Section 4. YHWH Deprecates The Disloyalty Of His People To The Covenant, And Demonstrates From Examples Their Total Corruption, Revealing That As A Consequence Their Doom Is Irrevocably Determined, Something Then Represented By Jeremiah By Means Of Prophetic Symbolism (11.1-13.27).

Commencing with the regular opening phrase ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH --’ (11.1), YHWH deprecates His people’s disloyalty to the covenant, and demonstrates from examples their total corruption, making clear that as a consequence their doom is irrevocably determined. This is followed by a symbolic action by Jeremiah, together with its interpretation, which reveals the certainty of their expulsion from the land. The section then closes with a woe expressed against Jerusalem.

YHWH Calls On His People To Hear The Word Of His Covenant And Reminds Them Of The Covenant Curse Which Falls On All Who Fail To Observe It, But Then Draws Attention To Their Failure To Observe It, Indicating That The Resulting Consequences Are Therefore Inevitable (11.1-15).

These words may well have been spoken after the discovery of the Book of the Law in the Temple in the days of Josiah (2 Kings 22) as YHWH sought to reinforce what Josiah was doing. This is suggested by the fact that ‘the covenant’ is mentioned five times in the passage, and not previously in Jeremiah (apart from in a reference to the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH in 3.16. Similar clusters will appear again in chapters 31-34). But the emphasis here is especially on the curse which is a part of that covenant (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28), in order to bring out the reason why YHWH is now about to visit them with inescapable judgment in view of their continual apostasy.

11.1-2 ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying, “Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,”

Once again it is emphasised that Jeremiah receives ‘the word of YHWH’. And His word was not only for him but for all his fellow genuine prophets (like Huldah, Uriah and Barak). This is brought out by the use of the plural ‘YOU’ which indicates that having heard it they are to proclaim it to Judah. And as we shall see this ‘word’ was in the nature of a reminder to Judah of the curses of the covenant.

Note the continual distinction that is made between the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was regularly looked on as a separate city, standing on its own, being not strictly a city of Judah but the city of David (the same was also true in New Testament times. See Mark 1.5).

YHWH’s Curse On Those Who Have Broken His Covenant.

11.3-5a “And say you to them, Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel,”

The word that was now to be emphasised to Judah and Jerusalem was the curse that backed up and underlined the covenant, referred to in Deuteronomy 27.16-26, and expanded on in Deuteronomy 28.15 ff. ‘Cursed be the man --’ specifically reflects Deuteronomy 27.16. The basic idea is thus to draw attention to Deuteronomy 27.16-26, especially verse 26 which is the catch all verse following the detail, something which parallels the idea here.

The words in question were a solemn curse against those who were disobedient to the sacred words of the covenant, and were accepted by the people saying ‘Amen’ (see Deuteronomy 27.16-26 and note verse 5b below). And the aim of its mention here was to bring out the fact that this curse was now coming into effect. Such curses were a regular feature of covenants, and indeed of many aspects of life.

It is made clear that it was ‘commanded to your fathers’ at the time when they were redeemed from Egypt, with the consequence being that ‘they would be His people and He would be their God’. That had been God’s intention. But it is now being made clear that they had forfeited it by their behaviour (compare Hosea 1.9). This redemption out of Egypt, underlined at Sinai, lay (in the best times and in the hearts of the true remnant at all times) at the very heart of Israel/Judah’s psyche as the Psalms especially bring out. They were to be seen as His people because He had demonstrated that He was their God by redeeming them from Egypt. For the idea ‘So will you be my people, and I will be your God,” see especially Leviticus 26.12, another passage having the curses of the covenant in mind and linked with the redemption from Egypt. Compare also for the idea 7.23; 30.22; Hosea 1.9 and see Deuteronomy 29.15; Leviticus 19.5-6. If this was spoken around the time of the discovery of the Law Book in the Temple both Deuteronomy 27-28 and Leviticus 26 would appear to have been included in it.

The hardship of the conditions in Egypt is brought out by the words, ‘out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace’ (i.e. a furnace hot enough to smelt iron). Life had not been easy there. Reference to ‘out of the iron-smelting furnace’, linked with ‘out of Egypt’ is found in Deuteronomy 4.20, but the phrases are the other way round, and ‘land of’ is omitted. It is not therefore to be seen as a direct citation.

The consequence of the covenant was that they should obey His voice and do all that He had commanded them, and their being His people is seen as depending on that fact. This would then result in His ‘establishing His oath’ (compare for the phrase Genesis 26.3) which He had sworn to their fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey (two natural basic ingredients of life promised regularly from Exodus 3.8 on, in Exodus to Deuteronomy). That He had kept that promise is indicated by the words ‘as at this day’.

The phrase ‘the words of this covenant’ appears in Deuteronomy 29.9. ‘Brought them forth out of the land of Egypt’ appears in Exodus 29.46; Deuteronomy 29.25. (‘brought you forth out of the land of Egypt’ occurs regularly in Leviticus and Deuteronomy). Jeremiah was well founded in the Scriptures.

11.5b ‘Then answered I, and said, “Amen, O YHWH.”

Jeremiah’s, ‘Amen, O YHWH’ reflects the response to the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 27.16-26, and indicates fervent acceptance of the terms of the covenant.

YHWH Has Called For Obedience To His Covenant But It Has Been Refused.

11.6 ‘And YHWH said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.’ ”

Having underlined the importance of His words by reference to the covenant curses, YHWH now calls on Jeremiah to proclaim to Judah and Jerusalem that they ‘hear the words of this covenant and DO them’ (compare Deuteronomy 29.9). The emphasis is on the fact that there was no benefit to be obtained from hearing the words of the covenant if they did not DO them. This idea would later be reinforced by Jesus in his parable of the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7.24-27). For ‘in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem’, one of Jeremiah’s stock phrases, compare 7.17, 34; 33.10; 44.6, 17, 21 demonstrating the unity of the book.

‘In the cities of Judah.’ Jeremiah was to engage in a peripatetic ministry, possibly initially accompanying Josiah’s men as they went out to destroy the pagan altars throughout the land

11.7 “For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, ‘Obey my voice.’ ”

YHWH then brings out the stress that He had laid on the need to OBEY His commandments. He had ‘earnestly protested’ such obedience to their fathers in the day that He had brought them up out of the land of Egypt’ (as early as Exodus 15.26), and had continued doing so to this day, ‘rising early’ and protesting, saying ‘Obey My voice’. It had been YHWH’s incessant and constant plea in order that it might not be overlooked.

For the idea of ‘rising early’ as signifying urgency compare 25.3, 4; 35.14; 44.4. The idea is a favourite of Jeremiah’s and unique to him.

11.8 “Yet they did not obey, nor did they incline their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart, therefore I have brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.”

But in spite of all His efforts they had not obeyed, nor had they listened. Rather they had walked in ‘the stubbornness of their own evil heart’ (compare 3.17; 7.24). That is why He was now bringing on them the curses of the covenant, because He had commanded them to DO what He said and they had not done it (compare the similar emphasis in Deuteronomy 27.26).

‘THIS covenant.’ This would appear to suggest that a copy of the covenant which was known to all was in mind, possibly the Law Book found in the Temple in Josiah’s reign and read before the people in a great covenant ceremony (2 Kings 22.8 ff.). We do not know the extent of this Law Book but it appears to have included at least parts of Deuteronomy. As it was discovered sealed in the Temple wall or foundations a number of scrolls may have been there of which only one had been selected out to be shown to the king.

Judah Are Now Seen As Conspirators Against YHWH And Will Therefore Suffer Evil Coming On Them.

11.9 ‘And YHWH said to me, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

Indeed the way in which so many of the people had been involved in this disobedience indicated a kind of conspiracy. By their behaviour and attitudes they had conspired together against His covenant.

11.10 “They are turned back to the iniquities of their first forefathers, who refused to hear my words, and they are gone after other gods to serve them.”

And this was confirmed by the fact that one and all had turned back to the iniquities of their first forefathers, for they also had refused to hear His words and had gone after other gods and served them, both when they had fashioned the molten calf in the wilderness (Exodus 32), and during the period of the Judges (Judges 2.12-13 and often), and the same had been regularly true at other times since.

11.10b “The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.”

Thus by constant and protracted disobedience both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, the two component parts of Israel, had broken His covenant which He had made with their fathers at Sinai to such an extent that their position was now irrevocable.

11.11 “Therefore thus says YHWH, Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them.”

That is why YHWH had the firm intent to bring evil disasters on them (as warned about in the curses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28), evil disasters which they would be unable to escape. And things had now gone so far that even though they cried to Him, He would not listen to them (compare verse 14).

Their Numerous False Gods Will Be Unable To Save Them.

11.12 “Then will the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.”

And when they discovered that YHWH would no longer listen to them they would go and cry to the gods to which they offered their incense in the high places both in the mountains and in their streets, but they would soon find that they would not save them at all in the time of trouble. They were fair-weather gods. The constant distinction between the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem may suggest that in Jeremiah’s time the distinction was being unusually emphasised.

11.13 “For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.”

Then He derides them for their folly with regard to their gods. They had a multiplicity of them. ‘According to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah’ (compare 2.28), and yet all banded together could do nothing for them. But it was this very multiplicity of gods that brought them into certain condemnation (it provided plenty of evidence for their failure), along with the multiplicity of altars that they had in the streets of Jerusalem, where they had set up altars to burn incense to Baal, ‘the shameful thing’.

Jeremiah Is Not To Pray For A Finally Rejected People.

11.14 “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.”

Indeed things had reached such a pass that Jeremiah was no longer to pray for them, or lift up a cry and prayer for them (compare 7.16) for YHWH would no longer hear them and respond in their time of trouble. They had gone beyond the point at which there could be a remedy (something already indicated by the little impact that Josiah’s reforms had clearly had on the thinking of the people). It was thus useless to pray for them. They had reached the point of no return.

11.15

The reason why YHWH will not hear prayer concerning His people is now made clear. It is because ‘His beloved’ wife (for ‘My beloved’ compare 12.7; Deuteronomy 33.12; Isaiah 5.1; for wife (‘she’) compare 3.1, 20; Hosea 1-3) no longer has any genuine right of access to His house. His people have forfeited that right by their evil behaviour which was taking place even while they were partaking of the holy portions of the sacrifices, ‘the holy flesh’ (Haggai 2.12). They indulged in their spiritual and physical adultery even while they passed out the holy portions which had been offered in accordance with the Law and were passed round to those present at their joyful feasts. So even while they did evil, they rejoiced.

Later in 12.7 He will point out that as a result He has forsaken His house, and cast off His heritage, which is why their troubles will come upon them.

YHWH Had Planted His People As A Green Olive Tree Abundant In Fruit, But Will Now Break Off Its Branches Returning Evil Consequences On Them For Their Evil Deeds. These Words Produce A Reaction Against Jeremiah In His Home Town Of Anathoth So That They Determine To Slay Him And Consequently He Asks YHWH Why He Allows The Wicked To Continue, Only To Learn That They Will Do Even More Wicked Things Than These (11.16-12.6).

The picture of Israel/Judah as a green olive tree is found elsewhere in Hosea 14.6 (note the emphasis on its branches); Psalm 52.8; 128.3; Romans 11.17-28. But he informs them that YHWH Who had planted them will now denude them of their fruitful branches and has pronounced evil against them, because of their evil behaviour.

These words infuriate the men of Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town, who determine that they too will ‘destroy the tree with its fruit’ (verse 19), but in this case they are referring to Jeremiah, against whom they have devised schemes of murder. Jeremiah, taken totally by surprise by these schemes (he was after all a prophet of YHWH and should have been seen as sacrosanct, and he felt that he was only ‘doing his job’), thus sees himself as like a pet household lamb which finds itself to its total surprise unexpectedly led out to the slaughter (verse 19). YHWH, however, assures Jeremiah that He will in the future punish them severely for their behaviour. He is then remonstrated by Jeremiah on the very grounds that having planted them so that they have taken root and brought forth fruit, although only hypocritically, they are still being allowed by Him to continue on in their hypocrisy, bringing devastation on the land and the life within it (12.2, 4). And he calls on Him to take them out as sheep for the slaughter (12.3), instead of the little pet lamb (11.19). In response to these words he is called on to be patient, and is warned by YHWH that this hatred of him by his relatives is only a beginning. It is an indication that he will yet face even greater hardship than this.

Jeremiah Prophesies Against The People (11.16-17).

Israel had been officially named by YHWH as Zayith-ra‘anan-yephe-peri-to’ar (an olive tree green, beautiful and with luscious fruit) when He had called them by that Name as His elect people. But such had been their behaviour that He was now setting fire to it and breaking off its branches, bringing evil on them because of their own evil behaviour. This description of Israel as the olive tree with its branches being broken off would be taken up by Paul in Romans 11.15-28.

11.16

We must not underestimate the significance of this description. There are only a few examples in Scripture when it was said, ‘YHWH called your name --’, and in all such cases it was at a moment of huge importance in His scheme of things. In Genesis 5.2, ‘YHWH called their name Man (Adam)’ which was the indication of a unique creation. In Genesis 35.10 (compare 32.28) ‘YHWH called his name Israel --’, an indication that Jacob was especially and uniquely set apart for YHWH in His purposes under his new name. In Jeremiah 20.3 Jeremiah in effect says of the evil Pashur, ‘YHWH has --- called your name Magor-missa-bib (terror on every side)’ as an indication of the judgment coming on his house, and on Judah. Here YHWH had called Judah/Israel’s name, Zayith-ra‘anan-yephe-peri-to’ar (an olive tree green, beautiful and with luscious fruit), presumably seen as the name given from Sinai onwards, when they were ‘planted’ (verse 17). Thus YHWH is seen as having given to Israel from its defining moment the name, ‘Green, beautiful, olive tree with luscious fruit’. While therefore we may think especially of the vine as the symbol of Israel’s special status, in that that idea is often referred to Israel, YHWH from the beginning saw them especially as ‘the Olive Tree’, which may well be why Paul chose it as his symbol of Israel in Romans 11.17-28.

The olive tree was very suitable for the purpose. It was famous for its beauty and its leafy branches (Hosea 14.6), and was seen as providing valuable commodities, being the source of oil for lighting, cooking, eating, medicinal purposes, and general anointing, as well as being a major source of exports (compare Hosea 12.1). It was a tree at the heart of their very lives. This description thus showed YHWH’s initial high view of Israel. The ‘goodly fruit’ may be seen as indicating the fulfilling of works in accordance with the covenant, as an Israel obedient to YHWH, or as indicating the multiplying of Israel by a multiplicity of births until they were ‘as the sand by the seashore’.

But the point being made is that that beautiful tree with its spreading branches and abundance of fruit would sadly soon be caught up in the tumult of invading forces, with its trunk set alight and its branches broken off. Judah would produce no more fruit and blessing for the world for a long time to come.

11.17

For YHWH, Who is over all the hosts of heaven and earth, was the One Who had planted them as a fruitful olive tree (and as a flourishing vine - 2.21). But now He was pronouncing evil against them because of the evil of which they were guilty. None of either Israel or Judah would be safe, for they had wrought evil in that they had provoked YHWH to anger by offering incense to Baal. For they still crept into their mountain sanctuaries, and made their offerings, even in the time of Josiah when it would often be in sanctuaries known only to those in the know. For many would be natural rock formations, and the altar of incense would be a rock. But those who knew of them saw them as wholly sacred. By the time of Jehoiakim, of course, such secrecy would no longer be required.

The Reaction Of The People Of His Hometown Anathoth Is To Seek To Warn Off Jeremiah With Threats Of Death, At Which He Appeals To YHWH (11.18-20).

11.18

But all this was known to Jeremiah, because YHWH had made it known to him, and had made known to him the doings of the people, which was why he in his turn spoke to the people. In fact he was so certain of his God-ordained ministry and his sanctity as a God-appointed prophet of YHWH that he did not even consider the effect that his words might have on the people. But as we now learn, they did not like it, and began to scheme his death.

11.19

The result was that he was completely taken by surprise when he learned, possibly from a disciple or a well-wisher, that they were plotting to get rid of him. He depicts this in a touching simile. Most families had a pet lamb who lived in the house with the family, beloved of the children and feeling perfectly secure, for it was common practise (see 2 Samuel 12.3), as it would be later among the Arabs. But at some stage this little petted lamb would be taken totally by surprise and find itself being led to the slaughter as the equivalent of the fatted calf. It would never have believed that it could come to this! And it was such surprise that Jeremiah felt. He had felt that at least in his own home town he would be appreciated for what he was.

But he discovered in one way or another that many in Anathoth were in fact plotting his death. They had taken up his picture of the destroyed olive tree and applied it to him. So, they asked each other, according to Jeremiah YHWH was going to destroy them like a fruitful olive tree by an invader was He? Well, let Jeremiah have some of his own medicine. He would now in his turn be destroyed like a tree with its fruit, and be cut off from the land of the living so that his name was no more remembered (he was unmarried and without children). Let him see how he liked it..

11.20

Shaken and greatly disturbed (it is possible that this was not long after the martyrdom of Uriah - 26.20-24) Jeremiah was freshly awakened to just how sinful the people had become in that they would even destroy YHWH’s prophet (who were usually seen as sacrosanct in Judah), and calls on YHWH to judge the situation before Him. He ‘reveals his cause’ to Him, and calls on Him to ‘try the heart and mind’, both of himself and of the people. He knows that there can be only one verdict. The people will be found guilty, and will be suitably punished.

This verse is found repeated almost word for word (with a few slight changes) in 20.12. Compare also the similar ideas in 17.10. It is a recurrent theme.

YHWH Declares The Death Sentence Against Anathoth (11.21-23).

11.21-22a ‘Therefore thus says YHWH concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, “You shall not prophesy in the name of YHWH, that you die not by our hand.” Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts,

YHWH’s response was to pronounce His verdict against the men of Anathoth who had threatened Jeremiah with death if he prophesied in the name of YHWH. The double repetition of ‘thus says YHWH’ confirms the emphasis and certainty of fulfilment of the verdict.

11.22b-23

The sentence is one of death against the whole households of the would be murderers. Their young men of fighting age would die by the sword, their other young men and women would die through famine, no remnant of them would remain. For the year when YHWH would visit His judgment on the men of Anathoth was coming, and it would take the form of evil being brought on them in the form of devastating invasion. Thus the young men would die defending their homeland, and the famine would be at least partly the result of the marauding activities of the enemy, destroying them by fire after taking possession of such supplies of food as they required for their own use.

Jeremiah Questions The Delay In The Punishment And Asks Why The Wicked Continue To Prosper, Seeking God’s Judgment On Them (12.1-4).

12.1

Jeremiah’s response was to accept the justice of YHWH’s decision in the face of his plea, but to demonstrate his dissatisfaction at the delay in the judgment. By this time he had been under constant threat of death, and had endured many trials. He comes before YHWH to ‘reason the cause’ with Him. He is faced with the age-old problem as to why the wicked are allowed to continue flourishing. Why is it that those who are most treacherous still find themselves ‘at ease’. For other treatments of the same question compare Job 21.7 ff.; Psalm 73.3-18.

12.2

He describes their flourishing in the terms used earlier of the flourishing of the olive tree which had represented Israel in their earlier days (11.16-17). They were YHWH’s planting (compare 11.17), they took root and grew, they produced fruit, (they looked indeed like a green olive tree still flourishing), but all the while, whilst they honoured YHWH with their lips, their hearts were far from Him (compare Isaiah 29.13; Matthew 15.8-9). Their worship was not genuine.

12.3

In contrast Jeremiah’s heart was firmly towards YHWH. He was confident that YHWH saw his ways and tried his heart, and ‘knew’ him through and through, indeed as His chosen one (he was confident in his calling). And he therefore calls on YHWH to act against his adversaries, who have so treated a prophet of YHWH Let it not be him who is the pet lamb led to the slaughter (11.19), but let that be true of his adversaries, not as pet lambs, but as sheep dragged out from the flock, and prepared ready for slaughter.

We should note here that this was not a cry for personal vengeance. It was a call on YHWH to act in defence of His prophet who was being sacrilegiously treated by those who should have paid him honour. Thereby they had sinned directly against YHWH and were acting in deliberate rebellion against Him. It was not for Jeremiah to consider forgiving them It was a sin that only God could call to account (and only God could forgive).

12.4

He then supports his prayer with the evidence. It is because of these people and their attitudes and activities, in which in their complacency they think that they will be allowed to continue long after Jeremiah has gone (‘he will not see our latter end’), that the land was mourning and the vegetation was withering. It was because of them that the innocent animals and birds were being consumed by the disaster coming on the land. It was because they were self-confident and yet total hypocrites.

This plea assumes either that there had been great drought (compare 14.1), or that marauding invaders had already been present in the land. For quite apart from the activities of the great nations such as Assyria, Egypt and Babylon, and seemingly of the Scythians, they would be subject to quarrels with neighbouring countries, and raids by marauding bands of nomads. War of one kind or another was an ever present threat (compare 2 Samuel 11.1) quite apart from the regular incursions by Babylon.

‘He will not see our latter end.’ This may indicate that this would be because he was dead, or be expressing the confidence that what he sees about their latter end is not true. After all, the other prophets were prophesying ‘peace’. Alternately the ‘He’ might be YHWH in which case the idea is that they are being punished because they had assumed that like their chosen gods YHWH could not see what they were doing.

YHWH Responds With A Warning To Jeremiah That He Will Yet Face Worse Things Than This (12.5-6).

YHWH calls on Jeremiah to recognise that what he has endured up to now is as nothing compared with what lies ahead. Up until now he has only had to face the footmen (the local opposition or the lower level authorities), in the future he will have to face the horses (the higher powers that be, including the king, in Jerusalem). Up to now he has been comparatively at ease, shortly he must enter the jungle with its wild beasts. To serve God is not always a guarantee that life will be easy and prosperous. ‘it is through much tribulation that we must enter under the Kingly Rule of God’ (Acts 14.22).

12.5

The first picture is of a fugitive being chased down. Up to this point in time Jeremiah has only been ‘chased’ by men on foot, and yet he has clearly found that wearisome. What then is he going to do when he is chased down by horsemen, as in the future he surely will be? In other words while he has had trouble dealing with those in authority at lower levels, he will shortly be brought to the attention of the court. The idea of contending with horses might have in mind Elijah’s running before Ahab’s chariot to the gates of Jezreel (1 Kings 18.46).

The second picture, which illustrates the same idea and confirms it, is of having to leave a part of the land where there was peace and security, and where he would not have to face obstacles, a land which was relatively free from wild beasts, to enter a land where lions, bears and other wild beasts roamed relatively freely, and vegetation was at its thickest. The Pride of Jordan was the name given to the marshy thicket country on the verge of the Jordan in the Arabah (Jordan Gulf), which was a favourite haunt of wild animals, including especially lions (49.19; 50.44; Zechariah 11.3).

12.6

But what would be worst of all would be that he would be betrayed by his own family, and possibly already was being. Even his brothers and his father’s house, the one place where he should have been secure and at peace, would have turned against him, leading the chase against him, shouting after him and raising a hue and cry. Thus he must in the future trust no one, not even his closest family. This needs, of course, to be taken in parallel with the fact that the people were at the time totally untrustworthy, even to each other (9.8). It is always necessary to count the cost of serving God.

We should at this point possibly give a reminder that tenses in Hebrew verbs are not similar to the tenses that we find in Latin, Greek and English. Rather than having a past tenses and a future tense, indicating chronological sequence, they had a complete tense (often called ‘perfect’ and indicating an action that was certain and complete, and therefore usually, although not always in the past) and an incomplete tense (often called ‘imperfect’, which would be present or future because uncertain and incomplete). They expressed the completeness and certainty of the action, or otherwise. Thus the so-called ‘perfect tense’ could express the future as it was seen to be perfectly complete in the mind of God though His prophet.

YHWH Has Forsaken His House And Rejected His Heritage Because Of What It Has Become, And Their Evil Neighbours Will Also Be Punished, But Even For Them There Will Be Hope In The Future If They Turn To YHWH (12.7-17).

In 11.15 YHWH had asked what right ‘His beloved’ had in His house when she had done evil deeds. Now He declared that He had forsaken His house and had rejected His heritage, and had in effect given the beloved of his soul into the hands of their enemies. As a result Judah would be invaded by her neighbours and devastated. But then He warned that those very neighbours would also be brought into judgment and would themselves be exiled, only to be restored later and given the opportunity to become worshippers of YHWH. This prophecy would appear to reflect the time towards the end of Jehoiakim’s reign when, after he had withheld tribute, Babylon urged all Judah’s neighbours to begin to ravage Judah, along with local Babylonian contingents (2 Kings 24.2).

There is a reminder here that in all that YHWH did to His people, His final purpose was for them to be a witness to the nations, something later remarkably fulfilled at Pentecost and through the early Jewish church.

YHWH Has Forsaken His House And Rejected His Heritage.

12.7

It is an open question whether ‘I have forsaken My house’ is speaking about the Temple, as suggested by 11.15, or whether it signifies the people of Judah in parallel with ‘My heritage’. In view of 11.15, which clearly refers to the Temple, and with that being also the only other place where Judah are called YHWH’s beloved we would favour the former, but it makes little difference to the overall impact which is that Judah have been cast off and forsaken and will be handed over to their enemies. The idea of Judah being YHWH’s heritage looks back to their deliverance from Egypt (see verses below). The idea of Judah as the ‘dearly beloved of YHWH’s soul’ indicates just how much Judah’s desertion had cost Him, and how hard it was for Him to hand her over to her enemies. Because of His underlying compassion God’s judgments are not easy for Him to carry out.

This was an assurance, in the face of the warning that He had given Jeremiah that he would be forsaken by his own household, that He too was a loser in the situation. He too was losing His House and His people Whom He loved.

For the idea of Israel/Judah as ‘My heritage’ see Deuteronomy 4.20; 9.29; 32.9; 1 Samuel 10.1; 1 Kings 8.51, 53; Psalm 33.12; 78.62, 71; 94.5, 14; 106.5, 40; Isaiah 19.25; 47.6; 63.17; Joel 2.17; 3.2; Micah 7.18. It will be noted that the idea is not found in the traditionally later prophets, perhaps because the people were no longer seen in that way, having been ‘cast off’.

12.8

In this startling image Judah are seen as standing like a belligerent lion, roaring at YHWH as though He was their enemy. His heritage had so turned against Him and were so lost to all that was good, that she defied Him to His face. This was why YHWH’s love for her was waning (the word for ‘hated’ regularly means ‘loved less’, as Jacob loved Rachel and loved Leah less. He did not actually hate Leah - Genesis 29.30-31). His case was similar to Jeremiah’s. God never calls on us to face what He has not faced Himself.

In Consequence His Heritage Is At His Behest Surrounded By Enemies Who Will One And All Press In On His Vineyard To Destroy It.

12.9

It is a well known natural phenomenon that when a strange bird which is different in some way from all the others comes among other birds they will pursue it with loud cries and even attack it. The distinction and strangeness of this particular bird is brought out here by describing it as ‘speckled’. In consequence the other unspeckled birds of prey (warrior nations) are seen as turning on speckled Judah. And to further her mortification the scavengers among the wild beasts (further war-like nations on the lookout for booty) are called in as well to assist in devouring her (compare Isaiah 56.9). Poor speckled Judah, she is to be the victim of them all.

12.10

The picture now changes from birds of prey to shepherds, representing the kings of the nations, who often described themselves as the shepherds of their people (compare Isaiah 31.4; 44.28; Micah 5.5; Nahum 3.18). Many ‘shepherds’ will come in and tread YHWH’s portion, His land, under foot. Indeed they will make His pleasant portion desolate because His people have brought it on themselves.

12.11

The total desolation of the land that is coming is brought out by the threefold repetition. It is made desolate, it mourns because it is desolate, the whole land is made desolate. And this happens because no one cares, no one comes to Judah’s aid. All her alliances have collapsed in the face of her behaviour.

12.12

The invasion will be so massive that every square centimetre of land will be covered, even the bare heights of the wilderness which, with their idol sanctuaries, have had their part to play in Judah’s sins. And there the sword of YHWH, wielded by their enemies, will devour the people from one end of the land to the other. No one will have peace and wellbeing. All will be targets.

12.13

In 4.3 they had been warned not to sow among thorns. But they had not listened and had sown their wheat among the thorns. Now therefore when they went to reap they found themselves reaping thorns. The idea is of course parabolic. Because they had failed to purify their lives, they are reaping what is both useless and painful. Thus all the efforts that they had put into profiting their lives are now revealed to have produced nothing. All is despoiled. And what is more they will be ashamed of the fruits of their lives, their sin and idolatry, because they are aware that as a result the fierce anger of YHWH is directed against them.

However, it would be just as true physically. Shut up in their besieged cities their fields would become beset by thorns which would choke out the carefully sown grain. All their labours would be in vain, and there would only be shame when the harvest was considered, except that in the end there would be no harvest. For those who survived would be carried away captive when their cities were taken. What happens to us spiritually very often affects our physical lives in the same way.

But Those Invaders Will Themselves Also Be Called To Account And Will Be Exiled.

From this point on it is YHWH Who is speaking. It will be noticeable how often His words mingle with the words of Jeremiah. For the truth is that the two are one, because when Jeremiah speaks he speaks ‘the word of YHWH’.

The stress here is on the fact that it has to be remembered what these invaders have done. They have committed sacrilege. They have attacked YHWH’s heritage (12.7-8)! They have taken possession of His firstfruits (2.3)! They have thus given evidence that although physically circumcised they are not circumcised in heart (9.25-26). And as a result they have dared to ‘touch’ something sacred, the land which YHWH not only gave to Israel/Judah as an inheritance, but ‘caused them to inherit’. It had been YHWH’s will that Israel/Judah should inherit it. It will therefore be necessary for the invaders also to be punished because they have opposed YHWH.

12.14

Because they have done the things described above, the invading neighbours also will be plucked from their land and carried away into exile, just as Judah is to be plucked up. All will be treated in the same way, Judah because she had destroyed the covenant, the remainder because they had without compunction touched what was sacred, YHWH’s people. It is not said that they would all be exiled to Babylon, only that they would be turned out of their own lands, and there can be little doubt from their histories that this was literally fulfilled.

Some see ‘I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them’ as referring to Judah/Israel’s later deliverance from exile with the idea that the neighbouring nations will languish while the people of Judah are delivered. However, as in verse 15 all are to be restored to their lands it appears to us more likely that it is the coming exile of the house of Judah that is in mind.

Afterwards, However, YHWH Will Have Compassion On Them And Restore Them To Their Lands.

But as happens so often in the prophets, after the judgment comes mercy. Some time in the future YHWH will have compassion on these neighbouring nations, and on Judah, and will restore them to their lands.

12.15

YHWH’s compassion is not only for His people, it is for all peoples. Thus after these peoples have been plucked up, they will be returned again to the place of their inheritance and to their land. The decrees of Cyrus that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and its surrounding areas also allowed for the return of other peoples to their own lands. And there would be an even greater fulfilment for those who respond to the call of Christ when they inherit their portion in the new Heaven and the new earth and are at peace with God.

Then If They Listen To His People And Turn To YHWH They Will Be Built Up Among Them, But If They Refuse To Listen They Will Be Plucked Up And Destroyed.

12.16-17

And once the people have returned to their own land they will once more have before their eyes the witness and testimony of Israel. Then if they will respond to that teaching, and will learn to swear by the living God (nations always swore in court by the god whom they saw as most important), in the same way as they had taught Israel to swear by Baal, then they would be built up in the midst of His people. This was initially allowing for the many proselytes who would later become Jews in the inter-testamental period, including both Edomites who had fled to southern Judah and had been forced to become Jews under John Hyrcanus, and Gentiles in and around Galilee who were similarly ‘persuaded’ to become Jews in the days of the Maccabees. It would also find fulfilment in the witness of the early Jewish church through which large numbers of the peoples responded voluntarily to YHWH, and to Jesus Christ, the son of David. The new Israel of God became the foundation on which they were built and the household of which they became a part.

Such response would depend on the faith of the hearers, and thus those who did not respond would again be plucked up and destroyed. And this was the word of YHWH. It will be noted how what is spoken of here lays the foundation for the preaching of the Gospel, when salvation will depend on responsive faith, and rejection of salvation will ensure judgment. It is promising a fulfilment of all YHWH’s promises of salvation for the Gentiles (see Isaiah 42.6; 49.6).

The Acted Out Prophecy Of The Linen Girdle (13.1-11).

YHWH calls on Jeremiah to illustrate the present state of His people by an experiment with a linen girdle (waist cloth). He is initially to purchase the linen girdle, and then, wear it, after which, without washing it, he is to hide it, burying it in the cleft of a rock near the River Euphrates. When he later recovers the girdle it will be to discover that it has become mouldy.

The girdle represents Israel/Judah, and especially its consecration to YHWH, and its clinging to the loins the closeness between YHWH and His people through the covenant. The fact that it becomes mouldy when buried near the Euphrates is an indication of what has happened to His people through their association with Assyria and Babylon, and what will therefore also happen to them in the future. They too have become mouldy. They have failed to walk as His consecrated people, and have rejected the covenant. This is further emphasised by the fact that the girdle was not to be washed. The washing of the clothes was a symbol of sanctification (see e.g. Exodus 19.10). As a result they have become profitable for nothing.

There is a reminder here to us all that once we cease to walk with God and be obedient to His will our lives become marred and we become of no account.

13.1 ‘Thus says YHWH to me, “Go, and buy yourself a linen girdle, and put it on your loins, and do not put it in water.”

Just as YHWH had bought His people out of Egypt, and had consecrated them to Himself, so Jeremiah was to buy a linen girdle and put it around him. And just as YHWH had united His people with Himself within the covenant, so Jeremiah was to unite himself with the girdle. The command not to put it in water simply indicated that nothing was to be done to remove the effects of this union. There was to be no element of ‘sanctification’. It was to be allowed to become grubby and was not to be laundered, just as His people had been rendered ‘unclean’ and separated from YHWH by their rebellious behaviour.

13.2 ‘So I bought a girdle according to the word of YHWH, and put it on my loins.’

So Jeremiah did what YHWH had said. He bought a girdle and wore it round his waist, clearly for some time. This would have been done in a way which gave the matter full publicity. He was doing it as the prophet of YHWH.

13.3-5 ‘And the word of YHWH came to me the second time, saying, “Take the girdle which you have bought, which is on your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as YHWH commanded me.’

Then in accordance with YHWH’s word Jeremiah was to take the girdle and hide it by burying it (it later had to be dug up) in a cleft of the rock near the River Euphrates. This was a deliberate attempt to link the girdle with the kingdoms to the north, Assyria and Babylon, and to indicate that it was such contact that was, and would be, responsible for the deterioration of the girdle.

This would have involved a considerable journey, and some have doubted whether such an act would have been required of Jeremiah simply for the purpose of giving an illustration. However, we do have to recognise that in Judah’s eyes this physical representation of the situation would have been seen as much more than just an illustration but as an action guaranteeing the fulfilment of what was being described. It was an acted out prophecy, and the acting out would be seen as guaranteeing its fulfilment, whilst the very knowledge of what Jeremiah had done, and the distance that he had to travel, would have brought home to all who knew of it the seriousness of what was being revealed.

Some, however, have argued that prth indicated a local river, such as a river at Prh (see Joshua 18.23), possibly known locally in jest as ‘the Euphrates’ (prth). On the other hand, considering the seriousness of the message it may well have been felt necessary for the long journeys to be made, in order to underline that seriousness (compare how Isaiah went barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20.3) and Ezekiel had to lay on his side for over a year (Ezekiel 4.4-8) with a similar message in mind). The disappearance of the prophet for so long a time would in itself underline the seriousness of his message and cause questions to be asked, and the very arduousness of the journey would symbolise the horrors of the journey into exile..

13.6 ‘And it came about after many days, that YHWH said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide there.”

After the girdle had been allowed to remain buried for many days, Jeremiah was commanded to go Prth and dig it up.

13.7 ‘Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hidden it, and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.’

And when he did so he discovered that, as we might have expected, the girdle had become mouldy. This was to be seen as the inevitable result of its connection with the country around the Euphrates. Some see this as indicating that the contact with the northern countries has marred Judah making it sinful and idolatrous and disobedient to the covenant. Others consider that its message is that having been carried away to the Euphrates in exile they will in the main moulder away there. For whilst eventually some few did make their way back, the majority did not do so but remained in exile. However the interpretation given below concentrates more on what YHWH will do to His people through the people who were linked with the Euphrates. It would result in the fact that their ‘pride’, their wealth, prosperity and national identity would be marred.

13.8 ‘Then the word of YHWH came to me, saying,’

This experience was then made the subject of a word from YHWH.

13.9 “Thus says YHWH, In this same way will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.”

For YHWH declared that just as the linen cloth had become mouldy, so would the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. They would lose their wealth and prosperity, and their cherished independence, and would be humbled to the dust. They would no longer be able to see themselves as a proud and independent nation, and would no longer glory in what was theirs.

The word for ‘pride’ when used in this way is regularly linked to the fruitfulness of the land (Leviticus 26.19; Isaiah 4.2; Micah 2.2) and in Amos 6.8 is paralleled with their palaces. In Isaiah 23.9 it has more to do with honour. Thus it has reference to the glory of their fruitful fields, the glory of their palaces and of the court, and to glory of their honour.

13.10 “This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this girdle, which is profitable for nothing.”

Indeed they would be profitable for nothing. And this would be because of their evil doings in that they had refused to hear His words, but had rather walked in the stubbornness of their hearts, going after other gods to worship them. Like the mouldy girdle they had revealed themselves as useless and profitable for nothing and would therefore become that.

13.11 “For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says YHWH, that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, but they would not hear.”

But this was the very opposite of what He had intended for them, for what He had intended was that the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah (note the emphasis on their disunity) would be united with Him in the covenant, being His united people who brought honour and worship to His Name, and were to His praise and glory. They were to be His witness to the nations. However, it had not happened because they simply would not listen.

Judah Are Likened To A Nation Of Prospective Inebriates As They Live Life To Excess And Are Warned Of What The Consequences Of Such Living Will Be (13.12-14).

In a vivid metaphor YHWH now likens the people of Judah to wine jars which will be filled with wine, indicating excess and drunkenness, who will consequently smash against each other, leading up to their destruction. In the choice between flesh and spirit, worldliness and YHWH, they have chosen the flesh, and will reap what they have sown. Compare Paul’s comparison of drinking wine to excess with being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5.18. The world ever has to face the choice between self-indulgence or true response towards God.

13.12 “Therefore you shall speak to them this word, ‘Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, Every earthenware wine-jar will be filled with wine,’ and they will say to you, ‘Don’t we certainly know that every earthenware wine-jar will be filled with wine?’ ”

In a typical Jeremaic to and fro YHWH likens ‘all the inhabitants of the land’ to wine jars which will be filled with wine, indicating their participation in excess and drunkenness, a picture which those inhabitants then naively misinterpret, taking YHWH’s words prosaically as signifying reference to a storage situation. (They have eyes but see not, ears but hear not - 5.21).

The words may have been a well known proverb indicating that everything finds its proper use, but with YHWH here deliberately giving it a deeper meaning. Others see it as a proverb guaranteeing prosperity, the harvests will be such that all jars made to contain it will be filled. But YHWH intends it to be used in a different way from normal as a symbol of their drunkenness and levity, and of the judgment coming on them.

13.13 “Then you will say to them, Thus says YHWH, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.”

Their misinterpretation is then brought out as YHWH makes His position clear. What He has been indicating was that the whole nation, including the Davidic king, the priests and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of the land would be filled with drunkenness, both physical and spiritual (compare Isaiah 29.9). It is describing a nation, together with both its political and religious advisers, living on the edge and to excess, and also drunk in idolatry. Drunkenness was a major problem of the age, and cheap wine often freely available (compare Isaiah 5.11, 22; 28.7; Amos 2.12). The result will be that the pressures of the times, probably combined with the over-confidence of the people in the face of falsely optimistic prophecy, or possibly their fears in the face of Babylonian oppression, are seen as leading to excessive and uncontrolled behaviour. They have sowed to themselves in wine, they will reap in drunkenness. We might see here a repeating of the idea found in Isaiah 22.13 of, ‘Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die’.

But two further ideas may be in mind. The first is that of the receiving of YHWH’s judgments, something which is often depicted in terms of drinking wine in that it symbolises the anger of YHWH (25.15-17; Isaiah 52.17). That also may be the idea here. It may be expressing the truth that ‘in the hand of YHWH there is a cup and the wine foams, it is full of mixture, and YHWH pours out of the same’ (Psalm 75.8; compare Revelation 14.10). The second is that of drinking of the wine of Babylon, the heavy wine of sophistication and false glory, something which explains why they will behave with such madness (51.7).

13.14 “And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, the word of YHWH, I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.”

The idea here would appear to be that of wine jars clashing together and breaking (compare Isaiah 30.14), and is presumably a picture of their over indulgence being such that it leads to extreme and careless behaviour and attitudes, to in-fighting amongst themselves and to in-family quarrelling affecting the relationship between a father and his adult sons. Their living is seen as being like a riotous party in which all restraint has been removed. It may also signify political differences as the fathers recommend prudence and the sons are all out for taking up a position of proud independence in the face of Babylonian pressure. The consequence will, however, be destruction. Note the threefold assurance that YHWH will not step in and help. ‘I will not pity, I will not spare, I will not have compassion’. They have made their choice and their rebellion has gone too far.

A Final Appeal For Repentance Before It Is Too Late, For if They Do Fail To Respond Their Final Judgment Will Come Upon Them (13.15-27).

The people are called on to look to YHWH while there is still a glimmer of light, because if they do not gross darkness will descend upon them, something which causes Jeremiah to weep at what is coming. The assumption then being made that they will refuse to respond, it results in advice being given to the monarchy to divest themselves of their signs of authority, an indication of subjugation, and the warning being given that the whole land even down to the Negeb will shortly be deserted. This is because those to whom they have cosied up (both their neighbours and especially Babylon) will take possession of them, with the result that they will be embarrassed and shamed, something pictured in graphic terms on the basis of their lascivious behaviour in the hills.

13.15 “Hear you, and give ear. Do not be proud. For YHWH has spoken.” 13.16 “Give glory to YHWH your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the mountains of gathering gloom (twilight), and, while you look for light, he turn it into the deep darkness, and make it gross darkness.”

If only they will turn and give glory to YHWH whilst there is still a glimmer of light all could be well. But if they refuse to turn then He will cause darkness to surround them, and the mountains on which they live and move will become dark mountains in the same way as day becomes night, and while they are looking for some glimmer of light He will turn it into deep darkness, and make it gross darkness.

‘Give glory to YHWH your God.’ This may have been a regular way of calling on men to recognise and admit their sin. Compare its use in Joshua 7.19; Malachi 2.2; John 9.24.

13.17 “But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; and my eye will weep sore, and run down with tears, because YHWH’s flock is taken captive.”

But what if they do not hear and repent? Then Jeremiah will weep for them in secret because of their proud obstinacy. His eyes will weep until they are sore, and will run down with tears. He is trying to bring home to them the seriousness of the situation. And why will he weep like this? Because they, YHWH’s flock, have been taken captive. They have been carried off into exile. The idea was almost incomprehensible. YHWH’s flock taken captive by others! But they had observed its happening to Israel. Now it would happen to them. YHWH’s favour was dependent on their response.

Paradoxically the people may still have prided themselves on the fact that they were ‘YHWH’s flock’. People are very good at assuming that they are special and that God looks down on them benevolently no matter what they do. But they are to recognise that far from that being so they will soon be a captive flock in the hands of strangers. It is not, however, something that Jeremiah is complacent about. It grieves him to his heart. This should not be happening to the flock of YHWH and is only doing so because of their intransigence and obstinacy.

13.18 “Say you to the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, get down, for your head ornaments are come down, even the crown of your glory.”

Jeremiah now seeks to bring home the implications of his message. The king and queen mother will have to step down from their thrones in acts of humiliation. Their crowns and head ornaments will come down from their heads as they are divested of their glorious crowns which indicate their status. They will become subjects and humble suppliants. If they will not humble themselves before YHWH, they will be humbled before another who has less good intentions towards them.

Note the reference to the queen mother. The constant reference to the queen mother in Kings brings out the special status that she enjoyed in Judah. She may even have acted as regent when the king was absent. Many associate this passage with Jehoiachin who with his mother was carried off to Babylon (2 Kings 24.12). But it could relate to any Judean royal house.

13.19 “The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them. Judah is carried away captive, all of it, it is wholly carried away captive.”

A further consequence is indicated. The ‘cities of the south’ are the cities of the far south, the Negeb (compare Genesis 12.9), the semi-desert pastureland which was the southern border of Judah. Even those remote cities on the farthest borders away from the north will be affected. They will be closed up because there will be no one available to open their gates. They will be cities of the dead. (Compare Isaiah 24.10). In other words they will be desolate, and all of Judah will have gone into captivity. The rape of Judah is in mind. Few will be left in the land.

13.20 “Lift up your eyes, and behold those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock?”

And who will do this to them? Let them lift up their eyes and look to the north. It is the invaders who come from there who will do it. Where then will be the flock that YHWH gave to the leaders of Judah to watch over, their beautiful flock? Compare 23.1; 50.6, 17; Isaiah 53.6; Ezekiel 34.6. The feminine singular verbs and pronouns indicate that ‘the daughter of Jerusalem’ (i.e. as responsible for its inhabitants, and those who lived around it) is in mind.

13.21 “What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be your friends? Will not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?”

The greatest ignominy will be found in that their conqueror will set over them rulers from among those with whom they have at one time or another been in alliance. They had ‘taught them to be their friends’ and now they would have been set over them. It would cause them grief of heart and anguish like that of a woman bearing a child, used as an illustration because it was the worst kind of experience that men came across in their daily lives. Certainly when Nehemiah came back Jerusalem would be subject to Sanballat the governor of Aram (Syria) in association with Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian, together with the Ammonites, the Arabians and the Ashdodites (Nehemiah 4.1, 17; 6.1).

13.22a “And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come on me?’”

At some stage they will begin to question in their why all this has happened to them. It will be the first stage in possible repentance. verse 24 reveals that this was to be seen as YHWH speaking.

13.22b “Because of the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.”

And the answer is already provided for them. It is because of the greatness of their iniquity. This is a reminder, as so much of Jeremiah is a reminder, of the seriousness with which God views sin and disobedience to His commandments. We must never think that because forgiveness is so freely offered by God that it means that our sins are not really important. We have only to look at the blood-stained and awful history of the world to see what devastation sin has wrought. And it is our sin. Some ask why God allows these things? The answer is clear. It is because if He once interfered ALL of us to the very last man and woman would perish.

And it was because of their indwelling sin that they would be humiliated before the nations. The uncovering of the skirts was, outside the privacy of marriage, an act of contempt and shame. No one bothered about the uncovering of a prostitute. The ‘heels suffering violence’ may be a euphemism for being violently sexually assaulted or even raped. Prostitutes were regularly treated harshly by their clients. Thus Judah were being revealed as spiritual prostitutes. Alternately the clothes that indicated the rank of the great ladies may be in mind. The ‘heels suffering violence’ probably then refers to men and women who were used to being properly shod being forced to march barefoot (compare Isaiah 20.2-4). They were used to allowing their heels to hit the ground first, and being unused to walking barefoot, would, once they were led away as captives, soon experience the consequences.

13.23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.”

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” was a well known proverb. In the Ancient Near East the North African (strictly speaking not Ethiopian, rather northern Sudanese) was noted for his darker than normal skin. Rather than being olive skinned he was black. No racism was intended. It was simply a matter of fact. As was also the case with the leopard. It could not disguise itself by removing its spots. It was stuck with them. Both were facts of life. So was it also a fact of life that those who were hardened in sin did not ‘do good’. They might appear to do so, but it would be from a wrong motive. They were hardened sinners. Judah’s judgment was coming on them because they were so hardened in sin that there was no hope of repentance. (Compare Jesus’ warning to the Pharisees that they were in danger of becoming the same - Mark 3.29).

13.24 “Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble which passes away by the wind of the wilderness.”

And it was because they were so hardened in sin that YHWH would scatter them in the same way as the stubble left in the fields is picked up by the wind and scattered (compare Psalm 1.4; Job 21.18). The wind from the wilderness was the fierce east wind which was so often used as a picture of judgment.

13.25 “This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,” the word of YHWH, “Because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.”

YHWH makes it clear that while they have brought it on themselves it is His hand that is at work in what is happening. It is the lot that He has chosen for them, the portion that He is measuring out to them, because they have forgotten Him and put their trust in lies. And this is the prophetic word of YHWH, guaranteed and certain.

Notice the twofold emphasis. On the one hand YHWH is carrying out His will in accordance with His own determination. On the other it is man in his extreme sinfulness who must bear the responsibility. He brings his judgments on himself.

We are reminded here, as so often, of two parallel strands in history. God does not cause men to be vile, and to behave vilely, but He utilises their vileness as they freely exercise it (and are therefore to blame for it) in bringing about His purposes. men may think that they are in control, but overall it is God Who is in control. The same idea lies behind the words, ‘shall evil come on a city and YHWH has not done it?’ (Amos 3.6).

13.26 “Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame will appear.”

And it is because of their evil behaviour in forgetting God and listening to palatable lies that they are to be exposed to shame. They will be treated with the contempt with which a common prostitute was treated in those days, as a thing of nought, to be exposed and humiliated without a thought. They will be laid bare before the nations.

13.27 “I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighings, the lewdness of your whoredom, on the hills in the open country (fields). Woe to you, O Jerusalem! you will not be made clean. How long will it yet be?”

But it will be very much a case of reaping what they have sowed. They have revealed themselves as no better than common prostitutes by their lewd behaviour on the open hills. Their neighings (cries of lust and passion) and their willingness to engage in free sex at their hilltop sanctuaries will rebound upon them.

And because they have now gone too far there is no opportunity of cleansing for the present generation. Their behaviour and attitudes have negated all their ritual activity in the Temple, which is no longer acceptable. All that they can expect to face is ‘WOE’. And this will be so for a long time to come. How long it will be is left an open question (elsewhere it is fixed at seventy years (25.11, 12; 29.10) dated from the initial exile, and then at seventy ‘sevens’ (Daniel 9) indicating a long while to come).

Section 5. The Word Concerning The Droughts: The Certainty Of Exile For Judah (14.1-17.27).

The new section is again introduced by the words ‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah --’ (14.1) although in slightly altered form (literally ‘that which came, the word of YHWH, to Jeremiah’). “The word concerning the droughts” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile, although a promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is also incorporated (16.14-15), but this only with a view to stressing the general judgment (14.1-17.4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced in the observance of the Sabbath (17.5-27).

The Lesson of The Great Droughts (14.1-10).

As a preliminary warning of what is coming YHWH sends a great drought on Judah with the result that the cisterns are empty, the springs are dry, the pastures are bare and the ground is parched and cracked. Of course according to their then current theology it was Baal who should have ensured the supplies of rain as a result of their ritual antics before him, for he was the god of rain and storm, but they recognise that he had failed them, and that in such circumstances there was only one final port of call and that was to YHWH. So recognising it for what it was, a judgment from YHWH because of their sins (compare Leviticus 26.19 ff; Deuteronomy 11.17; 28.23), the people cry to Him in a well rehearsed ritual only to discover that this time He has no intention of responding because He is sick of their wandering. In view of His past mercies it is an unexpected warning shot across their bows. Like so many they had always been confident that in the last analysis they would be able to persuade YHWH to help them even if they had rather neglected the covenant. Had He not done so in the past time and again? Now was the time for them to be pulled up short and to learn that even YHWH’s patience had its limits.

The passage divides up into three parts, the first revealing the depths of the droughts (14.1-6), the second reflecting their response in supposed penitence (14.7-9), and the third indicating YHWH’s negative counter-response (14.10).

The Depths Of The Series Of Droughts (14.1-6).

The plural for ‘droughts’ suggests that there had been a series of droughts, probably over a number of years. Such droughts did occur in Canaan from time to time and their effects could be devastating. In the days of Joseph there had been one lasting for seven years, which had caused the move to Egypt. In the days of David there was one that lasted for three years ‘year after year’ (2 Samuel 21.1) which caused great distress. In the days of Elijah there was one that lasted for three and a half years (1 Kings 17-18). Thus while, thankfully, comparatively rare, such severe droughts were not unknown.

14.1 ‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.’

We are not told whether this word comes before the periods of the droughts, thus acting as a prophecy of their coming (as with Elijah - 1 Kings 17.1), or whether it came when the series of droughts were already in process with the emphasis being on the depth of the droughts and the lesson that follows.

Unlike Egypt with the Nile, and Mesopotamia with its great rivers, Judah and the surrounding countries very much depended on the rains for its water (and therefore on the God of Heaven - Leviticus 26.4; Deuteronomy 8.7; 11.11; 28.12). When the rains were normal water was reasonably plentiful, but when the rains were sparse then the land suffered. Thus a period of two or three years when water was really scarce could bring the land to its knees. Reserves would soon be used up, cisterns would be drunk dry and the land would soon become barren. Water would be at a premium. That was the situation being described here.

14.2

Jeremiah draws a vivid picture of the feelings of the population as they saw their land withering around them and struggled to find sufficient water for their families, while the hot sun continued to beat down. Judah was in mourning. Those who sat in the gates, the elders responsible for the cities and towns, were anxious and troubled. They had clothed themselves in black as a sign of their distress, whilst from the whole of Jerusalem a plaintive cry went up, ‘for pity’s sake send us rain’.

14.3

Even the large and wealthy households were without water. They sent their servants to their large cisterns, but they found no water there, and came back with their vessels empty, ashamed and confounded, and with their heads covered as a sign of their distress. This covering of their heads as a sign of distress is also mentioned in 2 Samuel 15.30; 19.5.

We are reminded here of Ahab’s exhaustive and in depth searching of the land of Israel for sources of water during the great drought in the days of Elijah, when he had led one search party, and his chief minister the other. See 1 Kings 18.5-6.

14.4

And it was not only the lowly servants who had to cover their heads in distress. The ground was cracked (literally ‘was struck with terror, dismayed’), there was no rain on it, and the ploughmen thus ploughed in vain, also ashamed because they were producing no food for their dependants, and they too were covering their heads in distress. There was distress throughout the land in both town and countryside.

14.5

The droughts were such that even the hinds, famous for their motherly instinct, abandoned their new born calves because there was no grass, and therefore no milk for their calves.

14.6

And it was no better in the wild. The wild asses standing on the heights in the burning sun were desperate for air and panted as though they were jackals (we would say, like a dog). In the burning sun they were becoming dehydrated, weak and feeble, with their sight failing, because there was no vegetation (although the idea may simply be that ‘their eyes failed’ because there was nothing to see).

Thus the whole land was affected and the situation was becoming desperate. All their efforts to make the gods concerned about their problems had failed and so at last they began again to think about YHWH.

The People Cry To YHWH In Their Distress (14.7-9).

Things had come to such a pass with the effects of the droughts that the people began to visit the Temple in droves and call on YHWH. Of course, it had not been so to begin with. They had initially engaged in their usual antics in the high places on the mountains and in the cities, offering incense and seeking to stimulate the gods with their sexual activities, being confident that they would receive a response. But year after year no answer had come. The drought had continued, and at length they were brought to realise that this must be YHWH’s doing. That was why they now turned to YHWH, and why He was so sickened by their approach. For He knew that they had come to Him, not because they wanted to seek His face, but because they had reached an impasses where there was nowhere else for them to turn. He was simply the last resort.

14.7 ‘Though our iniquities testify against us,

It is regularly at times of national emergency that men and women seek God, for then there is nowhere else to look. It was so then. It is so now. And then when the emergency is past they conveniently forget Him again. But God was not deceived, even though they gave every appearance of genuineness. They admitted that their sins testified against them, and confessed their sinfulness. They even admitted to the many times that they had backslidden in the past (while making no promises for the future). And they asked YHWH to work ‘for His Name’s sake’, in other words, in order to demonstrate that He was still their covenant God Whom they could turn to when all else failed. Sadly they saw Him as the God of last resort.

14.8

They acknowledged now that they recognised Him as ‘the hope of Israel’ (something that had been slipping their mind for years) and as their ‘Saviour in time of trouble’ (when all else failed and everyone else to whom they had been giving glory let them down). Both thoughts would, of course, have been true if they had been faithful to Him. But addressed to One Whom they had forgotten for years it had a hollow ring to it. Then they asked Him why He should act like a passing traveller, or a resident alien, when surely Jerusalem was His dwellingplace. It was language designed to flatter or to persuade YHWH of what was His duty because He was the God of Israel. There was no genuine repentance or submission in it. They wanted Him while it was convenient and there was a drought to get rid of.

14.9 ‘Why should you be as a frightened (or bewildered) man,

They then called on Him to reveal His true worth in positive action, and to demonstrate that He was not inadequate. Let Him stand up and be counted. Let Him act and prove Himself. Surely He was not like a coward who held back from acting, or like a mighty man who was in no position to save because of his own insufficiency? Surely He was not that inadequate?

Then they pointed out that it was He Who dwelt among them and that they were called by His Name. Were they not said to be YHWH’s people? Surely then it was His responsibility to save them, and prove Himself at the same time. And it was on that basis they called on Him not to desert them. But as will be noted, while there was a lot of attempt at persuasion, and at putting YHWH under an obligation, they said nothing about their obligations, or their returning to the covenant and beginning to walk in obedience to Him. Their prayers were mainly flannel as a last desperate hope. They were playing Him like a musician plays his stringed instrument.

YHWH’s Reply To His People (14.10).

14.10 ‘Thus says YHWH to this people,

But this time YHWH’s reply was one of rejection. It was no good their deserting Him, and then calling on Him not to desert them. They had done it too often before. But what they had proved was that they loved to wander away from Him. They had made no real attempt to prevent their feet from straying. Now therefore it was too late. While in the past He had often responded to such entreaties, now He was not willing to accept them back. Rather He would remember their iniquity and visit on them their sins. They had reached the end of the road.

YHWH Informs Jeremiah That He Will No Longer Hear His People But Rather Intends To Continue To Visit Them with the Sword And With Famine (14.11-18).

Once again we learn with something of a shock that God no longer wished Jeremiah to pray for His people (compare 7.16; 11.14). The time when He would respond to prayer for them was past. Now only judgment awaited, judgment by sword, famine and pestilence. They had rebelled against Him once too often. It is a reminder to us that there does come a time when God has been so rejected that the time for mercy ceases, and only judgment awaits. We cannot go on putting Him off for ever.

A different story, however, was being taught by the false prophets. They were promising that YHWH would bring peace to Jerusalem. But YHWH assured Jeremiah that they had not been sent by Him and that what they were prophesying was lies. Indeed they too would experience the sword and the famine, along with the people. (This may well have been prophesied prior to the great famine described above). Meanwhile Jeremiah himself was to confirm that not only Jerusalem, but also the whole land, was soon to experience sword and famine.

14.11-12 ‘And YHWH said to me,

YHWH informs Jeremiah that he was not to pray for good to come to His people, for He would no longer hear such prayers. When they fasted He would not hear their cry, when they offered their burnt offerings and cereal offerings He would not accept them, for their hearts were not right and they were not coming to Him in restored obedience to His covenant. Intercession for them would thus no longer be successful, for His intention was to consume them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. These were three of the curses which were threatened for breach of the covenant. See Leviticus 26.19-20, 25, 33; Deuteronomy 28.21-24, 49-52. The three regularly went together, as well as occurring independently. War would bring famine, and famine would bring pestilence, or they could occur independently.

14.13 ‘Then said I, “Ah, Lord YHWH! Behold, the prophets say to them, You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.”

Jeremiah then points out that many prophets claiming to speak in the name of YHWH were promising the people that neither sword nor famine would come on them, but that they would have assured peace ‘in this place’. There are never lacking those who will promise fair weather ahead, and who dismiss ideas of God’s severity against sin, and there were plenty such in the final days of Judah before disaster came on them, as there had been previously in the days of Micah 3.8-11. It was, of course, a popular message and one that the people wanted to hear, and made life very difficult for Jeremiah with his constant warnings of judgment. It was such prophets whose urgings were responsible for the final fatal rebellion against Babylon.

14.14 ‘Then YHWH said to me,

YHWH’s reply is comprehensive as He describes the activities of such prophets, many involving methods condemned by the covenant. He declared that what these prophets were declaring in His name were lies, and that they were not prophets who had been sent by Him, or who had been commanded by Him, or who had heard His voice speaking to them (note the threefold rebuttal), for He had not spoken to them. They were thus not authorised to speak in His name. What they prophesied was a lying vision, which included what they learned from divination which was forbidden by the Law. It was a nonsense, a thing of nought, arising from their being taken up with ‘no-gods’ (as many are today), and it arose from the deceit within their own hearts.

14.15 “Therefore thus says YHWH concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land.’ By sword and famine will those prophets be consumed.”

Such prophets were declaring that ‘the sword and famine will not be found in this land’. But the truth was that those prophets would themselves experience the sword and the famine.

14.16 “And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they will have none to bury them - them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.”

And not only would the false prophets experience it, but also the sinful people of Jerusalem. There would be massive slaughter and large numbers of deaths as a result of famine and sword, so that the bodies would be thrown out into the streets with none to bury them. And this would happen to all, to the menfolk, to their wives, and to their sons and daughters because He would pour out on them the punishment for their many sins. This no doubt partially occurred during the droughts described above as people died of malnourishment, but it would be multiplied over and over again when the invaders arrived.

14.17 “And you shall say this word to them,

Jeremiah is to appeal to the people on the basis of his own grief for them. He is to bring home to them that his eyes run with tears day and night because of what is coming on his people. Here was no hardened, denunciating prophet, but a prophet whose love reached out longingly on behalf of his people, even though he knew that there was no hope for them. Right to the end they would have no excuse for their failure to respond from the heart to YHWH.

But the reason for his tears was the terrible wound that was about to be inflicted on Judah, a great breach that would break them. And this is made all the more terrible by his description of them as ‘the virgin daughter of my people’, a description which brings out their helplessness in the face of such a fearsome enemy (compare 6.2; 8.11, 19). The pathos is underlined by the fact that this is what they should have been, a pure daughter, untarnished and untouched. The irony comes out in that they were far from that, having adulterated themselves with idols.

14.18

Jeremiah looks ahead and describes the vision of the future that YHWH has given him. Wherever he goes he will find nothing but death. When he goes into the open country all he will find will be bodies slain with the sword. When he enters the besieged cities he will find nothing but famine and need. There is much sickness because of famine. In contrast when the priests and the prophets go about the land they see nothing of this. For they are without the knowledge of what YHWH is going to do. They are oblivious to the future. They ‘go about the land and know not’.

Jeremiah Still Feels That He Must Make Some Plea On Behalf Of His People, But Is Firmly Informed That Even Though Moses And Samuel Were There To Plead The Cause Of The People They Would Not Prevail, Because Judgment On His Obstinate people Was Determined (14.19-15.9).

Jeremiah puts in a desperate plea for his people, unable to believe that YHWH has utterly rejected His people, and acknowledges their sin on their behalf, calling on YHWH not to forget His covenant. For he recognises that only YHWH can end the series of droughts. But he learns that for this generation YHWH’s rejection is indeed final, and that even the intercessions of men like Moses and Samuel would have made no difference. The only end that awaits is death through wild beasts, through the sword, through famine and through captivity, the latter resulting in their being scattered among the nations. And this is because of what Manasseh had done in Jerusalem in leading it astray after idols, a leading astray which they had avidly seized on to and participated in even after Manasseh’s repentance. For even though He had made every effort to win them back they had not returned from their ways. Thus inevitable judgment must come upon them. There is in this a warning for us all not to delay repentance, lest we become hardened and the opportunity slip away.

14.19

The pattern of questions here should be compared with 2.14 where a similar pattern is followed, two general questions followed by a request for an explanation. Here Jeremiah (or the people) just cannot intellectually accept that YHWH has rejected Judah, and views Zion with loathing, and seeks an explanation as to why they have been smitten with no remedy available. They had looked for such a remedy, but it had not come, and all that they had received in respect of the time of healing that they sought was dismay because it had not happened. (The questions will be answered in 15.5-6).

14.20-21

Jeremiah then confesses the people’s sins on their behalf, and calls on YHWH not to bring dishonour on Himself by not responding and by breaking His covenant. It was a similar basis to that on which Moses had previously prayed for the people centuries before when he had been concerned for YHWH’s honour and for His faithfulness to His promises made to Abraham, and then it had been effective (Exodus 32.11-13). But that had been in the beginning when the nation was still young, not when it had become hardened by sin as it was now.

‘The throne of your glory’ probably refers to Jerusalem as containing the Dwellingplace of YHWH (compare 3.17; Ezekiel 43.7). His hope was still that YHWH would observe the covenant even in the face of the people’s disobedience. He still clung to the hope that it was not too late for God to show mercy. But he is to learn that it is now too late for that (15.1).

14.22

The drought is still in mind as Jeremiah asserts on behalf of the people that he at least recognises the futility of appealing to false gods. He recognises that there are none among the gods of the nations who can bring showers when called on. They cannot cause it to rain. Nor can the heavens (the sun, moon and stars). It is only YHWH Who can do such things because He is the Creator. Because His is ‘HE’, the One Who is. That is why he and the people need to ‘wait for Him’ (pray in expectancy and hope), because He made the rain and ‘all these things’.

Outwardly the people would appear to ‘wait for Him’, but it would only be by using ritual in order to persuade Him to act differently. There would be no thought of obedient response to the covenant.

YHWH’s Response To Jeremiah’s Plea Is Of The Absolute Certainty And Awfulness Of The Coming Judgment (15.1-9).

In the face of Jeremiah’s plea YHWH now makes clear that nothing can now stop His judgment from coming. Even though those two great intercessors Moses and Samuel were to pray for them it would be of no avail. (Compare for this Exodus 32.11-13; Numbers 14.13-20; 1 Samuel 7.8-9; 12.23). Whatever is their allotted end must now come upon them, with the result that Judah will be ‘tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth’ as though they were a ball being tossed around in training. And all this was because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. It must not, however be thought that it was all because of one man. The point is rather that the nation had responded to Manasseh gladly, following his lead assiduously. It was what resulted from the people as a result of what Manasseh did that was the root cause of the problem. Had Manasseh been alone in his sin the situation would not have arisen. That is why Jeremiah then makes clear that it is the people as a whole who have rejected YHWH, and because of whom this judgment is necessary. For as YHWH explains, although He had made every effort to bring them back to Himself by various methods, all had failed. Whatever He had done to them they had not returned from their ways. That is why wholesale death and captivity was the only possible answer.

15.1 ‘Then YHWH said to me,

YHWH has twice told Jeremiah not to pray for good for Judah any more (7.16; 14.11). Now He explains that even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede for them in His very Dwellingplace (to stand before God’ was to approach Him in His Dwelling place, either the Tabernacle or the Temple) His mind would not turn favourably towards His people. Jeremiah was thus, as it were, to cast them out of His sight (out of the Temple where they were no longer welcome), and to cause them to go forth from the land.

Moses and Samuel were seen as the two great intercessors who had prevailed in prayer for God’s people when they had least deserved it (see Psalm 99.6):

• Moses at the time of the worship of the golden calf when YHWH had proposed destroying the people and beginning again (Exodus 32.11-13) and then when the people had rejected the advice of the two scouts, Joshua and Caleb, about obeying YHWH and going ahead with the invasion of Canaan, when His proposal had been the same.
• Samuel in the face of the invasion by the Philistines (1 Samuel 7.8-9), and then when the people had rejected YHWH as their King because they wanted a human being to fight their battles for them (1 Samuel 12, especially vv. 19-23).

But even these great intercessors could not have helped Judah in their present predicament. Their corporate sin was a sin too far. YHWH’s mind had thus turned away from them and He wanted them cast out, both from the Temple and from the land, as He had warned would be the case in Numbers 18.25, 28.

15.2 “And it will come about that, when they say to you, ‘Where shall we go forth?’, then you will tell them,”

Nor was their casting out to be a pleasant experience, for it was intended to teach them a salutary lesson. Thus when they asked, ‘where will we go forth’ the reply was not in respect of their geographical destination, but in terms of the fates that awaited them. Those destined for a quick death through some means, would die. Probably pestilence was mainly in mind for pestilence, sword and famine are regularly mentioned together (14.12; 21.6-7, 9; 24.10; and often. See also Job 27.15). Those who were destined to die by the sword would die by the sword. Those who were destined to waste away in the famine, would waste away in the famine. And those who were destined for captivity would go into captivity.

15.3

Furthermore YHWH had appointed four kinds of executioners, the sword to slay, the dogs to tear at the carcasses (as they had that of Jezebel - 2 Kings 9.35-36), the scavenger birds to peck at the remains, and the beastly scavengers to finish off what was left. Nothing was seen as worse by people of that time than to have one’s body a prey to scavengers after death (see 2 Samuel 21.10; Ezekiel 39.17-20; compare 1 Samuel 31.12), but that was to be the fate of Judah.

15.4 “And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”

Those who survived would also find themselves in trouble. They would be ‘tossed to and fro’ among the kingdoms of the earth. No one would want them (compare Deuteronomy 28.25 where they were to be ‘a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth’). And it would be because of the wholesale idolatry that Manasseh had introduced in Jerusalem. But the thought is not that they were being punished for the sins of Manasseh, but that they were being punished because they had connived with Manasseh in his sins. Hezekiah had sought to purify Jerusalem and Judah, but the people had been only too glad when Manasseh had led them back into the old ways. They had cooperated fully.

15.5 “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your welfare?”

In consequence no one will have pity on Jerusalem Their future isolation is emphasised threefold. None will have pity on Jerusalem and its people. None will be sad because of their fate. None would be concerned about their welfare. They would be ‘on their own’ with no one caring for them.

15.6 “You have rejected me, the word of YHWH, you are gone backwards, therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you. I am weary with repenting.”

And this was because of what they had done. They had rejected YHWH, that was ‘the verdict of YHWH’. And they had gone backwards, deserting His covenant. That was why He was stretching out His hand against them, and would destroy them. he was tired of changing His mind about judging them, only for them to re-sin again and again.

15.7 “And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land, I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people, they did not return from their ways.”

It was not that He had made no attempt to get them to alter their ways. He had sought to remove their chaff (winnowed them with a winnowing fork, tossing them as it were as grain into the air for the wind to remove the chaff) either by seeking to ensure justice in the gates of the land (where the local courts of justice would meet), or possibly by enemies attacking their cities where the gates would be the prime target. He had allowed their children (whether young or old) to die in differing ways, hoping that this would wake them up to their sins. (Nothing brings men closer to considering God than a death in the family). He had brought destruction on them hoping that when His judgments were in the land the people would learn righteousness (Isaiah 26.9). But it had all been in vain. They had not returned from their ways. They had not sought to renew the covenant.

15.8 “Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas, I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday, I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.”

Such is to be the slaughter that the number of widows in the land will multiply ‘above the sands of the sea’, a reversal of the promise made by God to Abraham that He would multiply his seed as the sand of the sea (Genesis 22.17). Mothers will see their sons of whom they were so proud destroyed by the destroyer ‘at noonday’ (thus so remorseless that they come at the most unexpected time, in the heat of the sun), and will recognise that it is also coming on themselves. They will be filled with anguish and terror. And all this will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. (Alternately the ‘mother of the young men’ may be Judah itself).

15.9 “She who has borne seven languishes, she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and confounded, and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, the word of YHWH.”

The woman who had borne seven sons (a full complement) should have been able to have confidence that at least some would survive, but even she will mourn and languish, because all her sons will have been taken. Her giving up of the spirit probably signifies hopelessness or fainting. She will have given up any hope of their survival. Her sun going down while it was yet day signifies that all brightness will have been removed from her life because of the death of her whole family. Her sons would have gone forth to battle with such great hopes, and supported by the pride of their mother at the thought of their success, only for her to be ashamed and confounded at the terrible news of defeat and death. And any who did survive would only survive in order to become further battle fodder for the sword. It was death all round of the bravest and the best. This was the assured word of YHWH.

Jeremiah Too Feels That He Has Been Born To Affliction And Strife But Is Comforted By YHWH As He Outlines The Future That Lies Ahead, Including The Invasion From The North (15.10-14).

The thought of the mothers who have borne their sons only for them to die turns Jeremiah’s thoughts to his own situation, equally terrible in his eyes. Is his mother any better off? She may not have physically lost him but she has borne him only for him to cause strife and contention worldwide, and even in his own family (12.6), with the result that in spite of the fact that he has not become involved with debt or with lending (in other words not with anything of a doubtful nature) all men curse him, something that he is finding difficult to bear, and something which must have been a great grief and affliction to her. She too had cause to ‘give up the spirit’ and be ashamed and confounded (verse 9).

Jeremiah Grieves Over His Unhappy Situation And The Effect That It Is Having On His Mother (15.10).

15.10

The ‘woe is me’ or ‘alas’ is wrung from him as he thinks about the mothers who will have lost their sons in verse 9, for he grieves over what his own mother has to bear. He recognises that while his own mother may not have lost him to death she has lost him in another way. She has had to look on with grief in her heart as all men curse him and call him ‘traitor’ and she suffers the affliction of seeing every man’s hand turned against him, even that of his own family. And that is in spite of the fact that he has given them no reason to hate him apart from by his acting as YHWH’s mouthpiece. For he has lent no money, thus making men wary of him, nor does he owe money, causing dissension through not paying it back (see Deuteronomy 23.19; Psalm 15.5). He is not involved in anything that is the usual cause of dissension between men. As far as he is aware there is nothing in his personal life that should cause them to hate him. But they do.

The reference to lending and borrowing brings out how much such activity was despised in Judah if it was connected with obtaining gain by doing so. This was in fact in accordance with the covenant which forbade lending for interest, apart from to foreigners (Deuteronomy 23.19-20; 15.2-3). Any loans to fellow Israelites had to be made in goodwill without any hope of gain (Deuteronomy 15.7-11).

YHWH Responds By Assuring Him That He Is Watching Over Him For Good For He And His Remnant Are The Hope Of The Future (15.11).

YHWH’s response is to encourage him by pointing out what He is doing through him, and what the future holds for him. He will act on his behalf ‘for good’. There is a difficulty in translating the word shrwthch. The natural translation would be to take it as a shortened form for ‘your remnant, those of you who remain’. Then we would read ‘Truly your remnant will be for good’. This, however, appears difficult to most (including the Masoretes) and causes them to seek an alternative which involves alterations in the text, a number of which have been suggested including, ‘I will serve/strengthen/afflict/ deliver you for good’. The Qere has here ‘I will deliver you --.’ The Hebrew srr produces ‘I will afflict you --.’. The Aramaic sra produces ‘I will strengthen you --.’ The use of srh produces ‘I have served you --.’ The general meaning is, however, clear, that YHWH will act on his behalf and watch over him.

15.11 ‘YHWH said,

Accepting the MT ‘those who remain (faithful to YHWH)’, YHWH’s response to Jeremiah’s despair is to assure him that while it may not appear like it, He is using him and his disciples (those who remain loyal) ‘for good’. They are the one bright spot in the gathering darkness. As with Elijah before him God has those set apart who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and they would be the foundation for the future.

Indeed in the future YHWH would cause some of those who were his enemies (opposed to him) to make supplication to him, both for his prophetic guidance, and for help in their distress, when the times of evil and affliction came on them. One example of such supplication would be Zedekiah’s private consultation with Jeremiah in 38.14 ff.; compare also reference to enquiries in 21.1-2; 37.7, 17. Note also his request for Jeremiah’s prayers in 37.3.

But Jeremiah Is To Recognise That His Prayers Will Not Alter What Must Inevitably Happen And The Total Desolation Of Judah (15.12-14).

15.12

But their supplication to Jeremiah would be in vain, because the future was already determined and would not be altered. Nothing could break the iron coming from the north accompanied by its bronze allies. They were powerful, unbreakable, invincible, and relentless, and they were coming at YHWH’s behest. Iron was seen as the strongest of metals, especially in warfare, while bronze was somewhat inferior but was also regularly used in warfare. Both were difficult to break. Thus the reference is to the power of Babylon and its slightly inferior allies. There may also be a reference here (‘iron from the north’) to a special type of iron of particularly strong quality known to have been produced in the Black Sea area. But as ‘the north’ is constantly used in describing the source of the future invasion (Babylon) that would appear to give the most satisfactory interpretation.

15.13

The words are spoken to Jeremiah as representative of the people of Judah. The iron (Babylon) coming from the north would take Judah’s substance and their treasure for spoil, at no cost to themselves. It would not be by trading or negotiation, but by expropriation. And that would be because of Judah’s widespread sins, sins committed all over Judah ‘within all her borders’. Judah had on the whole ceased to be the people of God. We have descriptions of the fulfilment of this in the carrying off of Temple treasures (and the treasures of the king’s house) in 52.15 ff.; 2 Kings 20.17; 24.13; 25.13 ff.; 2 Chronicles 35.7; 36.18.

The emphasis on ‘without price’ is intended to bring out the ignominy of their defeat, and in order to emphasise that they will be unable to do anything about it. They will be helpless in the hands of their enemies. We can compare Isaiah 52.3-5, another instance in which Israel had been ‘sold for nought’. But there it was with their redemption in mind, a totally different situation to this.

15.14

For all their treasures, including the Ark of the covenant of YHWH, as well as they themselves, will ‘pass over’ with their enemies into a land which is strange to them, an unknown land, and this was because YHWH’s anger had caused the kindling of a fire which will burn on them and their land (compare Deuteronomy 32.22). There is possibly a deliberate contrast here with the way in which Israel ‘passed over’ Jordan with the Ark of the covenant and with all their treasures when they first entered the land. Then it had been in triumph. Now that was being reversed. Judah would be passing out of the land along with the Ark of the Covenant and their other treasures. It would be to a land ‘which they do not know’. And this time they would have no Redeemer going with them (at least in the short term).

Private Dealings Between Jeremiah and YHWH (15.15-21).

In this passage where he is wrestling with self-doubt Jeremiah stresses that he has been faithful to God’s word (verse 16) and God’s ways (verse 17) and reminds Him of the loneliness that he has endured in serving Him (verse 17). In his anguish at what ministering for Him has meant for him (verse 18), for it has been very costly, he calls on God and asks Him to step in on his behalf (verse 15). He is clearly both troubled and puzzled as to why things are as they are. He was learning that God’s ways are not men’s ways, and finding it very hard.

We must never underestimate what Jeremiah had to go through. For long periods he stood ‘alone’ against the world with almost every man’s hand against him, while he himself bore the burden of the nation’s sin. We can understand therefore why it had begun to get him down.

YHWH’s reply is intriguing for it reveals that to some extent He saw Jeremiah as faltering in his ministry (verse 19). But He graciously promises him that if he will but return to Him with all his heart, and seek what is pure, true and right (verse 19), He will give him the strength to endure and make him strong in the face of his adversaries (verse 20), delivering him out of their hands (verse 21). He will restore him to being a successful ‘man of God’.

We have a reminder in this that while God will make all provision for us as we seek to serve Him, walking with Him does not promise an easy and carefree life, nor is it a guarantee of outward success. Indeed, like Jeremiah, we might find ourselves alone against the world. For like Jeremiah, some sow and see little reward, laying the foundation for others who will follow and reap. That is God’s way. Some sow in hardship for others to reap in rejoicing (John 4.34-38). And it is such lonely sowing that requires the greatest grace from God. But what all His people are called to do, whether they sow or reap, is to receive and rejoice in His word (verse 16), and not to be conformed to this world, but to keep themselves separate from ‘worldliness’ and worldly attitudes (verse 17), by having a new and transformed mind (Romans 12.2).

15.15

The first thing that he stresses here, and which is a comfort to him, is that YHWH knows exactly what his position is. ‘O YHWH you know.’ In the words of Job he could say, ‘you know the way that I take, and when you have tried me I will come forth as gold’ (application of Job 23.10). So he is confident in this at least that God has not forgotten him, and that He is acquainted with all his ways. Nevertheless he calls on Him urgently to take note of those ways (‘remember me’), and prays that God will ‘visit him’ by acting on his behalf, and will avenge him on his persecutors. This cry for vengeance may initially surprise us in the light of Jesus’ later teaching, but we should note that he is not himself by this seeking to take personal vengeance but, aware that what they are doing to him is because their hearts are hardened towards God, he is following out the injunction that declares, ‘vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord (See Romans 12.19; Deuteronomy 32.35; Hebrews 10.30; compare Luke 18.7; Revelation 6.10) and calling on Him to vindicate His word. We must remember in this regard that, unlike us, he is speaking of those for whom God has forbidden him to pray because their doom is determined (7.16; 11.14). Thus he knows that only judgment awaits them and his desire is to survive in order that he might see the vindication of his ministry as God brings His will about and obtains vengeance on His adversaries, as indeed He had promised him when He initially called him (1.14-16).

He recognises that at the present time God is showing longsuffering towards the people, giving them an opportunity, if they will, to repent, and he prays that such longsuffering may not result in his own demise. He might well have recalled that it had certainly had that result for Uriah the prophet (26.20-23). So he reminds Him in this regard of the reproach that he is suffering for His sake, and indicates firmly that he does not want to be cut off in the middle of his ministry with his work left undone.

15.16

He draws attention to his faithfulness to the word of YHWH. He had, he points out, fully absorbed His words (‘eaten them’) and they had been a delight to him. The ‘finding of His words’ may refer to the discovery of the Law Book in the Temple in the days of Josiah, or it may simply signify the different ways in which YHWH’s words came to him, for God is not restricted in His methods. But he stresses what a joy those words of God had been to him, and how they had rejoiced his heart. This was because he was one of God’s true people. He was ‘called by His Name’ (or more strictly had ‘His Name called upon him’), that is, the name of YHWH, God of hosts. To be ‘called by YHWH’s name’ was to be someone who responded to and served Him, honoured Him in his life, and revealed His attributes in his own life. That is what happens to anyone who is truly ‘begotten by the word of truth’ (James 1.18; compare John 3.1-6; 2 Corinthians 5.17; 1 Peter 1.23). By their fruits they are known.

15.17

Jeremiah points out the loneliness that he had suffered because of his concern for the truth of YHWH, and the price that he had been willing to pay. He had not joined in with those who made merry, he did not enter into the general rejoicing of men and women, he had not set out to ‘enjoy life’, rather he had ‘sat alone’ because God had had His hand on him and had filled him with indignation at the behaviour of the people, whose ways were so contrary to YHWH’s covenant. He had refused to compromise what he stood for by partaking in what was displeasing to YHWH, and this was because he was responding to the call of God. For the hand of YHWH upon him compare 1.9; 16.21; Isaiah 8.11; Ezekiel 8.1. The idea was of His irresistible power and pressure.

15.18

But such dedication to YHWH had not been easy, and he finally asks why it is that, if God is pleased with him, he is suffering such pain and anguish, unable to find healing? Why do his wounds hurt so much and continue doing so? Indeed he asks, whether God will be to him like a river that is there one moment and gone the next, a flash flood, a river that appears to be permanent and then dries up? He is referring to a wadi, a river that flows in the rainy season, giving an impression of permanence (being ‘deceitful’) but dries up in the hot summer, and he wants the assurance that God will not be like that, and will not desert him in the end. We can contrast this with his previous confident certainty that God was like an ever-flowing spring of living water, in contrast with cisterns that did dry up (2.13). But the vicissitudes of life had begun to wear him down and it is clear that he senses that he is going through periods when, in the midst of his travail, he feels that God is not satisfying the needs of his soul. How treacherous such feelings are when they cause us to doubt the One Who is our Rock. But it happens to most of us, for such an experience is often that of Christians when they are being chastised or tested with a view to their refinement.

15.19

YHWH’s response was to bring home to Jeremiah that the fault lay at his own door. His problem lay in the fact that he had gone astray from his own dedication, and needed to sort out his life and return to God in repentance. Then God would bring him again to the place where he could ‘stand before Him’ and his ministry would one again be powerful. To ‘stand before God’ was a technical description for effectively coming before Him as a prophet or a priest (1 Kings 17.1; 18.15; 2 Kings 3.14). But it was Jeremiah’s choice (‘if you return’) whether he did so.

And if he did truly return, seeking the pure spiritual gold and rejecting the dross, becoming righteously zealous instead of begrudgingly reluctant, speaking words of God’s truth rather than the ideas of his own mind, then his ministry would be restored, and he would once more become God’s mouthpiece, the one through whom the mouth of God would speak (compare Exodus 4.16). But he must certainly not let himself become like those against whom he spoke. They might turn to him, but he must not ‘turn to them’ and become like them.

15.20-21

And if he did once again turn back to God with all his heart then his prophetic calling would be restored. Once again (compare 1.18) He would make him like a strong city wall reinforced with bronze, (which helped to absorb the impact of the siege machines). The people would still fight against him, but they would not prevail (compare 1.19). And this would be because YHWH was with him to save him and to deliver him (compare 1.19). No matter how wicked and terrible his opponents might be, he would be delivered out of their hand as Israel had been ‘redeemed’ from the mighty Pharaoh so long ago (Exodus 20.2).

Jeremiah Was Not To Take A Wife Or Have Sons And Daughters, Attend Funerals, Or Participate in Feasting, As A Sign Of The Devastation That Was Coming On Judah Which Would Transform Life For All Its Inhabitants Who Survived (16.1-13).

In powerful words YHWH now tells Jeremiah that he is to demonstrate to Judah what is coming on them in three distinct ways, each of which was to do with things central to Judah’s way of life: firstly by himself not taking a wife or having children, secondly by refraining from attendance at funerals, and thirdly by not taking part in celebratory feasting. And he was to make it clear that in doing so he was conveying to the people the words of YHWH. Abstaining from marriage and not having children would be a sign of what was coming on Judah in that his restraint would indicate that they, their wives and their children were to die in disgrace. Abstaining from attendance at funerals would indicate that well-being had been taken from them and that death had become so much a part of life that mourning could be ignored. Abstaining from feasting would indicate the dark times that were coming when there would be nothing to celebrate, not even marriage. For YHWH was taking away their ‘shalom’, their shalom (peace, well-being) from them.

Furthermore he had to make these words very clear to the people, and when they asked why this evil was coming on them, and what sin they had committed that rendered it necessary, he was to point out that it was because of the way in which they had forsaken YHWH and had turned to other gods and had not obeyed His Instruction (Torah, Law). It would happen because they were walking in the stubbornness of heir own hearts and were refusing to listen to YHWH. That was why they would be cast out of the land to serve other gods in other lands in which they would be strangers. It would be because He had withdrawn His favour from them.

In some ways we today are called on to deliver a similar message, For while we are urgently to seek to bring people under the sound of the Gospel, it is to be with the recognition that for the large majority of people only judgment awaits. And it is a judgment that could come at any time, for ‘at such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man will come’ (Matthew 24.44). So the message is that at any time judgment could descend on this (or a future) generation. That is why we need to have the same urgency and concern as Jeremiah.

16.1 ‘The word of YHWH came also to me, saying,’

Jeremiah emphasises that everything that he says and does is because YHWH has spoken to him, and His word has come to him. And this time it has come in order that by his own self-sacrifice he might bring home to the people the important lesson, that their futures were in future to be so troubled that what was usually central in their lives would through wholesale death become non-existent.

There is a reminder in these words that receiving the word of the Lord should be what is centrally important in all our lives.

The First Sign: Abstention From Marriage And Childbearing (16.2-4).

Jeremiah’s abstention from marriage and childbearing was in order to underline the awful future that waited those who were married, along with their wives, sons and daughters.

16.2-4

The first sign that was to be given by Jeremiah was that of abstention from marrying and having children. To us that might not be seen as so unusual, but it was very different for men in Israel in those days. For every Israelite adult male saw marriage and bearing children as being his most important basic duty and as being the most necessary requirement of life. By it he was seen as not only fulfilling his own destiny (‘be fruitful and multiply’ - Genesis 1.28), but as also perpetuating his name, and ensuring the passing on of his inheritance through the family. Marriage was considered to form the very basis of society. And it was not only for his own sake. It was in order that he and his successors might provide security for the whole family. It was seen as the very foundation of family life, providing stability for all, and ensuring its continual growth and prosperity. Not to marry was greatly frowned on, and almost unknown, and not to have children was seen as an especially great grief, and a catastrophe for the family, which was one reason why dual marriage was allowed

So when Jeremiah was told by God not to take a wife for himself and have sons and daughters, he was being asked to go against the very tenets of society, to forego a basic right, and to be willing to face up to the opprobrium that would almost certainly follow. But the reason for the abstention was clearly laid out. It was in order to get over the fact that, in view of Judah’s future prospects, not being married and not having sons and daughters would be seen as a great advantage, because death would be so rampant. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters would all die grievous deaths through diseases, and they would die in such circumstances that they would not be lamented because those deaths would be so much a part of what was happening around them that there would be no opportunity for mourning, and no one to do the mourning. Their dead bodies would lie unburied, lying scattered like manure on the fields, and sword and famine would continue to contribute to their numbers with the result that they would become the prey of scavenger birds (vultures, etc.) and the dinner of equally unpleasant scavengers in the animal world. And that was only something which could happen because death had claimed the whole family so that none was left to fulfil the crucial burial duties (compare 9.22 and see the piteous example in 2 Samuel 21.10). To be left unburied and to be eaten by scavengers was seen by Israelites as the most terrible of deaths.

The intention behind his abstinence from marriage was in order to cause people to ask him why he was not married, at which point he would explain the reasons so as to bring home YHWH’s warnings.

The Second Sign: Abstention From Mourning (16.5-7).

The second sign was to be seen as the abstention from mourning and from attendance at funerals. Proper mourning for the dead was again seen as an essential part of life. Not to do so would have been severely frowned on, for true mourning was seen as contributing to the well-being and continuity of the whole family. It ensured proper farewells, and proper succession, enabled release of emotions, and demonstrated proper respect for the one who had passed on. But death was to become so commonplace that there would be no time for such activities. Any who remained alive would be concentrating on their own near kin, and would have no time for mourning others.

16.5

Jeremiah was called on not to partake in mourning, especially a mourning-feast, which would be partly celebratory of the deceased, because mourning was connected with comfort and commiseration, and in the future that was coming there would be no comfort or commiseration for His people. And this was because YHWH had removed what was essential for the people’s well-being, ‘even covenant love and tender mercies’. In other words He no longer had regard for them because they had rejected His covenant and would therefore leave them to face the worst and would offer them no comfort.

16.6-7

His abstention was intended to indicate that death would have no favourites. Both great and small would die equally. And none would be buried or mourned for. No one would undergo religious ritual on the behalf of others (cutting themselves and self-inflicted baldness were seen as signs of great emotional intensity and of contact with the gods, compare here Leviticus 19.28; Deuteronomy 14.1; 1 Kings 18.28. Thus the people are also seen as being unfaithful to their false gods). No one would participate in a wake in their memory. There would be no bread or wine offered in consolation to the households of the dead. The cup of consolation would appear to have been offered when a parent had died. For no one would indulge in mourning of any kind because circumstances would be so devastating.

So Jeremiah’s abstention from everything connected with mourning would draw attention to the intensity of the desolation that was coming on the land, and would again raise questions in people’s minds, enabling Jeremiah to press home his message.

For the custom of giving food and wine to the family of the bereaved compare Hosea 9.4; Ezekiel 24.17; Proverbs 31.6.

The Third Sign - Non-Participation In Celebratory Feasts (16.8-9).

The third sign was to absent himself from all celebratory feasts, as an indication that the future was so black that there was nothing to celebrate. It was a sign that soon all merriment would cease in the land. Nothing would attract attention more than someone who refused to partake in celebratory meals in a day when there was little other recreation and such feasts were the highlight of their lives. This above all would cause people to ask him questions.

16.8

Feasts were of many kinds but the aim of all of them was celebration and to have a good time. Thus Jeremiah’s refusal of all invitations would draw comment. Did he not believe in having a good time? And it would give him the opportunity to explain his reasons. His attitude was evidence of the fact that there would soon be nothing to celebrate.

16.9

When they questioned his behaviour he would be able to point out that soon God would be causing all mirth and merriment to cease, and that it was to happen before their very eyes and in their own day. Thus those who were questioning him would soon see it for themselves. And things would be so bad that even marriage celebrations would cease because of the vicissitudes of the times.

What Jeremiah Is To Answer Once He Has Given His Explanation As To Why He Is Abstaining From Marriage And Family Life, From All Forms Of Mourning, And From All Celebratory Feasts (16.10-18).

With Jeremiah having brought home to the people the significance of his signs, i.e. that they are indications of great desolation ahead, they are then moved to ask him why YHWH has pronounced this great evil on them (verse 10). In view of their claim that ‘they had done nothing wrong’ we may assume that their questions were indignant rather than fearful. It reveals that they were so hardened in their disobedience that they could not understand why Jeremiah was suggesting that God was angry with them. To them it seemed preposterous. As with so many people in the present day they were so blind spiritually that they were confident that there was nothing in their lives that really displeased God. Conviction of sin has always been one of the most difficult things to bring about in men’s lives, and they were unable to see that it was their whole attitude of heart that was wrong (compare John 16.8-11 where it is made clear that to bring such conviction is the work of the Spirit of God).

Jeremiah’s response is to bring out that in fact their sin is so serious (verses 11-12) that what is to happen to them will alter their whole view of history. For after what is in the future to happen to them in ‘the land of the North’, they will no longer see the deliverance from ‘the land of Egypt’ as the great past event of their history but will date their renewed nationhood from the time of their deliverance from ‘the land of the North (verses 14-15). And that is because they are to receive double payment for their sins (verse 18).

16.10

When Jeremiah tells the people the significance of his signs they are unable to believe what they are hearing. They were fully confident that they and their way of life were satisfactory to God. Were they not maintaining the Temple ritual in the way that was required? Why then should God be displeased? Had they not always given Him His due? Let Jeremiah now explain in what way they had fallen short.

16.11-12

YHWH’s reply was straight and to the point. It was because He was no longer the centre of their lives. It was because they had failed to live in accordance with His Instruction (Law). It was because they had forsaken Him and in their daily personal worship had walked after the ways of other gods, and served them and worshipped them. It was because He was no longer the One to Whom they listened. It was because they stubbornly walked in their own ways and in accordance with their own ideas. Central to all was that they were not responding to God’s word.

16.13

So if they wanted other gods they could have them. He was casting them forth out of the land as He had warned He would do from the beginning if they went after other gods and walked in their ways (Leviticus 18.25, 28; 20.22; Deuteronomy 7.4; 8.19; 11.28; 28.14 ff.). And it would not be onto familiar ground but into a land they had never known or experienced, and there they would serve other gods both day and night (indicating their total commitment). And all this would happen to them because His favour had been withdrawn.

16.14-15

For searching out men’s minds and trying their ways was exactly what He was about. It is YHWH, and YHWH alone, who can search the mind and try the heart so as to give to every man his deserts, and to reward him according to his fruitfulness. It is He alone Who ‘knows those who are His’ (2 Timothy 2.19), and can discern truth from false. And it was He alone Who would determine who was to be cursed and who was to be blessed.

17.11

Thus those who were like partridges (or sand grouse) who sit on other birds’ eggs until they hatch, only to find themselves rejected by the fledglings, in other words who sought to make themselves prosperous and wealthy by unfair methods, will find in the midst of their days that their wealth will desert them and ‘reject’ them, and they will end up looking like a fool, and go to a fool’s end.

Direct appropriation of eggs by partridges or sand grouse has not been documented, but the idea of an unknown egg in a partridge nest may well have become folklore from observing cuckoo’s eggs laid in partridge nests, and what consequently followed when they hatched out. (Note that no explanation is given as to how the eggs got into the nest. It is only the general recognition that it happens and the consequence that is used as an illustration).

Jeremiah Establishes His Own Position And Calls For Vindication (17.12-18).

Jeremiah exults in the glory of the significance of the Temple as YHWH’s throne, and as the one place where YHWH was to be truly worshipped, and declares that all who forsake Him will be put to shame, to which YHWH replies that all who forsake Him will perish (will be written in the earth), because they have deserted Him as the perennial spring of living water. This causes Jeremiah, aware of his own failings, to ask YHWH that he himself might be fully restored to total dedication.

He then explains how the people deride him by doubting his prophecies, but that he has neither sought to escape his responsibilities, nor tried to hurry the woeful prospective happening of events. And he asks that as YHWH knows him through and through and knows that he had spoken only what was pleasing to YHWH (it was spoken before His face) He will not cause him grief but will be his refuge in the day of trouble. In contrast he seeks that his enemies will indeed be caused grief, and will receive the punishment that is their due.

17.12-13

In 3.17 it is Jerusalem which will be called the throne of YHWH, and this was an extension of the thought that the Ark in the Temple was His glorious throne (14.21). This latter is what is in mind here. The ‘place of our sanctuary’ as spoken by Jeremiah can only signify the Temple, but ‘on high from the beginning’ emphasises that the glorious throne is to be seen as a ‘shadow’ of a greater reality. In the words of Solomon, ‘even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built’ (1 Kings 8.27). So the Ark represented His eternal throne beyond and above the Heavens (see 1 Kings 22.19; Psalm 2.4; Isaiah 66.1; Ezekiel 1.26; Daniel 7.9). And it was Judah’s privilege to house it. It was the guarantee of YHWH’s concern for Judah/Israel, and His watch over them. That was why He could be called ‘the hope of Israel’. But it was also a reminder of His invisible and constant presence with His people and a reminder that He therefore knew all that was going on. It was a reminder that His interest and concern could not be presumed on. And because He was present among them all who forsook Him, and who forsook true Temple worship and obedience to the covenant, could be sure that they would be put to shame (made ashamed).

Jeremiah’s analysis is confirmed by YHWH as He declares, “Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken YHWH, the fountain of living waters.” Anything ‘written in the earth’ was intended to be transient and could quickly be erased. Thus the idea may be that those who forsook Him would be blotted out as easily as removing words written in the dust by a sweep of the hand. And that blotting out would be because they had deserted the permanent and enduring spring of living waters, YHWH Himself.

Alternately on the basis of usage at Ugarit (compare also its use in Isaiah 26.19) being written in the ‘erets’ may indicate being written in Sheol, the grave-world of the dead, with the idea that Sheol will be their final destination and for them there will be no resurrection (Isaiah 26.19). We can contrast it with Jesus’ assurance to His disciples that their names were written in Heaven (Luke 10.20).

17.14

Considering the glory of YHWH’s throne and the fate of those who forsook Him, has brought to Jeremiah’s own sin and rebellion (compare 15.19-21). He is only too aware of his own sinfulness. So he now calls on YHWH to heal him and deliver him because He and no other is the One Whom Jeremiah praises. (For the expression ‘you are my praise’ compare Deuteronomy 10.21; Psalm 71.6). Note the confirming ‘and I will be healed -- saved’, for he knows that if YHWH does this he really will be healed and delivered (compare Psalm 6.1-4; 30.2; 31.16; Isaiah 30.15; 45.17). It is an expression of total dependence on and confidence in YHWH for his own daily restoration, just as we daily seek God’s forgiveness for our sins. It also probably includes the desire to be healed from the hurtful wounds of the people’s words, and to be saved from their persecution, but we cannot doubt that Jeremiah constantly recognised the need for YHWH to forgive, encourage and strengthen him, and save him from himself. (His heart too was naturally deceitful above all things and desperately wicked).

17.15

He then in the context of this reminds YHWH of what the people are saying. They are deriding him because of the delay in what he has warned them about and they are jeeringly asking him where the fulfilment is of what he claims to be the word of YHWH. ‘Let it come now’, they sneer (implying ‘and then we will believe it’). In other words they are saying, ‘Demonstrate that what you are saying is true,’ and by it indicating that they did not believe it. We can almost see them adding, ‘for everything goes on as it always has’ (compare 2 Peter 3.4 spoken by those warned about Jesus’ second coming). As the test of whether a prophet was genuine was that what he prophesied came about this was quite a serious matter (Deuteronomy 18.21-22). All this may suggest that this was spoken prior to the first siege of Jerusalem and the death of Jehoiakim.

17.16-17 ‘As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you,

But Jeremiah assures YHWH that he has made no attempt to run away from his calling. He has not been hastily trying to avoid following Him and being His shepherd to the people (‘being a shepherd after you’). Perhaps he has Jonah in mind, for Jonah had done just that. Nor, he assures Him, has he desired the woeful day to come. He was not looking forward to it, and he considered that it would have been presumptious for him to try to hasten the coming of judgment on his people just in order to vindicate himself.

He is, however, confident that YHWH knows this already. ‘You know,’ he says. He recognises that YHWH knows all things, and certainly knows him through and through. And he recognises also that his words which come from his lips are spoken in the presence of YHWH (‘before your face’). Thus he asks Him not to frighten him with warnings and threats, or put him in too much danger from the people, for he looks on Him as his refuge in the day of evil.

17.18

But he does pray that those who persecute him might be put to shame, although naturally wishing to escape it himself. And he prays that they might be dismayed, although naturally desiring that he himself might not be dismayed. And he prays, ‘bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction’ (i.e. giving full recompense). He wants God to finally fulfil His threats

Once again we may be shocked at his attitude as a man of God. But we must remember a number of things:

• 1). That YHWH had pointedly told him a number of times not to pray for them because their doom was certain. So he knew that there was no point in praying for God to have mercy on them, and that indeed it would be an act of disobedience and unbelief. Hope of deliverance was a thing of the past, and would not now happen. Their end was fixedly determined.
• 2). That in line with 1). he knew that their coming judgment was inevitable and irrevocable, so that he was merely asking YHWH to hurry up and do what he intended to do (waiting can be the most difficult thing of all).
• 3). That the delay in that inevitable judgment simply added to his own afflictions, for he was being persecuted and intimidated and never knew how they were going to treat him next, and he knew that the situation was getting worse and becoming more dangerous.
• 4). That he may well have begun to be concerned for some of his doubting followers, who may indeed have begun to doubt whether he really was a man of God after all. Judgment coming on Judah would vindicate him and settle their doubts. It would also encourage those whose faith was stronger, but who found the current conditions distressful. The general attitude of fear and concern, together with the political infighting and intrigues, and the speed at which emotions could be roused, could have been making life difficult for those whose full trust was in YHWH, and Jeremiah may have seen some of them going off in a direction that he did not like.

Thus his feeling may well have been , ‘let us get it over with so that I am no longer accused of being a false prophet, and so that those who believe in You might find peace and no longer be in danger of failing’.

The Call Goes Out For The True Observance Of The Sabbath Day (17.19-27).

In 17.5-11 YHWH had promised cursing and blessing on individuals depending on whether they were obedient to His covenant, and this had included a warning about those who obtained riches unfairly. Now YHWH sets a standard test in order to see whether His people will obey Him or not, and whether they will count that obedience as more important than profit from trade. By it He is giving them the opportunity to face up to the covenant and clearly declare that they are His people, for the maintenance of the Sabbath, along with circumcision, were the two clear signs of those who were His.

It is quite clear from what is said that the seventh day Sabbath Law had been diluted with the result that they were using the Sabbath as a convenient market day, a practise which had been prevalent in Israel, but was something which Amos 8.5 had made clear was not allowed. So the call was that they should demonstrate their obedience by going back to fully observing of the Sabbath day by not engaging in buying and selling, and by maintaining a day of complete rest. No doubt the hope was that this would then be a trigger which would spur them on to a new consideration of the whole Law. It was a demand which would separate those who were ready to obey the covenant from those who were not.

The Sabbath day was undoubtedly of ancient origin, and it is mentioned in all the early sources, thus there are no reliable grounds for denying these words to Jeremiah. It was to be used by him as an acid test of obedience.

Note On The Sabbath Day. The Significance Of The Sabbath.

The seventh day Sabbath was unique to Israel in that it was observed every seventh day regardless of the day of the moon period the seventh day fell on, and was a day of total abstention from work of any kind. (Feeding and caring for animals was probably not seen as work, but as an act of compassion and necessity as with feeding the family). It was intended to be a day of delight (Isaiah 58.13-14) and the Israelites saw the ‘seventh day’ (although not as stated to be the sabbath) as ‘blessed’ (Genesis 2.3). It was a day on which evil should not be done lest it polluted the day (Isaiah 56.2-4). It was especially of delight to the lower orders, for Deuteronomy 5.14 especially emphasises the social benefit of the day in that it ensured that even the lowest menial had a day of rest. Thus all the emphasis in relation to the Sabbath in Israel is positive. It is, however, interesting to note that it is never designated as a day of worship, even though certain special sacrifices were offered on that day. The whole emphasis is on avoidance of work for all resulting in a period of relaxation and rest.

It has been suggested that the closest parallel to the Sabbath was the Babylonian sabattu or sabattum, but we should note:

• 1). That the seeming similarity of name is artificial as is evidenced by the fact that sabbath has two ‘b’s and one ‘t’, while sabattu has only one ‘b’ and two ‘t’s, something important etymologically. Thus they are not directly related words.
• 2). That the Sabbath in Israel was a day observed in a totally different way from the Babylonian sabattu. The Babylonian sabattu was a ‘day of appeasement of the mind’ (of a deity), and directly connected with the 15th day of the month (the full moon), and no other. But we know that work was regularly done on it (as witnessed by contract tablets) and it is never connected with a seven day period, nor indeed seen as something to be observed in a regular cycle.

It is true that the Babylonians did also observe certain days of ill-omen in certain moon periods of the year (although seemingly not every moon period) but these were never called sabattu. They involved only the king, priests and physicians, and were days of ill-omen, days on which these particular people must beware of arousing the anger of the gods. They were not designated as days of rest. In order to fulfil his obligation the king had to abstain from food prepared by fire, from putting on royal dress, from going out in his chariot and from speaking officially. This would appear to have been a sign of servitude to the gods. These days of ill-omen occurred on the 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st and 28th days of each moon period and while superficially giving the impression of almost paralleling the seventh day sabbath did not in fact do so because they did not follow the continual seven day pattern. This is emphasised by the fact that a moon period was not twenty eight days long. Thus from the twenty eighth day of one moon period to the seventh day of the next was quite regularly longer than seven days. There is indeed nowhere a suggestion that a seven day pattern is important.

The Babylonians in fact appear to have divided time into five day periods, but even then it is clear from contract tablets that days designated as sabattum were not days of cessation from labour, whilst contracts from Mari show that work was sometimes performed over a series of several days without any interruption for a ‘seventh day’.

It is quite apparent from this that the Israelite Sabbath and the Babylonian sabattu (the nearest apparent parallel) bore little relationship to each other, while any resemblance with the days of ill-omen is superficial. The whole emphasis in the Israelite Sabbath is on continuity and regularity without it being related to specific days in a moon period or any other period. It is in fact the only known sacred day which was related to neither sun nor moon, and probably indicated that time was perfectly and separately controlled by God. Furthermore its initial introduction in Exodus 16 indicates no connection with the phases of the moon. Rather it was connected with the giving of the manna. The first ‘sabbath’ fell on the seventh day after the first giving of the manna. It was thus a day marking God’s double provision on the previous day and would later be connected with the seventh day of creation and with the need to give all people of whatever level one day of rest in seven.

End of note.

17.19

Commencing with ‘the gate of the children of the people’, which was also the gate by which the Kings of Judah came in, and by which they went out (a reminder that the Temple was no longer the king’s chapel), Jeremiah was to go and stand in all the gates of Jerusalem in order to proclaim the message that follows. The ‘gate of the children of the people’ was clearly seen as an important and well used gate, and was probably the east gate of the Temple facing the door of the sanctuary, being the gate most regularly used by the people, and by kings of Judah, and gaining in importance from the royal use. It may have been intended to distinguish it from the gates more often used by the priests and Levites, of whom there would have been many. The mention of both kings and people emphasises that Jeremiah’s message was to both kings and people. The fact that YHWH is calling for obedience to the covenant may suggest a date in the early days of Jehoiakim before Judah’s sin had reached the point of no return.

17.20

The call was to ‘the kings’ of Judah, to all the people throughout Judah who had come to the feast, and to the people of Jerusalem themselves. The whole nation was thus involved. The plural ‘kings’ may have been intended to indicate the king and his princes, especially including the crown prince who may well have been co-ruler as was common in Judah. Or Jeremiah may have seen himself as speaking to all kings in the future about something that was foundational.

17.21-23

The call was for them to remedy what their fathers had failed to do, and to commence keeping the Sabbath day correctly. This is an indication that the Sabbath day was only being observed laxly if at all. The purpose of carrying a burden on the Sabbath day would have been in order to take goods for resale to the Temple market for sale, which would include goods brought in by those who entered Jerusalem for a similar purpose. We can compare here Nehemiah’s words in Nehemiah 13.15, ‘I saw in Judah some treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses with them, as also wine, grapes and figs, and all manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I testified in the day in which they sold victuals.’

Furthermore they were to abstain from all work, thereby treating the Sabbath day as ‘holy’ (sanctifying it), and acknowledging YHWH’s Lordship. This had previously been commanded to their fathers, but they had not listened or responded. Indeed they had deliberately stiffened their necks so at to avoid hearing or being instructed. It had been a total slight to YHWH. Now their offspring were being given a ‘second chance’.

17.24

And the promise was that if they would renew their obedience to YHWH and listen diligently to Him, (it was the guaranteed word of YHWH), something that they would demonstrate, firstly by not bringing trading goods through the gates of the city on the Sabbath day, and secondly by ‘hallowing’ it by not working on it, then their kingship and rulers would be established, sitting on the throne of David and riding in authority and splendour, with the result that they, and the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, together with their city, would remain for ever. The Davidic rule would be permanently established. It was a remarkable call back to the covenant accompanied by remarkable promises. The implication was that even at that stage they were being offered independence and immunity for Jerusalem and its environs if only they would follow YHWH with all their hearts.

17.26

And not only so, but they would be free to worship in peace as they chose. The description of those who would come to worship indicates the size of the kingdom of Judah at this point. It included the cities of Judah to the south and west, the environs of Jerusalem, the land of Benjamin to the north, the Shephelah (lower hills) which would include Lachish and Libnah, the hill-country (which may have included the hill-country of Ephraim), and the far south, the Negeb, the pastureland with its oases and towns on their southern borders which would have included Beersheba.

And the people from all these areas would come bringing dedicatory burnt offerings, sin and peace offerings (sacrifices), meal offerings of grain, olive oil and frankincense, and praise and worship in psalms and prayers of thanksgiving, all to the house of YHWH. Judah would be a free and flourishing country under YHWH..

17.27

But if they would not listen to Him, and would not hallow the Sabbath by abstaining from work, and would not abstain from trade on the Sabbath, then Jerusalem would be handed over to their enemies. Its gates would be burned down, its palaces would be ‘devoured’ by fire, and the fire would not be quenched. None would escape.

The point was not that if they kept the Sabbath nothing else would matter, but that how they responded to the Sabbath would reveal what their lives and thoughts were like generally. It would demonstrate a genuine dedication to God and a concern for their fellow human beings, and indicate that they desired to do God’s will. It was the litmus test, similar to Jesus’ command to the rich young man to sell all and follow Him, and would mark them out as belonging to YHWH in a society which would resent it and demonstrate that He mattered more to them than profit and gain. One thing that all this does make clear is that YHWH gave Judah every opportunity to repent before He finally closed His offer and sealed their final judgment.

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