Jeremiah 5:10 - Exposition

Her walls . There is a doubt about "walls," which should, as some think, rather be vine-rows (a change of points is involved; also of shin into sin—the slightest of all changes), or shoots, or branches (comparing the Syriac). The figure would thus gain somewhat in symmetry. However, all the ancient interpreters (whose authority, overrated by some, still counts for something) explain the word as in the Authorized Version, and, as Graf remarks, in order to destroy the vines, it' would be necessary to climb up upon the walls of the vineyard. (For the figure of the vine or the vineyard, scrap, on Jeremiah 2:21 .) Take away … not the Lord's . The Septuagint and Peshito read differently, translating "leave her foundations, for they are the Lord ' s " (supposing the figure be taken from a building). As the text stands, it is better to change battlements into tendrils . Judah's degenerate members are to be removed, but the vine-stock, i . e ; the behooving kernel of the nation, is to be left. It is the key-note of the "remnant" which Jeremiah again strikes (see Jeremiah 4:27 ).