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Then he adds, Flee, save: this is the crying of distress; for miserable men, as the case is in extreme evils, mutually exhort one another, Flee, save your lives He then compares them to a tamarisk. The word ערוער,oruor, designates a country, as it is probable, and there were also two cities of this name. However, ערער, oror, is a tamarisk, as we have already seen in Jer_17:6. Some render it, “a tower;” and the words of Isaiah in Isa_17:2, are perverted by some to maintain another meaning; for they think that ערוער,oruor, means the cot of shepherds in the desert; but I prefer the opinion of those who render it “” or juniper, though the Prophet seems to me to allude to the city Aroer, or to a region of that name, but I rather think to the city. He then says, ye shall be as a tamarisk in the desert: and it is known from other places that Aroer was in the land of Moab.
We now then perceive what the Prophet means: that Moab would be like a juniper in the desert, that is, a barren tree, which never grows to any size; and then it is dry, because it is not cherished by any rain, nor fed by any moisture from the ground. It is in this sense, as we have stated, that our Prophet took the similitude in Jer_17:5 :
“” he says, “ the man who trusts in Jehovah, for he shall be like a tree planted near waters: cursed is the man who trusts in man, and who makes flesh his arm, and withdraws his heart from Jehovah; for he shall be as the tamarisk of the desert;”
that is, he shall be barren and dry, without any moisture or support. It now follows: —