at the passages in the Book of
Jeremiah which allege his assent to, and his proclamation of, the
Deuteronomic Covenant, or represent him as using the language of
Deuteronomy, are not worthy of credit.(271) Of these extremes we may say
at once that if with both we neglect the twofold character of
Deuteronomy--its emphasis now on ethics and now on ritual--and again, if
with both we assume that Jeremiah's attitude to the Law-Book and to the
reforms it inspired never changed, then the evidences for that attitude
offered by the Book of Jeremiah are inconsistent and we may despair of a
conclusion. But a more reasonable course is open to us. If we keep in mind
the two faces of Deuteronomy as well as the doubtful progress for many
years of the reforms started by it, and if we also remember that a prophet
like all the works of God was subject to growth; if we allow to Jeremiah
the same freedom to change his purpose in face of fresh developments of
his people's character as in the Parable of the Potter he imputes to his
God; if we recall how in 604 the new events in the history of Western Asia
led him to adapt his earlier Oracles on the Scythians to the Chaldeans who
had succeeded the Scythians as the expected Doom from the North--then our
way through the evidence becomes tolerably clear, except for the
difficulty of dating a number of his undated Oracles. What we must not
forget is the double, divergent intention and influence of Deuteronomy,
and the fact that Josiah's reformation, though divinely inspired, was in
its progress an experiment upon the people, whose mind and conduct beneath
it Jeremiah was appointed by God to watch and to test.

These considerations prepare us _first_ for the story in Ch. XI. 1-8 of
Jeremiah's fervent assent to the ethical principles of Deuteronomy and of
the charge to him to proclaim these throughout Judah; and _then_ for his
later attitude to the written Law, to the Temple and to sacrifices.

XI. 1. The Word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2.
Hear thou(272) the words of this Covenant, and speak them to the
men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3. And thou
shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: 4.
Cursed be the man who hears not the words of this Covenant, which
I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the
land of Egypt, out of the iron-furnace, saying, Hearken to My
Voice and do(273) according t