Jeremiah 49:25 - Exposition

Hew is the city of praise not left, etc.! A difficult passage. The construction, indeed, is plain. "How is not," etc. I can only mean "How is it that the city of praise is not," etc.?. The difficulty lies in the word rendered "left." The ordinary meaning of the verb, when applied to cities, is certainly "to leave without inhabitants;" e.g. Jeremiah 4:29 ; Isaiah 7:16 ; Isaiah 32:14 . This, however, does not suit the context, which shows that "the daughter of Damascus" personified is the speaker, so that verse 25 ought rather to mean, "How is it that the city of praise is [not, ' is not' ] forsaken?" Either, then, we must suppose that "not" has been inserted by mistake—a too arbitrary step, seeing that there is no negative in the context to account for the insertion (the case is different, therefore, from Job 21:30 ; Job 27:15 , where such an insertion is at any rate justifiable); or else we must give ‛uzzebhah the sense of "let go free" (comp. Exodus 23:5 ; Deuteronomy 32:36 ; Job 10:1 ). It is the obstinate incredulity of love which refuses to admit the possibility of the destruction of the loved object. The city of praise. The city which is my "praise," or boast. Few cities, in fact, have had so long and brilliant an existence as Damascus.