The Broken Covenant
and the Resulting Judgment
11:1 to 12:17

During the reign of Josiah

This message from God’s prophet focuses on Judah’s broken covenant (11:1-17). Though the message itself is not dated, several indicators help date the passage to 621 BC, six years after Jeremiah began his ministry. That year the Temple was being repaired as part of King Josiah’s reforms, and a copy of the scroll of Deuteronomy was discovered in the renovation (to see link click Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). Several of Yirmeyahu’s references seem to allude to this discovery of the Second Law and the realization of just how badly they had missed the mark. God’s prophet called on the people to heed the words of the covenant that Josiah read to them.

The consequences of violating the covenant were devastating (11:18-12:17). The people responded to Jeremiah’s rebuke by trying to kill him, but God revealed their plot to him. This was the first episode in their continuing opposition to his ministry. The prophet’s response was to ask Ha’Shem to execute His vengeance on the conspirators. God responded by assuring Yirmeyahu of His swift judgment. The plot against Jeremiah was formulated by the men of Anathoth, Yirmeyahu’s own hometown, who ordered him not to prophesy or he would die at their hands. YHVH promised to punish the rebels with the sword and with famine. Anathoth would suffer disaster because of her opposition to the LORD’s messenger.

I Am Bringing Disaster on This People,
Because They Have Rejected My Torah
6: 16-30

I am bringing disaster on this people because they have rejected My Torah DIG: What are the ancient paths to Jeremiah’s audience? What did Judah refuse to do? What are the good ways? Who are the watchmen? Why does God call the earth and the Gentile nations to witness the disaster? What has Judah offered ADONAI instead of obedience? How do they respond to Ha’Shem’s warning? What response would YHVH prefer? What is Jeremiah’s role now? Smelters purify silver ore by throwing it into molten lead: The pure silver floats, but the dross sinks. What does Yirmeyahu observe as Yerushalayim goes into the fire?

REFLECT: If material gifts and burnt offerings were not acceptable, what did God want? If presents are not good substitutes for time and attention spent with our children, what does that say about what we should be giving to our places of worship and charities? Do you know anyone who tries to buy YHVH off with gifts instead of obedience? Are you ever tempted to do this? Have you experienced His refining fire? What “silver” came to the surface? What dross remains to be burnt away?

During the reign of Josiah

You may have heard the saying, “The past is supposed to be a guidepost, not a hitching post.” It’s easy to become tied to the memories of “the good old days,” instead of using our experiences to find direction for the road ahead. We are all susceptible to the paralyzing effects of nostalgia – a longing for what used to be.

Yirmeyahu was a priest from a small town near Yerushalayim when ADONAI called him to be a prophet to the nations (1:5). He was given the very difficult job of pronouncing Ha’Shem’s judgment primarily on the people of Judah, who had turned away from YHVH. He made it extremely clear that the message he was delivering was God’s and not his own (7:1-2). ADONAI said: Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls, which is a picture of salvation. The ancient paths . . . the good way are the truths taught by the Torah. But you said: We will not walk in it (6:16).

YHVH urged His people to look back so they could move forward. The purpose of considering the ancient paths was to find the good way marked by God’s faithfulness, His forgiveness and His forward call. The LORD can teach us from our past that the best road is the one we walk with Him. God’s guidance in the past gives us courage for the future.⁷⁸ The importance of the covenant for Yirmeyahu cannot be overemphasized. For him it was fundamental to Y’hudah’s very life, acknowledging YHVH as her only sovereign LORD, and gladly accepting the covenant obligations. When Judah took this way she followed the ancient paths, the good way and found rest. But being a stiff-necked people, she refused.

ADONAI, however, was not willing that His people should perish. Consequently, He appointed watchmen over them. God provided prophets who would warn them of the dangers that would result in their deliberate rejection of His sovereignty over them. A watchman stood on a high place to warn of danger (Isaiah 21:11-12; Ezeki’el 3:17 and 33:7; Micah 7:4; Habakkuk 2:1). And I said: Listen to the sound of the shofar (6:17a)! The purpose of which was to arouse them to reflect upon their actions. But people who would not obey the summons to return to the ancient ways were hardly likely to heed warnings about the dangers of a breached covenant. And they did not.

ADONAI pointed them back to the five books of Moshe because it is the Torah that gives life: The Torah of ADONAI is perfect, restoring the inner person. The instruction of ADONAI is sure, making wise the thoughtless. The precepts of ADONAI are right, rejoicing the heart. The mitzvah of ADONAI is pure enlightening of the eyes. The fear of ADONAI is clean, enduring forever. The rulings of ADONAI are true, they are righteous altogether (Psalm 19:7-9 CJB). But they said no, “We will not walk in it” (6:17B). God also gave them the prophets, but they would not listen! So God calls the Gentile nations to render judgment.

Therefore hear, you Gentile nations; you who are called together as witnesses to observe the spirit of rebellion among God’s own people and what will happen to them. Hear, you earth: I AM bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their evil schemes, because they have not listened to My words and have rejected My Torah. Not only are the Gentile nations called to come and see Judah’s rebelliousness, but they are to know of God’s coming judgment that they will be responsible to carry out. They have brought this against themselves because they had rejected Moses and the prophets (6:18-19).

In the place of the Torah, Judah had merely substituted cultic Temple ritual. What do I care about increase from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? What good were these things without faith? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Fe – The Burnt Offering); your sacrifices do not please Me (see the commentary on Exodus Fp – The Altar of Incense in the Sanctuary: Christ: Our Advocate with the Father). While sacrifices were demanded and commanded by ADONAI through the Torah, they were worthless without obedience. The prophet Samuel had said, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15:22). And Samuel was not the only prophet to point this out (Isaiah 1:11-14; Hosea 2:11; Amos 5:21-23). Micah, particularly, had asked: And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). Thus this is what God says: I will put obstacles before this people. Parents and children alike will stumble over them: neighbors and friends will perish (6:20-21). This verse does not deny free will, which all the pleading, exhortations and denunciations of the prophet emphatically affirm.

These verses describe the powerful coming of the invading threat authorized by YHVH. Look, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is being stirred up from the ends of the earth. They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. They are experienced, experts in the art of warfare and will accomplish their goal. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, Daughter of Tziyon (6:22-23). Judah’s response was to be paralyzed with fear. It is not the action of the invading army, but simply reports of it that reduce Judah to trembling. She was just as unprepared for battle as a weak, defenseless woman in birth pains before a powerfully built, fully equipped soldier.

We have heard reports about them, and our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor (6:24). Jeremiah expresses the feelings of his countrymen about the enemy. There was no protection anywhere: Do not go out to the fields or walk on the roads, for the enemy has a sword, and there is magor-missabib, or terror on every side (Jeremiah 20:3-4 and 10, 46:5, 49:29; Psalm 31:13; Lamentations 2:22). It fact, it becomes a proper name, Pash’chur, in 20:3.

6:22, 23 and 24 are almost identical as 50:41, 42 and 43.
In the near historical future 6:23 . . . to attack you, Daughter of Tziyon
In the far eschatological future 50:42 . . . to attack you, Daughter of Babylon
The point is that what Babylon will do now to Jerusalem will someday be done to Babylon. Whereas one nation will come against Jerusalem, many nations will come against Babylon.

There was only one thing left for Judah to do: Put on sackcloth, My people, and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son (the severest bereavement a Jew could suffer), for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us (6:26). All your preparations will avail you nothing. When the invader attacks he will brush aside your defenses as though you were caught unprepared. This is a lament for the nation. Lamenting for an only son is the most bitter kind of lament. If you have only one son and he dies, that means there will be no posterity. No seed. No continuance of the family. No descendants (Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10).

Jeremiah now receives another job. God said: I have made you strong to resist all attacks from the people you denounce; therefore, you can fearlessly pronounce judgment upon their evil. In 1:10 the prophet was appointed as an overseer and now he is appointed as a tester of his own people (Malachi 3:2-3). God declared: I have made you a tester of metals and My people the ore, that you may observe and test their conduct, or literally, their ways (6:27).

Jeremiah had no doubt that they deserved the coming judgment. They are so hardened they are likened to bronze and iron – they all act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander (6:28-29). God asked Yirmeyahu to go through the streets of Tziyon to see whether he could find anyone who acted justly or who sought the truth (5:1-9). Not only did he not find anyone worthy, but the closer he tested the people of the “Holy” City, the more he realized the awful truth that the people had hardened their hearts to sin. They were beyond refining or purifying. The ore was impure and no silver could be found. Breakdowns of the covenant were to be found everywhere. Rebellion and corruption had replaced justice and truth!⁷⁹

Sometimes suffering brings out the best in people, but that wouldn’t happen in the siege of Jerusalem. When YHVH turned on the furnace, it would reveal the people had rejected becoming the silver and chose instead to become the dross. But God wasn’t purifying them; He was punishing them. They weren’t being refined; they were being rejected.⁸⁰ They are called rejected silver, because ADONAI has rejected them (6:30). Once they had been silver (Deuteronomy 5:27-29), but their silver had become dross (Isaiah 1:22); not merely second or third grade silver, but absolutely worthless dross. And as they had rejected Him – so their God had rejected them.

Flee for Safety People of Benjamin
6: 1-15

Flee for safety people of Benjamin DIG: What do you think was God’s purpose in this warning? What does this tell you about His character? Why should the people flee the walled city of Jerusalem (compare 6:1-5 and 4:6 where they are told to go to the City of David)? Why is it safer outside? What happens in a siege? Why does YHVH want Yirmeyahu to warn Yerushalayim? How eager is the City to hear God’s word? What kind of response did Jeremiah get to his prophecy? How had the prophets and priests sinned against ADONAI?

REFLECT: Smokers know cigarettes cause cancer; people know that running through stop signs can get you killed. Why do people frequently ignore warnings? As believers, we are supposed to be able to read the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3)? What warnings does YHVH have for your society today? Are they paying attention or ignoring them? How eager are you to hear God’s Word?

During the reign of Josiah

Here the Spirit of God presents a near historical prophecy of the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar and an invitation to escape the coming destruction. The identity of the invader is still unknown in the pages of the scroll. But the readers of Jeremiah sitting in Babylon knew full well who this terrible enemy had been. Looking back into the past in 586 BC, they had experienced it. But during Josiah’s reign from 640 to 609 BC (or forty years before exile) all seemed well and Jeremiah seemed crazy. Through His prophet, ADONAI warned the righteous of the TaNaKh, or the believing remnant, to flee. What we find, however, is that most are unfaithful . . . most will either die or go into exile.

The call to flee from Jerusalem: The warning comes to Jeremiah’s own tribe: Flee for safety (if it were possible), people of Benjamin! Flee from Jerusalem (6:1a)! Basically, this means get yourselves, your families, and anything you can carry to safety. As far as a tribal territory is concerned, the city of Tziyon was given to the tribe of Benjamin. However, it was taken from the tribe of Judah by the Jebusites. That put Jerusalem inside Benjamite territory, but in First Chronicles 9:3 we see that although it was supposed to belong to the tribe of Benjamin, the tribe of Y’hudah took it. As a result, it was inhabited by both tribes. Anathoth (the birthplace of Jeremiah) was inside the territory of Benjamin, so the Benjamites were Jeremiah’s closest countrymen (although as a priest he was from the tribe of Levi). So he grew up with the Benjamites and was responsible for teaching them. He now tells them to flee Zion to safety. The problem was that there was no safety anywhere!

Sound the shofar in Tekoa (the home of Amos)! Raise the signal over Beth Hakkerem! This is a cone-shaped hill called the Frank Mountain, between Bethlehem and Tekoa, named for its military purposes during the Crusades, a very suitable spot to raise a signal. For disaster looms out of the north, even terrible destruction (6:1b). This is a play on words. Tekoa and Beth Hakkerem both come from the same root and are villages just south of Yerushalayim. So the Benjamites were to flee to the south, and as they do, they would pass these two villages. The invasion comes from the north so they are to flee to the south. The oppressor is still unnamed.

O lovely and delicate daughter Zion (the population in general), you are ruined (6:2 NAB). The destruction will be so complete that shepherds will be able to tend their sheep in her ruins. Shepherds with their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents around her, each tending his own portion (6:3). Sheep have a tendency to eat the grass very close to the ground so only the soil is left. The emphasis is on the extent of the destruction that will come.

Jeremiah describes the zealousness of the invading army in a striking sequence of noon, evening and night. It will be vicious. As if spoken to the invaders themselves: Prepare for battle against her. The word prepare literally means to sanctify. This was a holy war against Jerusalem, since God Himself commanded it. Arise, let us attack at noon! Normally an enemy on the march would rest during the hottest part of the day. But not them! This denotes a surprise attack. Furthermore, they are so zealous they continue to attack at night. But, alas, the daylight is fading and the shadows of evening grow long. So arise, let us attack at night and destroy her fortresses (6:4-5)! Once Zion’s fortress was gone she was defenseless.

This is what happened to Jerusalem at the hands of Gentiles by the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies’ decree: Cut down trees and build siege ramps against Jerusalem (6:6a). The siege ramps were inclined planes that the soldiers of a walled town built up to the walls so they could bring their battering rams closer and work them to greater advantage. The siege ramp was made of all kinds of materials, earth, trees, and rocks. The sides were made of walled up brick or stone, and the inclined top made of layers of brick or stone, forming a paved road up to the city wall (Deuteronomy 20:20; Second Samuel 20:15).⁷⁷

This City must be punished; it is filled with oppression. There is a continuous stream of wickedness, just like a stream that does not stop. As a well pours out its water, so she pours out her wickedness. But wickedness is something the City ought to get rid of rather than keep fresh. There was a constant cry of violence and destruction resounding in her; ADONAI had a constant vision of sickness and wounds before Him (6:6b-7).

This was still during the reign of Josiah, early in Jeremiah’s ministry (to see link click Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). Therefore, there was always the opportunity to repent and delay judgment (see 18:8). Take warning, Jerusalem, or I will depart (Hebrew: yaqa’) from you and make your Land desolate so no one can live in it (6:8).

The remnant would be judged several times: This is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot says: Even the few who remain in Isra’el after the initial invasion will be picked over again, [the invader will] turn back (shuwb) again and again as when a harvester checks each vine several times to pick the grapes that were missed (6:9 NLT). There would eventually be four deportations (see Gt – In the Thirty-Seventh Year of the Exile Jehoiachin was Released from Prison) for those who survived the initial invasion.

The general indictment here is that Judah’s ears are not circumcised. The southern Kingdom is unresponsive as covenant partners. Jeremiah’s message had been rejected. The people mock and despise the Word of YHVH. He asks rhetorically: To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to Me? Their ears are closed (uncircumcised) so they cannot hear. The word of God is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it (6:10).

Consequently Jeremiah says: I am full of the wrath of ADONAI, and cannot hold it in any longer. The wrath of God was going to be poured out on the children in the street (see Ae – The Problem of Holy War in the TaNaKh) and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years. God answers Jeremiah, saying: Their homes will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives, when I stretch out My hand against those who live in the Land (6:11-12). His wrath will indeed fall on all the inhabitants of Judah. The words of Ha’Shem are filled with passion and lack of restraint.

There are many precedents in the TaNaKh where the writers expected their audience to understand that some of their universal statements were not to be taken literally. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, because they all practice deceit (6:13). Surely Jeremiah did not claim that there was not a single prophet or priest who was not greedy for gain and did not practice deceit. After all, he was a prophet himself!

The prophets and priests dress the wound of My people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace (6:14). Like faithless physicians they dismissed their patient without going to the trouble of examining him properly; soothing him with the medicine of pleasant-sounding phrases when what was needed was the deep-cutting knife of repentance. This was the sin of the leaders. They dressed the nation’s wounds, but only skin deep. The people were appeased when they heard this false message from their false leaders (8:11). The reality was no peace, only judgment would come. But were they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them, says ADONAI (6:15).

You would think that they would be ashamed when their predictions failed. But the prophets and the priests had no shame. In fact, they couldn’t even blush because their conscience had been seared (First Timothy 4:2). There was nothing left but judgment.

Jerusalem Under Siege
6: 1-30

During the reign of Josiah

The certainty of Yerushalayim’s fall before the onslaught of the enemy is now declared. Jeremiah gives a near historical prophecy showing an invading army being on their doorstep, and they will not be turned back. The people’s only hope is to run from the City. Disaster could still be avoided. This prophecy is prior to any of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasions from the north. However, this section does convey the impression that the doom about which Yirmeyahu had prophesied was not that far away. Would Y’hudah listen? Or obey?

This chapter opens with a vivid poem describing the coming of the foe from the north. The prophet calls for the people to desert Tziyon (to see link click Be – Flee for Safety People of Benjamin). Then a dialogue between Jeremiah and God takes place in the context of Judah’s national complacency. And a clear statement is made that elaborate rituals are no substitute for obedience (see Bf – I Am Bringing Disaster on This People, Because They Have Rejected My Torah). Then, once again the invader from the north is presented. The chapter closes with more dialogue between God and Jeremiah in which the prophet is made a tester of metals so that he could observe and test the ways of the people. With the conclusion of the chapter we turn to the revelation of the broken covenant and the resulting judgment.

Chapter six is a review of what Jeremiah has said before.

The Prophets Prophesy Lies,
The Priests Rule By Their Own Authority,
and My People Love It This Way
5: 20-31

The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and My people love it DIG: What was wrong with the people’s perspective? What had become the prevailing attitude about ADONAI (5:12, 22-24)? Why did the harvests fail in Judah? Why don’t these men fear God? What were the characteristics of the wicked people condemned by Jeremiah? Which of Judah’s failings do you think angers God the most? Do you think Ha’Shem gets as angry as Jeremiah tells it?

REFLECT: Who do you think are false prophets today? What is their lie? How do they “profit?” People in Yirmeyahu’s day were blind to their faults and easily led to presume their innocence. Who do you have in your life that will be honest enough with you to help you see your “spiritual blind spots?”

During the reign of Josiah

Yirmeyahu warned the Israelites about their persistent rejection of YHVH’s boundaries for them. Throughout this whole passage Ha’Shem addresses the people as a frustrated teacher might address rebellious students: Announce this to the descendants of Jacob (the northern Kingdom) and proclaim it in Judah (the southern Kingdom). Again the whole nation is addressed: Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear (5:20-21). This phrase occurs almost word-for-word in Psalm 115:4-6, where it refers to idols. It was possibly a colloquial proverb, and here applied by Jeremiah to the people, reasoning that idolatry makes its devotees like the idols themselves (2:5). Because hear is the foundational word for covenant responsiveness (Deuteronomy 6:4), 5:21 moves from shema to shema: Hear . . . you who will not hear.

Near historical: Judah was spiritually dead. Should you not fear Me (Proverbs 1:7)? declares the LORD. Should you not tremble in My presence? The omnipotence of God is so obviously confirmed by nature. Will it have no effect on people? Even the sea knows its boundaries. ADONAI is sovereign: I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot cross it (5:22). Even the mighty sea, that old symbol of chaos (Genesis 1:2), has been put in its place by YHVH and does not break through the permanent barrier of sand that is its boundary. But the covenant people are seen as constantly breaking through the boundary of the Torah that the LORD had set for them.⁷⁶

Yet this people has defiled YHVH and ignored the purpose for which He chose them! There was no fear of God, who gave them rain for their crops. But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside (Hebrew: saru) away. They do not say to themselves, “Let us fear ADONAI our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, exactly when they are needed (the productivity of the land) who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest (5:23-24). As the LORD’s infinite power does not arouse fear within them; they also blind themselves to their dependence upon Him for their very food and survival.

As difficult as it is for us to appreciate, the notion in the TaNaKh is that human fear of God is a good thing; and we cannot water fear down to “reverence.” It really is fear, as the parallel tremble above indicates. Undoubtedly, Yirmeyahu had in mind proverbial sayings such as: The fear of ADONAI is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline (Proverbs 1:7 CJB). Everyone has fears. Why not choose a life-giving fear . . . the fear of God?

Your crimes have overturned nature’s rules, your sins have kept back good from you (5:25 CJB). Because Judah has turned away from God . . . these blessings have been withheld (Deuteronomy 28:15-28). Obedience brings blessings, but disobedience will withhold material blessings and bring on persecution.

There are those today within the Church who use principles found in the TaNaKh for Isra’el to justify their “health-and-wealth” theology. But the promises God made to Isra’el are sometimes exactly opposite to promises He makes to the Church. For example, if Isra’el obeys, she will have material prosperity. But to the Church, the Bible says that not very many will be rich, and the more the Church conforms to God’s standard, the more persecution will come.

Among My people are the wicked who lie in wait. The verb is singular; each one of them crouches, waiting for their victim. And like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch people (5:26). They hide from view and wait for an unwary passer-by. They do not hesitate to add murder to robbery if, in their opinion, necessity demands it (Psalm 56:6; Proverbs 1:11).

The terrible contrast between the fat, sleek rich and the helpless poor is seen. They grew rich on deceit. Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful (Psalm 37 and 73) and have grown fat (Deuteronomy 32:15) and sleek on the backs of the poor (5:27-28a). They fail to uphold the demands of the Torah, like loving their neighbor, taking care of the widows and the needy. Had they done these things they would have received their prosperity from the LORD. But their prosperity was not from God, but from their own deceit.

Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice. They do not promote the case of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor (5:28b). Ha’Shem’s yearning to forgive has turned to harshness. What kind of a covenant community is this, where the rich take advantage of the poor? He asks some ominous questions: Should I not punish them for this? Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this (5:29, also see 5:9 and 9:9)? This is a repetition of 5:9 as though it was a refrain. Such acts of injustice do not merely wrong other people, but are also an insult to YHVH that must be avenged. Evil against mankind is also evil against God.

The people had grown so accustomed to such thinking that it had become normal with them, but to God a horrible and shocking thing had happened in the Land. The prophets prophesy lies, the priests’ rule by their own authority, and My people love it this way. The priests had the responsibility of knowing when the prophets were prophesying falsely or truthfully. Yet the priests were the very ones who were following what the false prophets were saying. The shocking thing was that the people loved it that way and submitted without a protest. But what will you do in the end when retribution comes (5:30-31)? By the end of Chapter 5 it is obvious that the search for a faithful person that begun in 5:1 is a total failure.

God has given us moral boundaries in His Word for us to live within. He gave them not to frustrate us, but so that by keeping within them we may enjoy His blessings. King David wrote: I know, ADONAI, that Your rulings are righteous, that even when You humble me you are faithful (Psalm 119:75 CJB). YHVH told Isra’el through Moshe: I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). Don’t test Ha’Shem’s boundaries and invite His correction. Have faith and make His Word the engine of your life and not the caboose.

Judah’s Invasion from a Distant Nation
5: 10-19

Judah’s invasion from a distant nation DIG: What limitation did the LORD place on the destruction of Judah? What answer to God’s rhetorical questions in the previous file is answered here in 5:10? How did the people deceive themselves about God and His prophets in these verses? How was YHVH going to punish Judah? What had become the prevailing attitude about God (5:12, 5:22-24)? What did ADONAI say Jeremiah’s words would be to the people of Judah? How did Ha’Shem specify the manner in which He would punish Y’hudah? In what way did Judah’s punishment fit the offense? How will the words of Elohim differ from the words of the false prophets? Why won’t the destruction be final?

REFLECT: If Judah is not lost because of her sins, what does that say to us today? How does this discredit Replacement Theology? While it is true that bad things can happen to good people, sometimes we can bring bad things on ourselves because of our own sinful, fallen actions. So when we catch ourselves saying, “Why has the LORD done this to me?” we need to check to see if we had a hand in it! Repent of it and move on.

During the reign of Josiah

Judah will be invaded from the north and it will be a sign of judgment. This may be read as YHVH’s struggle to decide how to act toward Tziyon. The facts call for destruction, but the LORD resists the final conclusion. In that struggle, Y’hudah hung in the balance between vengeance and forgiveness. Like us, her only hope of salvation lay in ADONAI, not herself.

The call to destroy Tziyon: Go through her vineyards and (see the commentary on Isaiah, to see link click Ba – The Song of the Vineyard) ravage them . . . but do not destroy them completely. Isra’el (both the northern and southern Kingdom’s) will not be completely destroyed because of her sins. God has a covenant relationship with the Jewish people. Like a good Father, He will discipline her, but He will never allow her to be destroyed completely. Those who say that the Church has replaced Isra’el in the covenant (Replacement Theology) ignore Romans Chapters 11-13. However, she will be disciplined. His invaders will go through Judah’s vineyards and strip off her dead branches, for these people do not belong to ADONAI (5:10). Since the Israelites had thrown off their allegiance to YHVH, He summoned the Gentile nations to come and attack them.

God spells out the reasons: The people of Yisra’el (the northern Kingdom) and the people of Y’hudah (the southern Kingdom) have been utterly unfaithful to Me. Not only that, the people of Judah thought because God would never violate His Temple, they could do no wrong (see Cc – False Religion is Worthless). They became arrogant, and took their relationship with Ha’Shem for granted. They have lied about ADONAI; they said: He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine. The words of the prophets that the people do not believe will be the very words that condemn them. The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them; so let what they say be done to them (5:11-13). The word of God will be fulfilled. Because the Israelites had been unfaithful to God, lied about God, and treated the prophets like windbags – God was going to make those very words like fire.

The invasion itself: Therefore, this is what ADONAI Elohei-Tzva’ot says: Because the people have spoken these words (through My prophet Jeremiah) I will make My words in your mouth a fire and the people the wood it consumes (5:14). As a fire burns wood until it is consumed, so will this prophecy destroy this people (but not completely). The true prophetic word in the mouth of Yirmeyahu was like a destroying fire. Then the invasion is described. People of Y’hudah, declares the LORD, I AM bringing a distant nation (so far unnamed at the time of the prophecy) against you – an ancient nation, pointing to the distant past of the Babylonians with their long record of military prowess. And an enduring nation: The adjective enduring describes a stream whose waters do not fail; it is perennial, ever flowing and permanent. Here it describes the enemy as one that will not fail in what it starts.

But reading this scroll in Babylon, the exiles knew exactly who it was. This nation went all the way back to Genesis. The city was founded by Nimrod (see the commentary on Genesis Di – The Line of Ham). It was the first place of full-scale rebellion against God’s authority (see the commentary on Genesis Dm – Let Us Build a City and Make a Name for Ourselves). A people whose language you do not understand (see the commentary on Isaiah Fm – With Foreign Lips and Strange Tongues God Will Speak to This People).

The purpose is described in military terms – it is a nation of warriors. Their quivers are like an open grave (Proverbs 30:16); their arrows are deadly (Psalm 5:10). All of them are mighty warriors (5:15-16). They were expert bowmen and they would find their mark. They were experienced in warfare and they knew how to fight. The enemy’s insatiable hunger for plunder and robbery and murder will spare neither the necessities of life, nor their sons and daughters, nor their flocks and herds, nor the tasty fruits, nor their cities on whose strong fortifications they had placed their trust instead of confiding in their LORD. All that they cherished would be taken from them.⁷⁴

The marauding actions of the army is caught in the fourfold use of the word devour. They will metaphorically devour, devour, devour, and devour: your harvests and food, your flocks and herds, your vines and fig trees, and not only that, they will kill your sons and daughters (Deuteronomy 28:51). The items listed here for consumption by an occupying army are closely paralleled to those listed in First Samuel 8:11-17 concerning what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights (5:17a).

With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust (5:17b). With the destruction of the walls, the coming of social chaos would not be far behind. In Amos’s oracle against the Gentile nations, the burning of the fortresses is targeted (Amos 1:7, 10, 12 and 14, 2:2 and 5). In the savage announcement of Hosea 2:9-13 there is an end to the public activities of an ordered community, Judah, like every other community, had trusted in its social order, but that social order was then being jeopardized as YHVH unleashed judgment against the covenant-breaking community. The world that Judah had experienced was under threat and sure to end, gobbled up ruthlessly by the greedy invader said to be the agent of ADONAI-Tzva’ot.⁷⁵

Yet even in those days, declares ADONAI. When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) uses the phrase in the days to come; the days are coming; in those days; in that day, at that time; or for the time will surely come, the context points either to the near historical future or the far eschatological future and which one should be used. This is the third of twenty-five times that the Holy Spirit uses one of these phrases. In those days, I will not destroy you completely (5:18, also see 4:27 and 5:10). The context is the near historical future. The sentence was not death for the nation, but exile.

And when the people ask, “Why has the LORD our God done all this to us? You will give them this answer [Jeremiah], “As you have abandoned Me and served other gods in your own Land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own” (5:19). So the Babylonian captivity was prophesied (see Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). The exile is derived and linked to spiritual adultery. The word abandoned helps to connect the whole image to the marriage metaphor. Judas’ devotion to a “second lover” (3:1) leads to life in a “second land,” the land of captivity.

Not One Is Upright
5: 1-9

No one is upright DIG: What is Jeremiah searching for? How will he know when he knows one? What will the LORD do if Yirmeyahu is successful? How does that compare to God’s response to Abraham’s plea for Sodom (Genesis 18:26-32)? Jeremiah found a city full of evil. What evil actions did he find (5:2, 7-8, 19, 23, 26-27, 31)? What evil attitudes did he find (5:3, 5, 11-13, 21-24)? What sinful omission (5:28)? Is Jeremiah inclined to excuse the poor and blame the upper classes? Or are they equally at fault?

REFLECT: If Jeremiah walked your neighborhood, what would he find? What are the people’s relationships to God like in your town or city? Would your “truth rating” save your city? Is honesty that hard to practice? Why? When is it easy to be faithful? When is it hardest? In what area of life do you need to raise the level of honesty? People in Jeremiah’s day were blind to their faults and easily led to presume their innocence. What accountability mechanisms do you have in place to help detect “spiritual blind spots” in your life? How would you answer Yirmeyahu’s rhetorical questions in 5:7, 9 and 29?

During the reign of Josiah

Before the theme of the foe from the north is resumed in 5:15, there is a further discussion of the reasons for the coming judgment, a subject that has been dealt with in Chapter 2. Y’hudah’s blatant rejection of the sovereignty of YHVH was the basic cause. Once she rejected the One True God in favor of other gods it was inevitable that the curses of the covenant would become operative. If the people could not see this, the weeping prophet surely could.⁷¹

This poem is structured in a standard way for a lawsuit speech. It consists of two indictments, first against the common people, and then against the leadership in Tziyon. The prophet’s audience would immediately be reminded of Abraham’s bargaining with YHVH over how many just men it would take to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (see the commentary on Genesis Ew – Abraham Intercedes). At the beginning of the conversation the LORD told Abraham that He would spare Sodom if fifty just men could be found. Eventually Abraham bargained Him down to ten men, but Abraham knew when to quit . . . ten was as far as he dared go. Does the first verse here in 5:1 suggest that Yerushalayim was ten times more wicked than Sodom, if just one person who deals honestly and faithfully would save the City?

First, Jeremiah searches for a faithful man among the common people. Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and is faithful (Greek: pistis), I will forgive this City. God still indicates a willingness to pardon Tziyon. However, there is an ironic condition. He wants Jeremiah to see if there are really people in Yerushalayim who deal honestly, (conforms externally) conforms to the Torah and is faithful (conforms internally). This requirement would not bode well for the likelihood of pardon.

Although they say: As surely as the LORD lives, still they are swearing falsely. ADONAI, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent (shuwb) (5:1-3). There is no trace of obedience among the poor. They are calloused and cynical, stubborn in all their ways and will not repent. Consequently, no pardon is possible. Yerushalayim is full of evil! His search is in vain.

But then the prophet has an idea: those who refuse to repent are really only the common people, people without discernment. Yes. He will go to the educated leadership. Surely they will understand what the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob expects of them, for they have had the opportunity to study the Torah. If they set the moral tone for the rest of the population, the common people will follow. Yes. He would have better results with them!

Secondly, he looks among the leadership of Jerusalem. Jeremiah said: I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of ADONAI, the requirements of their God (5:4). But he discovered that they too had rejected the discipline of the Covenant. They, too, were engaged in self-assertion and self-sufficiency. With one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds of the Torah. So this search also ended in failure. Jeremiah learns the lesson God wanted to teach him. No one was faithful (Genesis 18:26-32). Forgiveness in the holy city of David was no more possible because of the leadership than it was because of the poor. And for this reason judgment would come.

After these indictments, the next two verses are not unexpected, though their harshness is surprising. The consequences following a breach of the covenant are symbolized as attacks by wild animals. Therefore, God declared: A lion, a metaphor for the Babylonian army, from the forest will attack them. Joined by the picture of a wolf from the desert who will ravage them, and a leopard will lie in wait near their towns to tear to pieces any who venture out, for their rebellion is great and their apostasies (from shuwb) keep increasing (5:5-6). The metaphor is reflective of the wild beasts that were actually a threat in the Land (First Samuel 17:34; Second Kings 17:25-26). Animals here were used symbolically to refer to the Gentile nations, who will strike Judah as a sign of judgment (5:15).

Then the Ruach Ha’Kodesh takes Jeremiah back to the theme He began developing back in Chapter 3 – the adultery of Jerusalem. The language of the lawsuit continues. YHVH addresses the nation: Why should I forgive you? Then He goes on to depict the conduct of the leadership of the City in horrendous fashion: Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. Perhaps this is a hint at the kind of thing that Ezeki’el saw in his vision of the sinister activities being perpetrated in the Temple compound in Tziyon (Ezekiel 8:7-12). I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes (5:7). The prosperity that ADONAI had granted Isra’el, instead of making her grateful, led her to depravity (Deuteronomy 32:15).

Their spiritual adultery led to physical adultery. They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man’s wife (5:8). Again, remember that the priest from Anathoth is not merely referring to sexual misconduct here, but more profoundly to spiritual adultery and the idea of everyone frantically craving the security they hoped to find in Ba’al instead of the LORD.⁷²

It is no wonder that Ha’Shem should ask in indignation: Should I not punish them for this? “This” is the sin of verses 1-8. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this (5:9, also see 5:29 and 9:9)? The word nation is normally used for Gentiles. But He uses it here to show that Judah had deteriorated into a sinful, idolatrous, Gentile nation. God is always disposed to forgiveness, but forgiveness in such a City would be a mockery. It would make YHVH appear to be a docile beggar and a helpless patron. Jerusalem had lost her chance for forgiveness and stood under judgment.

Whatever function these questions may have had before the fall of Yerushalayim (see Ga – The Fall of Jerusalem), they are now questions to the readers in captivity in Babylon. The exiles are invited to think back and consider the options with which ADONAI was presented with at that time and to realize anew the questioning and agony through which God was going with respect to the shape of their future. It would be important for the exiles to see that their Redeemer had desperately tried to find another way into the future for them besides judgment.⁷³ This view of a God looking to favor His people with blessings would be grounds for hope in the future, but for now there would be a harvest of judgment that needed to be worked out, as we see next.

The Corruption of Jerusalem
5: 1-31

During the reign of Josiah

This chapter consists of a series of indictments (5:1-5, 10-13, 20-28) followed in each case by a therefore, which introduces judgment oracles (5:6-9, 14-17, 29-31). The interlude of 5:18-19 provides the question with which the chapter, indeed the book, is primarily concerned: Why? By means of its question and answer, these verses make clear that the judgment of ADONAI is not impulsive, but has its basis in the people’s infidelity. At the same time, this interlude restates that though the whole Land will be ruined, I will not destroy it completely (4:27).⁶⁸

The divine lament also finds its place in this chapter behind questions addressed to readers (5:7, 9, 22, 29, and 31). These divine questions, which interact with human comments (5:2, 4-5, 12, 19, and 24), are not simply rhetorical questions. The questions in 5:7, 9 and 29 reveal a God who has sincerely sought another outcome, but sadly, reluctantly came to the conclusion that an outcome without judgment was not possible.⁶⁸ The greatest judgment YHVH can send to disobedient people is to let them have their own way and reap the sad, painful consequences of their sins.⁶⁹

These questions are also genuine questions for the exiles in Babylon. From their perspective of the destruction of their homeland and the Temple, do they think that Ha’Shem had been unfair for taking this course of action? Could they think of any other avenue that the LORD might have taken? God’s question in 5:22 reveals divine wonderment at their indifferent attitude in the face of the Eternal One who created the world and provided boundaries for its destructive forces. Behind the question in 5:3 stands the One True God who asks what resources they will have available to them when the destruction falls. The mere asking of the question reveals that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was deeply concerned with their future.⁷⁰

Disaster Follows Disaster,
The Whole Land Lies in Ruins
4: 19-31

Disaster follows disaster, the whole land lies in ruins DIG: What do we discover about the character of YHVH in this passage? Why has God brought the Babylonians to attack His people? Can Jerusalem be saved? How does Jeremiah feel when he learns his nation will be destroyed? What does his pain reveal about him? What excuse, if any, do the people have? Didn’t they know any better, or did they know only too well what they were doing? If they were ignorant, would you say it is right to punish people for that? What vision does Jeremiah now have of life after the Babylonians invasion? To what does Yirmeyahu compare the aftermath? What are the three different responses to the invasion? What do they represent?

REFLECT: How do you feel when you hear that a wicked person has suffered? How does your response compare to Jeremiah’s? If your feelings are different, why do you feel that way? How should you feel? Do you ever see people reacting to God’s judgment in one of the ways described in 4:29-31? How should they have responded instead? Have you experienced God as Judge or Avenger? How did the experience affect you? How do you reconcile the pictures of YHVH as the loving parent with the LORD the avenging judge? Think of a place that has been devastated recently by war or disaster? Do you ever experience something like Jeremiah’s concern and agony when you learn of people’s suffering? Why or why not?

During the reign of Josiah

The images seen here all point to the stunning conclusion that death was coming to Yerushalayim. Jeremiah responded to the news by crying out in anguish. This was not something theoretical; the prophet lived through the sad years of Babylon’s attacks and suffered right along with the people. By vocation Yirmeyahu was called upon to announce destruction and judgment, but by nature he had a deep love for his own people. Therefore, His whole life was a painful paradox. Little wonder that at times he burst into tears.⁶³

He knew that before long the whole nation would share his agony. Oh, my anguish, my anguish (the Hebrew literally reads: my bowels, my bowels because the Jews considered the bowels as the seat of the emotions)! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry. Yirmeyahu is overcome with emotion as he envisions the destruction to come. The prophet saw the invasion as though it were actually happening. Jeremiah laments: Disaster follows disaster; the whole Land lies in ruins. In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment (4:19-20). He felt alone and was swallowed up in the storm that he had prophesied would come upon the Land because of Ha’Shem’s anger when He saw the people who had no understanding and were skilled at doing evil (4:22-26). Jeremiah was not the cause of the storm as the word “called” implies (to see link click Aj – The Call of Jeremiah); rather it was God’s anger at what He saw in the people that brought about the storm.

Yirmeyahu saw the enemy flag. It was closer than he and his contemporaries ever thought it would be. How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the shofar, urging the people to their battle stations to confront the oncoming enemy (4:21)? He knows it means death. It is death as dramatic and personal as anyone could imagine. Basically, he says, “how much longer must I see these visions?” God does not give him a timetable, but his visions will continue for forty more years.

ADONAI now speaks. He does not answer the question directly but shows why the tragedy must occur. It is the same reason we have encountered before (2:8) and will encounter again (9:3): My people are fools; they do not know Me beyond any superficial acquaintance. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. In an ironic reversal of Proverbs 1:2-3 the people were skilled (Hebrew: hakamim, or wise) in doing evil, but ignorant on how to do good (4:22). The LORD tells His prophet, “As long as these things are true, you will continue to see these visions of judgment.” Ignorance of covenant would lead to invasion and destruction. Others may not know yet, but Yirmeyahu already had this knowledge tearing at his very soul, even as it must have torn at YHVH.⁶⁴

A vision of total chaos: Suddenly the tone of the rhetoric escalates. As soon as Jeremiah asks God, “How much longer must I see these visions,” God gives him another one. The judgment that was to befall Y’hudah was seen as cosmic hyperbole. Similar examples of exaggeration in prophetic judgments include Deuteronomy 28:25-46; Isaiah 3:3:8-26, 24:1-23, 33:9, 34:1-15; Jeremiah 15:8; Amos 8:9; Nahum 1:4-5; Habakkuk 1:6-9, 3:10-12; and Zechariah 2:4-5. Another factor that comes into play here is the fact that prophecies of judgment were seen as a foreshadowing of the final eschatological future judgment that is to come. Each historical judgment was therefore understood to be symbolic of the LORD’s righteous outworking of His justice.⁶⁵

The prophet saw a vision of the earth, and it was formless and empty; and of the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful Land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins at the presence of YHVH, and from the face of His fierce anger (4:23-26). Order seemed to return to confusion. The earth wasn’t destroyed, but just as the earth was formed out of chaos, Judah will return to chaos . . . the inevitable result of sin. Ha’Shem’s patience had finally been exhausted.

The explanation of the vision: Lest these impassioned words be dismissed as poetic imagery lacking any real substance, they are reinforced by a final word from YHVH Himself. This is what ADONAI says: The whole Land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the heavens and the earth will mourn because I have spoken and will not relent (see Cw – At the Potter’s House), I have decided and will not turn back (shuwb). It is surely no accident that a word like shuwb, which points to Y’hudah’s only hope appears in this place of hopelessness (4:27-28; also see Hosea 4:3).⁶⁶ Judah will be punished, but a remnant will remain, a view held by other prophets also.

The Fulfillment of the vision: The destruction of Judah by the invading army was how God intended to fulfill this prophecy. The LORD of heaven’s angelic armies describes the three different responses to the invading army. These actions are not what the LORD was telling the Israelites to do, He wanted them to surrender to the Babylonians, it’s describing what they did as Nebuchadnezzar approached. He uses three different metaphors.

First, some of the Israelites would try to escape by running away. At the sound of horsemen and archers, every small, indefensible town on the way to Jerusalem takes to flight. This refers to archers in chariots. The Babylonians did have cavalry units (evidently composed of specially trained tribal people), but the difficulties faced by a man on a horse while using a bow and arrow made it easier to shoot from a chariot. Mesopotamian bas-reliefs show a span of two or three horses drawing the war-chariot; one man held the reigns of the horses while the other was a bowman. Some of the Jews would try to go into the thickets; some climb up among the rocks that were often used as shelters during Palestine’s stormy history. The net result, however, was that all of the smaller towns were deserted with no one living in them (4:29).

Secondly, some try to make themselves attractive to the enemy. The picture of Isra’el as a prostitute (see At – Unfaithful Isra’el) is shown as she attempts to save herself by dressing up to save herself at the last minute (Ezekiel 23:40). What are you doing, you whose destruction is certain? Why dress yourself in scarlet and put on jewels of gold? Why highlight, or paint your eyes with makeup? It was a silver-white metallic paint that was mixed with some red and black coloring. Women applied it on the outside of the eyes to make the eyes look bigger and give the eyes an unnatural shinning brilliance. This was a common practice in the near east during biblical times (some things never change). But it was all for nothing: You adorn yourself in vain. Completely unimpressed by the seductive charms of Tziyon’s inhabitants, her attackers did not stop their brutal treatment of the Jews in any way. Your lovers despise you; they want to kill you (4:30). Those whom Isra’el courted (Babylon and Egypt) were going to be her cold-hearted enemies.

Thirdly, the metaphor is again dramatically shifted. Out of the resolve of YHVH, the army still approaches. Suddenly Judah is not an alluring prostitute, but is cast in a new role as a helpless, exposed woman in labor. I hear the cry of pain, like that of a woman in labor, the groans of a woman giving birth to her first child. The prophet listens more carefully. It is the daughter of Jerusalem gasping for breath, stretching out her hands as she sinks exhausted to the ground, crying out, “Help! I’m being murdered” (4:31 NLT). Finally – but alas much too late – are her eyes opened to the realities of her own foolishness: her lovers (Hebrew: hogebim) were in truth her murderers (Hebrew: horegim).

Jerusalem was under judgment, about to be done in. She may not know it yet, but the City is as shameful as a prostitute, as helpless as a woman in labor, exposed and endangered now because the betrayed husband has had enough and will tolerate it no more. Death must come. No one stands with the Sacred City to grieve . . . or to rescue.⁶⁷

Oh, Adonai ELOHIM!
Surely You Have Deceived This People
Jeremiah’s First Complaint
4: 5-18

Oh, Adonai ELOHIM! Surely You have deceived this people DIG: Where did the disaster come from that was about to strike Judah? Who will be affected by the invasion? Who was really “deceiving” the people? What do the people think will happen to them? What five word pictures does Jeremiah use to describe the Babylonians? Can Jerusalem be saved? How so (see 3:23 and 4:1-2)? Why has God brought the Babylonians to attack His people?

REFLECT: The false prophets told the people of Judah that they didn’t need to change because ADONAI would never punish them (3:10). What was in it for the prophets and their listeners? Who tends to “profit” from such “prophets?” Do you know of any situations where trouble is coming unless people change? What, if anything, can you do to help them? When you get yourself in trouble, do you blame God? Or take responsibility for your actions? When your life ends up in the ditch, is it because YHVH moved away from you, or did you move away from Him? What can you do?

During the reign of Josiah

Like a clap of thunder, the sound of the shofar is heard as an unidentified army approaches. The horsemen and bowmen advance, destroying small cities along the way. The leaders of Tziyon fail in the time of crisis. YHVH announces His inflexible purpose. Jeremiah cries his personal anguish. The scene concludes with the death-screams of the City of David personified as a woman. The reason for this impending tragedy is clearly stated in 4:18, but this is not the heart of the section. The prophet is not primarily foretelling military events, nor is he laying blame for the sorrows that were certainly to come. No, he is primarily calling his people to repent (shuwb). The heart of the section is this: Yerushalayim, wash the evil from your heart and be saved (4:14a).⁵⁹

YHVH declared: Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem: Sound the shofar. The Land was being threatened! Cry aloud and say: Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities (4:5)! The purpose here was to warn. God was initiating the process by which the invader was coming. It was not that the LORD allowed the invader to slip in. No. He summoned the invader to come and destroy Judah. She had been acting like the world and Ha’Shem was declaring holy war against her. She was now the enemy of God (Ja 4:4).

Raise the signal to go to Tziyon! The signal was a pole with a banner on it (Isaiah 5:26). It showed an invading army that was well spread out the way they must go for the attack. And now a signal has been raised pointing toward Yerushalayim as the place to be attacked from the north. Flee for safety without delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north even terrible destruction (4:6).

Now that the shofar had sounded, the people fled to Jerusalem and her protective walls. Farmers and tradesmen would drop their work on the spot, gather up their wives, children and servants and make a mad dash for the City, hoping that they could get within the safety of her gates before they were closed. Hoping also that the elders had made adequate provision for food and water for the duration of the siege. Sieges in ancient times could last a long time. Nebuchadnezzar besieged the Phoenician city of Tyre for thirteen years before the city acknowledged Babylonian sovereignty. And Tziyon herself, in her final besieging, would hold out for twenty months from the 10^th of Tevet 588 BC to the 9^th of Av 586 BC.

A lion has come out of his lair. The lion was the symbol of Babylon, although Babylon was still unnamed at this point (49:19; 50:17 and 44) – a destroyer of nations has set out. The words emphasize both the might and ruthlessness of the attacker. He has left his place to destroy your Land. Your towns will lie in ruins without inhabitant (4:7). In theory, it might have been possible for Judah to handle a human enemy; but to be opposed by YHVH, who brings on and who sponsors an enemy, was an impossible situation. No wonder Yirmeyahu urged Judah to lament, wail and put on sackcloth, a sign of mourning, for the fierce anger of Ha’Shem has not turned away (shuwb) from us (4:8).⁶⁰ God was still angry with His people because they had not repented . . . or their repentance had not been sincere. Judah is left only to grieve the death that is now for sure.

It will affect all four classes of leaders. “In that day,” declares the LORD. When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) uses the phrase in the days to come; the days are coming; in those days; in that day, at that time; or for the time will surely come, the context points either to the near historical future or the far eschatological future and which one should be used. This is the second of twenty-five times that Yirmeyahu uses one of these phrases. In this context, the near historical future destruction of Tziyon is in view. In that day, the king and the officials, who should have been the first to encourage and strengthen the people in time of crisis, will lose heart, lose courage, the priests will be horrified, and the prophets will be appalled (4:9). Everyone will be demoralized, paralyzed and unable to function.

It is not an easy task to characterize most of the so-called “writing prophets” of the TaNaKh. To learn something about a man’s characteristics, his likes and dislikes, his emotional struggles, his spiritual qualities, his relationships with his family, and so forth, requires a minimum amount of biographical details, recorded either by the man himself or by one of his friends or disciples. Such details are plentiful for men like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel, or David, so that we have no great difficulty in evaluating their personalities with some degree of confidence.

But when we begin thinking about the lives of men like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Habakkuk, or Zechariah, the number of biological details suddenly shrinks considerably by comparison. And yet we would have to confess that Isaiah and Joel and Zechariah were just as great in their own spheres as Abraham and Joseph and David were in theirs. In fact, if we only knew something of the personal experiences and inner struggles of the writing prophets, I am sure that we would discover incidents and events just as glamorous and exciting as those in the lives of their more famous predecessors.

So generally, we are a little disappointed with the lack of material concerning the lives of the writing prophets. But there is a notable exception to this general rule: a number of autobiographical notes on the life of Yirmeyahu have been preserved for us. In fact, more is known about Jeremiah’s life than that of any other writing prophet in the TaNaKh.

When viewed historically, the prophet from Anathoth can be demonstrated to have handed down to us the fullest account of a prophet’s life and character, the fullest account by far, to be found anywhere in Scripture. As a result, our attention is focused on the seven so-called “complaints or confessions” of Jeremiah (1) to see link click Ax – Oh, Adonai ELOHIM, Surely You Have Deceived This People; (2) Bj – The Plot Against Jeremiah; (3) Bk – Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper? Why Do All the Faithless Live at Ease?; (4) Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth; (5) Cs – Heal Me ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed, Save Me and I Will Be Saved; (6) Cx – Jeremiah’s Response to a Threat Against His Life; and (7) Db – You Deceived Me, LORD, and I Have Been Deceived.

Then Jeremiah said: Oh, Adonai ELOHIM! Surely You have sadly deceived this people and Yerushalayim by saying, “You will have peace,” when the sword is at our very throats (4:10 CJB)! Since the people in obstinate disobedience refused to listen to God’s Word, the LORD not only permitted, but sent false prophets to deceive their hardened hearts by repeatedly saying: You will have peace (6:13-14, 23:17; also see First Kings 22:20-23). Jeremiah’s greatest enemies were fellow prophets, who were false prophets, and kept prophesying the exact opposite of what he said. And to make things worse . . . Yirmeyahu’s prophecies would not be fulfilled for forty years.

As far as Jeremiah’s response goes, there was a side of the prophet’s character that becomes clear in many of his dealings with YHVH, namely, that he not only declared his visions but also felt them deeply. The present vision of the foe from the north really tore him up emotionally. At first glance Yirmeyahu’s words appear to be blasphemous. How dare he speak to Ha’Shem like that? Along with Rabbi Sha’ul we might ask: Who are you, sir, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay (Romans 9:20-21; also see Isaiah 45:9 and 64:8). And yet Jeremiah was far from a blasphemer. He had a deep conviction ADONAI was sovereign and would work out His purposes. Rather, when the prophet says things like this we shouldn’t see it being a reasoned, thought-out judgment, but the spontaneous reaction of a man in turmoil over the tragedies of life, whether his own or those of others. The same tendency recurs in his later outpourings of soul before God.⁶¹

Jeremiah then uses five word-pictures to describe the oncoming Babylonian horde. At that time, in the near historical future, this people and Tziyon will be told, “Like a scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward My people, but not to winnow (that separates the grain from the chaff) or cleanse (that blows dust from the grain); a wind too strong for that comes from Me. The enemy will swoop down on Judah, not like a gentle wind separating the grain from the chaff, but a scorching wind that will show no mercy. Now I pronounce my judgment against them” (4:11-12). The wind comes at the command of ADONAI and represents the swiftness of the invading army.

Look! The military juggernaut’s advances are swift and unstoppable. He comes as swiftly as a sudden thunderstorm, as an eagle swooping down on his unsuspecting prey, as destructive as a whirlwind, and his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! We are ruined (4:13). They will experience the whirlwind because they had sown the wind (Hosea 8:7). Then a final warning: Yerushalayim, wash the evil from your heart and be saved (4:14a). The defense against aggression from the north is spiritual cleansing from within. God’s warnings are conditional; He warns so that He may not destroy (18:8).

This invader is so overwhelming that Judah is reduced to funeral songs to sing of her death. For one brief moment it is suggested that the washing of repentance might still permit rescue (Isaiah 1:16; Psalm 51:7). The prophet clings to that thin possibility. This was their one last chance to avoid judgment. YHVH asks: How long will you harbor wicked thoughts (4:14b)? Just as Josiah delayed God’s judgment in the days of Manasseh, by washing the evil from their hearts, they could even delay judgment in their day. There was still time to avert doom, for Y’hudah, all prophecies of doom are conditional on her repentance. But nothing came of it. Judah did not respond . . . so the invasion comes.

Jeremiah returns to the dramatic portrayal: A voice is announcing from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim. Dan is located at the very northern boundary of Isra’el. Ephraim is on the northern border of Judah. The enemy had entered the Land. Time was short; repentance was urgently needed. First Samaria, now Judah! Tell this to the neighboring peoples: Pay attention. Proclaim concerning Jerusalem: A besieging army is coming from a distant land, raising a war cry against the cities of Judah (4:15-16).

Why did God bring the Babylonians to attack His people? As the fields were not always provided with fences it became necessary to have persons to watch them, especially while the fruit was ripening, in order to keep off all those who would eat it, whether people, beast or bird. They surround her like men guarding a field, because she has rebelled against Me, declares the LORD. Then God reminded Yerushalayim of the dire consequences of her rebellion. “Your own conduct and actions have brought this on you. This is your punishment” (4:17-18a).

But now the readers of Jeremiah’s scroll, the exiles in Babylon, need to understand – if they could – why disaster had come. Compare 5:19 CJB: And when your people ask, “Why has ADONAI done all these things to us?” you are to give them this answer, “Just as you abandoned Me and served strange gods in your own Land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.”

And 9:12-14: Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the Land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

Then the LORD answered, saying: It is because [you] have forsaken My Torah, which I set before [you]; [you] have not obeyed Me or followed My Torah. Instead, [you] have followed the stubbornness of [your] own heart; [you] have followed the Ba’als, as [your] ancestors taught [you]. The deep hurt had reached the heart of those who survived Tziyon’s downfall and who knew a bitterness worse than death.⁶² How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart (4:18b)! Their judgment had penetrated as deep as their wickedness.

The Call for Judah to Avoid the Wrath of God
4: 5-31

During the reign of Josiah

God’s near historical judgments are inevitable and Jeremiah senses this. Here we have a picture of impending disaster. Flight to the protection of the walled cities; terror and dismay spread over the land; the enemy swoops down on the doomed country; the prophet’s grief at the horror of it all, particularly as it is caused by the people’s continuous rebellion; a graphic vision of the earth waste and void reeling under God’s anger; Tziyon cries out in distress as the Babylonian invaders destroy Yerushalayim.

Given the reality of the foe from the north, remarkably little is said in this segment, or in the first half of Yirmeyahu for that matter, regarding military policies or decisions. More than that, the readers are not invited to engage in a political or social analysis of the situation. In fact, issues of social justice seldom come explicitly into view (see 2:34 and 5:26-28). It would appear that Jeremiah (not unlike Hosea) understood the problem to be more systemic in nature and clearly seen in spiritual adultery. Specific individual and social sins are understood to be symptomatic of this more fundamental issue. As a society moves further and further away from God, the penalties of their sin become more profound.⁵⁸

The Judgments Upon Judah
4:5 to 6:30

During the reign of Josiah

Metaphors drawn from the arena of warfare are particularly prominent in this section (4:5-6, 13, 16, 19-21, 29, 5:15-17, 6:1, 4-7, 22-23, 25). But the range of metaphors is remarkable: wild animals – lion, leopard, wolf, eagles (4:7, 13, 5:6); scorching wind (4:11-12); clouds and whirlwind (4:13); men guarding a field (4:17); cosmic catastrophe (4:23-26); ravaged vineyards (5:10; 6:9); fire (5:14); open grave (5:17); and shepherds with flocks (6:3). The metaphors for the wicked are also rich in meaning: lusty stallions (5:7-8); prostitute’s dress and makeup (4:30); bird catchers (5:26-28). Metaphors of the anguish of the people suffering judgment are also present: a woman in labor (4:31). The use of such lively metaphors impresses us like no abstract or literal language can.⁵⁶

The theme of judgment hinted at in the first three chapters of Jeremiah and announced so dramatically in 4:3-4 is now spelled out in some detail, providing the central theme of the next major section. The prophet from Anathoth had pleaded earnestly for repentance (shuwb), and had given warning that sincere repentance, accompanied by a radical change in the national and individual life and a circumcised heart, needed to take place. However, this was rejected! Consequently, judgment day was at hand . . . Babylon was coming in a bad mood.

The preceding unit (to see link click As – Return to Me) portrayed YHVH as a wounded, betrayed lover and husband yearning for a return. Even at the end of the unit there is still hope that Judah will ”come home.” The mood is starkly different as this next section begins. Now there is no such yearning. Now there is darkness and harshness. This is a very different voice of Ha’Shem, who has reached the limit of yearning and the far edge of compassion. For all of the LORD’s compassion . . . God will not be mocked.⁵⁷

A. The apostasy of ADONAI’s people (2:1 to 4:4)

B. The inevitability of Ha’Shem’s near historical judgment (4:5-31)

a. The apostasy of ADONAI’s people (5:1-30)

b. The inevitability of Ha’Shem’s near historical judgment (6:1-30)

Return to Me Faithless People
and I Will Cure You of Backsliding
3:19 to 4:4

Return to Me faithless people and I will cure you of backsliding DIG: In what sense has Isra’el become like a disenfranchised firstborn son? Like an unfaithful woman? Under what conditions would God find Isra’el acceptable again (3:22-25)? Were the ten northern tribes ever “lost?” What should Judah during Josiah’s day do now (see Hosea 10:12; Matthew 4:7 and 22)? What is circumcision of the heart?

REFLECT: Is there an area of your life that ADONAI is calling you back to Him today? Asking you to return (shuwb) to obedience to His Word? How does God feel when we sin? When we repent (shuwb)? What actions will demonstrate genuine repentance (shuwb) on your part? How can you help others back to the Lord also?

During the reign of Josiah

These verses switch back and forth between the spiritual awakening under Josiah (3:21-3:22a and 4:3-31) to the far eschatological pleading of the believing remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation before the Second Coming (3:22b-4:2), and back to Josiah’s day to avoid the wrath of God.

ADONAI’s desire was to bless His people. The need is spelled out: return (shuwb) to God the Father! Unless this happens YHVH cannot regather the united kingdom of Isra’el and give them the inheritance of the Land (3:14-18).

The necessity of repentance both in Josiah’s day and at the end of the Great Tribulation: YHVH thought to Himself, “Oh what a joy it would be for Me to treat you like a son (3:19a NET)! God would single Isra’el (this signifies the whole nation, including Judah) out from among His other sons (the other nations). The word you (Judah) addressed here is feminine; however, the object treat is masculine. According to Hebrew law, daughters were usually unable to inherit. Judah, addressed as a daughter, could claim no right to receive divine mercy. Yet, figuratively she will be regarded as worthy of a son’s inheritance. ADONAI is gracious.

What a joy it would be for Me to give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world because the divine Presence is especially seen in it (3:19c NET). I thought you would call Me “Father” and not turn (shuwb) away from following Me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Yisra’el, have been unfaithful to Me, declares the LORD (3:19b-20). The prophet paints the picture of a parent who has labored and dreamed for the wonderful day when his son is old enough, responsible enough, and responsive enough to receive all that has been saved for him since his birth. The father wants to give the son his inheritance even more than the son wants to receive it. But the moment of giving never comes because the son neither understands nor cares. The wounded father is left with the shambles of his hard work and broken dreams, and knows the bitter combination of deep hurt and heavy resentment.⁵¹ Because of Israel’s past spiritual adultery, she must repent.

Josiah’s day: A cry is heard on the barren heights, more pleasing to God than their worshiping wood and stone, the weeping (sorrow for sin) and pleading of the people of Isra’el (seeking forgiveness for past sins), because they have perverted their ways and have forgotten ADONAI their God (3:21). Isra’el is found in the process of repenting. Idolatry on the barren heights had been wiped out (3:2). Return (shuwb) faithless (from shuwb) people. He is still their gracious Father, whose house is still open to them, whose arms are extended to them (Luke 15:20-24).

Come to Me! I will cure you of backsliding (from shuwb) (3:22a). In Scripture, sickness is one of the many metaphors for sin (Psalm 41:4; Isaiah 1:5-6; Jeremiah 8:22, 30:12; Mark 2:17). Here, YHVH says that He will cure Isra’el of her sin. Like an infection entering the bloodstream, sin secretly gets into our inner being and goes to work weakening and destroying. It gradually infects the whole system, producing spiritual laziness and loss of spiritual appetite; and if not cared for, the “sin sickness” can lead to dire consequences. When we hear about believers suddenly falling into open sin, in most cases a gradual spiritual slide preceded the sudden fall.⁵²

We know that once Josiah was killed on the battlefield (to see link click Ai – Josiah Ruled for 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC) Josiah’s fourth son Jehoahaz was an evil king who opposed the reforms of his righteous father and reigned a mere 3 months. Next, Jehoiakim, Josiah’s second son became king and reigned 11 years. Josiah’s purge of false gods came to a sudden stop when Jehoiakim became king. Judah would then be in a spiritual death spiral that would last the entirety of Jeremiah’s forty-five-year ministry.

Far eschatological: These are the words of the confession before the Lord returns (also see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ): Yes, we will come to You, for You are the LORD our God (3:22b). Surely the idolatrous worship on the hills and mountains is a deception (First Kings 14:23-24, 15:11-13; Second Kings 23:4-15; Psalm 106:35-40; Isaiah 28:7-8; Hosea 4:9-14; Amos 2:7b-8). They confess the failure of idolatry to bring them salvation. Help did not come from the hills and mountains where idolatry took place. Nowhere but in YHVH is salvation to be found. Now they see that ADONAI our God is the salvation of Isra’el (3:23).

They confess the results of idolatry (also see Hosea 9:10). From our youth shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our ancestors’ labor – their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters because they had been sacrificed to Ba’al. From Isra’el’s youth, that is, through the entire history of the covenant there never was a time of faithfulness. From the very beginning she had sought other lovers. The term shameful gods is a slang term for the Canaanite god Ba’al (3:24 and 7:31). It was the worship of Ba’al that was a shameful thing (also see Judges 6:32; Second Samuel 11:21 and 28; First Chronicles 8:33 and Hosea 9:10). In Jeremiah 11:13 the prophet mentions that shameful god Ba’al. Isra’el had therefore been scandalized and left without a place of belonging. Her own actions had caused her to be utterly displaced, abandoned with none to protect her . . . especially from the antichrist.

At the end of the Great Tribulation, the believing remnant will say: Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. So intense will the feeling of shame be that it will appear to enshroud us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our ancestors; from our youth till this day we have not obeyed ADONAI our God (3:25). The crux of the confession touches on the vital point of obedience. Both the present generation and their forefathers, all the way back to the Exodus, had failed to obey.

ADONAI says that two actions will demonstrate genuine repentance before the Second Coming: It is surprising that in the face of such gross spiritual adultery there was still a chance to return to YHVH. That in itself is an amazing possibility. Here Ha’Shem issues yet another invitation, but it comes neither easily or cheaply.

First, remove detestable idols: If you, Isra’el (this signifies the whole nation, including Judah), will return (shuwb), then return (shuwb) to Me, declares the LORD. This is a third class – unfulfilled condition. It has the possibility (or even the probability) of becoming a reality. If you put your detestable idols out of My sight and no longer go astray (4:1), then you will not have to be removed.

Second, swear by the true Ba’al instead of the counterfeit Ba’al: In 3:13a when YHVH said: Return (shuwb) faithless (from shuwb) people, declares ADONAI, “for I am married to you (3:14a). There is a play on words. The phrase for I am married is translated from the Hebrew word ba’al. This is the same word for the Canaanite counterfeit god Ba’al. ADONAI is the true Ba’al of Isra’el – not the one the Canaanites call Ba’al. And if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, “As surely as ADONAI lives,” then the consequence of genuine repentance is the implementation of God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3, 18:18, 22:18, 26:4 and 28:14) the Gentile nations will invoke blessings by Him and in Him they will boast (4:2). All the Gentile nations of the earth will be blessed through Him by virtue of what happens with Isra’el (also see Romans 11). Jeremiah will have more to say about the restoration of Isra’el in Chapters 30-33.

Near historical during Josiah’s day: This is what ADONAI says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns (4:3). The problem with the Israelites was their dishonesty; they would use the right words but they really didn’t mean it from their hearts. They would verbalize obedience to the One True God, but wouldn’t give up their false gods. It was easy to say, “As the Lord lives,” but their hearts were hard and crowded with thorns like a neglected, unplowed field.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you people of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. The radical change necessary in Y’hudah is made much clearer by the call to a circumcision of the heart. Jewish boys were circumcised when they were eight days old, given a name, and made a son of the covenant (Genesis 17:9-14; Leviticus 12:3; Luke 1:59). Although no amount of surgery on the body could change the heart, the Jews thought that this ritual was their guarantee of salvation (Matthew 3:7-9; Acts 15:1-5). YHVH, however, wanted them to “operate” on their hearts and put away their callousness and disobedience. Therefore, circumcise your hearts and do not be stiff-necked any longer (Deuteronomy 10:16, also see Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28-29; Colossians 2:11).⁵³

If they do not repent, they will suffer God’s wrath which will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done – burn with no one to quench it (4:4b; also see Hosea 10:12; Matthew 4:7 and 22). The prophet’s words are angry. The wrath of God is a lamentation. All prophecy is one great exclamation . . . ADONAI is not indifferent to evil! He is always concerned. He is personally affected by what we do to each other. This is one of the meanings of the righteous anger of Ha’Shem: the end of indifference!⁵⁴

The future of the relationship is left open, but it reveals the wounded hope of YHVH. What counts now is not foxhole repentance in order to survive. What counts now is the reality of this husband, who with bitter yearning and affronted loyalty, still open to a relationship, even against the wisdom of the Torah. If perhaps the relationship can be resumed, it will be outlined the righteousness of the Torah. It will be the odd righteousness of the first husband, God, who violates Torah for the sake of the relationship (Psalm 143:1-2). The LORD’s powerful yearning risks defilement for the sake of covenant (Luke 7:34-35).⁵⁵

Unfaithful Isra’el
3: 6-18

Unfaithful Isra’el DIG: To what does God compare the northern kingdom of Isra’el and the southern kingdom of Judah? The people of the north were attacked and deported by the Assyrians in 721 BC, a century before Jeremiah. Why did God allow that to happen? What did ADONAI hope the people of Judah would do when they saw what happened to Isra’el? What did Judah do? Why was Isra’el more righteous than unfaithful Judah? What is Jeremiah’s message to the northern Kingdom? What does the one . . . two represent? How does Yirmeyahu envision the future for a united Kingdom? Why will the ark of the Covenant be irrelevant in those days?

REFLECT: How would you feel if your spouse was unfaithful? Would you take him or her back? If so, under what conditions? What does that tell you about God’s love that He wants to take Isra’el back? Do you have trouble forgiving yourself for something you’re done? Does it help knowing that God forgives you? Is something more needed? ADONAI is not impressed with mere external conformity. Is there any area of your life where you just try to impress others and have not inwardly acknowledged your guilt?

During the reign of Josiah

During the reign of King Josiah (to see link click Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC), the LORD said to Yirmeyahu, “Have you seen what faithless (from shuwb) Isra’el has done?” In this context, Isra’el means the northern kingdom of Isra’el. As if she was the embodiment of the sin of spiritual adultery. She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there by worshiping other gods (3:6). It is particularly in the oracles recorded in Chapters 2 and 3 of Jeremiah that we become aware of the links with Hosea both as to vocabulary and also in regard to ideas.

The LORD’s repeated calls for repentance (shuwb) were ignored (2 Kings 17:13-15). I had hoped that after she had done all this sinning she would return (shuwb) to Me. God is not only ready, but anxious, to forgive those who ask for forgiveness. But she did not return (shuwb), and her treacherous (Hebrew: bagowd) sister Judah saw it (3:7). Here Jeremiah is the teacher of his people rather than the fussy theologian, and does not concern himself with such questions as Ha’Shem’s omniscience and foreknowledge.

I gave the faithless (from shuwb) northern kingdom of Isra’el her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ij – Is It Lawful for a Man to Divorce His Wife?). The historical fact is that in 722 BC the northern kingdom of Isra’el fell to the Assyrians. But even before this, parts of Isra’el had been seized by Assyria. In fact, during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745-726 BC) Assyria formed three provinces from all the territory north of the plain of Jezreel and the Israelite lands of Megiddo, Karnaim, and Gilead. The upper class was deported and replaced by colonists from distant lands (Second Kings 15:29). It was a steep price to pay for her faithlessness. What should have been clear to unfaithful Y’hudah was that faithless Isra’el had been punished for her adulterous conduct.⁴⁹ Yet I saw that her unfaithful (from shuwb) sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery (3:8). But this was merely a lovers quarrel. God is faithful. He had already promised: I will never leave you or abandon you (Deteronomy 31:6 NLT). Therefore, He would later confirm: I will make a New Covenant with the house of Isra’el and the house of Judah (see Eo – The Days are Coming, declares the LORD, When I Will Make a New Covenant with the People of Isra’el).

Sin always costs you more than you wanted to pay, and takes you further than you wanted to go. The reason for Y’hudah’s behavior was simple. Her covenant with YHVH had become so dulled that she regarded her adultery as insignificant. Her conscience was seared as with a hot iron (First Timothy 4:2). Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood (3:9)

“In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return (shuwb) to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD (3:10). Y’hudah was not only apostate, but false also. A great religious reform took place during the reign of Josiah, and an earnest attempt was made to stamp out idolatry (Second Kings 23). While the reform may have had some beneficial results, it seems clear that it produced no profound change because the people weren’t sincere in their conversion. Religious activity may have increased but true repentance (shuwb) was lacking.

Then ADONAI said to His prophet, “Faithless Isra’el, who has already been destroyed by the Assyrians, is more righteous than unfaithful (from shuwb) Judah (3:11; also see Ezekiel 16:1-63 and Hosea 2:2-23). More righteous because the northern kingdom of Isra’el did not have the example of punishment before their eyes, as did Y’hudah in Isra’el’s destruction. Faithless Isra’el had actually proven to be more righteous than her treacherous sister Judah. Why? Because Y’hudah had Isra’el as her example. As a result, Judah had greater light as to ADONAI’s dealing with sin. And with greater light comes greater responsibility, and the rejection of greater light means greater judgment. This is a principle throughout Scripture. So having shown that there was greater guilt in Y’hudah, Ha’Shem deals with repentance.

In the far eschatological future, as the armies of the antichrist seek to eliminate the Jews forever, there will be a national regeneration and all Isra’el will be saved (Romans 11:26a). But first, there must be a confession of Isra’el’s national sin; and secondly, a pleading for Messiah to return (shuwb) (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). That will lead to the Second Coming (see the commentary on Isaiah Kg – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah).

Go, proclaim this message toward the north. “Return (shuwb), faithless (from shuwb) Isra’el,” declares the LORD (3:12a). The plea here is one of an offended husband seeking his wife back, even against the Torah, even in the face of humiliation. The point was that if YHVH had borne with the southern kingdom of Y’hudah for so long in spite of her sins, then the northern kingdom of Yisra’el, disadvantaged by having no example before her, might expect His acceptance if she returned (shuwb).⁵⁰

Yirmeyahu paused in his condemnation of sin to offer a message of repentance (shuwb) and hope to the northern Kingdom. “I will frown on you no longer (I will not look on you with anger), for I AM faithful,” declares ADONAI, “I will not be angry forever” (3:12b). If Isra’el responds, God will respond in kind. This is a divine principle that YHVH will respond to true repentance (Ezekiel 18:21-23). God will exclude no one from salvation who is willing to turn around (shuwb) and go in a different direction. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admission of sin is the first step to repentance and recovery of God’s favor. Acknowledge that you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered (Hebrew: pazar) your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed Me,” declares ADONAI (3:13). The verb pazar means to spend lavishly or extravagantly (Psalm 112:9 and Proverbs 11:24). Judah, therefore, had been lavish or extravagant with her lust for other gods.

Return (shuwb) faithless (from shuwb) people, declares the LORD, “for I am married to you (3:14a). There is a play on words here. The verb ba’al, meaning to be master, husband, lord, is used here in the pronoun I in an emphatic position. The use of the verb is significant. In the setting of the covenant, it is ADONAI-Elohim who calls Isra’el His wife (Hosea 2:2, 16). But not only that, YHVH is Isra’el’s true Husband (ba’al), unlike the false master Ba’al. Although a certificate of divorce had been given (3:8), Isra’el had not married another and God is still willing to be her first husband again just as Hosea was willing to be Gomer’s husband again (Hosea 3:1-5). When repentance comes, there will be five rewards in the far eschatological future.

First, I [Myself am your Master] will choose you – one from a town and two from a clan – and bring you to Zion (3:14b). Consequently, there will be a worldwide regathering.

Second, Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding (3:15). Isra’el will finally have righteous leaders.

Third, the ark of the Covenant will neither be built nor remembered. In those days, declares the LORD. When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) uses the phrase in the days to come; the days are coming; in those days; in that day, at that time; or for the time will surely come, the context points either to the near historical future or the far eschatological future and which one should be used. This is the first of twenty-five times that Yirmeyahu uses one of these phrases. In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the Land, declares the LORD, people will no longer say, “The ark of the Covenant of ADONAI” (see the commentary on Exodus Fr – The Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place: Christ at the Throne of Grace).

It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made (3:16). Why? For the true Mercy Seat will be ruling and reigning in the far eschatological future from the Messianic Temple in Jerusalem (see the commentary on Isaiah Db – The Nine Missing Articles in Messiah’s Coming Temple).

Fourth, because Yeshua Messiah will reign visibly from Tziyon it will become the center of Gentile attention (Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-5). At that time they will call Jerusalem: The Throne of the LORD, and all the Gentile nations will gather in Yerushalayim to honor the name of ADONAI. Therefore, they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts (3:17).

Fifth, there will be a total reunification of the two houses of Isra’el (3:18). In the far eschatological future the people of Y’hudah will join the people of Yisra’el, and together they will come from a northern land to the Promised Land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance (see the commentary on Genesis Eg – I Am the LORD, Who Brought You out of Ur of the Chaldeans to Give You This Land). This was the fervent dream and hope of the prophets, both before (Isaiah 11:12; Jeremiah 2:4; Ezeki’el 37:16ff; Hosea 2:2), and after the seventy years of Babylonian rule (see Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule).

Return to Me
3:6 to 4:2

During the reign of Josiah

These verses switch back and forth between Josiah’s day (3:21-3:22a) to the far eschatological pleading of the believing remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation before the Second Coming (3:22b-4:2), and back to Josiah’s day to avoid the wrath of a holy God. This is a common literary device in both Jeremiah and Isaiah.

ADONAI promised punishment to the people if they didn’t repent (shuwb). Does YHVH punish believers today for their sins? Explain. Have you ever felt like Ha’Shem was punishing you for sinning? If so, what made you feel that way? If it wasn’t truly punishment from God, what might ADONAI have been doing when you thought He was punishing you?

The Choice of Repentance or Judgment
3:6 to 6:30

During the reign of Josiah

There are two tension points in Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning Judah. The first is God’s near historical righteous judgment upon Y’hudah for her spiritual adultery by seventy years of Babylonian Exile (to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). The second is ADONAI’s far eschatological restoration of Judah in the messianic Kingdom (see the commentary on Isaiah Kp – My Chosen People Will Inherit My Mountains). These two tension points are beautifully seen in Hosea 11:7 and Hosea 14:4.

Near historical: Hosea 11:7 CJB: My people are hanging in suspense about returning (from shuwb) to Me; and though they call upwards, nobody makes a move.

Near historical: Hosea 11:7 paraphrased: Since His people continue to be impaled as if crucified upon a stake (Greek: epikremamenos) and cannot get loose – going out from the dwelling place of living for YHVH – God shall become angry with His precious and costly things. None at all exalt Him.

The southern kingdom of Y’hudah was committing spiritual adultery in the sense that she was no longer dwelling or inhabiting where ADONAI lived, and as a result, had no relationship with Him but chose to pursue after other gods.

Far eschatological: Hosea 14:4 CJB: I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely; for My anger has turned from [her].

Far eschatological: Hosea 14:4 paraphrased: I will restore her dwelling place of living for God and heal her apostasy; I will love her freely, for My anger has turned away (from shuwb) from her.

The LORD promises to heal her apostasy, in other words, all the hurt and pain that her spiritual adultery caused Him, and to love her with perfect spontaneity since His anger had been turned away from her.

You Have Lived as a Prostitute With Many Lovers,
Would You Now Return to Me?
3: 1-5

You have lived as a prostitute with many lovers, would you now return to me? DIG: What does the analogy of divorce mean in this context? Who is the one properly entitled to seek divorce: God or Judah? Who is the one seeking reconciliation? Who is the one likely to reject that effort? Why is that?

REFLECT: How do you show your loyalty to the LORD as your first love? Is there any way in which you have left your first love of Him? Has something or someone else taken His place? How do you handle conflicts of loyalty between ADONAI and other loves (such as Y’hudah found herself in)? How important is loyalty to you in your relationship apart from YHVH? To what or whom do you feel most loyal? Why?

During the reign of Josiah

The picture here is of Judah as an unfaithful wife who had turned away (shuwb) to lovers and is strongly reminiscent of Hosea’s unfaithful wife Gomer. Y’hudah had the forehead of a prostitute (Hebrew: zona), had lived as a prostitute with many lovers, and was guilty of prostitution (zenunim). These same terms occur in both Jeremiah and Hosea.

ADONAI had rejected those Judah trusted (2:37b). So He said: If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return (shuwb) to her again? Remarriage was forbidden in that circumstance (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Isra’el had gone after many lovers (Hosea 2:2-5). One only needed to go to the high places to see the Ba’al altars set up for her idols. The Land had been completely defiled. Now the question in Chapter 3 is: what will happen next? What will God do?

The crisis turns on the grace and love of ADONAI. Taking a prostitute wife back is clearly prohibited by the Torah. But in spite of this fact, YHVH yearns for the return of Judah to the covenant. This violates Torah and common sense. No husband in his right mind would be so vulnerable as to take back such a fickle wife. This is stunning. Against all expectations God will risk humiliation and defilement. If only she would be faithful.

God had every right to reject His people because they had abandoned Him, not in order to marry another “husband,” but in order to play the field. But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers – would you now return (shuwb) to Me? declares ADONAI (3:1). Isra’el needed to decide once and for all; she could not play fast and loose with her loyalties.

This savage indictment likens lustful Judah to an ambushing Arab. Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers (Genesis 38:14-16), sat like a nomad in the desert. This scene drips with irony. One would expect a lone woman on the road to be ambushed. Shamelessly, however, the woman assumes the role of the ambusher, so desperate is she for any lover.⁴⁸ So was Judah eager to embrace every form of idolatry. You have defiled the Land with your prostitution and wickedness (3:2).

Far too many of the people thought that consorting with Ba’al would ensure rain and fertility; in fact, the opposite had happened. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen (Leviticus 26:19). Yet you have the brazen look, the forehead (Hebrew: metsach) of a prostitute. A (set) brow on the forehead, symbolizes resolution, determination, or negatively, stubbornness and intractability (Ezekiel 3:7-9; Isaiah 48:4). You refuse to blush with shame (3:3). Even in the face of a drought, Judah refused to be ashamed of her actions. Her thinking had deteriorated to the point where she wasn’t even embarrassed over her spiritual adultery.

Have you not just called to Me, “My Father, my friend from my youth, will you always be angry (3:4-5a)? Ha’Shem yearns for reconciliation, but it will be on His terms and requires real change, not merely empty words. So the waiting continued. The grieving Husband waited with expectation, yet still expects repentance.

Will your wrath continue forever? This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can (3:5b). The prophet appeals to Judah to acknowledge YHVH even at this late hour, and gives the assurance that He will surely not stay angry forever. Yet even as God makes this appeal, He sadly adds over and over again that the people have demonstrated their persistent wickedness. Y’hudah is not moved and does not change. She had left her first love (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Az – The Church at Ephesus).

Your Sword  Has Devoured Your Prophets
Like a Ravenous Lion
2: 29-37

Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion DIG: Why did the backslidden followers try to turn the judgment against them back toward God? Why did they try to deflect blame? What did they claim as proof of their innocence? Read Psalms 37 and 73 and Matthew 5:45. What do these passages reveal about the relationship between prosperity and the blessing of YHVH. What should the LORD’s goodness have led the people toward (see Luke 15:17-18 and Romans 2:4-5)?

REFLECT: How good are you at taking responsibility for your sins? Are you quick to ask for forgiveness to those you have offended? To God? Or do you deflect by blaming others? When was the last time you stood up and took responsibility for something you did? When was the last time you deflected and blamed others? Is doing the right thing a one time act, or a pattern of behavior? Which path do you think you’re headed down?

616 BC during the reign of Josiah

Judah had become spiritually irresponsible. Written during Josiah’s reign in a time of relative prosperity and tranquility, God wastes no time putting the blame squarely where it belongs. Why do the people bring a case against Him when they are the ones who have rebelled? The fact is they have none. YHVH then says the Israelites have not listened to Him. The prophets He sent had been put to the sword.⁴⁴

Why do you bring charges against Me? You have all rebelled against Me, declares ADONAI (2:29). Once again, we have law-court terminology. The expression bring charges against (Hebrew: rib) is a legal word and suggests that the people wanted to bring a legal lawsuit against YHVH, though the grounds for such a suit are not specified. But God would not accept the validity of the charges, and, in fact, brings His own rib against Judah. She, in fact, had no case, or defense, against these legal charges against her.⁴⁵

In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion (2:30). This alludes to Zechariah (Second Chronicles 24:20) and Isaiah, who, according to tradition, suffered martyrdom at the hands of Manasseh. All previous discipline had been ineffective. So now the LORD sees the need to move from discipline to punishment (after the exile this is admitted in Nehemiah 9:26 and Jeremiah 26:20-23).

Judah’s irresponsibility showed up most clearly in her forgetfulness of ADONAI’s past dealings. You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD, “Have I been a desert to Isra’el (have I failed to provide for your needs) or a land of great darkness? The Hebrew mapelyah, literally darkness of YHVH, like shallhebethyah literally the very flame of ADONAI (Cant. 8.6). In other words, God did not leave Isra’el to grope in the darkness without guidance. Why do My people say, “We are free to roam: we will come to You no more” (2:31). Again, the fault did not rest with ADONAI. He provided the manna in the desert (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Cr – I Will Rain Down Manna from Heaven for You), and when the plague of darkness came, Goshen had light (see the commentary on Exodus Bs – Moses Stretched Out His Hand Toward the Sky and Total Darkness Covered All Egypt For Three Days).

Then Ha’Shem demonstrated Judah’s illogical thinking by contrasting what she forgets and what women generally do not forget. Already knowing the answer, He asks: Does a young woman forget her jewelry (or those things that mark a woman as not being married)? No! Does a bride her wedding ornaments (the noun kishshurim occurs in Isaiah 3:20 and means a sash worn around the waist and was the mark of a married woman)? No! Women do not forget these things, yet My people have forgotten Me, days without number (2:32). God is as indispensable to Y’hudah, indeed the source of her glory, as these adornments to a maid or to a bride. YHVH had not forgotten Judah. No, it was the other way around. Judah had forgotten her Maker.

As a result, Y’hudah sarcastically concluded that she had become an expert prostitute. How skilled you are at pursuing illicit love! Therefore, the Hebrew word lachen introduces an oath of affirmation. Therefore, even the worst of women can learn from your ways (2:33). This was a very common motif for Isra’el in the prophets, especially Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea.

Another indication of her irresponsibility was Y’hudah’s involvement in the shedding of innocent blood. Then Judah moved from a prostitute to a murderer. On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor (Second Kings 21:16), though you did not catch them breaking in, which might have justified defending yourself (Exodus 22:2-3). The poor people that she killed were not guilty of anything. Yet in spite of all this you say, “I am innocent; surely He is not angry with me.” All is well with me; this proves my innocence since I evidently enjoy the blessing of YHVH. But I will pass judgment on you because you say, “I have not sinned” (2:34-35).

A fourth indication of Judah’s irresponsibility was her long history of unfaithfulness. Every attractively packaged promise distracted Y’hudah from her God. Every new fad was taken up and tried in a burst of short-lived enthusiasm. For centuries it had been one lover after another. Jeremiah said: Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria (2:36). The very people Judah had been prostituting herself with, casually seeking alliances and exchanging gods, would put her to shame. He held a mirror up to them, and they saw the reflection of a fickle schoolgirl with a crush on the new boy who has just moved in down the street. She can think of nothing but seeing him, attracting his attention, getting noticed. When he jilts her, she goes after the boy in the next block and the story begins all over again. Giddy and flirtatious, the girl flits from one boy to another, careless in all her relationships, concerned only with making an impression. And the boys just use her . . . they deserve each other.

The marital metaphor with which the chapter began (see Am – I Remember the Devotion of Your Youth) continues throughout this file; all the images focus on infidelity. Yirmeyahu is dependent on an already existing tradition, especially Hosea (Hosea Chapters 1-3, 4:10-15, 13:20-27; Isaiah 62:3-5), who picks up on the sexual imagery of Canaanite religion and “baptizes” it as an example of the YHVH-Isra’el relationship before the progressive revelation of the B’rit Chadashah (Ephesians 5:25-33; Revelation 2:4-4, 21:2).

Yet Jeremiah explores the images in an even more intensive way. In terms of the human analogy, these images are true to life, reflecting the actual experience of spousal betrayal. The image used for ADONAI and Y’hudah is that of a husband who has been betrayed by his wife and all the anger and frustration that would result. In that culture, the husband would be shamed because of what the wife had done. The Jews were then invited to think of the feelings they might have – anger, distress, frustration, hurt – if their spouse proved unfaithful. Such language reflects the deep feelings of God at Judah’s infidelity. The divine anger, disappointment, and pain are made public by Yirmeyahu’s insights into the feelings of the LORD. Such insights into how Elohim feels about the infidelity are not to make us “feel sorry” for Him, but to elicit repentance from the Israelites.⁴⁶

The message is clear. First you had a crush on Assyria and that was a dead end. Now you have a crush on Egypt and that will turn out the same way. If you ever grow up, you will look back on those times in embarrassment and blush. Meanwhile, ADONAI has loved you. And you once said you loved Him! Your current actions develop out of your silly fantasies. They have no basis in reality. Assyria never cared for you; Egypt will never care for you. God cares for you. And YHVH will not permit the people He loves and the people He created for His glory to live in such adulterous and empty relationships.⁴⁷

You will also leave that place with your hands on your head (2:37a). This was their way of expressing grief, and is thought by some to signify that the heavy hand of ADONAI’s affliction rested on the mourner. Should someone who is plunged into wretchedness meet a friend, they immediately place their hands on their head to illustrate their circumstances. Upon hearing about the death of a friend or relative, they clasp their hands on their heads. After being punished at school, students run home with their hands on their heads. They also tore their clothing and put the dust of the earth on their heads (Second Samuel 13:19).

For ADONAI has rejected those you trust; they will not help you (2:37b). ADONAI speaks as a chagrined lover, a stern judge, a companion who wants a relationship with Judah. But she wants to go her own way (see An – Isra’el Forsakes God), a way that can only lead to death. Life is given only in a relationship with the LORD, nowhere else. The southern kingdom of Judah, however, chose another way.

I Planted You Like a Choice Vine,
from the Very Best Seed
2: 20-28

I planted you like a choice vine, from the very best seed DIG: Why do you think Jeremiah used word pictures to paint a description of Y’hudah? How is the southern kingdom of Judah like a young calf freed from the yoke of bondage? A wild vine? A stain that cannot be removed? A she-camel in heat? A disgraced thief when caught? How do these word pictures differ from the earlier one that described the Israelites as the bride, holy to the LORD (see 2:2-3)? To whom could you apply these word pictures today?

REFLECT: What happens when someone loves their sin more than they love ADONAI? Not many people bow down before or talk with gods of wood or stone in our society today. But do you think we’ve overcome the sin of idolatry? What kinds of things do people worship today? What things, seemingly good things, like family or work, are you tempted to worship? Do you think God regards you as a “bride” or a “prostitute?” Why?

616 BC during the reign of Josiah

The Israelites didn’t want to have anything to do with God’s control or restraint over them. Therefore, ADONAI now deals with Judah’s extreme dedication to idolatry (Hosea 1-2; Jeremiah 3:1-9; Ezekiel 8:1-18, 16:15-41, 23:5-44). Jeremiah uses five analogies to show how deeply her worship of Ba’al was entrenched. The sexual imagery used in Jeremiah to speak of the relationship between Y’hudah and YHVH (and other deities) is ultimately derived from religious practices associated with the worship of Ba’al and Judah’s resulting infidelity. Idolatry is seen as spiritual adultery. So the sexual practices associated with Ba’al worship meant that the sexual images also had a real, literal, reference.⁴⁰

In the first analogy Isra’el is pictured as a young calf that has been freed from the yoke of bondage but now refuses to serve (Hosea 4:16). Long ago, before you broke off your yokes and tore off your bonds; you said, “I will not serve You!” Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down and prostitute yourself (2:20). She now chases everywhere after idols and under every spreading tree (3:6). She was unfaithful (Hosea 1:2) and was found guilty of spiritual adultery as the wife of YHVH (Deuteronomy 5:1-3 and 6:10-15).

The second analogy likens Isra’el to a choice vine. I had planted you like a choice vine (Hebrew: soreq), from the very best seed that produces red grapes (Hosea 10:1). Judah is often pictured as the LORD’s choice vine in the TaNaKh (Isaiah 5:1-7; Ezekiel 21:33-46) and in the B’rit Chadashah (Mattityahu 21:33-46). Yet, this choice vine produced poisonous branches (Deuteronomy 32:32), incapable of producing any good fruit. How then did you turn against Me into a corrupt, wild vine (2:21).

The third analogy describes a stain that cannot be removed. Although you wash yourself with soap (a strong vegetable alkali) and use an abundance of cleansing powder (a strong mineral alkali), the stain of your guilt is still before Me, declares Adonai ELOHIM (2:22). No amount of washing with normally reliable detergents would remove it.

Jeremiah’s persistent faithfulness contrasted with the erratic and impure nature of the people with whom he lived. They were full of projects, and wild with enthusiasm, but nothing ever added up. The prophet did his best to show them the shabby emptiness of their lives. Israel’s idolatry is further exhibited by her hypocrisy. She denies going after other gods. In answer to her denials, HaShem says: How can you say, “I am not defiled; I have not run after the gods of Ba’al, or the ba’alim?” See how you have behaved in the Valley of Ben Hinnom; consider what you have done (2:23a). This Valley is a constant witness against what Isra’el had done. Later, in Jeremiah we learn that the Israelites would burn their sons and daughters in the fire (to see link click Cf – They Will Bury the Dead in Topheth).

The fourth analogy pictures a she-camel in heat. In a bold, sexually explicit metaphor, he captured their attention and then dramatized their futility. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving – in her heat who can turn (shuwb) her away? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said: It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them (2:23b-25). When in heat, a she-camel runs back and forth, here and there without any reason. She is wild and unrestrained. This is like Isra’el running back and forth going in circles. She sniffs the wind for the smell of male urine, and becomes totally uncontrollable until her desire is spent.

Those were strong words. Stand on a hill and look down in the valley at a young she-camel looking for a mate, back and forth, up and down. The record of her restless searching in the pad prints in the sand – a lot of movement going nowhere. Or look at the wild donkey in heat out in the desert, sniffing the wind for the scent of a mate – no matter who – unrestrained and purposeless except for one thing, the satisfaction of desire. Therefore, Jeremiah said that Y’hudah eagerly sought one god after another.

This is what you look like, preached the prophet. Dominated by appetite and impulse, your lives are empty of commitment, purpose, and continuity. You are frantic and busy, rushing here and there, wherever there is the slightest suggestion that you might satisfy something or other. But you are not camels in the mating season. You are people with the capacity for faithfulness. Isn’t it time to start living like it?⁴¹

The fifth analogy likens Isra’el to a disgraced thief when caught. So the people of Judah would be disgraced like a thief is caught – especially their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets (2:26). The thief is not disgraced or shamed because of stealing, but because he is caught. Likewise, when Jerusalem was destroyed and Judah was taken into exile, Y’hudah would be disgraced in her trust in other gods.

Then God exposed the foolishness of idolatry. They say to wood, “You are my father,” and to stone, “You gave me birth.” They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. In their syncretism they thought they could have it both ways. It was only when calamity struck that Judah realized the futility of depending on gods of Canaan who were powerless to deliver them.⁴² And so, when they are in trouble, they say, “Come and save us” (Psalm 3:8)! But during her death struggle with the Babylonians in 586 BC (see Ga – The Fall of Jerusalem), ADONAI would ask rhetorically: Where then are the gods of Ba’al you made for yourselves now? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! In those final days of judgment the Israelites would call upon their gods to save them, but would hear nothing from stone and wood. For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns (2:27-28). Many of the small towns were named after pagan deities. And Jeremiah’s hometown, Anathoth, was one of them!

Believers today face a real threat from the world that seeks to water-down centuries and centuries of true doctrine. It is not uncommon today to be in the presence of people who think they are very spiritual and pray to “the great spirit,” or “the mother goddess,” and downplay the uniqueness of the Gospel. Syncretism, the belief that all religions lead to God, is, as always, prevalent in the world today. But in the end, true believers chose sound doctrine and unbelievers don’t. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going out showed that none of them belonged to us (First John 2:19).

The B’rit Chadashah builds on the theme of YHVH as a foundation of living water (2:13). Yeshua informed the Samaritan woman the He could give her living water . . . welling up to eternal life (John 4:10 and 14). To any who believe in Him, Christ declares that streams of living water will flow from within them (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Gp – On the Last and Greatest Day of the Feast). To reject His claim is to reject the offer of life that only ADONAI can give. This was just as true in Jeremiah’s day as it is our own.⁴³

Isra’el Forsakes God
2: 14-19

Isra’el forsakes God DIG: In what ways was the nation backsliding? What roles does Assyria and Egypt (44:1) play in humiliating and destroying Isra’el? Why were terrible things happening to God’s people (2:17)? What attitude did the people of Judah fail to have toward the LORD in verse nineteen? What role does ADONAI play in sealing Isra’el’s fate (2:36-37)?

REFLECT: Think about this statement, “The greatest judgment Ha’Shem can send to disobedient people is to let them have their own way and reap the sad, painful consequences of their sins.” How was this true in the book of Jeremiah? What evidence do we have that this is still true today?

616 BC during the reign of Josiah

When the marriage relationship with God was going well, Isra’el was protected from invaders. All who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them (2:3). But no longer, as Ha’Shem’s five rhetorical questions demonstrate. Yet, Isra’el had become plunder (the spoils of war) to the nations around her. Her declaration that she would not serve YHVH had resulted in her serving those very nations – a new kind of bondage.³⁶

For a long time Isra’el had been in bondage. First: The northern kingdom of Isra’el had fallen to Assyria in 722 BC. Is Isra’el a servant, a slave by birth? The expected answer is negative. A different explanation accounted for their lowly state. Slaves were normally bought, but their children belonged to the same master. It seemed to Jeremiah that some freeborn Israelites were already slaves and others were about to become slaves. Second: If that were not so, why then had [she] become plunder (2:14)? Isra’el had been YHVH’s own possession, a willing partner in the covenant, and a witness to the victories over all her enemies by the LORD (Jeremiah does not use the terms Isra’el and Judah consistently because sometimes he uses the terms interchangeably and sometimes he uses them distinctly. There is no pattern). But Jeremiah’s original readers were sitting in Babylon, exiled from the Land and from the Temple. To them, the unthinkable had happened – they had been reduced to slavery once again, carried off as plunder. How did this come about? They had committed spiritual adultery until she was plundered.

Lions have roared; they have growled at [her]. Judah had not merely been threatened she had been caught. This wasn’t a warning, but reality. The lions in this scroll and the other prophets symbolize nations (Hosea 5:1-15). But who are they? Jeremiah was coming out against political alliances between Egypt and Assyria. They have laid waste her land; her towns are burned and deserted. Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked her skull, causing Judah’s destruction (2:15-16). At this point in Judah’s history, Egypt was especially guilty. Egypt merely exploited Judah for her own benefit, and would not hesitate to rob the Jews when it suited her convenience. An unreliable ally, she would turn around and attack Judah within a few years in 609 BC. Memphis is the ancient capital of lower-Egypt (about 13 miles south of modern Cairo), and Tahpanhes (an important fortress is on the Eastern branch of the Nile Delta) was a city that controlled the entrance to Egypt from the land of Canaan. Later, both of these cities would become centers of Jewish exile after Jerusalem was destroyed (Hosea 9:6).

The real cause of Judah’s trouble was plainly that she walked away from ADONAI, the Living Water (2:13), who led her safely through the wilderness. Jeremiah reminded them of this. Third: Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking ADONAI your God when He led you in the way of the wilderness (2:17)? This answers the question of verse 14. This is a theme to which the prophet returned to again and again. And in addition to forsaking the LORD for false gods, Judah had also forsaken Him for false alliances. Judah vainly went back and forth between Egypt and Assyria trying to forge treaties that would guarantee her safety (Jeremiah 2:36; Ezekiel 23:1-48; Hosea 7:11).

But no alliance could protect Judah from her sin. And fourth: Now (Hebrew: we’atta, is an important rhetorical participle signaling a shift from the past to the present) why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And fifth: Why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates River (2:18)? What would she gain? Historically, Jeremiah’s point is sharp and painful. Menahem, king of the northern kingdom of Isra’el, sought Assyrian aid against Egypt; Hoshea sought Egyptian aid against Assyria; Josiah died while fighting Egypt in support of Assyria. Obviously, none of those alliances had been helpful.³⁷ Judah then sought help from broken cisterns that could not hold water (2:13). Ironically, the nations that she sought protection from would eventually enslave her.

Consequently, Yirmeyahu prophesied: Your wickedness will punish you, and your apostatizing will rebuke you. But she would realize that too late, as she was exiled in Babylon. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of Me, declares ADONAI-Tzva’ot (2:19, also see 4:18 and 5:25). Isra’el’s apostasies had turned back on her and made her the victim of plundering neighbors. The irony is that by forsaking Elohim and seeking after the gods of other nations, they were thrown into exile among those very nations.³⁸ Isra’el, a much-loved heir, did not need to have this happen. The original readers of Jeremiah’s scroll would realize that God was speaking directly to them, saying, in effect, “Don’t blame others for these events. You have brought this upon yourself.” The bitter results of these acts would show them the folly of their ways.

We can fall into the same trap today by seeking security in anything but Jesus. Simon Peter said: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God (Yochanan 6:68). This is why the Bible says: Look, I am laying in Tziyon a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and whoever rests their trust on it will certainly not be humiliated (Fist Kefa 2:6 CJB). ADONAI is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer, my God, my Rock, in whom I find shelter, my shield, the power that saves me, my stronghold (Psalm 18:2). Jesus tells us to build our house on the Rock and not the sand of this world (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Dy – The Wise and Foolish Builders). The sand is composed of human opinions, attitudes, and wills, which are always shifting and always unstable. To build on sand is to build on self-will, self-satisfaction, and self-righteousness. To build on sand is to be unteachable, to be always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (Second Timothy 3:7).³⁹