastisement by the neighbouring
nations, such as frequently happened: they did not remain in my
covenant, therefore I made them to bear the yoke of others, [Greek:
emelesa auton], _neglexi eos_." But we have already seen (comp. remarks
on chap. iii. 14), that for neither of these significations is there
any foundation; and this has been felt by those also who, in order to
bring out a bad signification, such as, according to their view, the
text requires, undertook to change the reading, as _e.g._ _Cappellus_,
who would read [Hebrew: gelti], and _Grotius_, who would read [Hebrew:
bhlti].[3] The signification "to betroth onesself," "to [Pg 435] take
in marriage," which in that passage we vindicated for [Hebrew: bel]
with [Hebrew: b], is, here too, quite applicable; comp. Jer. ii. 1.
This signification the Chaldee Paraphrast too seems to have had in
view; for he translates [Hebrew: atreiti] "_cupio vos_," "_delector
vobis