Jerusalem’s Judgment Inescapable
14:7 to 15:4

Judah’s judgment inescapable DIG: On what basis do the people hope God will rescue them? What do you think was the most effective part of their appeal? Why is YHVH fed up with them and their cries? Why should Jeremiah pray for them, as a true prophet would (see First Samuel 7:8 and Jeremiah 12:23)? What will happen to the false prophets (14:14-18)? What irony do you see here? What was the dilemma of the people? How could they know who was the true prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20)? How can we tell today? What does the Bible have to say about extra-biblical prophecy today? In what ways are we held accountable? Though told not to pray for the people, what is Yirmeyahu doing in his third appeal? What is the basis of the prophet’s appeal on behalf of the rejected people (Leviticus 26:44-45)? Does the LORD soften up? Why or why not?

REFLECT: Do you think God’s patience finally wears out? At what points? Does patience have to have a time limit? What becomes of limitless patience? The false prophets told the kings what they wanted to hear. Do you know someone who says “yes” to avoid rocking the boat? Do you sometimes do that? In your family? At your work? At shul? At church? Has it ever gotten you into trouble? What trouble do you see stemming from people who only tell others what they want to hear? On the other hand, some people like to “make waves?” Do you? Ritual observances without faith do not impress or please YHVH. Does faith lie beneath your actions? Is there anyone you’re trying to impress or influence other than ADONAI? Do you have an audience of One – or many? How can you or anyone else escape this trap?

608 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Judgment can be delayed – but not denied. After Josiah had heard what was written in the scroll of the Torah, he tore his clothes (Second Kings 22:11 CJB) because he knew Y’hudah had strayed far from ADONAI. So the king sent his advisors to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of the LORD. She gave no doubt that the curses of Deuteronomy would be carried out and Jerusalem was under the cherem judgment of God, which means that she was devoted to destruction (Second Kings 22:15-17). Therefore, Yerushalayim would be under judgment the entire time Jeremiah was ministering. There was no remedy. The spiritual sickness had reached a point where it had become incurable. The weeping prophet spoke to a people that had a fatal disease called sin.

So Yirmeyahu begins a series of intercessions on behalf of his people. But God rejects each intercession. Sometimes there is a point of no return. The analogy in the Bible is the cup of wrath that is full and overflowing (Job 21:20; Isaiah 51:17 and 22; Jeremiah 25:15; Revelation 14:10 and 16:19). ADONAI would not give Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the Promised Land at a time when the cup of wrath of the Canaanites had not reached its full measure. But when it was overflowing, YHVH brought the Jews back to drive the Canaanites out. Now the Judeans were in the same exact position. The cup of the LORD’s wrath was full and overflowing and the intercessions of Jeremiah would be of no avail. Yirmeyahu’s prayers would go unanswered, but not because he lacked faith. God was fed up with their sin.

The sacrificial system of the Torah was acceptable only if it was done in faith. So faith is not the only key element after the cross, but also before it. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). But Judah was performing those sacrifices on the assumption that they could continue to sin as much as they wanted because the sacrifices would cover their sin, much like many Catholics today with the confessional. Rabbi Sha’ul answered this line of thinking in Romans 6:1-14.

Jeremiah’s first intercession: Although our sins testify against us, do something ADONAI, for the sake of Your name. For we have rebelled (from shuwb); we have sinned against you. Notice how the prayer, which began in contrition also hints that YHVH had not been fully effective. The series of rhetorical questions are almost accusations, for they suggest that Elohim had been a stranger, a traveler, a surprised man, and a powerless warrior. You who are the hope of Isra’el, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the Land, like a traveler who stays only a night? Why are You like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? While there is an admission of guilt, the focus is placed on what is expected of God. You are among us, LORD, and we bear Your name. Isra’el was, and is, a nation that bears His name, so the prophet finished his first intercessory prayer with the appeal: Do not forsake us (14:7-9)!

ADONAI’s first rejection: Ha’Shem gives a crushing response. He provides one of the basic reasons for the rejection: They continually love to wander from one false god to another, to another, to another; they do not restrain their feet from chasing after them. So ADONAI does not accept the Israelites; He will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins (14:10).

Then, as if really fed up, God interrupted the intercession and demanded: Do not pray for the well being of this people (14:11). Jeremiah was ordered by God not to pray for his people since they were under judgment (see comments on 7:16). The covenantal situation was so deteriorated that serious conversation between YHVH and Y’hudah was no longer possible. He withdrew from the conversation, for there was nothing more to talk about.¹⁵⁰

Not only will their prayers do no good, but their ritual sacrifices of the Torah would also be useless. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings (see the commentary on Exodus Fe – The Burnt offering) and grain offerings (see the commentary on Exodus Ff – The Grain Offering) I will not accept them. Instead, they can only expect judgment. I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague (14:12). As the dialogue continued the word famine occurs four more times, both as a grim physical reality . . . and as a symbol for the spiritual famine occasioned by the false prophets. As bad as the droughts were, the worst was yet to come.

Jeremiah’s second intercession: The basis for this intercession is that the fault does not lay with the people but the false prophets because they keep lying to the people. Yirmeyahu himself gets confused because he hears prophets speaking in the name of the LORD and saying some pretty strange things. Then Jeremiah said: ADONAI, God! The prophets are telling them, “You won’t see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place” (14:13). In other words, “You will not be expelled from Judea because she is under God’s protection and He will surely defend her (to see link click Cc – False Religion is Worthless). This Hebrew expression means you will have true, lasting peace in this place. Its as if the prophet was saying, “So it’s not the people’s fault . . . its those pesky prophets. You can limit your judgment to them!”

ADONAI’s second rejection: Then the LORD said to Yirmeyahu: The prophets are prophesying lies in My name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations (expressly forbidden by the Torah in Deuteronomy 18:10, but heavily practiced in Isra’el as seen in Second Kings 17:17 and Ezekiel 13:6), idolatries and the delusions of their own minds (14:14). In other words, they made things up! There were a lot of false prophets and Jeremiah’s prophetic voice was minimized. The people had itching ears (Second Timothy 4:3), and those false prophets fed them the lies that they wanted to hear.

Therefore, God will judge these false prophets. This is what ADONAI says about the prophets who are prophesying in My name. I did not send them, yet they are saying: No sword or famine will touch this Land. Those same prophets will perish by the sword and famine. And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Tziyon because of the famine and sword. Death will be on such a massive scale that there will be no one left to bury them, their wives, their sons and their daughters (14:15-16). They will all die and their death will be a result of their own sin. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve (see Ae – The Problem of Holy War in the TaNaKh).

Jeremiah then looks upon this scene as described by God and expresses his own grief. Let My eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for the Virgin Daughter, My people, has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow. She had been polluted. Again we see the crying prophet. If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I go into Yerushalayim, I see the ravages of famine. No matter where the prophet from Anathoth goes, within the walls of Jerusalem or out into the country he sees those who will soon die of famine or the sword. The survivors, both prophet and priest, have gone to a land they know not . . . Babylon (14:17-18).

Jeremiah’s Third Intercession: This time the prophet starts out with a question that he hopes will produce a better answer. Have You rejected Y’hudah totally and completely? Do You despise Yerushalayim? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? Actually, when Jeremiah says, “we,” he really means only himself and a few others, not the entire nation. You could count the “we,” on one hand. The prophet again tries a vicarious confession of guilt, saying: We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD, and the guilt of our ancestors; we have indeed sinned against You (14:19-20). There had been a long record of disloyalty to ADONAI extending over many generations. But it had reached its culmination when the punishment could no longer be withheld. Therefore, they could only rely on the mercy of YHVH.

Yirmeyahu gives three reasons why God should not destroy the nation. First, for the sake of Your name (the One who keeps His promises) do not despise us. Second, do not dishonor Your glorious throne (in the Temple, in the Most Holy Place where the Shechinah glory was). And third, remember Your covenant with us and do not break it (14:21). But, in reality, the three reasons that the prophet gave for not punishing the nation were the very same reasons why He had to punish the nation. First, because God’s name had been blasphemed by the Jews. Second, Ha’Shem had already been dishonored by the spiritual adultery set up within the Temple itself. And third, the Covenant itself demanded curses and judgment for disobedience.

The prophet acknowledged the LORD’s power in contrast to the idols of wood and stone. Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? No, those idols cannot cause the droughts to end. Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is You, ADONAI our God. Therefore our hope is in You, for You are the One who does all this (14:22). The Talmud states there are three keys that have not been entrusted to a mediator, but are kept in the hands of the One True God: the keys of birth, rain and resurrection (Tractate Sanhedrin 113a). Only the Creator has that power.

ADONAI’s third rejection: Then ADONAI said to Yirmeyahu: Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people (15:1a). God chose Moses and Samuel because earlier in Jewish history their intervention did ward off His judgment. Three different times the Bible records how Moshe averted the total destruction of the Jewish people by his intercession (Exodus 32:11-14, 30-34; Numbers 14:13-19; Deuteronomy 9:18-20, 25-29). In the case of Samuel, it’s recorded that twice he saved the nation (First Samuel 7:7-11 and 12:19-25).

The background for Jeremiah (under the inspiration of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh) using Moses and Samuel as examples here is seen in Psalm 99:6-8. God had listened to them earlier in Jewish history. And because of their intercession He did withhold His judgment against a sinful nation. However, if both these men were now living, and were standing together side-by-side with Yirmeyahu and interceding . . . this time their prayers would go unanswered. Ha’Shem would say: Send them away from My presence! Let them go (15:1b)! Sending them away from His presence meant sending them away from the Temple. This pictures the people standing before the LORD in the Temple, where they had appeared bringing sacrifices and invoking His help by prayer. YHVH was determined to throw the people out of the Land and into either death or captivity.

The four destroyers: And if they ask you, “Where shall we go if we are denied God’s mercy?” the prophet was supposed to give them a sarcastic direction: each to their own specific destination. This is what ADONAI said: Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity (15:2). There is no hope. That same fourfold sequence takes on a powerful function in apocalyptic literature as “the four horsemen” (see the commentary on Revelation Ck – The Seven Seals of the Lamb), though the elements are slightly changed. The language here is as harsh and weighty as the TaNaKh permits.

I will send four kinds of destroyers against them, declared the LORD. But now they are the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the beasts to devour and destroy (15:3). In contrast to 15:2, this set of four emphasizes the verbs: kill, drag away, devour, and destroy. The verbs make this formula more awesome and terrifying than those in 15:2. The grand climax to the whole prophecy is that Ha’Shem would make the Jews abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:25). And the sin that started all of this, although a long process, was what Manasseh (Second Kings 21:10-16, 23-26, 24:3-4) son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem (15:4). The beloved City stands under a sentence of death. Nothing . . . not even the prayers of this passionate prophet, could change that fact. However, we must always keep in mind that because ADONAI never intends to destroy the nation as a whole, and always preserve a remnant (Romans, Chapters 9-11), some will go into captivity.

Judah’s Terrible Drought
14: 1-6

Judah’s terrible drought DIG: Why was drought such a devastating thing to ADONAI’s people? Why did this drought came about? How did it happen? All at once? In waves of successive years? Or what? What does it say about the seriousness of their sins that YHVH chose to speak to His people about droughts through Yirmeyahu? At what point did God’s patience finally run out? Does His patience have a limit?

REFLECT: As a parent, as a friend, as an employee, as a spouse, is there a time when your patience runs out? What happens? Are you going through a season of drought in your life right now? How did you get in that dry cistern? How do you get out? What keeps you going during those tough periods? How can you help others?

608 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Unlike the land of Egypt, whose food supply depended on irrigation from the Nile River, the land of Canaan depended on the rains God sent from heaven (Deuteronomy 11:10-12). If His people obeyed His Torah, YHVH would send the rains and give them bumper crops (Leviticus 26:3-5), but if they disobeyed, the heavens would become like bronze and the earth like iron (Leviticus 26:18-20; Deuteronomy 11:13-17, 28:22-24). Over the years, Y’hudah’s sins had brought a series of droughts to the Land (see 3:3, 5:24, and 12:4), and Yirmeyahu used this painful but timely topic as the basis for a sermon to the people.¹³⁶

This is the word of ADONAI that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts (14:1); The Hebrew word for drought here is in the plural. The emphasis is that there was not one massive drought, but a series of droughts. This was consistent with the teachings of the Torah. There were blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Among the curses listed was the fact that if Isra’el disobeyed there would be drought (Leviticus 26:19-20; Deuteronomy 11:17, 28:23-24). Apparently this was a series of droughts so severe that it left a lasting impression on the Judeans.

The effects of this prolonged drought are vividly portrayed by four brief staccato announcements: Judah mourns . . . her cities and her inhabitants languish . . . they wail for the Land . . . and a cry goes up from Jerusalem (14:2). The people were in tears. But it was rather the cry of their trouble, and of their sin, than of their prayer. The severity of the drought was evidenced in that it not only touched the common people, but even the nobles who always had the best water supply.  The nobles send their servants for stored water; they go to the cisterns but found no water. There are numerous pits or cisterns still to be found in Palestine. They are often hewn out of the solid rock, and, being narrower at the mouth than at the bottom, it is not an easy thing to get out unaided, if one should be so unfortunate as to get in. When dry, these cisterns were sometimes used as dungeons for prisoners, and so Joseph’s brothers put him in one (Genesis 37:20). Jeremiah was also imprisoned in a cistern that had been dug in the courtyard of the guard (to see link click Fz – Jeremiah Thrown into a Cistern).¹³⁷

The servants return (shuwb) with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, ashamed . . . covering their heads is a sign of great distress (14:3). Those who rejected the spring of Living Water of life for false cisterns now found their physical water supply matching the spiritual water supply to which they had turned (2:13).¹³⁸

Yirmeyahu then described the effect of drought on the farmers: The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the Land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads as they watched their crops waste away (14:4).

In the drought even the wild animals were desperate. This is a significant detail. Domestic animals were close to waterholes and pasturelands. The drought is almost total when the wandering animals also cannot find any water.¹³⁹ Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. The animal kingdom also suffered greatly. Wild donkeys (who can survive on practically nothing) stand on the barren heights close to death and pant like jackals through the heat and thirst; their usually good eyesight failed them as they looked for food (14:5-6).

At another level, this word of God was being passed along to the readers of the text in Babylon. By the time they had read these words, Jerusalem had already fallen and they were in exile. So they could look back on these disastrous events and be given a new glimpse of how YHVH had responded to their rebellion. To see how ADONAI lamented (14:17-18) over His actions would help shape their continuing understanding of His heart. Divine judgment is accompanied by grief; such devastation was not what Ha’Shem wanted for either the people, the Land, or the animals.¹⁴⁰

The drought tore at the social fabric of the nation. Everything came to a screeching halt because now nobles, farmers, cows, does, wild donkeys and jackals all had something in common. The pall of death hung over the nation. The prophet from Anathoth realized that this judgment of the droughts was a direct result of the sins of Y’hudah. It was just the beginning and the worst was yet to come. He had come to the conclusion that Jerusalem’s judgment was inescapable – as we see next.

Sword, Famine, and Drought
Jeremiah 14:1 to 15:21

608 BC During the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The connection between drought and the enemy is very clear in this section. It encompasses a variety of speakers and audiences. But it begins with a description of the drought (to see link click Cj – Judah’s Terrible Drought) and ends with a description of defeat in battle (see Cl – You Have Rejected Me, I am Tired of Relenting), followed by Jeremiah’s fourth complaint (see Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth). In between we hear of sword, famine, and drought (14:12).

God’s Determination to Punish Judah
14:1 to 17:27

609 to 598 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

The section of 14:1 to 15:21 is bound together by the theme of drought; physical drought that illustrates spiritual drought. First comes the heartbreaking picture of drought so severe that even the wild donkeys cannot find any grass. In other words, Y’hudah was experiencing a spiritual drought (to see link click Cj – Judah’s Terrible Drought). Once again Jeremiah is commanded by the LORD not to pray for the Judeans. The prophet interceded three times with ADONAI responding three times. Finally, God sent four destroyers to make the Jews abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth (see Ck – Jerusalem’s Judgment Inescapable). God’s pain is profound. Judah kept turning her back on Him and He describes her demise. God’s love lasts forever, but His patience does not. Yerushalayim’s destruction is described as if it had already occurred (see Cl – You Have Rejected Me, I am Tired of Relenting). The prophet was despondent and wishes he were never born. YHVH encourages His servant (see Cm – Woe to Me, Mother, That You Gave Me Birth).

The sixteenth chapter balances judgment and hope. More than half of the chapter (see Co – You Must Not Marry and Have Sons and Daughters) is a reflection on Jeremiah’s celibacy, which is a warning of the deprivation that would come to Y’hudah. This is followed by the promise of a return from exile (see Cp – Judgment Before Final Restoration to the Land). A warning that YHVH will send fishermen and hunters to search out Jewish idolaters from the Land is followed by the hope that finally the Gentile nations will be converted.

Chapter seventeen contrasts between life with ADONAI and life without Him. God chronicles Judah’s indelible sin and the contrast between trust in man and trust in God. The human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Then a parable is directed specifically to King Jehoiakim (see Cr – Blessed is the One Who Trusts in the LORD, Whose Confidence is in Him). Then Jeremiah issues his fifth complaint. Jeremiah asks God to save him, to rescue him, to vindicate him, from any situation because the prophet was being attacked and accused of being a false prophet (see Cs – Heal Me, ADONAI, and I Will Be Healed, Save Me and I Will Be Saved). God is always ready to forgive a repentant sinner (26:2-3). And it was the prophet’s duty to indicate the remedy for the current evils of the people. It was therefore natural that Yirmeyahu should stress the importance of Shabbat, a basic institution of Judaism. Making the Sabbath holy, with its intensive spiritual influence, would tend to wean the people from other abuses and effect a reformation (see Ct – The Sabbath and National Survival).

Jeremiah Threatened with Death
26: 1-24

Jeremiah threatened with death DIG: Why do the other priests and prophets want Jeremiah sentenced to death? In defending his case, how does Yirmeyahu distinguish himself from the other prophets who would justly deserve death (Jeremiah 23:21; Deuteronomy 13:5)? Who takes his side and why? Who is Micah of Moresheth and what impact did he have on King Hezekiah (Micah 1:1 and 3:12)? What parallel does that suggest? Who is this Shaphan and family (Second Kings 22:8-13)? How does the argument of these Jewish elders compare with that of Gamaliel in a similar situation (Acts 5:34-40)? What principle of interpreting Scripture and signs of the times is at work here? Why do you think the rulers killed Uriah but not Jeremiah?

REFLECT: Why does God seem so indifferent to the earthly fate of His servants (Hebrews 11:32-38)? What do you fear the most? How can you overcome it? Are you at ease taking sides in a debate before all the votes are in? Or do you usually hedge your bets by waiting to see how things will pan out? Give an example? When was the last time you stuck up for someone unpopular? Why did you do it? How were you treated? How might the principle of interpretation evident in Jeremiah 26:16-19 and Acts 5:34-40 used today in deciding who speaks for ADONAI?

609/608 BC early in the reign of Jehoiakim

Summary of the Temple Sermon: Early in the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah king of Judah, this is a technical term meaning from the beginning of the actual reign. This, then, took place sometime between the king’s accession to the throne, on the deportation of Jehoiakim’s brother Jehoahaz to Egypt in the autumn or late summer of 609. In Judah renal years were counted from the month of Nisan of the first full year of a king’s reign. So Jehoiakim would have begun to sit on Jerusalem’s throne early the next year in 608 BC. Then word came from the LORD (26:1). This passage gives us a glimpse into the legal proceedings of the day and brings us before several significant groups of people – the prosecutors (the priests, false prophets and officials) and the accused. The trial took place at the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple. The prosecution demanded the death penalty. Jeremiah conducted his own defense.¹³³

This is what ADONAI says, “Stand in the outer courtyard of the LORD’s house where all the people of the towns of Judah come to worship in the house of ADONAI, and speak to them. This sermon, or series of sermons, had been given during one of three major feasts: Pesach, Sukkot, and Shavu’ot. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word (26:2). The very words have been inspired in the original writings. In fact, this scene is a lot like Shavu’ot when the messianic community first began (Acts 2:1-47). The purpose of the message is then given: Perhaps they will listen and each will turn (shuwb) from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done” (26:3). Here, ADONAI is giving the nation an opportunity to repent (shuwb) from her evil sin and perhaps delay her judgment even further. As we have noted previously, judgment would come because of the sin of Manasseh. So while it could not be averted, it could be delayed. If the nation had responded positively to Jeremiah’s preaching, YHVH would have relented, and His judgment would have been delayed (18:8). If the people had responded to God, He would have responded with grace.

Then God spells out the responsibility of the people and the consequences if they did not obey. He told Jeremiah to say to them, “This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to Me and follow the Torah, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have persistently sent to you (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this City an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth” (26:4-6). Jehoiakim was a model of disobedience. From the outset of his reign, the word of YHVH was an unwelcome word, systematically rejected and resisted by the king and his government.

We also learn in the chapter that Jeremiah was faithful in spite of the opposition to him. Where earlier the prophet expressed degrees of doubt, it will not happen from now on. He will be a fortified city. His opposition will come from three sources: false prophets, evil priests and wicked kings.

Jeremiah Threatened With Death: The priests, the false prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD (to see link click Cb – Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon). But as soon as Yirmeyahu finished telling the people everything ADONAI had commanded him to say, the priests, the false prophets and all the people seized him and said: You must die (they were trying to obey the Torah according to Deuteronomy 18:20)! Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this City will be desolate and deserted? Ominously, all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the Temple (26:7-9). The specific charge was the possible destruction of both the Temple and Jerusalem. It became a mob scene.

The noise of the uproar was heard in the royal palace, where the officials of Judah were assembled. Hurrying to the Temple, their arrival seems to have quieted the people and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple, the place for an official court (Genesis 23:10-16; Ruth 4:1-12). The New Gate was the same as the Upper Gate and is usually identified with the gate leading to the inner, or priests court (36:10). According to Second Kings 15:35 this particular gate was built by King Jotham. Then the prosecution, consisting of the priests and the false prophets, said to the officials and all their people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against his City. You have heard it with your own ears” (26:10-11)! To the elders this would make the issue appear to be treason in addition to a religious dispute. Such an accusation pronounced against the Temple was considered blasphemy . . . a mortal crime (Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 24:26; Acts 6:11-14).

Jeremiah’s response to the charge was sincere and dignified. Then Yirmeyahu said to all the officials and all the people, “ADONAI sent me to prophesy against this house and this City all the things you have heard.” He was only doing what a prophet was supposed to do! Their responsibility was not to kill Jeremiah, but to reform their ways and their actions and obey the LORD your God. Jeremiah continued: Then the LORD will relent (give you grace) and not bring the disaster He has pronounced against you (26:12-13).

Jeremiah derived courage from the greatness of his cause. The battle was not between himself and his accusers, but between good and evil, right and wrong, YHVH and the powers of darkness. His defense was simple. As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right because I am innocent of the charge of disrespecting the Temple. Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this City and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing” (26:14-15). The message itself cannot be ignored because it is from God.

This statement had the effect of arousing the religious fears, and the elders found the complaint against Yirmeyahu without basis. Then the elders and all the people said to the priests and the false prophets, “This man should not be sentenced to death!” The elders turned the matter back to the priests and false prophets, saying, in effect, “This does not concern us, it’s your responsibility.” After all: He has spoken to us in the name of ADONAI our God (26:16). Normally, the term: the elders, means men who held an official status in the community. But here it is better understood in its literal sense. These men of advanced age had themselves heard, or been told by their fathers, the statement made by an earlier prophet which corroborated the divine origin of Jeremiah’s words.

Undoubtedly, Yirmeyahu would have met with the same fate as Stephen (Acts 7:54-60) had not ADONAI come to the aid of His loyal servant. Jeremiah’s time had not yet come. His ministry had not yet been completed. His sufferings and persecutions had only begun. He was to become a still greater hero of faith and loyalty than he had been under the protecting support of Josiah. He was to overcome not only doubts, and fears, and dissatisfaction and disappointment, but stand like a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall (1:18) against the fiercest attacks in the form of hatred, persecution and imprisonment. In the strength of YHVH, he was to overcome every trial more than a conqueror.¹³⁴

Then an official broke the impasse: just as Jeremiah had cited Shiloh as a precedent, so the elder cites a precedent for this situation. He brought up the example of a previous prophet who had prophesied over a century earlier. They stepped forward and said to the entire assembly of people, “Micah of Moresheth (a contemporary of Isaiah) prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, “This is what ADONAI of heaven’s angelic armies says: Tziyon will become a heap of rubble, the Temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets” (Micah 3:12). A direct quote of this kind appears nowhere else in the TaNaKh. Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death for disrespecting the Temple? No! Did not Hezekiah, a century earlier, fear the LORD and seek His favor (see the commentary on Isaiah Gu – Hezekiah Spread the Letter Before the LORD)? And did not ADONAI relent, so that he did not bring the disaster he pronounced against them? As a direct result of Micah’s warnings, Jerusalem was then spared. Then the elders applied that situation to their own day, saying: We are about to do great harm to ourselves if we condemn Yirmeyahu to death (26:17-19)! The precedent was enough to save Jeremiah’s life.

Deliverance for Jeremiah; but death for Uriah: On the other hand, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of ADONAI, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, a contemporary of Jeremiah, was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD. Nothing is known about him apart from what is written here. He prophesied the same things against this City and this Land as Jeremiah did, but he was not as fortunate as Micah or the prophet from Anathoth. When King Jehoiakim and all his military officers and officials heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But Uriah heard of it and fled in fear to Egypt because he didn’t have the same promise of protection that Yirmeyahu did. King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Acbor to Egypt, along with some other men (26:20-22). Later, Elnathan would urge Jehoiakim not to burn Jeremiah’s first scroll (36:12).

Jehoiakim was a vassal of Egypt (Second Kings 23:34-45; Second Chronicles 36:4), which would include an extradition treaty between the two nations. So Egypt would give up Uriah to Jehoiakim. They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him struck down with the sword and his body thrown into the burial place of the common people (26:23). This would have been in the Kedron Valley (Second Kings 23:6) on the east side of Jerusalem and separated the City from the Mount of Olives. The prophet Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20-22) is the only other prophet whose execution is recorded in the TaNaKh. The Ruach HaKodesh inspired the prophet to include this incident to stress the very great danger he was in when he continued to preach the way he did.

Unlike Uriah, however, Ahikam son of Shaphan used his influence to save Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death (26:24 CJB). Added to the precedent of Micah, the rescue is reported in terms of political realism. Jeremiah had a powerful advocate in the family of Shaphan. He was a servant of good King Josiah, and was sent to inquire of the prophetess Hilda in Second Kings 22:12-14. Shaphan had at least four sons – three of whom were mentioned in a positive light by Yirmeyahu. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Ahikam’s son, Gedaliah governor of Judah after the fall of Jerusalem (see Gd – Gedaliah Ruled For 3 Months in 586 BC). Gemariah also tried to urge Jehoiakim not to burn Yirmeyahu’s first scroll (36:25), and his son was Micaiah who told the court officials that Baruch should read the prophet’s scroll (36:11-25). Jeremiah entrusted Elasah to carry his letter to the exiles in Babylon (29:3). But the fourth son, Jaazaniah, was the “black sheep” of the family; he was caught by surprise by Ezekiel with other idol-worshipers in the Temple (Ezeki’el 8:11). The three godly brothers were some of the very few who truly sought-after ADONAI and believed in Yirmeyahu. God said He would protect Jeremiah and He did. While the prophet was acquitted, his opponents, smarting under their failure to get rid of Jeremiah, continued to conspire against him, watching every move he made and wherever the opportunity arose to disparage the faithful ambassador of YHVH, they took it with relish.

As Andrew Dearman reports in his NIV Application Commentary on Jeremiah, in April 1999 the United States was brought to a state of collective shock over the pointless murders of students and teachers at Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado. Much has been written about the multiple tragedies of that fateful day. Two disturbed and disaffected students took senseless vengeance on their school and community before turning the guns on themselves. One chilling account comes with the testimony of students who saw or heard the killers stalking their prey in the school building, then stopping and asking one young woman, Cassie Bernall, if she believed in God. When she answered “yes,” they shot her. She was one of thirteen victims to die. There are reports that the killers asked the same question of another young woman and that she answered “yes” before being shot.

One cannot know what went through the minds of the young women in the last seconds before their murder. One thought perhaps was the murderers felt rage at God and the pretentiousness of classmates to believe and trust in Him, and that now these demented boys were going to make the girls victims of that rage. Indeed, they were victims, but more than that, they were witnesses. We have only the brief reference to Uriah or to the courage of Ahikam. They did what they did and stood where they stood because they believed in YHVH. We need not ask the modern psychological question of what they thought at the moments of decision; we should, however, give thanks that they acted on what they believed. And we should be reminded that God the Father asks that of all the children of His Son.¹³⁵

They Will Bury the Dead in Topheth
7:29 to 8:3

They will bury the dead in Topeth DIG: What symbolic action was Jeremiah to demonstrate God’s rejection of the people? How was Jerusalem defiled? What was the reason for the lament? What three sins had the people committed? Was child sacrifice new to Palestine? Why did ADONAI forbid it (Leviticus 18:21; Exodus 13:13-16)? Why will YHVH rename the Valley of Ben Hinnom? How is this ironic? What event did Jeremiah predict for Topheth in the future? What horrible things did the prophet say would happen under the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven? What disgrace will the priests, prophets and people of Zion face?

REFLECT: In what ways do parents hinder the religious growth of their children today? How will this affect the universal Church, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers (Ephesians 2:14)? What do you think of “consulting the stars”? How might God frustrate those who trust their daily horoscope?

609/608 BC early in the reign of Jehoiakim

As the culmination of the Temple Sermon (to see link click Cb – Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon) YHVH begins by telling Jeremiah to mourn. The first sign of mourning: Cut off your hair and throw it away (7:29a). The word for cut hair (Hebrew: nezer) is the root for the word Nazirite. Numbers 6:1-21 tells us that a Nazarite was not to cut off the hair until the vow was completed, then it was to be cut off and offered on the bronze altar. But, if during the time of the vow the Nazarite was defiled by touching a dead body, or by any other means, he was to cut off his hair and throw it away because it was no longer an acceptable sacrifice to be placed upon the altar. It had become defiled. The picture here is that Jerusalem had become like a defiled Nazarite, to be cut off, no longer qualifying as an offering to God. No longer the virgin dedicated to ADONAI. Jeremiah goes into greater depth about this in Cz – Judah is Like a Broken Jar.

The second sign of mourning: Take up a lament on the barren heights, for ADONAI has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under wrath (7:29b). Earlier in Jeremiah we were told of the barren heights (4:11), the tops of mountains with the trees cleared away as centers for idol worship. The people of Judah had committed three specific sins.

First, they had done evil in the eyes the LORD (7:30a). The children of Y’hudah, no longer acting like His children, brought His anger upon themselves by their spiritual adultery and by violating the Covenant with Moses at Sinai.

Secondly, they have set up their detestable idols in the Temple, the house that bears My Name and have defiled it (7:30b). The whole land had been defiled. They were actually practicing idol worship right in the Temple itself. In God’s house nonetheless (2 Kings 16:10-18, 21:4-9; Ezekiel 8:6-18)! ADONAI cannot govern in a land that is ritually unclean and unusable. Living in such a land may make people exiles even if they never leave.

Thirdly, in 7:31a we learn that they had built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire to Molech (Second Kings 23:10; Second Chronicles 28:3, 33:6; Jeremiah 19:5, 32:35; Ezekiel 16:20-21). The Valley of Ben Hinnom is GE BEN HINNOM in Hebrew. It is a valley on the west and south sides of Jerusalem. Sometimes it was just called the valley of GE HINNOM, without the BEN in the middle. This is the origin of the word GEHENNA found in the B’rit Chadashah, which is one of the Greek words for hell, the place of everlasting fire (Matthew 5:22, 29-30; Second Peter 2:4). What happened to the body in Topheth will ultimately happen to the body in the lake of fire for the unbeliever (see the commentary on Revelation Fp – The Lake of Fire is the Second Death). Sacrificing their children was something God did not command, nor did it enter His mind (7:31b). This was clearly a contradiction to God’s command: You are not to let any of your children be sacrificed to Molech; thereby profaning the name of your God. I am ADONAI (Leviticus 18:21).

So beware, the days are coming, declares ADONAI, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room (7:32). It will become the scene of their slaughter by the enemy. When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) uses the phrase the days are coming; in those days, at that time; or for the time will surely come, the context points either to the near historical future or the far eschatological future. The context determines which one should be used. This is the fifth of twenty-five times that Yirmeyahu uses one of these phrases.

In this case the days are coming points to the near historical future of the fall of Tziyon (see Gb – The Fall of Jerusalem) in 586 BC. Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The Jews viewed such treatment of the corpse and the lack of proper burial with the utmost horror. It was an unthinkable thing for someone to die without a proper burial (Psalm 79:3). I will bring an end to the signs of normal life, to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the Land will become desolate (7:33-34). Marriages in the Near East are celebrated by processions of friends, who throng the streets and give noisy demonstrations of their joy. Singers and musicians accompany them, and the shouts of music are heard afar off.¹³⁰

But the prophet prophesied that society would draw so close to total death that any such celebration would be impossible and unthinkable. Life would become barbaric in 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed Tziyon. Yirmeyahu searches for the most extreme language to invite his listeners to embrace the chaos at hand.

At that time, declares ADONAI, [these enemies] will remove the bones of the kings of Y’hudah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim from their graves. Nothing is sacred or honored or beyond reach of the wrath of Ha’Shem now unleashed. The punishment here fits the sin: Judah had gone after the gods of the heavens; now the bones of the disobedient dead would be spread before those very gods.¹³¹ They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. Their bones will be exposed to the very signs they had worshiped. This was astrology and occultism to the ultimate degree. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground (8:1-2 CJB). This was a mark of extreme contempt.

All the survivors of this evil family who remain wherever I have driven them will prefer death to life, declares ADONAI of heaven’s angelic armies (8:3 CJB). They had rejected YHVH and His Word, they had refused to choose life offered by ADONAI (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). Now their life . . . a godless, joyless, hopeless life . . . was a burden to them. In the end, life was worse than death. There would be no relief for the wicked among them. But it would be a different story for the righteous of the TaNaKh. In time, Jeremiah himself advised the exiles to build houses and raise families in Babylon (29:4-7). Ha’Shem’s warning was conditional (18:7-8). Those in captivity who accepted their plight turned back to ADONAI and did not succumb to despair. Consequently, their faith would reach its greatest heights during the Babylonian captivity.¹³²

Obey Me, and I Will Be Your God
and You Will Be My People
7: 21-28

Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My people DIG: How long had God been trying to communicate that He was more interested in the attitude of the heart than in empty actions in these verses? How were they trying to appease HaShem? What was being neglected? What is the basis of salvation? Has it always been so? What system is like that today? Will Jeremiah’s words be listened to any more than any of the other prophets?

REFLECT: There is a faith that people see, outward works, and an inward faith, that people don’t see. Cannot see. How are the two measuring up in your life? What would Jesus say about your relationship with Him right now? How would you rate your obedience on a scale from 1 to 10? Why are you doing so well? If not, what needs to change so you can get back the relationship with Messiah that you once had?

609/608 BC early in the reign of Jehoiakim

As the material is arranged in Chapter 7 there is a certain logical development of the argument. The Temple in which the people trusted was a mere cover for every kind of sin and therefore would be destroyed. Alongside the Temple practices was the deep-seated worship of the Queen of Heaven that demonstrated a fundamental wickedness in the nation and was a symptom of the people’s refusal to accept the sovereignty of YHVH and His will. In such circumstances, the whole sacrificial system (which was based on faith) became meaningless to God. It was never His intention that either the Temple or the sacrificial system should become an end to themselves.

This is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves (7:21). In scathing irony He tells them to heap their burnt offerings upon their other sacrifices. They were missing the point. Their sacrificial meals (Leviticus 7:14-19; Deuteronomy 12:5-12, 14:22-27, 27:7) seemed more attractive to them and gained greater attention than the real purpose of the sacrifice, just as the “love feasts” connected with the Lord’s Supper did in the apostle’s time (First Corinthians 11:20-22).¹²⁶

Salvation has always been by faith. When a man or woman came to the Tabernacle or Temple, each brought an acceptable sacrifice (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Fb – The Five Offerings of the Tabernacle: Christ, Our Sacrificial Offering). Progressive revelation teaches us that it was this way from the beginning (see the commentary on Genesis Bj – Your Brother’s Blood Cries Out to Me from the Ground). But the sacrifice, in and of itself, did not save. The righteous of the TaNaKh believed that God would receive their acceptable offering by faith. It was their faith that pleased YHVH, not merely the bringing of a piece of meat. ADONAI is the same yesterday, today and forever. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (Hebrews 13:8; Ephesians 2:9-10). Today there are many who think they are believers just because they go to church or a messianic synagogue; but you don’t get to heaven by how you behave, you get to heaven by what you believe.

Samuel said it this way: Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (First Samuel 15:22). Because the basics of obedience was lacking, ADONAI refused to regard what went on in the Temple as a worthy sacrifice. Having said that, the rest of the Temple Sermon (see Cb – Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon) deals with their history. For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings (see my commentary on Exodus Fe – The Burnt Offering) and sacrifices, but I gave them this command. Saying: Obey Me, and I will be your God and you will be My people. Walk in obedience to all I command you (7:22-23). Sacrifices were only of secondary importance to obedience. No amount of sacrificial rams could atone for their disobedience. If they worshiped no other gods and only worshiped YHVH (which demonstrated their faith), they would have been obedient to Him because the act of obedience included the sacrificial system of burnt offerings. Sacrifices, however, did not have priority over obedience (faith).

The purpose of obedience is “that it may be well with you.” The sacrificial system was intended to be a part of the lifestyle of those who were the righteous of the TaNaKh. But most Jews thought that that they could go on sinning so that grace could increase (Romans 6:1). They thought they could sacrifice their way out of being accountable for their sin. As a result, they elevated sacrifice above obedience (faith).

Today many Roman Catholics do the same thing with the confessional. The hearing of the confessional sins to a priest instead of YHVH was instituted by Pope Innocent III in the Lateran Council (1215 AD). The Baltimore Catechism defines confession as telling the sins of the parishioner to an authorized priest for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness. The priest has the power to forgive all sins and doesn’t even have to ask the LORD to forgive your sins. Therefore, the priest stands in Christ’s place. Any sin not confessed is not forgiven, and that the omission of even one sin may invalidate the whole confession. So in the Roman system the priest constantly comes between the sinner and God.

But no matter how serious the offense, whether murder, robbery, adultery or fraud, etc, no public jail sentence or fine is imposed, but instead only a few minutes of prayer, the saying of the rosary or of “Hail Mary’s,” and a verbal promise of reform. This secret process of forgiveness may be accomplished again and again as long as the sinner conforms to the Catholic regulations. A result of this easy forgiveness is that many take obedience to God more lightly and actually sin more freely just because they know a pardon is easy to obtain. So the confessional system itself becomes more important than obedience to them.¹²⁷

There had been a steady line of prophets sent by YHVH, but they did not listen or pay attention (the verdict appears four times 7:24, 26, 27, 28). Instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. Their own ancestors disobeyed and regressed spiritually. They went backward and not forward, that is, they grew worse instead of better (7:24). To desert the path of faithfulness and righteousness, no matter what new or attractive name, is always to go backward.

The Ruach Ha’Kodesh inspired the prophet to declare that their disobedience was as old as the Exodus and no new thing in Y’hudah. From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, persistently, again and again I sent you My servants the prophets. But all was in vain because they did not listen to Me or pay attention. They were stiff necked and did more evil than their ancestors (7:25-26). The people of Jeremiah’s generation were thus the inheritors of a long tradition of disobedience.¹²⁸

When you [Jeremiah] tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. It was the prophet’s heartbreaking experience to know in advance that his ministry would fall on deaf ears. This generation would not listen to Jeremiah any more than previous generations had listened to their prophets. Yet Jeremiah was to say to them, “This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Faith (the same word as in 5:1) has perished; it has vanished from their lips (7:27-28). They practiced external compliance without internal obedience. Their mouths may have uttered prayers, but they were faithless prayers, mere babblings, because faith was cut off from their mouths, since it was no longer in their hearts.¹²⁹ The natural consequences of their actions would visit them twenty-three years later (see Gb – The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC).

They Knead Dough and
Make Cakes for the Queen of Heaven
7: 16-20

They make dough and make cakes for the Queen of Heaven DIG: Why do you think God forbids Yirmeyahu to pray for Judah? What is the point of mentioning men, women and children involved in this idolatrous worship? Who is really being hurt by this practice? How do you think the LORD personally feels about this idolatry? Is He immune to being hurt by this?

REFLECT: How is the Queen of Heaven worshiped today? Put yourself in God’s place. How would you feel (or have felt) if your spouse was unfaithful in your marriage? Would you try to woo her (him) back (Hosea 3)? What kind of commitment would that take?

609/608 BC early in the reign of Jehoiakim

If you see any brother of sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life . . . but there is a sin that leads to death (First Yochanan 5:16a).

In the Temple Sermon (to see link click Cb – Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon) Jeremiah was ordered by ADONAI not to pray for his people because they were under judgment (7:16). This is the first of three times (11:14 and 14:11) the prophet is commanded not to pray for his own people. The reason Jeremiah was told not to pray for them is because they were guilty of praying to the Queen of Heaven (see the commentary on Exodus Dk – You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me). Their incurable spiritual sickness had reached the point where they were beyond help: So Ha’Shem told Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them.” More than that, “Do not plead with Me, for I will not listen to you, at least not now and not under the present conditions” (7:16).

There may very well be times when we should no longer pray for certain people since they have already been given up in this life to the judgment of God, and their lot is irreversible (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Em – Whoever Blasphemes Against the Holy Spirit Will Never Be Forgiven). It would appear that this is what John is saying in First Yochanan 5:16a. In practical terms, however, since we seldom (if ever) know if such is the case, we should probably not withhold our prayers on behalf of anyone. Who knows if the present blasphemer and persecutor of ADONAI may experience His mercy in the same manner as Rabbi Sha’ul did?¹²¹ The point above being because YHVH is omnipotent, He knew they were reprobate.

YHVH appeals to His prophet’s sense of justice and judgment. God’s prohibition to pray for this people is fully justified by the facts: Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Jewish homes, where ADONAI’s name was to be loved and honored and trusted (Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Joshua 24:15b), had become exactly like the homes of the Gentiles. The children gather wood, the father lights the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse My anger (7:17-18). If both the father and the mother deliberately and persistently teach their evil ways to their children, there is little, if any, chance of them growing up to be children of God.

Once again this showed that the reforms of Josiah were merely external (see Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). They reached the idol centers, the high places and the places of human sacrifice, but his reform movement didn’t reach the mothers’ and wives’ kitchens. This idol worship involved the whole family: The children gather wood, the father lights the fire, and the women knead the dough. Small cakes impressed with her image were offered in her honor. The mother laid them on the Queens’ altar and the whole family would congregate around to worship the Queen of Heaven (44:19a).

The Queen of Heaven had different names in different societies. In Egypt she was called Isis. This worship involved temple prostitution in the Canaanite and Babylonian form (Genesis 38:1 and hinted at in Deuteronomy 23:18) and sometimes homosexuality (First Kings 14:24, 15:12 and 22:46). In Babylon she was called Ishtar, the Mother Goddess and Queen of Heaven, and the spouse of the god Bel-Marduk. Before marriage each woman had to prostitute herself to strangers at the sanctuary of Ishtar. She was one of many gods (Jeremiah 19:13, 32:19; Zephaniah 1:5). The worship of Ishtar along with other Mesopotamian gods was popular in Y’hudah in the days of Manasseh (Second Kings 21, 23:4-14).

In a nearby valley nicknamed “Slaughter,” the Judeans participated in the horrifying rites of child sacrifice (see Cz – Judah is Like a Broken Jar). The Jews must have believed that they appeased Ha’Shem by partaking in those rituals that were associated with the worship of Ba’al and Molech (Second Kings 23:10). Eventually Yerushalayim herself would become a place of slaughter because of her rejection of ADONAI.¹²²

They worshiped under a system known as the mystery religions. For over a thousand years these religions influenced western culture and we still have remnants now operating in Europe and in the Roman Catholic Church all over the world. There are many forms of this mystery religion, but they can all be traced back to a single origin in the Tower of Babel (see the commentary on Genesis Dl – The Tower of Babel). In Revelation 17:5 we can see the final form of world religion . . . MYSTERY BABYLON (see the commentary on Revelation Dd – I Saw a Woman Holding a Golden Cup in Her Hand, Filled with the Filth of Her Adulteries), the mother of all false religions.

Why did the Israelites pour out drink offerings to other gods (44:19b)? This will be the first of several times in this book where Jeremiah says the Jews did something to provoke ADONAI to anger (8:19, 11:17, 25:36). The hardened hearts and closed eyes of the Israelites had caused them to worship idols. In Jeremiah 5:21, ADONAI calls them, “You foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.” God had revealed the righteous demands of His covenant, promising both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, yet the people ignored Him. Though they were suffering in exile, they needed to realize that it was not that that God of Isra’el was not powerful, nor was he incapable of ruling in a foreign land; but it was that they were being punished for their sins for not keeping the Covenant. They were choosing to refuse to repent of their sinful ways. This is exactly what will happen in the Great Tribulation: Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done (Rev 16:10b-11).

But this will backfire on them. Am I the One they are provoking? declares ADONAI. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? Therefore this is what Adonai ELOHIM says: My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place – on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land – and it will burn and not be quenched (7:19-20). Sin always takes you further than you want to go and costs you more than you wanted to pay. They were so persistent in their wickedness that they were beyond the possibility of repentance. It was precisely for this reason that YHVH forbid Jeremiah to pray for them, and in the prohibition the certainty of judgment was made clear. In that light, it is easy to understand the oracle that follows in 7:21-28.¹²³

Today the Roman Church worships Mary as the Queen of Heaven. The titles given to Mary are in themselves a revelation of Roman Catholic sentiment toward her. She is called: Mother of God, Queen of the Apostles, Queen of the Angels, The Door of Paradise, The Gate of Heaven, Our Life, Mother of Grace, Mother of Mercy, and last but not least, the Queen of Heaven.

All those titles are false. Let us just consider two of them. When she is called “Queen of the Apostles,” is that an apostolic doctrine? Where is it found? Certainly not in Scripture. When did the apostles elect Mary their queen? Or when was she appointed by God to be their queen?

The title Queen of Heaven is equally false or even worse. On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared that Mary’s body was raised from the grave three days after she died, that her body and her soul were reunited and that she was taken up and enthroned as Queen of Heaven (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Mr – The Ascension of Jesus). Heaven has no “queen.” The only references in the Bible to prayers to the Queen of Heaven are found in Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-19, 25, where it is severely condemned as a heathen custom practiced by apostate Jews. The so-called Queen of Heaven was a Canaanite goddess of fertility, Astarte (plural Ashtoreth) in Judges 2:13. How shameful to impose a heathen title on Mary, and then to venerate her as another deity!¹²⁴

Radical feminists’ like Mary Daly claim to embody the deity within themselves – in other words, to be God. “I found God in myself and I loved her fiercely,” exults Carol Patrice Christ; that is the logical result of a religion in which God is believed to be contained in all things and all persons. Feminists who hold such views become a god unto themselves. Indeed to such feminists as Dorothee Solle and Isabel Carter Heyward, there is no such thing as original sin, and the “fall” of Genesis 3 is a good, liberating action, creating knowledge and action and reliance on one’s self. According to Solle, “The most telling argument against our traditional God is not that He no longer exists or that He has drawn back within Himself, but that we no longer need Him because God is in us.”

Rosemary Ruether has written liturgies for worshiping groups of women that celebrate the cycles of the moon, the solstices and the seasons, as well as the cycles of menstruation and menopause. She teaches that there is no eternal life for those in her female godless religion. Rather, the end she envisions for all of us is that we will simply end up as compost. She writes, “In effect (at death), our existence ceases as individuals and we merely dissolve back into the cosmic matrix of matter/energy from which we came from. It is this matrix, rather than us as individuals that is everlasting.” In this distorted view of the world, this goddess worship, these women become their own Queen, ruler over their own universe.

If there is no God who is Lord over life, who intervenes, judges, and confirms, and who has given His final judgment and won His decisive victory in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then human evil will always have the last word and there will be no hope for this world.¹²⁵ But praise God, my Redeemer lives (Job 19:25).

False Religion is Worthless
7: 1-15

False religion is worthless DIG: How did Jehoiakim come to be king? What kind of a king was he? Why do you think the prophet went to the Temple to proclaim this message? Who would hear it? What kind of reception do you think he received? How can Judah remain in the Land? What kind of crimes had the people committed? Why did the people assume that their security was assured? What had they done to the Temple? What happened a century earlier that made them feel safe? What happened to the Tabernacle at Shiloh? What happened to the northern kingdom of Isra’el? What lessons did ADONAI want Judah to learn from that?

REFLECT: Where are you in your spiritual journey: (a) in Egypt? (b) going forward? (c) going backward? (d) at the Temple gate? (e) in the most holy place? Do people in your messianic synagogue or church substitute being religious for being obedient? Do you? How can you make sure you’re not fooling yourself? What does God have to do to get the attention of people today? What message does He want to send to you? Are you listening? How were Jeremiah’s words fulfilled in Christ’s day? What would the weeping prophet and Yeshua say about what goes on messianic synagogues and churches today? In what way is your place of worship “doing business?” Who are the “paying customers?” What is the “product?”

609/608 BC early in the reign of Jehoiakim

Today Jesus has many who love His heavenly Kingdom, but few who carry His cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people He finds to share His feat, few to share His fast. Everyone desires to take part in His rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for His sake. There are many that follow Christ as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere His miracles, few that follow Him in the humiliation of His cross.
Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Chris ¹¹³

Jeremiah 26:1 gives the date of the Temple Sermon (to see link click Cb – Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon) as the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. Here the word beginning means the year of ascension before the first New Year’s Day, at which the “first” year of the king was reckoned. The new year evidently began in the spring (March or April), so the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign would have begun the previous fall of 609 BC. A likely occasion would have been the festival of Sukkot, during the “high holy days” at the end of September or the beginning of October, when Yirmeyahu would have addressed the crowds coming to worship (7:2 and 26:2).

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from YHVH. Stand at the gate of ADONAI’s house (or the Eastern Gate) and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord (7:1-2). Although Yirmeyahu spoke at Solomon’s Temple, which would later be destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC, a comparable comparison could be made to Herod’s Temple that was rebuilt after the Babylonian Exile. This sermon is pointed toward those who were coming to the Temple to “worship,” but were, in reality, just going through the motions. They weren’t really serious. It was merely external conformity.

Yirmeyahu’s message that day was simple and direct. Here is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: Reform your ways and your actions (First John 1:9), literally, “Make your ways and your ways good” (7:3a), with the implication that this would be better than evil ways (26:3). And I will let you live in this place (7:3b). God did not value buildings over obedience. His protection would remain only if the people would change their ways. But the people assumed that they were guaranteed security because of the existence of the Temple and their lifestyle didn’t matter. This is called the “inviolability of the Temple” because they believed that God would never allow His Temple to be “violated” because He made His dwelling place there among the people. They did not take the curses of Deuteronomy seriously enough. They did not realize that the Shekinah glory of God had already left the Temple (Ezekiel Chapters 10 and 11).

Do not trust in deceptive words and say: This is the Temple of ADONAI, the Temple of ADONAI, the Temple of ADONAI (7:4). The false prophets maintained that the presence of the Temple of the Lord guaranteed the safety of Jerusalem. This is called the inviolability of the Temple because the deluded priests, national leaders and the people thought that YHVH would never violate it. They used this repetitious formula as a good-luck charm and thought they could do no wrong because of it.

How plausible it was for the people to cling to the notion that the Temple in Tziyon was the ultimate sanctuary from disaster? They recalled when the Assyrian army had Jerusalem surrounded in 701 BC and Hezekiah went to the Temple to pray for deliverance (see the commentary on Isaiah Gu – Hezekiah Spread the Letter Before the LORD). As a result ADONAI-Tzva’ot said that He would save the City (see the commentary on Isaiah Gv – I Will Defend This City and Save It). And that very same night the Temple, Jerusalem and Judah were delivered (see the commentary on Isaiah Gw – Then the Angel of the LORD Put To Death a Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand Men in the Assyrian Camp).

Then in 622 BC good King Josiah centralized the worship of YHVH in the Temple at Zion; this also must have reinforced the conviction of the permanent place of the Temple in God’s plan. The people must have felt, “We have done our part for ADONAI, now ADONAI will do His part for us.” So a superstition developed that the Temple was indestructible. While other cities in the Land might collapse, Jerusalem and the Temple never would. Thus, the Temple was perceived as a good luck charm.

The slogan: This is the Temple of ADONAI, the Temple of ADONAI, the Temple of ADONAI, may not only reflect the people’s trust in the inviolability of the Temple, but also betray their urge to mask their deep uneasiness. This may parallel what happened in the summer of 1940, soon after the beginning of World War II. Paris fell to the German armies, something that had not happened even in the worst days of the Franco-Prussian War or World War I. And then the Battle of Britain began in the air. At that point those in the United States began to see stickers in the windows of cars reading, “There will always be an England,” a slogan that conveyed both faith and fear. So perhaps in Yerushalayim in 609 BC the sentiment was similar. “There will always be a Temple.” This is the Temple of God.¹¹⁴

YHVH is not interested in outward legalistic worship that is not matched by inward holiness. Therefore, Jeremiah listed three examples to illustrate the change God wanted. The first two related to actions toward fellow Israelites, and the third related to actions toward ADONAI.¹¹⁵ The abandonment of the first two leads to the abandonment of the third. If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly (7:5),

1. If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow

2. And do not shed innocent blood by miscarriage of justice, in this place,

3. And if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the Land I gave your ancestors forever and ever (7:6-7). In other words, guaranteed assurance only comes through obedience. They had consistently disobeyed the Torah. They were worshiping idols and other gods. But, in reality, there could be no shared allegiance. When they came to the Temple they merely made the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just one of many options. Today we call this pluralism. But it is just the same old syncretism of Jeremiah’s day.

Syncretism means that there are many paths to God. New age believers welcome Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, or Shintoism (for example), as part of their religious pantheon. They view the different religions like spokes of a wheel. The hub of the wheel is God and the spokes are the different religions leading to Him. But syncretism wasn’t true in Jeremiah’s day and it’s not true today.

But look, you are trusting in deceptive words (the Temple of ADONAI, the Temple of ADONAI, the Temple of ADONAI in 7:4) that are worthless (7:8). It is wrong to think that God protects people just because of the religious things they do. Just because we’re reading the Bible, praying and fellowshipping with other believers doesn’t mean that the LORD is somehow obligated to do something for us. He cannot be manipulated. The purpose of those external activities is to develop our relationship with Him and to help us live differently than those in the world around us.¹¹⁶

Then Jeremiah got specific with his accusation: Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Ba’al and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this House, which bears My Name, and say: We are safe through the mere fact of our presence in the Temple – safe to do all these detestable things (7:9-10)? They assumed forgiveness just because they showed up at the Temple. The tragic result was that the Temple had become a den of robbers.

The outside is a lot easier to reform than the inside. Going to the right church and saying the right words is a lot easier than working out a life of justice and love among the people you work and live with. Showing up at shul once a week and saying a hearty Amen is a lot easier than engaging in a life of daily prayer and Scripture meditation that develops into concern for poverty and injustice, hunger and war. In other words, “Just because you sit in the garage doesn’t make you a car.” Six hundred and fifty years later Yeshua used Yirmeyahu’s text in His “spring house-cleaning” (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Iv – Jesus Entered the Temple Area and Drove Out All Who Were Buying and Selling).

A robber’s den is a secure place to hide between forays into the countryside to pillage the weak and unprotected travelers. After these raids for plunder the robbers go back to the cave where they are safe. That is exactly the prophet’s accusation. It was as if he was saying, “You have found a safe place, have you? This nice, clean Temple. You spend all week out in the world doing whatever you want to do, taking advantage of others. Exploiting the weak, curing the person who isn’t pliable to your plans, and, then you retreat to this place where everything is in order and protected and right. And you think your sinful behavior is excused and I haven’t noticed.” But I have been watching! declares the LORD (7:11).

Are the people who do this deliberately trying to pull the wool over the eyes of their neighbors and fake God into blessing them? Some are, but for most I don’t think so. I don’t think they are trying to get by with anything. I think they have lived for so long on the basis of outward appearances that they have no feel for inward reality. I think the Israelites during Jeremiah’s ministry were so impressed with the success of the reform that they thought that was all there was to it. We live in a culture where image is everything and substance is nothing. We live in a culture where a new beginning is far more attractive than a long follow-through. Images are important. Beginnings are important. But an image without substance is a lie. A beginning without a continuation is a lie.

Jeremiah attempted to shock the people to recognize this obvious but avoided truth by sending them on a field trip to Shiloh. With a last twist of the knife, YHVH suggests: Go now to the place of Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Isra’el (7:12). Shiloh was one of the most famous holy places in Jewish history. Located at the center of the country, it had been the earliest focus for worship and meeting in Isra’el. When Joshua brought the people into the Land after their deliverance from Egypt and forty years of wilderness wandering, Shiloh was where they assembled, set up the Tabernacle (see the commentary on Exodus Ex – The Courtyard and the Gate of the Tabernacle) and divided up the Land among the twelve tribes. The revered ark of the Covenant was kept at Shiloh.

Then why was Shiloh destroyed? Because of the wickedness of God’s people. They had taken the ark of the Covenant into battle against the Philistines. That was obedience. But they made a mistake when they made the ark a good luck charm. After all, they reasoned, we carried the ark around Jericho and the walls came tumbling down. The same thing will happen to the Philistines. But they misinterpreted the ark as a good luck charm and were defeated (First Samuel 4:3-11).

The great prophet Samuel spoke his word of counsel at Shiloh. Shiloh was a magnificent beginning. Shiloh was a glorious image. But all Shiloh was then was a few piles of rocks in a field of weeds, as every traveler from Galilee to Jerusalem could see. Shiloh was the right place; at Shiloh the right words were spoken. But when the right place no longer pointed people to God and when the right words no longer expressed love and faith, Shiloh was destroyed . . . it never again became a sanctuary for the Israelites.

There is no account in First Samuel of the burning of Shiloh (was that even too painful to be remembered?), and there is only one other passage in the TaNaKh that even indirectly indicates what had happened. We read in Psalm 78:60: ADONAI abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent He had made where He could live among the people. The same thing was happening during Jeremiah’s day, the Temple had become a good luck charm. So what happened to Shiloh could happen to the Temple and Jerusalem for the same reason.

While you were doing all these things (mentioned in verses 9-10) declares ADONAI, I spoke to you persistently, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer (7:13). If it could happen to Shiloh, it could happen to any other place where people gather to worship ADONAI. It is not enough to be in the right place; it is not enough to say the right words; it is never enough until we are walking with God twenty-four hours a day everywhere we go, with everything we say an expression of love and faith.¹¹⁷

So if the wickedness of the people of Eli’s day brought destruction to the Tabernacle, what would happen to the people of Yirmeyahu’s day who had done all these things? Both Jeremiah and the prophets before him had warned them. But the people did not listen.

The typical secular treaty of the time contained a brief historical resume of past relations between the parties, with particular emphasis on the activities that the great king had undertaken for the welfare of the vassal. In gratitude for this, the vassal accepted the treaty stipulations, promising future obedience in gratitude for past favors.

In a far more complete and wonderful way YHVH once delivered His people from the bondage in Egypt. That was the supreme reason for Isra’el’s response to Him. At Sinai the people responded: We will do everything the LORD has said (Exodus 19:8). But the descendents of that first generation had so completely forgotten the saving acts of Ha’Shem that there was no motivation to obey them. Although Yirmeyahu and the prophets had reminded each generation, they were met with flinty faces, deaf ears and stubborn wills.¹¹⁸

Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears My Name, the Temple you trust in, the place I gave you and your ancestors. I will thrust you from My presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim (7:14-15). What happened to the northern kingdom of Isra’el can happen to the southern kingdom of Judah. ADONAI used the Jerusalem Temple so long as the people adhered to God’s Covenant with Moshe (see Af – Covenants of the TaNaKh), but He did not need the structure. Indeed, Ha’Shem was capable of burning down the Temple in the City of David as the burning down of the tabernacle at Shiloh. But, the people would certainly wonder, what the “gospel according to Isaiah (see above)?” the good news that the Sacred City was inviolable? The answer that Jeremiah would give is that YHVH is not bound by either decision: He can revoke it. Just as the decision in Isaiah’s day was to save Yerushalayim, now the LORD can decide to destroy the Daughter of Zion (6:2). But that decision would not be carried out if Isra’el would change her ways as the Ninevites did (see the commentary on Jonah Az – Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Mercy: A God who relents in sending calamity).

This unrestrained God, a God not bound by any habits or past behavior, must have been horrifying to those worshiping in Jerusalem, especially the religious establishment of Tziyon, bound as they were to the religious establishment of the tradition of the elders, bound as they were to the careful adherence to the habits and procedures of the past.¹¹⁹

When I talk to people who come to me in preparation for marriage I often say, “Weddings are easy; marriages are difficult.” The couple wants to plan a wedding; I want to plan a marriage. They want to know where the bridesmaids will stand; I want to develop a plan for forgiveness. They want to discuss the music of the wedding; I want to talk about the emotions of marriage. I can do a wedding in twenty minutes with my eyes shut; a marriage takes year after year of alert, wide-eyed attention.

Weddings are important. They are beautiful; they are impressive; they are emotional; sometimes they are expensive. We weep at weddings and we laugh at weddings. We take care to be at the right place at the right time and say the right words. Where people stand is important. They way people dress is significant. Every detail – this flower, that candle – is memorable. All the same, weddings are easy.

But marriages are complex and difficult. In marriage we work out in every detail of life the promises and commitments spoken at the wedding. In marriage we develop the long and rich life of faithful love that the wedding announces. The event of the wedding without the life of marriage doesn’t amount to much. It hardly matters if the man and woman dress up in their wedding clothes and re-enact the ceremony every anniversary and say, “I’m married, I’m married, I’m married” if there is no daily love shared, if there is no continuing tenderness, no attentive listening, no sacrificial giving, no creative blessing.

Josiah’s reform was like a wedding; Jeremiah’s concern was with the marriage. It was a great achievement to repudiate Manasseh and establish the people in covenant with their God; but it was a lifelong career to embrace ADONAI’s love and walk in His ways. The people celebrated Josiah’s reform; but they ignored Jeremiah’s preaching.¹²⁰

Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon
7:1 to 8:3

609/608 BC early in the reign of Jehoiakim

Early in the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah king of Judah, this is a technical term meaning from the beginning of the actual reign. This, then, took place sometime between the king’s accession to the throne, on the deportation of Jehoiakim’s brother Jehoahaz to Egypt in the autumn or late summer of 609. In Judah renal years were counted from the month of Nisan of the first full year of a king’s reign. So Jehoiakim would have begun to sit on Jerusalem’s throne early the next year in 608 BC.

The Temple sermon shows the prophet in profound conflict with the dominant Temple ideology on which the state relied. The position taken here by the prophet could only be treated as treason by the state, because it destroyed the ideological underpinnings of the establishment (26:11). That dominant theology claimed that Zion was inviolate because YHVH had made unconditional promises to His people. This royal tradition, albeit now distorted, is rooted in the Temple and royal claims of David and Solomon. It is substantiated in the words of Isaiah a century earlier (Isaiah 37:33-35), and was regularly celebrated in the tradition of the Psalms, see Psalm 132:6-10. In short, the Temple cult became a “good-luck-charm” that made faith unnecessary in their minds.¹¹²

The Temple Sermon consists of four oracles that God commanded Jeremiah to give at the Eastern Gate to the Temple. It might have been one sermon, or possibly a series of sermons given in a short period of time. Only Ha’Shem speaks, but the inference is that He spoke through the prophet.

to see link click Cc – False Religion is Worthless (7:1-15)

Cd – They Knead Dough and Make Cakes for the Queen of Heaven (7:16-20)

Ce – Obey Me, and I Will Be Your God (7:21-28)

Cf – They Will Bury the Dead in Topheth (7:29 to 8:3)

Jehoiakim Ruled For 11 Years
from 609/608 to 598 BC

Jehoiakim, Josiah’s second son was 25 years old when Necho II, Pharaoh of Egypt, placed him on the throne. He reigned 11 years until 598 BC (Second Kings 24:7 to 25:36; Second Chronicles 36:5-8). Earlier in 609, after Josiah was killed, the people chose Jehoahaz as the new king of Judah. He was, however, an evil king and reigned only 3 months when Necho II summoned him to Riblah. There, Jehoahaz was captured and taken back to Egypt.

Josiah’s purge of false gods came to a sudden stop when Jehoiakim became king. In fact, Jehoiakim and his pro-Egyptian party seem to have made a deliberate attempt to reverse the reform movement. Yirmeyahu is not mentioned in connection with the purge. In fact, the only reference to Jeremiah’s prophetic activity is in Second Chronicles 35:25, which reports that the priest from Anathoth made a lament for Josiah after his death.¹¹¹

For the next several years, from 609/608 to 606 BC, Judah was under Egyptian domination. Pharaoh personally appointed Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah, as his vassal king and plundered the treasuries of Tziyon. Jehoiakim was his throne name, but Eliakim was his personal name. He was very extravagant and built a fine palace for himself with forced labor (22:13-19). But more damning, he allowed Josiah’s reform to lapse and played into the hands of those who had always opposed it to begin with. He remained a loyal vassal to Egypt and was a poor substitute for his father who had sought God with his whole heart.

In 605 BC Jeremiah first declared that Isra’el would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years (to see link click Dd – Isra’el Will Serve the King of Babylon Seventy Years).

For four years the Babylonians tried unsuccessfully to secure positions near Carchemish, to dislodge the Egyptians. Then in the summer of 605 BC, General Nebuchadnezzar made a surprise attack on the Egyptians at Carchemish, dealing them a stunning defeat. Jeremiah 46:3-12 is a poem in which the prophet mocks the weakness of the Egyptian army in that decisive battle (see Dh – A Message Concerning Egypt).

In August of 605 BC the Babylonian advance was delayed by Nabopolassar’s death, but only briefly, for by September Nebuchadnezzar had returned home to succeeded his dead father. Suddenly Egypt was no longer a power and the Babylonian army marched down the coast of Palestine and destroyed the city of Ashkelon (Jeremiah 47:1-7) the last remaining stronghold of the Philistines – only forty miles west of Jerusalem. Seemingly overnight Babylon had replaced Egypt as the great power in the region. Soon Jehoiakim would be forced to switch sides and become a vassal to Babylon (Jeremiah 46:2; 2 Kings 24:1-7; Second Chronicles 36:6). During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah.

By the fall of 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and took the first deportation of exiles (and some of the Temple articles) back to Babylon (Dani’el 1:1-7). The Babylonian king took “hostages” to assure continued loyalty. One of the most important “hostages” taken was a godly young man named Dani’el.

Back in Yerushalayim, after each of the first three deportations, the pro-Egypt party was hard at work. They always seemed to think that if they could just align Judah with Egypt they would be protected. This never materialized, but they kept trying.

In 605 BC Yirmeyahu begins to dictate his prophecies to Baruch.

In 605/604 BC Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, read the scroll dictated to him by the prophet to Jehoiakim. But the king of Judah defiantly burned it up (see Df – Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah’s Scroll). Here was a shift. Up to that point the purpose of the scroll had been to warn. But Jehoiakim did not respond to the warning. He burned it. How could the people respond if the king, who represents the people, fails to respond? The king’s burning of the scroll was the catalyst for the shift in Jeremiah’s perception: no longer are the scenarios of the enemy from the north merely scenarios, plans, or possibilities in God’s hands. No . . . now YHVH will irrevocably set the plan in motion.

In 603 BC Ekron (Tel Miqne) was destroyed.

In 602-601 BC Jehoiakim remained a loyal vassal to Babylon until late in 601 BC. At that time Nebuchadnezzar made another advance through Palestine. His objective was to conquer Egypt, but his goal was not achieved. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Egypt may have even been the victor. In any case, the Babylonian army retreated back to Babylon, after which the pro-Egyptian party gained the upper hand in Jerusalem and Jehoiakim switched sides again, this time he supported Egypt, and rebelled against Babylon (Second Kings 24:1b-2) and refused to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar. Bad career decision. Jehoiakim was not a very wise political chameleon. He had switched allegiance from Egypt to Babylon in 605 BC with Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Necho II at Carchemish.

By December of 598 BC ADONAI sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by His servants and prophets (Second Kings 24:2). As the Babylonians were approaching to besiege Jerusalem . . . Jehoiakim conveniently died. We don’t know exactly how it happened, but since he was rebelling against powerful Babylon he might have been assassinated (22:18-19; 36:30) in the hope that Judah might be disciplined lightly. Perhaps she was, for Jerusalem and the Temple were not destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar only wanted to teach Judah and other vassal nations the awful consequences of rebellion against Babylon. Hence, the Babylonian king took 3,023 Jews as a warning against further rebellion (52:28).

Concerning Eliakim,
Otherwise Known as King Jehoiakim
Jeremiah 22:13-19 and Second Kings 23:36 to 24:4

Concerning Eliakim, otherwise known as King Jehoiakim DIG: After his brother was deposed, Jehoiakim became king. What did he use slave labor for? What was his father, Josiah, like? How did Jehoiakim compare with his father? How could such a good king have such an evil and wicked son? What arrogant and selfish behavior on the part of Jehoiakim angered God. How did YHVH feel about the notion that displays of wealth indicated greatness in a ruler? How did Ha’Shem judge Eliakim’s heart? What did the LORD say would become of Jehoiakim’s “greatness” at the end of his life?

REFLECT: Which leader (religious, civic or world) has made a great impact, positively or negatively, on you by their life? By their death? Explain. How are believers supposed to react to governing authorities today (Romans 13)? What if the government commands you to do something that is contrary to the Scriptures?

609 BC during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim

Yirmeyahu presents the picture of a wicked, selfish, vain, cruel, greedy ruler; a man lacking every quality sought in a king, yet immensely proud of his achievements. The rabbis teach that Jehoiakim was a godless tyrant who committed atrocious sins and crimes. He is portrayed as living in incestuous relations with his mother, daughter-in-law, and stepmother, and was in the habit of murdering men, whose wives he then violated and whose property he seized. He also had tattooed his body (Leviticus 19:28).

Jeremiah condemned Jehoiakim more severely than any other king. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old (two years older than his brother Jehoahaz) when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. Eliakim was his personal name, and Jehoiakim was his throne name. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah, she was from Rumah. And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and chose the path of idolatry and self-reliance just as his predecessors had done (Second Kings 23:36-37). Jehoiakim was a weak ruler. This can be deduced by the fact that even though he was the eldest son of Josiah he was not chosen by the people of Y’hudah to succeed his father. Also Pharaoh Necho sensed that Eliakim would be easier to control than his younger brother.¹⁰⁹

Woe to him who builds his place by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. Forced labor was common among the Oriental kings. Such slavery was an offense against the Torah (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14-15); not even the king had the right to demand unpaid services from his subjects. He said: I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms. Yirmeyahu describes Jehoiakim’s great claims and plans. So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red (22:13-14). The interiors of Oriental homes of the better class were often splendid. Special pains were taken to decorate the ceilings. The ceilings, panels, and the doors were richly painted and gilded. The tasteful interlaced patterns were brilliant colors, red being one of the favorites.¹¹⁰ This palace was discovered just south of Jerusalem and just north of Bethlehem in the mid 1960s.

Jeremiah now draws a comparison between Jehoiakim and his father King Josiah (to see link click Ca – Jehoiakim Ruled For 11 Years from 609/608 to 598 BC). Trying to outdo either Solomon or the neighboring monarchs in luxury, Jehoiakim felt that the means of displaying true royalty was by excessive lavishness and outward display. As a result, Jeremiah asked a bitter, biting rhetorical question: Did you become king because you are competing (Hebrew: charah) in cedar (22:15a)? The same verb occurs in 12:5 run/compete with the horses. In one respect it did equal other kings, in the cruel suppression and exploitation of his subjects.

But the basis of his father’s royalty was different. Did not your father have food and drink? Josiah enjoyed the material comforts of his regal status, but he also understood and performed the duties of a king. He did what was right and just, so, as a result, all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well (see Ai – Josiah Ruled For 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). The practical aim of religion cannot be defined more succinctly. The purpose of Josiah’s royalty was to know ADONAI better and love Him more. Is that not what it means to know Me? declares the LORD (22:15b-16). This was in great contrast to the contemptible Jehoiakim who followed a consistent pattern of injustice. The prophet asserts, along with John Calvin’s judgment, that right knowledge of God comes through obedience.

But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood (Jeremiah 26:20-23; Second Kings 24:4) and on oppression and extortion (22:17). One led to the other. The people were condemned so that the king might confiscate their estates. He was exposed as one who imagines he is autonomous and does not need the Torah. He oppressed the very ones he was supposed to protect. And as a result of Eliakim’s brazen wickedness, he would meet with an especially shameful end (see below).

During Jehoiakim’s reign, in 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar, rebelled and unsuccessfully turned to Egypt for help. ADONAI sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders and took advantage of Y’hudah’s weakened condition later in Jehoiakim’s reign. God sent these enemies against him to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by His servants and prophets Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk. YHVH was removing the people from His presence (17:18, 20 and 23, 23:27) because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood, and Ha’Shem was not willing to forgive because they had not listened (Second Kings 24:1-4; Jeremiah 36:30-31).

This is what ADONAI says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: They will not mourn for him in his death, “Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!” They will not mourn for him, no one will miss his passing, “Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor was good for nothing” (22:18)!

As the Babylonians were approaching to besiege Yerushalayim in 598 BC Jehoiakim conveniently died. We don’t know exactly how it happened, but since he was rebelling against powerful Babylon he might have been assassinated in the hope that Judah might be disciplined lightly. Perhaps she was, for Yerushalayim and the Temple were not destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar only wanted to teach Judah and other vassal nations the awful consequences of rebellion against Babylon. Therefore, in the second deportation (see Gt – In the Thirty-Seventh Year of the Exile Jehoiachin was Released from Prison), the Babylonian king took 3,023 Jews as a warning against further rebellion.

Instead of the lavish funeral normally given a monarch, Jehoiakim, Jeremiah prophesied, would have the burial of a donkey – dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem, exposed to the heat of the day and the frost at night (22:19). The king was to be treated in death as any other worthless animal carcass, simply disposed of in order not to disrupt the City. To be deprived of burial was considered by the Jews one of the greatest dishonors that could be inflicted on a human being. It is interesting that Second Kings 24:6 ASV merely records that he slept with his fathers, without the usual mention of a burial. If Jeremiah did not have God’s protection there is no way he could have gotten away with statements like this. ADONAI’s prophet was dealing with the kings of Isra’el here, several of them, and he wasn’t very tactful either.

Concerning Shallum,
Otherwise Known as King Jehoahaz
Jeremiah 22:10-12 and Second Kings 23:31-33

Concerning Shallum, otherwise known as King Jehoahaz DIG: Why is Shallum, also called Jehoahaz, to be pitied more than his father, Josiah? What happened to King Jehoahaz (Second Kings 23:34) in 609 BC? Why do you suppose there were so many wicked kings during this period in biblical history? How would this have affected Jeremiah’s ministry? His sense of purpose? His hope?

REFLECT: What are you doing with the brief time the LORD has given you to minister in this life? What is (are) your spiritual gift (gifts)? Are you using it (them)? Are there any sins prevalent in your family that you might be tempted to emulate? How can they be avoided? What would be the cost to you if you got involved with them?

609 BC during the three-month reign of Jehoahaz

Jehoahaz (Hebrew: ADONAI will help) was twenty-three years old when he became king, but he reigned in Jerusalem for only three months. Shallum was his personal name, and Jehoahaz was his throne name. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah (not Jeremiah from Anathoth since he was not permitted by God to marry in 16:2); she was from Libnah. In the brief time he ruled he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his predecessors had done. Judah fell under Egyptian control. Pharaoh Necho summoned the newly appointed king to Riblah in the land of Hamath and put him in chains and took him to Egypt so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed a heavy tax on Judah of a hundred talents (three and three-quarter tons) of silver and a talent (seventy-five pounds) of gold (Second Kings 23:31-33).

When King Josiah died it was particularly traumatic for Y’hudah, for it brought an end to dreams regarding freedom from foreign domination and the reunification of the people from the northern kingdom of Isra’el (to see link click Ai – Josiah Ruled for 31 Years from 640 to 609 BC). Instead, the people were to mourn for Jehoahaz. Jeremiah said: Do not weep for the dead king Josiah or grieve his loss; rather, weep bitterly for Shallum who is exiled in Egypt. This king, chosen by the people, would never return (shuwb) nor see his native land again (22:10). The people were to lament for him because his passing was a sign of shattered hopes for the future of Y’hudah.

Then in more precise terms the LORD said: Shallum son of Josiah (see Bm – Jehoahaz Ruled For 3 Months in 609 BC), who succeeded his father as king of Judah has gone from this place and he will never return (shuwb). He will die in Egypt where they have led him captive; he will never see his homeland again (Second Kings 23:34; Second Chronicles 36:14), and he died in captivity at an unknown date (22:11-12).

This stresses the dread and finality of exile. The king himself is of little use. He is a sign of the failure and the judgment of the monarchy. The kings of Jerusalem, of which Jehoahaz, or Shallum, is a sorry case in point, are unable to cope with the demands of a holy God. Monarchy was no barrier against the LORD’s ultimate destruction of Yerushalayim. The fate of this king foreshadowed that of the people. The call of Jeremiah 22:10 not to mourn the death of Josiah is intended only to call attention to the sad fate of Jehoahaz. According to Second Chronicles 35:25, Yirmeyahu offered a lamentation for Josiah, which became a pattern for singers in Isra’el.¹⁰⁸

Concerning the House of David
22: 1-9

Concerning the House of David DIG: What principles of good government did YHVH list as conditions for His blessing? What consequences were promised if the king did not obey God? What message did Jeremiah repeat to the rulers? Does this message seem like one addressed to a particular king, or a timeless message, applicable to all those in David’s royal line? Why or why not? What three oppressed groups of people are mentioned? What do they have in common (Exodus 22:21-24)? Why does the king’s security depend upon how he treats them? Although Judah and Jerusalem had been special in God’s sight, what reason would be given for the disgrace and destruction of Judah?

REFLECT: Does the LORD care about how governments rule? How did the early believers feel about pagan kings (First Timothy 2:1-2; Romans 13:1-5)? How do you feel about the “kings” of today? Which world leader (religious or secular) has made the greatest impact on you by their life? Death? How do you react when a public champion of peace and justice is assassinated?

609 BC during the three-month reign of Jehoahaz

This oracle is addressed to the house of David generally. Josiah’s three sons, Jehoahaz (Bm), Jehoiakim (Ca) and Jehoiachin (Du) would all be disasters and offer little leadership for the people of Judah. The section is driven by the question in verse 8.

This is what ADONAI says: Go down to the place of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: Hear the word of the LORD, you who sit on David’s throne – you, your officials and your people who come through these gates (22:1-2). Y’hudah’s royal line was, and is, a Davidic line. It will be restored as such (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Fi – The Government of the Messianic Kingdom). But Judah’s kings during the days of Jeremiah were not like King David, men after God’s own heart (First Samuel 13:14), nor did they follow his example in repenting of their sins (Psalm 51). The prophet was to also direct his attention to the state officials and the people at large, who were not less guilty, though they still worshiped at the Temple.

God’s First Message: This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. These two words taken together characterize the power and practice of taking care of the poor and marginalized in society (Psalm 72; Proverbs 8:20). The rest of the verse gives details of what justice (Hebrew: mishpat) and righteousness (Hebrew: tsedaqah) require. The language of which closely parallels that of 7:5-7. This was the responsibility of the king of Judah. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place (22:3). Judah was a religious state and the kings were responsible for the spiritual and material welfare of their people (Deuteronomy 17:18). The continuance of the royal house depended on a wholehearted acceptance of the commission that Jeremiah had laid before the king:

For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this place, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. There will be blessings for obedience.

But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, then I swear by myself that this place will become a ruin (22:4-5). What is conditional now becomes unavoidable later (see Fj – God Rejects Zedekiah’s Request).

It was their duty to enforce the moral, civic, and ceremonial legislation of God’s commonwealth, particularly to establish social justice. To this day the public administration of civic righteousness and justice by government and citizens is one of the fundamentals of civic welfare and prosperity. The righteous exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people (Proverbs 14:34).

God’s Second Message: As a result of the failure to live by the standards above, there would be judgment on the royal house of David. The king, like everyone else, was subject to the demands of the Torah. For this is what ADONAI says about the palace of the king of Judah. You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon. Gilead, the land of fertile pastures and stately forests, and Lebanon, covered with cedars and capped with everlasting snow, were symbols of the beauty, that majestic power and permanence that YHVH had in mind for His people if they would only keep His commandments (Deuteronomy 7:1-26, 28:1-14).¹⁰⁶ But because of disobedience, both of these would become a desert. But I will surely make you like a wasteland, like towns not inhabited. I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and the Babylonians will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire (22:6-7). The time for a positive choice has passed. Judah and her kings were at a point of no return. There is no invitation to repent found here.

People from many nations will pass by this city and see the destruction, they will ask one another, “Why has Ha’Shem done such a thing to this great city?” And the answer was simple: God judged Yerushalayim because the people had forsaken the covenant of ADONAI their God and have worshiped and served other gods (Jeremiah 22:8-9; Deuteronomy 29:24-26; First Kings 9:8-9). The main point is that even such a powerful institution as the monarchy must meet elemental requirements of human compassion and responsibility to survive. Both were glaringly absent in Jerusalem. The consequences were unavoidable and should not come as a surprise. Each subsequent generation needed to reflect on the uncompromising standard set by YHVH.¹⁰⁷

The Message to the Evil Kings of Judah
22: 1-19

This prophecy primarily concerns two evil kings: first, the short three month reign of Jehoahaz, when he used his throne name, or Shallum, when he used his personal name (to see link click Bm – Jehoahaz Rules For 3 Months in 609 BC), and second the eleven year reign of Jehoiakim, when he used his throne name, or Eliakim, when he used his personal name (see Ca – Jehoiakim Ruled for 11 Years from 609-608 to 598 BC). But in reality, it is a dire warning to all the future kings of Judah (see Bx – Concerning the House of David).

At This Time
I Will Hurl Out Those Who Live in This Land
10: 17-25

At this time I will hurl out those who live in this Land DIG: What will happen to those who stay under siege? To those who flee the City? Since Jeremiah’s name means the Lord hurls, what possible pun do you see? What is Jeremiah’s incurable wound? What happened to the leaders? How does Jeremiah feel about himself in this time of crisis? For what two reasons is he angry with Judah’s enemies? Who speaks in verses 19-22? Is this prayer (also see in Psalm 70:6-7) vengeful, or is it an appeal for God’s justice? Why do you think so?

REFLECT: In what circumstances might YHVH allow His people to endure an illness or injury that is curable or preventable? Have you ever met a refugee? How would you feel if your home was destroyed and your country was at war? Which would you rather receive: God’s justice or His anger? What determines who gets what? Do you believe that the fate of your country depends on whether the political leaders look to the LORD for guidance? Why or why not?

609 BC during the three-month reign of Jehoahaz
This near historical prophecy would be fulfilled in 586 BC

Judah had abandoned ADONAI and therefore is told to get ready for exile. Here we see Jeremiah moving back and forth between public calamity and personal grief. He reflects on the foolishness of the shepherds who brought the calamity upon Y’hudah. This leads to an anguished cry from the prophet from Anathoth that the foe from the north was at the gate. This section closes with a prayer for mercy.

The citizens of Judah and Jerusalem are told to gather up their belongings to leave the Land, those who lived under siege. The word belongings means things that they had used to become wealthy in an illegitimate way. It has the same root from which the word Canaanite comes because in their practice they had become what the Canaanites once were. As God once removed the Canaanites from the Land, He will now remove the Israelites from the Land. For this is what ADONAI says: At this time I will hurl out those who live in this Land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured (10:17-18). The twin motifs of exile and devastation are thus sounded in these verses. Some will be carried away. Many will be killed. Both groups are under God’s harsh judgment.

The Babylonian captivity was a direct result of Jewish idolatry. Now God would bring them into the very center of idolatry . . . Babylon. It was somewhat like the plagues of Egypt, “You want to worship frogs? I’ll give you frogs” (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Bl – Stretch Out Your Hand and Make Frogs Come Up on the Land of Egypt). After the Jews had their fill of idolatry for seventy years of Babylon rule, it would not be a problem again.

Then, on behalf of his countrymen, Yirmeyahu bemoans their fate and his own. Just as before (see Bq – Since My People are Crushed, I am Crushed, I Mourn and Horror Grips Me), Jeremiah lamented and expressed his grief. He cried out: Woe to me because of my injury! My wound is incurable! Yet I said to myself, “This is my sickness (my prophetic calling), and I must endure it” (10:19). Jeremiah so deeply identified with his people that his own lament could be equated with the lament of the nation.

Jeremiah gives two reasons for his grief. First, My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped. Her reaction to her calamity is portrayed in the language of the tent dwellers whose tent has been uprooted. This was an affliction and she must bear it. Like the nomad, her tent (Jerusalem) is ruined, all the tent ropes have been snapped.¹⁰⁴ And secondly, her children (citizens) are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter (10:20). The land is likened to a tent that has been overthrown. But the most severe disaster is that the children of the nation have gone into exile, so that there would be none to rebuild the shattered country until after their exile was completed (see Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule).

Then the reason is given for the coming devastation. The shepherds, the leaders of the people, are foolish and do not inquire (Hebrew: daras) of the LORD but they did inquire of idols; so they do not prosper. And because the leadership of Y’hudah was not faithful to their duties all their flock was scattered. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel held the view that the kings through their sacred anointing were YHVH’s representatives to guard the covenant and lead the people. It was their task as national leaders to continue the work of Moshe. But they were more interested in playing politics than in carrying out the will of ADONAI (see Bw – The Message to the Evil Kings). Listen! The report is coming – a great commotion from the land of the north (again no specific country is named)! It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals (10:21-22). Although the exile had not yet taken place, the prophet spoke of it as an accomplished fact.

Then Jeremiah interceded for the people of Judah. Was there still some plea that the prophet could make on behalf of his nation? He recognized that it was God who was in control. I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps (10:23 NASB a variation of Proverbs 16:9). Two different Hebrew words are used here for the word man. The first emphasizes man in his weakness, his humanity, recognizing that he has come from the dust of the earth. Man in his weakness does not control his destiny. The second emphasizes man in his strength. But not even man in his strength can control his destiny. So neither in his weakness or his strength is man in control of his destiny (Psalm 37:23-24; Proverbs 16:9).

Therefore, Jeremiah prays for himself and the nation that God would discipline them rather than punish them. Discipline me, ADONAI, but only in due measure of judgment – not in your anger, or You will reduce me to nothing (10:24 a variation of Psalm 6:1). But as for the Gentiles, the prophet prays for punishment rather than discipline.

Then Jeremiah quotes Psalm 73:6-7 to emphasize his point. Pour out Your wrath on the [Gentile] nations that do not acknowledge You, on the [Gentile] peoples who do not call on Your name. The Gentiles did not know God or call on His name . . . but this was also true of Isra’el. If that was a reason for punishing the Gentiles, it should be an even greater reason for punishing the Jews. So while Isra’el would be punished for disobeying the Torah and idolatry, the Gentiles would be punished for other reasons. Later (see De – The Cup of God’s Wrath Against the Nations) this very judgment against the Gentile nations can be seen (see Dg – Prophecies Concerning the Gentile Nations), but not before Y’hudah and Yerushalayim are defeated. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland (10:25). In other words, the Gentiles would be punished because of their treatment of the Jews. The principle of the Abrahamic Covenant: I will bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you, I will curse (Genesis 12:3).

This was Jeremiah’s dilemma. His heart told him to plead for divine mercy, but logic pointed to the inevitability of judgment of Judah also (Amos 5:18-20). That Y’hudah should also need to be punished in the same way as the goyim was the tragic result of centuries of unrestrained apostasy and the rejection of YHVH’s covenant and its demands. No matter how much the Israelites reasoned they were beyond divine judgment because God had chosen them as the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10) and given them the Torah, He could not overlook the sin and rebellion of His own people.¹⁰⁵

These gods will Perish From the Earth,
But the LORD is the One True God
10: 1-16

These gods will perish from the earth, but the LORE is the One True God DIG: What two Gentile customs does God discourage Isra’el? What feeling lies beneath these words about idols? If idols are so impotent and worthless (Psalm 115:4-7), why do you think God’s people constantly turn to them? Did idol worship play a part in the social and economic fabric of Palestine (Acts 19:23-27)? How was the Jewish concept of God different than that of the pagans? How easy or difficult would it be to combine the monotheism of Isra’el with worship of local cultic deities? Who ultimately is mocked by this attempt? The words portion and inheritance are equated in 10:16. What does it mean that Israel’s inheritance is YHVH? That ADONAI’s portion is Isra’el?

REFLECT: These scriptures have been used to condemn the tradition of using and decorating Christmas trees. Using this passage, can you support that idea? How do you know Jeremiah is talking about something else? Idolatry has always been big business. Can you think of any modern industries that depend on our worship? To what images must be bow in order to participate in the social and economic system around us? What kinds of things do people idolize today – things that they are counting on to speak to them, carry them or do good for them, as only the LORD can? What aspect of nature speaks most clearly to you of God’s power? In what sense might 10:5 apply to you? Is there anything you fear that you really don’t need to?

609 BC during the three-month reign of Jehoahaz

In Jeremiah’s time as in our own, the critical faith issue is not atheism . . . but idolatry. Specifically, in the prophet’s day the temptation was the attraction of the gods of Babylon. In our day the comparable temptation may be the gods of militarism, of nationalism, of naturalism, of consumption, and of technology. In both atheism and idolatry, however, the temptation is to vest one’s life hope in the things we ourselves generate, instead of receiving life as a gift from the One who stands beyond us and for us. Characteristically the Bible does not deny the existence of other gods. The Bible makes an assumption that the world is polytheistic. The other gods exist. They have seductive power, but what they lack is power for life. They cannot do anything, and in that decisive test they are utterly unlike YHVH, who has the power to give life and therefore also the power to judge life.¹⁰¹

Since Jeremiah was convinced that the future of Isra’el lay with those in exile, he made every effort to keep in touch with them, he sent them a message, saying: Hear what ADONAI says to you, people of Isra’el (10:1).

Idolatry made sense to those who worshiped the various gods and goddesses of the nations. Because people repeated myths about them, it was natural for them to construct idols of their deities. And since Marduk (50:2) was the principal god of Babylon, his temple would house a great image of him in the same way a place housed a king. And just as the king in the palace would be clothed and fed by his attendants, so in the temple, the idol was clothed and fed by the priests. During the New Year’s festival, the idol was carried around the city so that the deity could assert his authority over the realm for the coming year.

The Jews, of course, were well aware of the Ten Commandments: the first forbid them from worshiping other gods (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Dk – You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me) and the second forbid them from making any idols (see the commentary on Exodus Dl – You Shall Not Make For Yourselves an Idol). Moshe had taught them to listen to the WORDS of YHVH, words that are dynamic, rather than to depict ADONAI in a static way. So when the exiles arrived in Babylon, they must have been both horrified and fascinated by the images they saw, huge images glittering with silver and gold, richly clothed in blue and purple. There, dazzling before their eyes, were what had always been forbidden to have anything to do with, right out in the open for everyone to see. Furthermore, the exiles must have heard from their Babylonian captors, over and over again, such comments as, “Marduk won the war for us.” Or, “Who is the God you say you worship? Ha’Shem? Well, Marduk is obviously stronger than Ha’Shem. There he is right over there being paraded around, take a good look at him.”¹⁰²

Idols: So Jeremiah warned the Jews in exile: This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the ways of idolatry from the [Gentile] nations; furthermore, do not be terrified by signs in the heavens, by predictions of astrology or any other occult practice. While these things terrify the [Gentile] nations, they should not terrify Jews. Then Jeremiah (following Isaiah 41:7, 44:9-20, 46:5-7) uses satire in mocking the false gods and the people who worship them, saying: For the religious practices of these people are a delusion (Hebrew: hebel meaning vapor, nothingness, or vanity); they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They use an ax, they cut it down, and they bring it in. Then they decorate it. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it won’t fall over (Isaiah 40:19-20; 45:12-20). The context here is idolatry – not Christmas! Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried in religious procession because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do you no harm nor can they do you any good (10:2-5).

The One True God: In contrast to the foolishness of idolatry in verses 1-5 we see the greatness and majesty of the One true God. No one is like You, ADONAI; You are great, and Your name is mighty in power. Who should not fear you, King of the nations, among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like You (10:6-7). Ha’Shem is the One to be feared, not some piece of decorated wood. He is the Ruler of all the [Gentile] nations.

Idols: Jeremiah contrasts what he just said about God with idols. They are all senseless and foolish, like having a piece of wood as a teacher. They are taught by worthless (Hebrew: hebel) wooden idols. Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple – all made by skilled workers (10:8-9). Idolatry is nothing more than the work of skilled men.

The One True God: But the LORD is the true God. What a contrast! Whereas the idols are false, He is the One true God, literally is truth. Truth is the seal of God (Talmud). Now, Adonai ELOHIM, You alone are God; Your words are truth (Second Samuel 7:28 CJB). Though the idols are dead, He is the living God. Whereas the idols cannot do good or evil, He is the eternal King. When He is angry the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure His wrath (10:10). In contrast to their impotence, YHVH is alive and the King of the universe.

Idols: Then in the climax of his message Jeremiah relates this little song concerning the future of idolatry: These gods [idols], who did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens (10:11). The entire book of Jeremiah is written in Hebrew except for this one verse. The prophet wanted everyone to get the point. Accordingly he wrote this verse in Aramaic so that the Jews would understand.

The One True God: But God made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. Furthermore, He controls nature. When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses (10:12-13). The powerlessness of the idol is contrasted with God’s supremacy over the elements.

Idols: By contrast, idols can do none of these things. Everyone who engages in idol worship is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they are lifeless and have no breath in them. They cannot keep their promises. They are worthless (Hebrew: hebel), the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish (10:14-15). The contrast with the LORD leads to the conclusion that they are unworthy of trust or loyalty, commitment or obedience.

The One True God: In contrast, while all the false idols will cease, the God of Isra’el, who is the portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, including Isra’el, the people of His inheritance – ADONAI of heaven’s angelic armies – will never cease (10:16). If YHVH owns Isra’el as His inheritance, then Isra’el can be regarded in a special sense as His portion.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart,
and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26).

You are my portion, O LORD,
I have promised to obey your words (Psalm 119:57).

I cry to you, ADONAI;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living (Psalm 142:5).

Judah has the option to be in relationship with and loyal to the God who can give new life. This God must be served and is never at the disposal of Y’hudah. The alternative is to be allied with gods who have no power for life and cannot be trusted. The structure of the text requires a decision. Jesus said it this way: No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God [and idols] (Matthew 6:24).

In our time, we seem to be deeply, if not hopelessly, entangled in our self-centered systems of security, well-being, and prosperity. But then, our entanglement destroys us, for it talks us out of neighbors love, out of genuine freedom, and destines us to the anxiety of competence and finally despair. That the source of life lies outside us and delivers us from being self-sufficient. The modern form of idolatry is finally autonomy, the sense that we live life on our own terms. That we, indeed, have both hands on the steering-wheel of our lives. But such autonomy is a lie; the truth lies in ADONAI. It was so for Jeremiah and the citizens of Judah and it is so now . . . for us.¹⁰³

Let Not the Wise Boast of Their Wisdom
9: 23-26

Let not the wise boast of their wisdom DIG: What is the only boast that has any legitimacy with God? What do the wise, the strong and the rich stand to lose from the invasion? What does it mean to boast of their wisdom, strength or riches? In whom should they boast? Was circumcision the sole practice of the Israelites? What kind of circumcision matters to ADONAI and why (Genesis 17:10; Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4 and 6:10)?

REFLECT: In what three things should we boast about? What kinds of things do people “boast” about today? Or take pride in? Even in circumcision, Judah had become like the surrounding Gentile countries. In what way is the universal Church today, made up of Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14), indistinguishable from the rest of society? In what ways should believers be distinct from any other social group?

609 BC during the three-month reign of Jehoahaz

Some people have extraordinary intelligence, some have exceptional looks, and others have a phenomenal memory, incredible wealth, unbelievable strength, or amazing musical talent. Those who have these fantastic abilities might be tempted to think more highly of themselves than they should. But we don’t have to be wildly smart, strong or wealthy to want to take credit for our achievements. Anything we accomplish carries with it this question: Who gets the credit?

In this prose section there are two very different sayings that are placed back to back. They show two very different ways of life and are presented in contrasting triads. In the first triad the ways of self-sufficiency are condemned. This is what the LORD says: Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches (9:23). A person needs something to aim for in life, something to glory in. And it would be hard to update the biblical triad of the graven images mankind has erected. These things are not necessarily bad. In fact, they are good when they occupy the proper place in our lives. But when we glory in anything less than YHVH, that thing becomes a graven image, an evil. In the midst of concentrating on their own achievements and activities, Judean society had forgotten God.⁹⁸ In the last analysis, the trinity in which mankind glories; wisdom, strength, and riches, are shown to be unable to bring lasting joy and well-being.

The second triad, however, reflects a wholly different way of looking at things. They show a God who not only delights in these qualities but insists upon them. These are the only grounds for boasting. But let the one who boasts boast about this, that they have the understanding to know (Hebrew: yada) Me. The Hebrew word to know means being intimate friends, but has no exact equivalent in English. In an attempt to give definition to this beautiful but elusive concept, translators have used such terms as loyalty, covenant loyalty, loving-kindness, steadfast-love, unfailing devotion, merciful-love, mercy, etc. The distinction lies between knowing about YHVH and being in an extremely close relationship with Him, between intellectual knowledge and a dedication of the heart. When teaching on the greatest commandment, Yeshua said it this way: The most important is, “Sh’ma Yisra’el, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, O Isra’el, the LORD our God, the LORD is one], and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30).

That I AM ADONAI: Who exercises chesed (see the commentary on Ruth, to see link click Af – The Concept of Chesed): In this context it means a loyal love to the covenants between God and Isra’el (see Af – Covenants of the TaNaKh). The word order is always important. Chesed or loving-kindness comes first before the other noble virtues. Rabbi Sha’ul develops somewhat the same thought: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (First Corinthians 13:2-3). Chesed was a quality that YHVH might have expected to find to some degree in His people, but, unfortunately, was often lacking. The prophet Hosea in the previous century made the same point (Hosea 4:1 and 6, 5:4, 6:6 and 8:2-4).

And justice (Hebrew: mishpat): This establishes the rights of mankind, but at the same time establishes judgment and punishment for the wicked or the lawbreaker. It was important in society to establish a state of affairs where doing the right thing was encouraged and made possible. At times, this involved the protection of citizens from those who would harm them and in some cases deliverance from oppressions. YHVH as Judge sought out both the wrongdoer to restrain or punish, and the righteous to deliver and vindicate. God would perfectly establish the rights of everyone, that is, He would establish mishpat. This is exactly opposite of the worldly Egyptian concept of ma’at, where Pharaoh was supposed to be the chief judge and lawmaker (see the commentary on Exodus Bc – Pharaoh as god and upholder of Ma’at). Therefore, justice in this world can be fleeting, but justice during the thousand year reign of Christ (see the commentary on Revelation Fi – The Government of the Messianic Kingdom), will be permanent because Messiah Himself will be reigning and ruling from the Temple in Yerushalayim.

And righteousness (Hebrew: tsedaqah) on earth: This means righteous living in accordance with the social, legal, ethical and religious standards of the Torah. The people of Y’hudah were involved in many relationships – family, clan, nation, economic, social, political, and religious. Over and above all these lay the relationship offered by the LORD . . . that being a member of the covenant family. It was this that gave the deepest significance to life and thought. Where righteousness was obtained, justice was enjoyed and the claims of everyone in the covenant family were safeguarded. ADONAI looked for a similar quality from His people. A particular way of life was right and fitting for them. The norm was not merely social custom, but rather a reflection of the character and will of the God of the covenant. Nothing less was acceptable. YHVH’s ultimate purpose is that His righteousness should prevail over the world as well (see the commentary on Revelation Fh – The Dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom).⁹⁹

Therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (First Corinthians 1:31). Without the knowledge of God, human wisdom is futile. YHVH is contrasted with other gods who seek worldly wisdom, strength and riches. If ADONAI is committed to kindness, justice and righteousness, so should we be. There is a cause-and-effect relationship between the delights of God and His children. For in these I delight, declares the LORD (9:24).

The warning of an uncircumcised heart: God will eventually punish the circumcised Gentiles, but the emphasis here is the uncircumcised hearts of the Israelites. These nations that Jeremiah lists here did at different times in their various histories practice, to greater or lesser degree, physical circumcision (at least a class in their society would have practiced it). Judah, of course, generally practiced it. The days are coming, declares ADONAI. When Jeremiah (under the direction of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh) 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 fourth of twenty-five times that Yirmeyahu uses one of these phrases.

The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh – Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places (apparently these nations practiced circumcision). Though physically circumcised, they are spiritually uncircumcised, their hearts being closed to the understanding and love of God and His teachings. For all the Gentile nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Isra’el is uncircumcised in heart (9:25-26). While all those Gentile nations at some point practiced physical circumcision, nevertheless, they had remained uncircumcised at heart. Unfortunately, so did Judah. This emphasized again that Judah had deteriorated to the same level as the Gentiles and were no more circumcised spiritually than they were. Because of this, judgment would come. So this was a near historical future prophecy about the destruction of Judah in 586 BC.

Who gets the credit in your life? You were created to give ADONAI the glory. If we allow praise to inflate our self-image, we forget that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father (James 1:17a). It is better to give God the glory – not only because it protects our hearts from pride but also because He rightfully deserves it. He is YHVH, the One who does great things . . . marvelous things without number (Job 5:9).¹⁰⁰

The Contrast Between ADONAI and False gods
9:23 to 10:25

Jehoahaz reigned only 3 months in 609 BC when Necho, Pharaoh of Egypt,
removed him (Second Kings 23:31-33; Second Chronicles 36:1-3).

In conjunction with the wickedness of the people (to see link click Bo – The Ruin of People Who Turn Away); here, Jeremiah describes the contrast between YHVH, who is committed to chased, justice and righteousness, and false gods who seek control, strength and riches. Why would anyone choose to worship an idol made out of wood and silver when they could worship the One true God? But tragically, that’s exactly what the Jews did. Consequently, the Israelites would be sent into exile (see Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). Ha’Shem was in control all the way. Yirmeyahu, however, was heartbroken.

Bt – Let Not the Wise Boast of Their Wisdom (9:23-26)

Bu – These gods will Perish From the Earth, But the LORD is the True God (10:1-16)

Bv – At This Time I Will Hurl Out Those Who Live in This Land (10:17-25)

Jerusalem’s Fall and Exile Prophesied
9: 10-22

Jeremiah’s fall and exile prophesied DIG: Why did Jeremiah want to separate himself from his people, in spite of his sadness for them? What does the prophet weep over? What seems to bother Jeremiah the most about ADONAI bringing the Holy City to ruins? How does the LORD answer His prophet? Who are the wailing women? Why will this become a booming profession? In what sense is death the “grim reaper?” What do the wise, the strong and the rich stand to lose from the invasion?

REFLECT: What has been the great sadness in your life? How do others respond to your feelings of loss or sorrow? How has God treated you? Do you think He identifies with your trials and tribulations? Do you talk to Him about them? Does He care? How?

609 BC during the three-month reign of Jehoahaz
This near historical prophecy would be fulfilled in 586 BC

Jeremiah’s words are flung boldly in the face of every self-deceiving ideological claim. The words of the prophet work against every soothing patriot, every self-confident creed, and every ideological ploy. He doesn’t linger over Judah’s violations of the covenant. He is a pastor. His community can begin grieving because the dye of historical dismantling had been cast. None in Jerusalem would be able to avoid the catastrophe by their positive attitude or theological position. Everyone would be affected. All would suffer loss.

God’s judgment would not only come upon His people, but upon the Land that they had defiled. Jeremiah laments over his ravaged country where he grew up and knew so well. I will weep and wail for the mountains [of Jerusalem] and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. The Babylonians will carry out a scorched-earth policy. The hills and pastures on which the cattle grazed will become desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle will not be heard. The birds will have all fled and the animals will be gone (9:10).

The LORD declared: I will make Tziyon a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals. Ruined cities that will be left as haunts for wild animals is common curse language.⁹⁴ And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so that no one (comparatively) can live there (9:11). There seems to be a strong link between national apostasy and natural disasters.

ADONAI issues a challenge to those who consider themselves wise, especially the false prophets that Jeremiah has to contend with. The inspired prophet responds in three parts. This verse, in a threefold question, may function as a rhetorical ploy, and asks, how can anyone make sense of what is happening: Who is wise enough to understand this? Can they explain the events that have occurred, since they had predicted the exact opposite (Hosea 14:9)? No. They cannot! Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? And lastly, using hyperbole to overemphasize the point, he asks: Why has the Land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross (9:12)?

The answer is given in the next two verses. It is not all that difficult or complicated to understand. There are very good grounds for all of the destruction to come, and those grounds come from the Torah. To understand this astonishing threat, one need only ponder the main claims of the covenant that expose the false thinking of Jerusalem. But of course, Zion was incapable of pondering their covenant promises.

The reason for the indictment is given in three negatives and two positives. The negatives are because they have abandoned My Torah, which I set before them at Sinai; and neither listened to what I said nor lived accordingly (9:13 CJB). Sin gives birth to sin. The present generation was suffering, partly at least, through the evil heritage they had received from their former generations (Exodus 20:5). Simply put, they had abandoned the demands of the Torah. In Deuteronomy 6:4 Isra’el’s main responsibility is to listen. In Deuteronomy 13:4 Isra’el is to walk after . . . listen . . . cleave, which forms a nice contrast to the three verbs above. The problem for Jeremiah was that on all three counts, Y’hudah was unresponsive.⁹⁵

Two positives assert that instead, they have [hardened] their hearts; and they have practiced idol worship and followed the Ba’als’, as their ancestors taught them (9:14). It was for these three reasons that the devastation of verses 10 and 11 was about to come.

Therefore, the judgment is given. This is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el says: See, I will make this people eat wormwood and drink poisoned water in the Land. Wormwood, which has a bitter taste and poisonous effects, is used as a metaphor for destruction (see the commentary on Revelation,to see link click Cy – The Third Trumpet: The Name of the Star is Wormwood) and sorrow (Lamentations 3:15). Here, this metaphor is applied to the false prophets. The combination of wormwood and poisoned water is a deadly brew. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have wiped them out (9:15-16). The near historical fulfillment of this prophecy would occur with the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians and King Nebuchadnezzar.

This is what ADONAI-Tzva’ot says: Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. Professional mourners; they were generally women who followed the casket of the dead and lamented the death very mournfully (Matthew 9:23). Let them come quickly (Ezekiel 12:21-28) and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. The sound of wailing song itself is heard from Tziyon, “How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our Land involuntarily because our houses are in ruins” (9:17-19).

But it is not merely that the professional mourners are called upon to sing their dirge. They are to teach their tragic refrain to their daughters and their friends, for the days will be tragic enough to demand a multitude of mourners.⁹⁶ Now, you women hear the word of ADONAI; open your ears to the words of His mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament (9:20). The feminine plural verbs used here are long, elaborate forms of the verb and take a long time to pronounce. Imagine the stiff old women told to hurry, hurry, hurry, but spoken very slowly.⁹⁷ God wants them to learn a new wailing song of lament.

This is God’s way of mimicking the religious system that brought them down to begin with. One of the legends of the god Ba’al was that he was planning on building a palace with no windows at all. But he was finally talked into having one window built (some god, eh?). Later in the story, another god named Mot (the god of death) entered through this one window of Ba’al’s palace and killed him. Afterwards, Ba’al was (surprise, surprise) resurrected! This was part of the worship and legend of Ba’al. So in a satire of the very legend they believed in, a new wailed song was declared: Death has climbed in through our windows (Isaiah 28:14-22; Hosea 13:14) and has entered our fortresses, but not to kill Ba’al – but the Israelites! Death has removed the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. [Jeremiah], says: This is what the LORD declares, “Dead bodies will lie like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them” (9:21-22). Which was the ultimate disgrace. This passage, which started at 8:13 and concluded here, is the Haftarah on the ninth of Av (see Gb – The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC).