righteousness
in the land, and thus [Pg 400] acquire for it righteousness and
salvation from the Lord. So great shall the mercy of the Future be,
that thereby the greatest mercy in the people's past history--their
deliverance out of Egypt--shall be altogether cast into the shade.

There cannot be any doubt that the whole prophecy belongs to the reign
of Jehoiakim; for the end of Jehoiakim and the fate of Jehoiachin are
announced as future events.

_Eichhorn_ asserts that this section was composed under Zedekiah; but
he could do so only by proceeding from his erroneous fundamental view,
that the prophecies are veiled descriptions of historical events. "When
Jeremiah"--so he says--"delivered this discourse, Jehoiakim had not
only already met his ignominious end (xxii. 19), but Jeconiah also was,
with his mother, already carried away captive to Babylon." It is matter
of astonishment that _Dahler_, without holding the same fundamental
view, could yet adopt its result. He specially refers to the
circumstance that, in ver. 24, Jehoiachin is addressed as king,--a
circumstance by which _Berthold_ also supports his view, who, cutting
the knot, advances the position that vers. 1-19 belong to the reign of
Jehoiakim, but vers. 20--xxxii. 8 to the time when Jehoiachin was
carried away to Babylon. (_Maurer_ and _Hitzig_ too suppose that vers.
20 ff. were added at a later period, under the reign of Jehoiachin).
But what difficulty is there in supposing that the Prophet transfers
himself into the time, when he who is now a hereditary prince will be
king,--of which the address is then a simple consequence? It is
undeniable that a connection with chap. xxi. takes place, in which
chapter Jeremiah announces to Zedekiah, threatened by the Chaldeans,
the fall of the Davidic house, and the capture and destruction of the
city. And this connection is to be accounted for by the fact that
Jeremiah here connects with this announcement a former prophecy, in
which, under the reign of Jehoiakim, he had foretold the fall of the
Davidic house. The fate of the house of David is the subject common to
both the discourses. _Kueper_ (_Jeremias_, _libror. Sacror. interpres_,
p. 58), supposes that, in the message to Zedekiah, Jeremiah had, at
that time, repeated his former announcement; but this supposition is
opposed by the circumstance that, in chaps. xxii., xxiii., there is no
trace of a reference to Zedekiah and his embassy. _Ewald_ asserts that
Jeremi