Note 71 — IX. THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS.

There is something strange about the phrase "by (upon, `al) the evergreen tree." Twenty-five Heb. MSS., the Targ., and the Syriac, read "every" (kol) for "upon" (`al). We still feel the want of a preposition, and may confidently restore "under" (taḫath), from the nine other passages in which "evergreen tree" (`ec̰ ra`anan) occurs in connexion with idolatrous worship. In all these instances the expression is "under every evergreen tree" (taḫath kol `ec̰ ra`anan); from the Book of the Law (Deut. xii. 2), whence Jeremiah probably drew the phrase, to 2 Chron. xxviii. 4. Jeremiah has already used the phrase thrice (ii. 20, iii. 6, 13), in exactly the same form. The other passages are Ezek. vi. 13; Isa. lvii. 5; 2 Kings xvi. 4, xvii. 10. The corruption of kol into `al is found elsewhere. Probably taḫath had dropt out of the text, before the change took place here.