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Mat 2:18. Φωνὴ ἐν Ῥαμᾶ ἠκούσθη, θρῆνος καὶ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁδυρμὸς πολὺς, Ῥαχὴλ κλαίουσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς· καὶ οὐκ ἤθελε παρακληθῆναι, κ.τ.λ.-A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and weeping and much mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, etc.) The passage is thus rendered by the LXX., Jeremiah 31(38):15:-Φωνὴ ἐν Ῥαμᾶ (Cod. Alex. ἐν τῆ ὑψηλῇ) ἠκούσθη θρήνου καὶ κλαυθμοῦ καὶ ὀδυρμοῦ· Ραχηλ αποκλαιομένη ἐπὶ τῶν υἱῶν αὑτῆς· καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησε παρακληθῆναι, κ.τ.λ.-A voice was heard in Rama (Cod. Al. on high) of lamentation and weeping and mourning: Rachel bewailing herself on account of her sons, and would not be comforted, etc.-ἠκούσθη, was heard) so that it reached the Lord. Jeremiah both prefixes and subjoins, Thus saith the Lord.-θρῆνος καὶ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὀδυρμὸς πολὺς,[99] lamentation and weeping and much mourning) The LXX. have θρῆνου καὶ κλαυθμοῦ καὶ ὀδυρμοῦ, of weeping, and of lamentation, and of mourning. The original Hebrew, however, is נהי בכי תמרורים-lamentation, weeping of bitternesses, (i.e., lamentation and bitter weeping). The shorter[100] reading of St Matthew, supported by so many versions, viz.,[101] ΚΛΑΥΘΜῸς ΚΑῚ ὈΔΥΡΜῸς ΠΟΛῪς, weeping and much mourning, agrees with this so as to express the Hebrew plural תַּמְרוּרִים, bitternesses, by the Greek epithet πολὺς, much. I used to suspect that the translators who omitted ΘΡῆΝΟς ΚΑῚ, lamentation and, had done so from the poverty of their language: but you might, with equal justice, say that the Greek copyists added these words from the LXX., from not duly weighing the force of the adjective πολυς, much, which is not found in the LXX.
[99] In his Apparatus Criticus, Bengel writes, in loc.-
[100] E. M. has the longer reading.-(I. B.)
[101] So BZabc Vulg. Hilary, 613. D is the only very ancient authority for the θρῆνος καὶ of the Rec. Text.-ED. “18 (-θρῆνος καὶ) Æth. Arab. Copt. Lat. (et inde Barb. I. vel etiam Cypr. et Colbert. n. 2467), Pers. Syr. ex inopiâ synonymorum; Hieron. nescio an Justinus Martyr. Extat non solum apud LXX., sed etiam in Hebræo.” He then goes on. “Inopia synonymorum laborasse,” etc., as in the Gnomon, and concludes by referring the reader to that work.-(I. B.)
The Hebrew words[102] and accents[103] declare the matter more gradually (rem gradatim magis declarant), and exhibit successively,-(1.) Shrill grief indefinitely: her who mourns, and those whom she mourns, (2.) refusing the consolation offered to her; and the cause why she refused it.-The thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah is prospective to a great degree of the times of the New Testament; and so does this passage refer to this event in the New Testament history, whether Jeremiah regarded at the same time the Babylonian Captivity or not; a greater and less event of distinct periods may correspond with the single meaning of a single prediction, until the prophecy is exhausted.-Ῥαχὴλ, Rachel) put antonomatically for the individual daughters of Rachel and other mothers, who thus had sons of pangs [Benoni].-Cf. Gen 35:18. The sons of Rachel are named: the sons of other mothers are understood at the same time, as in 1Co 10:1, the Gentiles are also included under the fathers of the Jews. The infants of Bethlehem might also be called “sons of Rachel,” on account of the tomb of Rachel mentioned in Gen 35:19, as being near that town: just as the Samaritans (Joh 4:12) called Jacob their father, because they lived in the same place where he had formerly dwelt. But Rama did also belong to the tribe of Benjamin (see Jos 18:25), who was the son of Rachel. It is quite conceivable that the assassins despatched so suddenly by Herod to Bethlehem, may have proceeded even as far as Rama, as the towns were very near together: see Jdg 19:2; Jdg 19:9; Jdg 19:13; Ezr 2:21; Ezr 2:26 : from which circumstance Jeremiah, a priest from the land of Benjamin, pointed it out as the limit of the massacre.-κλαίουσα, weeping) i.e., κλαίει, weeps, a Hebraism.-οὐκ ἤθελε παρακληθῆναι, refused to receive consolation) A phrase which expresses intense grief.-οὐκ εἰσί, they are not) Thus, in the S. V. of Gen 42:36, we read Ἰωσὴφ οὐκ ἔστι, Συμεὼν οὐκ ἔστι, Joseph is not, Simeon is not); and in 1Ki 20:40, οὗτος οὐκ ἦν, he was not) in the Hebrew איננו, he is not, in the singular number used distributively. The mothers mourn each especially their own, or even their only sons; for even only children would, in this case, be expressed in the plural number: the slaughtered infants were of two years old, or a little under, so that a single mother could not easily be deprived of more than one. The event was accurately foretold. Others refer the singular number to the Messiah, whom they suppose the women to have imagined slain, or mourned as banished.
[102] “Sermo.”-(I. B.)
[103] “The design of the accents in general is, to show the rhythmical members of the verses in the Old Testament text. But, as such, the use is twofold-viz., a. To show the logical relation of each word to the whole sentence: b. to mark the tone syllable to each word. In respect to the former, they serve as signs of interpunction; in respect to the latter, as signs of the tone or accent.… The use of the accents as signs of interpunction is somewhat complicated, since they serve not merely to separate the members of a sentence, like our period, colon, and comma, but also as marks of connection.”-Gesenius, Heb. Gr. sec. 15, q.v.-(I. B.)