The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

iv.2i,22.] THE DEBT OF GUILT EXTINGUISHED 305
Vulgate Versions give it as " iniquity " in both cases.
And so does a suggestion in the margin of the Revised
Version. But if we accept this rendering, which commends
itself to us as verbally most correct, we cannot
reconcile it with the evident intention of the writer.
The promise that God will no more carry His people
away into captivity, which follows as an echo of the
opening thought of the verse, certainly points to a
cessation of punishment. Then the very idea that the
iniquity of the Jews is accomplished is quite out of
place here. What could we take it to mean ? To say
that the Jews had sinned to the full, had carried out all
their evil intentions, had put no restraint on their
wickedness, is to give a verdict which should carry the
heaviest condemnation ; it would be absurd to bring
this forward as an introduction to a promise of a
reprieve. It would be less incongruous to suppose the
phrase to mean, as is suggested in the margin of the
Revised Version, that the sin has come to an end, has
ceased. That might be taken as a ground for the
punishment to be stayed also. But it would introduce
a refinement of theology out of keeping with the
extreme simplicity of the ideas of these elegies. More-
over, in another place, as we have seen already,^ the
word ** sins " seems to be used for the punishment of
sins? We have also met with the idea of the fulfilment,
literally the finishing, of God's word of warning,
with the necessary suggestion that there is to be no
more infliction of the evil threatened.^ Therefore, if it
were not for the reappearance of the word in dispute
where the primary meaning of it seems to be neces-
sitated by the context, we should have no hesitation in
' Page 269. ^ iii. 39.
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ii. 17.
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