(22) Speak, Thus saith the Lord.--The abrupt opening indicates a new prediction, coming to him unbidden, which he is constrained to utter as a message from Jehovah.

As the handful.--The reaper gathered into swathes, or small sheaves, what he could hold in his left hand, as he went on cutting with his sickle. These he threw down as they became too big to hold, and they were left strewn on the field till he returned to gather them up into larger sheaves. So should the bodies of the dead be strewn, the prophet says, on the open field, but there should be none to take them up and bury them.

Verse 22. - Speak, Thus saith the Lord. These words are in three important respects contrary to the style of Jeremiah:

(1) such a prefix as "speak" is unique;

(2). such a phrase as כה נאם is also unique m Jeremiah;

(3) when our prophet does use the formula נאם it is not at the beginning of a verse.

They are omitted by the Septuagint translator, who presumably did not find them in his copy of the Hebrew, and the text gains greatly by their removal. The following words are mistranslated in the Authorized Version, and should run, not even, but and, the carcasses of men shall fall; etc. It is most improbable, however, that a fresh Divine revelation should begin with "and." With other points, the word rendered "speak" would mean "pestilence." Possibly the word fell out of Ver. 21, where it would find an excellent place in the second clause (as an explanatory parallel to "death," as in Psalm 78:50), which would thus obtain greater roundness and symmetry. As the handful; i.e. as thickly as one heap of corn succeeds another under the deft hand of the leaper.

9:12-22 In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and guarded. Nor are those more safe that are abroad; death cuts off even the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Hearken to the word of the Lord, and mourn with godly sorrow. This alone can bring true comfort; and it can turn the heaviest afflictions into precious mercies.Speak, thus saith the Lord,.... These are the words of the Lord to Jeremiah, to go on with his prophecy in his name; so the Targum,

"prophesy, thus saith the Lord:''

even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field; or, "upon the face of the field" (f); this shows the reason why the women are called to mourning, because the men would fall by the sword in the open field, and there lie and rot, and become dung upon it. The Targum is,

"as dung spread upon the face of the field;''

which denotes the great number that should fall, which would cover the face of the field; the condition they should be in; and the contempt and neglect they should be had in:

and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them; as a handful of corn that is forgot, and left by the harvestman; or as ears of corn which are dropped by the reaper, or binder, and are usually gleaned or gathered up by the poor that follow; but in the case referred to, or supposed, are not gathered; so it would be with these people; they should be left upon the ground, like a handful forgot, or like ears of corn dropped, and not gathered up, and there they should lie, and none should bury them.

(f) "super faciebus agri", Montanus, Schmidt; "in facie agri", Cocceius; "in superficie agri", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.