CHAPTER 5

From Jeremiah.

Still of Judas, Who is named.

[Passage quoted, Jer. xvii. 1-4.]

THOUGH this passage is not found in the Septuagint, yet it is in the Hebrew and in the editions of the other translators, and is quoted with asterisks in the more accurate copies of the Septuagint. I have necessarily quoted it, (485) because it gives the name of the traitor Judas, and teaches that the sin he committed can never be wiped out. For this I think is implied by the words, "The sin of Judas is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond." It could refer also to the whole Jewish nation, as a threat of the utter destruction that would overtake them in the immediate train of their indelible iniquity, an interpretation I have no time now to expound word by word, (b) And now that I have prepared the way by giving so many examples of prophecies concerning him that was to betray our Lord and Saviour, and those that conspired against Him in other ways, let us examine what was foretold in connection with His actual Passion.