Ezel 1—Ezekiel’s calling
2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, [the 5th year of Zedekiah’s reign over Judah/Jerusalem]
3 The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.
The rest of Ezek 1 is a vision, to be covered in part 4 of the Book of Ezekiel.
Ezek 2—the prophet is told not to be afraid to speak the Lord’s words to the people
The Holy Spirit speaks to Ezekiel, and sends him to the rebellious Children of Israel. Whether they will listen to him or not, they will know that a prophet has been sent to them.
6 ¶ And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks . . .
7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
8 But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.
Ezekiel is given a book/scroll, a book of mourning and lamenting.
Ezek 3 the prophet is sent as a watchman, and he is responsible to warn the people
Still a part of the interaction with the Holy Spirit in the previous chapter, Ezekiel is told to consume the book/scroll. It is sweet as honey in his mouth. Compare John’s similar experience as recorded in Rev 10:9-10, the scroll he was given to eat was sweet as honey in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach.
Ezekiel is sent to speak the words of the Lord to the captive House of Israel. In an ironic parenthetical remark, he is told that if he had been sent to a foreign nation, they would have listened to him. The House of Israel is “impudent and hardhearted.” But the Lord promises to make Ezekiel equal to the task before him. He is not to be afraid of them. “Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads . . . Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears..”
To Tel-abib, by the river of Chebar, Ezekiel goes and sits with the captives there for 7 days. Then the word of the Lord comes to him, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.”
18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.
The Lord sends Ezekiel to “the plain”, where he sees another vision of the glory of the Lord. The Spirit enters him, sets him on his feet, and sends him home. He is warned that he would be taken bound and imprisoned, and he should only speak to the people when the Lord opens his mouth.
Note that the Lord speaks to Ezekiel by inspiration as well as when he feels impelled to do or speak something. For info about Tel-abib and the river Chebar, see
https://biblehub.com/topical/t/tel-abib.htm
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ezekiel/3-15.htm
https://bibleatlas.org/tel-abib.htm
https://bible-history.com/map-babylonian-captivity/tel-abib
Ezek 33 The responsibility of a Watchman; people may change for good or bad; Ezekiel gets word that Jerusalem is destroyed
Ezekiel is commanded to speak to his people about the responsibility of a watchman:
When war comes and the people set up a watchman and he blows the horn to warn the people, whoever hears the horn and ignores it, his blood is on his own head. Those who heed the warning will save themselves. But if the watchman sees an enemy coming and doesn’t blow the horn in warning, whoever is captured bears his own iniquity, but his blood is required at the watchman’s hand.
The Lord tells Ezekiel that He has set him as a watchman to Israel. When he hears the Lord’s words, it’s his duty to warn the people. If Ezekiel doesn’t warn a wicked man to repent, that man will die in his sins, but his blood is required at the prophet’s hand. If the prophet warns the wicked man, but he doesn’t repent, he’ll die in his sins, but the prophet has delivered his own soul.
So the Lord tells Ezekiel to answer the people who question, If our sins are on us and we pine away because of them, how can we live? The Lord says, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
If a righteous person turns from his righteousness, his former righteousness will not save him. If a wicked person turns from his wickedness, he will not suffer for what he has repented of. If a righteous person trusts in his righteousness, thinking he can now get away with sinning, his former righteousness will not be remembered. And if a wicked person repents of his sins, does what is lawful and right, restores any pledge he withheld, returns what he has stolen, walks in the Law of life, not committing sin, none of his former sins will be mentioned to him. (compare Isa 1:18)
People say, The Lord is not being fair, or treating people equally/the same. But the Lord affirms that He will judge every person for the way he behaves.
In the 12th year of the captivity (the 11th year of Zedekiah’s reign in Jerusalem), a person who had escaped from Jerusalem comes to Ezekiel and tells him the city was destroyed. The evening before the man came, Ezekiel was unable to speak. But the next morning, after he got the news, the Lord opens his mouth and gives him a charge to tell the people that because of their sins even those who have fled to the wilderness, caves, and places of refuge will die by the sword, by wild animals, and by pestilence. The Lord will lay the whole land waste because of their abominations:
Eating blood (forbidden in the Law of Moses), worshipping idols, shedding blood (not rightfully; possibly a reference to child sacrifice, but could also be mafia-like tactics to gain wealth), committing adultery . . .
The people come together to Ezekiel, asking for the word of the Lord, as if they are God’s people, but then they won’t live by His words. Ezekiel is like a talented singer singing a beautiful song, playing well on an instrument. The people like the song and the singer, but it doesn’t change the way the behave. When all the prophecies of Ezekiel come to pass, as they most definitely will, then they will know that a prophet has been among them.
Ezek 18 The Lord judges every person for their own sins, and doles out befitting consequences
The Lord says, What do you mean saying “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”? Israel will no loner have an reason to say this. God cares for every soul, both the father and the son. Those who sin will be punished, and those who live righteously (obey the Law of Moses, the Law of the Lord) will be given Life.
A description of a righteous person is given in terms of what he doesn’t do: eat on the mountains (referring to idol worship in the “high places”), look up to idols, commit adultery, have intercourse with a menstrous woman (forbidden in the Law of Moses), oppress others, keep back the collateral of a debtor, commit (violent) robbery, lend money with interest. The things a righteous man does do: gives food to the hungry, clothes the destitute, refuses to commit iniquity, judges righteously (especially in a position of authority), keeps the commandments, deals honestly with others.
If a righteous man has a wicked son, the son’s blood is on himself. If a wicked man has a son “that seeth all his father’s sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such like . . . he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.” People would punish a whole family for what they perceived as wrong in the parent/relative in those days, and in certain societies now. But the Lord says that is not to be done. “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
If a wicked person repents and lives right, “All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” the Lord asks rhetorically. Likewise, if a righteous person turns to wickedness, “All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.”
People accused the Lord of not treating people equally. Yet the Lord does treat people equally under the Law. It is humans who show favor to some and not to others. “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
Ezek 34 The wicked shepherds of Israel (the sheep/flock) and the True Shepherd of Israel
2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
Compare Matt 9:36 “sheep having no shepherd”; John 10 Good Shepherd; Psalm 23; Isa 40:11; Jer 23:1-4; Jer 50:6. The fact that contemporaries (Ezekiel & Jeremiah) used the same metaphor doesn’t mean that one plagiarized another, but that they were both inspired, perhaps even by one another. Additionally, later writers/teachers/thinkers might expand or develop the themes introduced in the Psalms of King David.
The Lord will require an accounting from the shepherds of his flock in caring for themselves at the expense of the sheep. He will fire them from their employment. The Lord Himself will go and look for his scattered sheep and bring them back. He will feed them in good pastures, in safety. He will care for the sick and injured. He will separate the sheep (willing followers) from the goats (self-willed & rebellious). Compare Matt 25:31-33 and following. The Lord asks, Is it such a small thing that you eat up the good pastures, you also stomp down the rest? You not only drink up the waters, but befoul the what’s left.
Beside the metaphor of leader/shepherds, the Lord uses the metaphor of the strong animals of the flock persecuting the weak until they scatter them from the safety of the fold. The Lord says He will rescue his flocks. (Note the term “cattle” can mean any herd animals, not just bovines). He promises to set up one shepherd over them, His servant David, who will care for them. Here David is symbolic of his descendant, especially the Messiah.
A covenant of peace the Lord will make with His people. He will “cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land”. We don’t think of animals as being inherently evil, but people of former times spoke of every bad thing that happened as being an “evil”. It’s interesting that wild lions and bears, for instance, no longer inhabit Israel as they used to. People will be able to live safely in the wilderness, and sleep/camp safely in the woods.
Rain will come in its season, so it can be counted on for agriculture (to water the crops when they are growing, and allow the grains to be harvested in dry weather). Fruit trees will give good yields. In those days the House of Israel will live safely in their land, and will know that the Lord is their God. He will have “broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.” In other words, they will no longer be tributaries to those who take away their goods/prosperity/what they work for. One of the greatest blessings will be that they will no longer have to live in fear of their enemies. They won’t go hungry, nor be shamed by the unbelievers or the idolatrous. Then God’s people will know that He is their God, He is caring for them, and they are His people (metaphorically His flock).
Tag: Jeremiah
Lamentations, Habakkuk, Obadiah
2 Kings 23:39-25:30 History recap/outline
--On the death of king Josiah, his 23 yr old son Jehoahaz is made king
After 3 mos Pharaoh-nechoh took him captive to Egypt, made Jerusalem tributary
--Pharaoh makes 25 yr old Jehoiakim, brother of Jehoahaz king in Jerusalem
11 yr reign; Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes him tributary
After 3 years he rebels, Chaldees/Syrians/Moabites/Ammonites sent vs Judah
--at the death of Jehoiakim, his 18 yr old son Jehoiachin made king
(Babylon has taken all Egypt’s holdings from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates)
Reigned 3 mos, Nebuchadnezzar’s servants besiege Jerusalem
8th year of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiakim, the elites, the Temple & king’s treasures, & craftsmen:
10K carried away to Babylon.
https://biblehub.com/2_kings/24-12.htm
--21 yr old Zedekiah (Jehoiachin’s uncle) is made king by Nebuchadnezzar
11 yr reign; rebels vs Nebuchadnezzar, 9th yr Jerusalem besieged by Babylonians
11th year no bread/famine, city broken up, Chaldees are surrounding the city
Zedekiah & soldiers flee, but he is captured, his army scattered
Zedekiah’s sons killed in front of him, then his eyes are put out; he is taken to Babylon
--The Temple, the king’s house, and all the great houses in Jerusalem are burned, the walls broken
The rest of the people in Jerusalem, and the fugitives that joined the Babylonians are carried
to Babylon. The poor are left to work the vineyards. Gedaliah is made governor.
A conspiracy kills Gedaliah, the people flee in fear to Egypt.
--37th year of captivity, Jehoiachin is released from prison & lives on the king of Babylon’s allowance
the rest of his life.
2 Chron 36 History recap/outline (there are a few differences to that above)
--the people make 23 yr old Jehoahaz king after Josiah’s death
Reigned 3 mos, king of Egypt takes him captive to Egypt; makes Jerusalem tributary
--king of Egypt makes Jehoahaz’ 25 yr old brother Jehoiakim king of Judah/Jerusalem
Reigned 11 yrs; Nebuchadnezzar carries him & the Temple treasures to Babylon
--8 yr old Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, reigns 3 mos; carried captive to Babylon
--Nebuchadnezzar makes 21 yr old Zedekiah (Jehoiachin’s brother) king of Judah/Jerusalem
Reigned 11 years, wouldn’t humble himself before Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord
Rebelled vs his oath & vs Nebuchadnezzar
14 ¶ Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:
16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
Temple & king’s treasures, the king & princes taken captive to Babylon
The Temple & palaces in Jerusalem are burned, the walls broken down
--Those who weren’t killed were taken captive to Babylon & served there until Persia arose
Jeremiah’s prophecies fulfilled, the land enjoyed sabbaths, for 70 years
--1st year of Cyrus, king of Persia Jeremiah’s prophecies accomplished:
The Lord inspired Cyrus to proclaim that God had given him the kingdoms of the earth
And charged him to build God’s house in Jerusalem. Whoever of the Jews wish to, can go.
(it is most probable that someone presented Cyrus with God’s word/Jeremiah’s prophecies).
Lamentations, 5 chapters mourning the suffering of Judah & Jerusalem in the Babylonian conquest
Lam 1 The kingdom of Judah, Jerusalem as the capital, is likened to a bereft woman
1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers [allies and idols] she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
4 The ways [streets/roads] of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. [Priests & virgins would be employed in celebrations/holy days.]
5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts [deer] that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
In such a way the Lamentations continue, personifying Judah/Jerusalem as a woman remembering what life was like for her before her desolation, which the Lord allowed to come upon her for her wickedness. “The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things . . .”, that is, her enemies have grabbed/looted all her treasures. “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”
17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. [There was just about nothing that was considered as disgusting to the ancients as a menstruous woman or her clothing.]
18 ¶ The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
19 I called for my lovers [allies & idols], but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. [They died in the famine associated with siege warfare.]
Judah/Jerusalem is put to shame and laments that there is no one to comfort her. All her enemies laugh at her troubles, and are glad for them. She retorts that they will be just like her, punished for their sins/transgressions.
Lam 2 The Lord has finally had enough, and brings the curses He promised via Moses in The Law
“How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool [Jerusalem] in the day of his anger!”
In grief/mourning the elders have put dust on their heads and dressed in sackcloth. Their innards are full of grief. Children cry for hunger in their mothers’ embrace. Instead of teaching the people to repent and avoid calamity, the prophets pretended to vain and foolish visions, that would cause the people to be banished from their homeland.
“The Lord hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn [that calls people to battle] of thine adversaries.” Each night was divided into “watches” (shifts) for the soldiers—and now they are full of prayers/petitions/pleadings with the Lord for the sake of starving children in the streets. Starving women become willing to eat their own infants (the unit of measure called a “span” is the widest that a hand can stretch out from tip of thumb to pinky, perhaps about 9”).
Lam 3 Lamenting all the Lord has done in consequence of wickedness, the prophet remembers that God is merciful and compassionate.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 ¶ It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
A man will put his face in the dust (in prayer), with the hope of God’s mercy. He puts up with physical abuse from those who accuse him, trusting that “the Lord will not cast [him] off for ever . . .”
32 But though he [God] cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
Like a good parent, God doesn’t delight in punishing the bad deeds of His children, yet He knows He must hold them accountable, for their own sakes.
Jeremiah asks rhetorically of God’s all-powerfulness. Whatever He says, good or bad, will happen. And why should a man complain at being punished for his own sins. In suffering, God’s people ought to do some soul-searching and turn to the Lord, praying for His mercy/pardon/forgiveness. Jeremiah recalls his experience in prison, and how he called on the Lord for help. God listened to him then, so he calls on Him again to recompense his enemies.
Lam 4 A lament for the horrors of a besieged city.
“The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!” Gold lasts, pottery is temporary. Gold is precious, pottery is not.
Even mother whales give milk to their babies, yet women of God’s people have become as careless of their young as ostriches. Young children go hungry and thirsty in the besieged city. Those who used to eat all sorts of delicacies are now desolate. Those who used to dress so fine sit in poop. Sinful Sodom didn’t suffer this much, because it was destroyed quickly. The people of Jerusalem, who used to have every sign of health are now skin and bones. Those that were killed by the sword were better off than those dying of hunger, and women cook their own children to eat. No one would have believed that Jerusalem would be overrun so by its enemies.
The prophets and priests (who should be the epitome of Justice) shed the blood of just/good/righteous people. Thus the Lord caused that the conquering army gave the prophets and priests no special treatment (as they would be used to). People waited for help from another nation (Egypt) in vain. The conquerors hunt out and pursue those that flee to the mountains or wilderness, including the king (the Lord’s anointed), whom they thought would still be over them even in captivity.
Speaking ironically, Jeremiah invites Edom to be glad at Jerusalem’s destruction, because Edom will drink from the same cup and offer all she has to the conquerors. There will at last come an end to Zion’s punishment, and it will be Edom’s turn to be punished for her sins.
Lam 5 Jeremiah lists the things his people have suffered, and his belief in God, but ends on a sad note
Jeremiah tells the things his people have suffered, asking “Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach . . .” Strangers have taken their inheritances, the people are orphaned/fatherless (left without protectors/providers), their mothers widowed. Instead of gathering wood and bringing water from the well, they have to pay for both. They no longer have the benefits employees would, rather, they work like slaves. They’ve paid the Egyptians & Assyrians for help with the money that could have bought them food.
The people of Judah suffer for the wickedness of their fathers. Instead of being governed by people with the right to rule, they are ruled over by servants (of Nebuchadnezzar). No one is delivering them from their fate. They’ve suffered terrible famine. Their women, even young women, were raped. Princes were hanged by their hands. The elders/elderly were given no respect. Young men and children were set to work grinding grains and gathering wood (chores they would have thought beneath them). The elders no longer sit at the gates of the city (a sign of wealth/leisure and honor/importance), and the young men no longer party or dance to the music. All joy is ceased and turned to mourning. Instead of living like kings, they are full of woes, suffering because of their sins. Their hearts are faint, their eyes dim (vs bright with hope/energy/anticipation . . .) Their precious Zion is become a wilderness where foxes live. Jeremiah pleads,
19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
But then he laments, “thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth [angry] against us.”
Thus ends this set of Jeremiah's writing. It doesn't mean that it's the last he thought or wrote.
The Book of Habakkuk
“He spoke often of an imminent Babylonian invasion (Habakkuk 1:6; 2:1; 3:16), an event that occurred on a smaller scale in 605 BC before the total destruction of Judah’s capital city, Jerusalem, in 586 BC. The way Habakkuk described Judah indicates a low time in its history. If the dating is to remain close to the Babylonian invasion, Habakkuk likely prophesied in the first five years of Jehoiakim’s reign (609–598 BC) to a king who led his people into evil.” https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-minor-prophets/habakkuk
The book of Habakkuk has only 3 chapters. He bemoans the wickedness of his time, “Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” He speaks of the rise of the Chaldeans (Babylonians). While their king thinks his god has given him his power, Habakkuk says that God is using him as a form of correction for His people. He uses fishing metaphors to capture the attention of his hearers/readers. As far as God’s character/nature, he says, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?” In other words, though God is too pure to countenance evil, yet He postpones judgment/punishment (until the time is right). Habakkuk describes himself as a watchman on the tower. God tells him to write his vision, and when it is time, it’s truth will be revealed. The conqueror is greedy to expand his empire, but “Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!”
Highlights: “the just shall live by his faith,” and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
The third chapter is a prayer/psalm, which some have thought indicates he could have been a Temple priest. (see reference cited above). In his psalm of praise Habakkuk refers to God’s hand in Israel’s history, especially in the Exodus. No matter what disasters occur, Habakkuk says, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
The Book of Obadiah
The book of Obadiah is the shortest in the Old Testament, only 1 chapter. “The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom . . .” The time is unreferenced, except that the Edomites thought to profit by the calamities befallen the Jewish nation. The Lord through Obadiah promises that Zion/the House of Jacob will one day be delivered and re-possess their lands, and the kingdom of Esau/Edom will be destroyed. The rule of the enemies of the Jews will be overturned. Holiness will return to the Jewish nation.
Jeremiah part 4–various prophecies concerning the Israelites and other Middle Eastern nations
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ian-w-scott/4621985308/
Compare Jer 27 (Babylon will conquer all)
“In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord . . .” Jeremiah is to put on yokes (used for carrying burdens, or for animals used in plowing) and fetters. He is to send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Tyre, Zidon, and the Ammonites via the messengers they have sent to Zedekiah in Jerusalem, along with a message from God: I am the Creator of the earth and all the people and beasts upon it, and I give control of it to whomever I want. I have given all your lands and animals to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. All nations will serve him, and his son, and his grandson. When their time is up, other nations and kings will conquer Babylon. Any nation that refuses to serve Babylon will be killed by the sword (war), famine, and pestilence/disease. So don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers who say it won’t be so. They are prophesying lies to you. But those nations willing to be tributary to Babylon will be able to remain in their own lands.
Jer 22 Jeremiah is sent to the king of Judah, calling for repentance & pronouncing consequences
3 Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
Though the king’s house is beautiful as Gilead (noted for healing balm) and Lebanon (noted for its cedars), it will become a wilderness and desolate. Passers by will ask one another, Why did God do this to this great city (Jerusalem)? The answer: “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.”
The Lord says not to weep for those who were killed, but for those that were carried captive, who would never see their native land again. Then he references Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah “which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more . . .” For a discussion of Shallum, see https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_chronicles/3-15.htm , which references 1 Chron 3:15, four sons of king Josiah.
The Lord tells the king,
13 ¶ Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?...
17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
The Lord extols the virtues of king Josiah: “did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.”
Verses 18-19 & 24 specify Jehoiakim, who inherited his father Josiah’s throne. This once again calls into question who Shallum was. Could it have been another name for Jehoiakim? Could either this writer or the writer of 1 Chron 3:15 have confused the identities?
The Lord speaks again of Lebanon and its cedars in verses 20-23. The context seems to be idolatry committed there, as ancients used forested hills (“high places”) for idolatrous parties. Those false gods are often referred to as the lovers whom the wife (the Israelites) committed adultery with. The destruction of the land is often compared in simile or metaphor to the pains of childbirth.
Even if the king’s son was God’s signet ring, the symbol of His authority, he would still not save him from the disaster to come. The king will be given into the hands of his most feared enemy, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and his Chaldean warriors. He will be carried away captive, never to return to his birthplace. The king’s son Coniah is as despised as a broken idol or an unwanted piece of pottery. He and his children are to be cast out/taken away to die in a foreign land. The king and his son might as well be childless, as far as having heirs to the throne of Judah.
Jer 23 Woe to the pastors, the shepherds who should have cared for God’s flocks; yet God will gather and save them—the promise of a Messiah
1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.
2 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.
3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.
5 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
One day, instead of looking back at the Exodus as proof of the existence, power, and mercy of God, people will speak of the gathering of the house of Israel from the north, and from all the countries of the diaspora.
9 ¶ Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness.
10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord.
The Lord through His prophet Jeremiah pronounces the consequences to the false prophets (particularly the prophets of Baal in Samaria) and religious leaders: they will fall as if walking on slippery paths in the dark. “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.” They will be fed with bitterness. The Lord warns the people not to listen to these prophets who speak from their own heart/interest, not the word of the Lord. They reassure the wicked that they will have peace and nothing ill will come to them. But the anger of the Lord will fall on the wicked like a whirlwind, and His anger will not die down until His purposes are fulfilled. In the last days people will perfectly understand.
I, the Lord, did not send those prophets, yet they went; I did not speak to them, and yet they prophesied. If they had stood in God’s counsel, and caused the people to hear His words, they would have turned the people from their evil ways. He asks, Am I a God only in the present? “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
The Lord rebukes the prophets that tell lies in His name, claiming to have dreamed dreams from the Lord. “. . . yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name [replacing it] for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream [from God], let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. ” (Maybe this was the Lord's word to Jeremiah.) False prophets are as useless as chaff compared to the nutrition of kernels of wheat.
God’s word is like a purifying fire, like a hammer that breaks ore in pieces. He is against prophets that steal their neighbor’s words (Jeremiah’s words), and that say, “The burden of the Lord . . .[as if God had given them the words to say].” He is against those that prophesy false dreams, and in telling those dreams, “cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.” The Lord warns these false prophets/priests/people from pretending to speak for Him, who have perverted “the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.” “I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.”
Jer 24 Jeremiah’s vision after Nebuchadrezzar took Jehoiakim’s son, princes, craftsmen captive
Jeremiah’s vision from the Lord: 2 baskets of figs in front of the Temple—one of very good figs, the other inedible. The Jews carried captive to the land of the Chaldeans are symbolized by the good figs. “For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” The inedible figs are symbolic of Zedekiah and those left in Jerusalem/Judah, and those that go to Egypt. “And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers." We may be surprised by who the Lord considers the good figs and the bad figs; we may be surprised by what God tells/counsels us to do. What may seem like a disaster may be what God wants us to do (and we know what He asks turns out to be best), and what we think will save us from disaster may prove our foolish insistence that we know better than Him.
Jer 25 The Lord through Jeremiah about the people of Judah, 4th year of Jehoiakim, 70 yrs in Babylon
Jeremiah tells all the people of Judah & Jerusalem: from the 13th year of king Josiah to this day (the 23rd year since) “I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.”
4 And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
5 They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
7 Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
Because they have not listened, the Lord says He will bring “all the families of the north” and Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon (His servant—that is, he serves God’s purpose in this instance) against Judah and all the neighboring nations, and utterly destroy them. The joyous sounds of weddings, of grinding the harvest, and celebrations will no more be heard. The nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years.
At the end of 70 years the king of Babylon, his nation, and the Chaldeans will be punished for their iniquities with perpetual desolations. “For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.”
Jeremiah is to give the cup of destruction for the nations to drink: Jerusalem/Judah, Pharaoh/Egypt, the kings/people of Uz, the Philistines (including Azzah/Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod), Ashkelon (seaport just north of Gaza), Edom, Moab, the descendants of Ammon, Tyre & Sidon/Zidon, kings of Arabia including the city of Dedan, Tema (a city of the Ishmaelites), Buz (possibly people living near Edom), Zimri (possibly a city in the land inheritance of Simeon), Elam (land east of Babylonia), Medes (east of Babylonia), all the kings of the north (around Babylon), all the kingdoms of the [middle eastern] world, including “the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea”. And after all these have drunk from the cup of God’s wrath, Sheshach/Babylon will then be made to drink of it as well. All these will be destroyed in war. He says they will fall and rise no more, but He has promised that eventually the nation of Israel will return and rise again, so perhaps this is a hyperbolic, exclamatory punctuation to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, or refers only to the current kings of those nations. “And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.”
https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Sheshach.html
Jeremiah likens the Lord to a roaring lion, which brings fear to all who hear. He likens the kings of the earth to shepherds, who certainly would fear to hear the roar of a lion. The shepherds will have no way to flee, nor any way to save their flocks (people). The peaceful pastures/lands will be destroyed. Like a lion leaving his den the Lord will come out to wreak destruction on the corrupted nations of the earth.
Jer 30 God promises to bring Israel & Judah back to the land He promised to their Founding Fathers
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
3 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
The Lord recognizes the fear in the hearts of His people. Interestingly, He asks rhetorically if men give birth, so why are the they acting like women in the throes of labor? He acknowledges the troubled times, but promises that the Israelites will be brought out of it. The yoke of bondage/captivity will be broken off their necks, and they will serve God and the rightful heir of David the king, whom God will raise up.
10 ¶ Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.
11 For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
“All thy lovers [false allies and idolatries] have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.” But why cry about it? The injury seems incurable, a just injury for the nation’s wickedness.
16 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
Israel’s cities will be rebuilt, and “out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them . . . Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.”
And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Jer 31 God makes a new covenant with Israel & Judah; mention of Ramah, Justice, God in our hearts
“At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people . . . The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
The Lord uses the metaphor of a virgin dressed for a party with music and dancing. This is curious, because He has already accused the House of Israel of being metaphorically an adulterous wife. There’s more than one way to explain this, from translating issues to the miracle of God’s forgiveness. One option might be that the adulterous wife will have been put away (divorced), and her youthful daughter (those whom the Lord will gather from afar and return to the land of Israel) will once again be able to find joy, dancing and singing.
Then the Lord paints a picture of the returning Israelites: vineyards will be replanted and produce plentifully. The watchmen (prophets & leaders) of Israel will proclaim, Let’s arise and go to (worship) our God in Jerusalem (where the Temple is). “For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.” The Lord says He will bring His people from the North and the ends of the earth, and evinces the inclusivity of the gathering by specifying even the blind, the lame, and the pregnant (even those giving birth) . . . all who would find the travel difficult, and might have been left behind if God didn’t insist. It will be a huge gathering.
9 They shall come with weeping [for joy], and with supplications [gentle urging] will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn [Joseph’s son Ephraim inherited the right of firstborn when Jacob’s firstborn lost his birthright through sin].
10 ¶ Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
11 For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he [Jacob/Israel].
The remnant of Israel will come to the hills of Jerusalem with “the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” Young and old alike will dance for joy, and God will take away their sorrows. The people and the priests, who depend upon the people for their sustenance, will be satiated with the goodness/blessings of the Lord (implying the abundant fruitfulness of the land).
Here is found the much quoted scripture, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel [Rachel] weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” Ramah was a place about 5 mi north of Jerusalem (while Bethlehem was about 5 mi south of Jerusalem). Rachel gave birth to her last son Benjamin (Joseph’s only full brother) as the family was traveling to Bethlehem, and Rachel died there in childbirth. Rachel’s name for Bejamin was Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”, but his father Jacob called him Benjamin. The place Ramah has other importance in the Old Testament story, but my interest here is mainly about Rachel’s symbolic lament. Ramah was part of the tribe of Benjamin’s land inheritance. Apparently either in the Assyrian or Babylonian conquest the place suffered particular destruction. It seems to have been an important defense site for the kingdom of Judah.
https://www.theholyscript.com/where-is-ramah-in-the-bible/ about Ramah
https://www.gotquestions.org/Ramah-in-the-Bible.html about Ramah
https://www.gotquestions.org/voice-heard-in-Ramah.html Ramah vs Bethlehem
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/2-18.htm Matt 2:18 vs Jer 31:15, Rachel’s death etc
https://biblehub.com/jeremiah/31-15.htm scroll down to the commentaries
But then the Lord says, No longer weep, for they (Rachel’s/Israel’s) children/descendants will be brought back from the land of their enemies. Hope is restored. Symbolically, Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) had been bemoaning the Lord’s chastisement for his iniquity, and says he has repented. The Lord calls Ephraim his dear son, whom He still remembers and will have mercy for him. The Lord tells Israel to again set up the waymarks (road signs, so to speak), for they will use those roads to return to their cities.
The prophet says that the Lord has brought about something new: a woman encompassing a man. This would have reference to the usual way of considering men to be in charge of sex. In other words, human ideas of how things are or how they go will be tossed upside down. No doubt the expectation was that once you were carried away captive, you would never return (including your posterity). When the captives are brought back people will say, “The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.” The land and cities of Judah will once again support agriculture, both crops and flocks. The Lord will refresh the weary and worried.
After this happy dream Jeremiah awakens with sweet memories.
The Lord promises that the Israelites & Jews, and their animals, will bear plentiful offspring. Just as the Lord has seen to their destruction, He will see to their re-construction.
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. [compare Ezek 18]
The Lord will make a new covenant with Israel & Judah, not the old one of the Exodus (which they broke, despite the Lord’s care for them).
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
The Lord who made the sun to light the day, and the moon & stars to light the night, who causes the storms of the sea to roar, who marshals armies of angels, declares that His power over all those would cease sooner than His decree that Israel will never cease to exist as a nation. It’s just as impossible to measure the Universe or to understand the founding of the earth as for God to cast off Israel, despite all his culpability/guilt.
All the environs of Jerusalem will be holy, and never destroyed again. Though the Jews/Israelites returned from the Babylonian captivity, they were scattered again by Rome. So this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled entirely.
Jer 47 Woes to come to the Philistines, Tyre & Sidon; spoken before the Pharoah attacked Gaza
Babylon is likened to a flood inundating all the land. The noise of the horses’ hooves, the rumbling of chariot wheels will put such fear in the people that even fathers will flee without looking back for their children. Gaza & Ashkelon will be made bald (desolate). How long will they be in mourning? (One of the rituals of mourning was to cut oneself.) Poetically Jeremiah asks how long before the Lord’s sword (the king of Babylon) is put back in its scabbard. But it can’t be stilled because the Lord has given it a command against the kingdoms of the coast: the Philistines & the Phoenicians. These are at least in part the modern countries of Gaza and Lebanon.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people
https://www.britannica.com/place/Phoenicia
Jer 48 Woe to the Moabites
4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
7 ¶ For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh [the Moabite god] shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.
8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken.
9 Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.
10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
11 ¶ Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees [dregs, the bottom of the cup/barrel], and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity [before] . . .
The chapter mentions various Moabite cities, descriptions and metaphors of the calamities of being conquered, and condemnation for how the Moabites delighted over the ills that happened to Israel, making Israel the subject of their derision. “We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart . . . Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord . . . Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives..” Yet Jeremiah still mourns over the destruction of Moab as one who cares about the suffering of others. And God promises that in the latter days He will rescue Moab from captivity.
Jer 49 Prophecies against Ammon, Edom, Syria, Kedar, Hazor, Elam (comp Obadiah & Jer 27)
Apparently the Ammonites decided to take advantage of Israelite troubles and fill the void, that is, take over territories the Israelites could not hold. But the Ammonites will have their own share of troubles/conquest. “Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.” Yet the Ammonites will also return from captivity one day.
When grapes ae harvested some are left on the vine. Thieves take their limit, but something is still left. “But I have made Esau [Edom] bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not [that is, he is annhilated].” Though proud guerillas fight from the hills & caves, they’ll be conquered. Still, the Lord invites the widows to put their trust in Him, and promises to watch over the fatherless.
Damascus, the Syrian capital, has/will become weak “and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord of hosts. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad [this famous king of Syria became its symbol].
Kedar, an Arabian tribe descended from Ishmael the half brother of Isaac, will also be conquered. “Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.”
Counterpoint to Kedar in the south, the ancient Canaanite city of Hazor in the north would be overthrown by Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. “Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation [Babylon], that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone. And their [Hazorite] camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the Lord. And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons [some lizard species], and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.”
Jeremiah prophesies against Elam, Babylon’s neighbor, “I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them . . .” The Elamites will be scattered to the 4 winds and into every country. But eventually, they too will return to their lands.
Jer 50 God vs Babylon & Chaldea; Israelites will return to their land
1 The word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel [a Babylonian idol] is confounded, Merodach [another god of Babylon] is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
And in those days the Israelites & Jews will go forth weeping for joy, seeking the Lord their God, returning to Zion/Jerusalem, saying, “Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.”
God’s people have been lost sheep, and it’s their shepherds that caused them to go astray. All their adversaries justified themselves in doing them harm because they had sinned against the Lord (in whom Justice dwells and the hope of their fathers/ancestors).
But God will raise up an alliance from the north against Babylon. Note that the Persian/Medean empire (“an assembly of great nations”) was north of the Babylonian/Chaldean empire. And why would the Lord turn on Babylon, whom He had called his servant? Because they had grown fat and full of pride. War will come to Babylon, archers will shoot at her, her foundations & walls will be thrown down, her agriculture will fail because the peoples who were forced to work the land will flee to their own countries.
Israel was like a flock of sheep scattered by lions: first the Assyrians, then the Babylonians. Just as the Lord punished the Assyrian king, He will punish Babylonian king. Those who look for sin in Israel and Judah will not find it, for the Lord will pardon those who are left.
Merathaim is another word for Babylon, meaning “double bitterness” and “double rebellion”. Pekod is used to depict the Chaldeans, perhaps meaning “punishment”. Babylon is metaphorically called “the hammer of the whole earth”, but astonishingly, it will be broken. Babylon is caught in a snare by the Lord, in a sense of it’s own making, because it has contended with Him. No doubt this refers to the pride of the Babylonian/Chaldean empire. Babylon is to be recompensed, meaning that it’s not innocent: it will get what it deserves. “Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.” (Comp Isa 14:4-22, Isa 42:5-25, Rev 14:8) Verse 36 also mentions liars. Verse 38 speaks of Babylon/Chaldea being a land of graven images, and that “they are mad upon their idols.” That is, they go crazy with all kinds of idols and the veneration they give them.
39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
A brief outline of the history & fate of Babylon:
https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/babylon.htm
https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/where-was-babylon-and-what-happened-to-it.html
In light of the history of Babylon through the centuries, as outlined in the links above, the passage “many kings shall be raised up from the coasts [ends] of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea [that is, the noise of the battlefield], and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon” could refer to Alexander's empire with its one-time capital Babylon. One empire after another conquered Babylon until it became just an archaeological site. No doubt those who had been conquered and carried captive by the Babylonians were anxious to see it never again inhabited, and obliterated as Sodom & Gomorrah (which we are uncertain as to their exact location still), and probably they looked for the fulfillment of that prophecy in the relative short term. We, too, must recognize that God fulfills His word, but not necessarily on our timeline or in our expected timeframe.
Jer 51 the Lord continues against Babylon—prophesied in the 4th year of Zedekiah when he went to Babylon (on an errand to Nebuchadnezzar, presumably, before being taken captive in his 11th year)
At the end of this chapter it’s explained that this prophecy was sent with “a quiet prince” when he accompanied Zedekiah to Babylon in the 4th year of his reign. Jeremiah tells this prince that as he reads the prophecy when he gets there, he should exclaim Babylon’s downfall (presumably quietly, to himself), and then tie a rock to it and toss it into the Euphrates, likening it to the eventual destruction of that place. We might wonder why take all the trouble to write the prophecy in a book, send it with a guy to Babylon (a very dangerous thing to do), then toss it in the river. One theory: this quiet prince may have been commanded to be brought as a prisoner/hostage to “ensure” Zedekiah’s compliance to Babylonian demands/suzerainty. One might even speculate that he could have been a companion of the young Zedekiah (who was only in his 20s), or he could have been a disciple of Jeremiah. How discouraged he would be feeling! Jeremiah thus offers him some hope that this will not last forever. And maybe he could even share this hope with the previous captives who had been taken to Babylon under the reign of Jehoiachin, but the actual evidence was destroyed, so that they could not be charged (nor Jeremiah charged) with the damning document.
The conquerors of Babylon are likened to a powerful wind, even those that fan the fire of a furnace/smelting operation. When Babylon is attacked it seems her neighbors whom she had conquered will also rise up against her. This will signify to the Israelites that God has not forgotten them, despite that they had filled their land with sinning against Him. This will be their chance to flee Babylon.
Babylon had served as a golden cup from which the Lord had made the whole earth (the middle easterners would consider that as the middle east) to get “falling down drunk.” But now suddenly Babylon is fallen/destroyed, wounded such that she seeks a remedy for the pain and for her injury. Those who care for her will howl (mourn aloud) for her mortal wounds. They would have healed her, but it’s hopeless, so they go to their own countries with shrugging shoulders that she got what she deserved. Verse 11 foretells that it will be the Medes that will come against Babylon. One might be tempted to see in verse 13 the end of Alexander the Great in Babylon.
The power of the Lord is His wisdom & understanding, by which He created the earth and the heaven or atmosphere, the waters above (as clouds), the volcanic vapors & evaporated waters, the rain/lightning/weather. By comparison men are brutes, worshipping inert/impotent/passive/false gods of their own making.
“The portion of Jacob”, meaning God, is not like those false gods. He created all things. Jacob/Israel is the branch of His inheritance (He has made Israel His heir.) He is called “the Lord of hosts”, that is, He commands hosts/armies of angels. With God’s might He, or Israel/His people, can conquer all other nations and armies.
The Lord is against those conquerors that destroy all the earth. He will destroy them. He references the tendency of people to take the stones of a ruined city or building to build or rebuild, saying there won’t be anything left of Babylon to use for building/re-building. He references setting up a flag, blowing a trumpet to call together the armies of nations to war against Babylon. Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz were provinces in the ancient kingdom of Uratu, a particular adversary of Assyria, but also of the Babylonians. It’s an area in the present convergence of Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. The Medes were also north of Babylon. From this chapter we get a view of the end of Babylon by competing countries/empires in which the soldiers were afraid to even come out of their holds. The passes were blocked, the reeds of the wetlands were burned. Babylon’s enemies overflow them like a flood (v. 42).
https://biblehub.com/topical/a/ashchenaz.htm
https://www.worldhistory.org/Urartu_Civilization/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6F2ZAlVOIc&ab_channel=HistorywithCy 10.5 min video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsI2EYwrD5A&ab_channel=Saelind 48 min video
Jeremiah speaks for a few verses as the embodiment of the Israelites, saying, “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon [large lizard], he hath filled his belly with my delicates [organs], he hath cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.” In response, the Lord promises to advocate for His people, to take vengeance for their sake, to cause drought in the land.
An interesting phrase is “like lambs to the slaughter”, see also Isa 51:40, Isa 53:7, Jer 11:19, Acts 8:32.
“My people, go ye out of the midst of her [Babylon], and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.” Another phrase or thought of interest: “go ye out of the midst” of wickedness, see Isa 6:9-12 (wicked Israel is removed from the land), Is 52:9-12 (Assyria), Jer 6:1 (Jerusalem, fleeing Babylonian destruction thereof), Jer 50:8 (Babylon & Chaldea), Ezek 7:4 (recompense for abominations), Ezek 14:8 (idolaters to be taken out of the midst of God’s people), Ezek 20:10 (Egypt at the Exodus), Micah 6:4 (out of Egypt), Lev 16:16 (atone for uncleanness among God’s people), Psalm 137 (by the rivers of Babylon Israelites wept),
“And lest your heart faint,” the Lord foretells of rumours of wars, violence in the land, leaders contending with each other, violence in the overthrow of wicked Babylon. But these are to be followed by singing in heaven and earth for the conquest of Babylon (symbolic epitome of evil). The Lord enjoins His people to remember Him and the holy city Jerusalem. Although the sanctuary has been defiled by strangers (causing shame to His people), the days will come that God will “do judgment”. No matter how high & mighty Babylon (the wicked) gets, the Lord will bring spoilers to her. Her leaders & rulers, drunken with (power and) lacking (fore-)sight will be put to bed forever by the Lord. Despite her impregnable appearance, she will be broken up and burned.
(see Jer 52 under part 3 of the Book of Jeremiah)
Jeremiah part 3–history chapters, roughly Jer 26-46 (comp 2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chron 36)
2 Kings 24 & 2 Chron 36:5-13 background
Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, had been made a tributary king of Judah by the Egyptian Pharaoh (2 Kings 23:31-37). Then Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, makes Jehoiakim his tributary. After 3 years Jehoiakim rebels. A consortium of the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and the people of Ammon come against the kingdom of Judah (probably under orders from Nebuchadnezzar). Jehoiakim is succeeded by his 18 yr old son Jehoiachin. (2 Chron 36:9 says Jehoiachin was only 8 years old)
Babylon has conquered Egypt, now Nebuchadnezzar lays siege to Jerusalem. In the 8th year of Jehoiachin’s reign the Babylonians take him, his household, princes, and officers to Babylon, along with the treasures pillaged from the king’s house and the Temple. Ten thousand captives, including the best of the army and the craftsmen, are carried away leaving only the poorest people. The king of Babylon makes Zedekiah king of Judah at age 21.
After some years, Zedekiah rebels, and near the end of his 10th year as king Nebuchadnezzar comes and lays another siege against Jerusalem, as described in 2 Kings 25 & 2 Chron 36:17-20.
From the days of Jehoiakim on, Jeremiah is in and out of prison, accused of treason.
Note: I have tried to put the following chapters in some sort of chronological order, but have managed, no doubt, very imperfectly.
Jer 26 Jeremiah is tried & acquitted under the reign of Jehoiakim
“In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the Lord . . .” The Lord tells Jeremiah to stand in the court of the Temple, and if the people will listen and repent, He will change his intended punishments for their sins. If not, the Temple will be destroyed just as Shiloh was (the site of the Tabernacle before the Temple was built). The Lord reminds them He has continually sent prophets, but they refused to listen.
The priests, prophets, and everyone has heard Jeremiah preaching in the Temple. They all threaten him with death. The princes come from the king’s house to inquire what’s happening. The priests and prophets say, “This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.”
Jeremiah defends himself by saying that the Lord has sent him, “Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.”
The princes and the people tell the priests & prophets that Jeremiah isn’t worthy of death, because he has spoken in the Lord’s name. The elders bring up the example of the prophet Micah in the reign of Hezekiah that had prophesied Zion/Jerusalem would be plowed like a field, tossed up in heaps—that is, destroyed. Did Hezekiah and the people put him to death? No, Hezekiah took Micah’s words to heart and went to the Lord to plead for the nation. The Lord was willing to change what would occur. If we kill Jeremiah we might jeopardize our souls.
Another prophet, Urijah, also prophesies against Jerusalem and the nation, just as Jeremiah had done. When Jehoiakim and his princes and powerful men hear him, Jehoiakim looks for an opportunity to have him put to death. Urijah flees to Egypt, but Jehoiakim sends men to Egypt and they bring him back to be killed. They toss his body into a common grave.
One guy, Ahikam, saves Jeremiah from that fate.
Jer 35 in the days of Jehoiakim (son of king Josiah) Jeremiah contrasts the obedience of one lineage (possibly of priests) vs the disobedience of the nation of Judah
“The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah . . .”
The following is such a good summary of this chapter, I have nothing further to add. May we be as faithful as the Rechabites.
https://bibleask.org/who-were-the-rechabites-in-the-bible/
https://www.gotquestions.org/Rechabites.html
In the last verse of this chapter the Lord promises that because of the faithfulness of the Rechabites there will never lack a man of the descendants of Jonadab “to stand before” the Lord forever. I take that phrase to mean serving in the office of a priest.
Jer 45 The Lord’s promise to Baruch, 4th year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah
Baruch was feeling low, “Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.” The Lord sends Jeremiah to tell Baruch, I will destroy this land that I built & planted. Do you want great things for yourself [such as land and its wealth]? Don’t seek those things, because the land will be destroyed. But I will save your life, no matter where you go. (Later Baruch would be taken, along with Jeremiah, by the leaders of the remnant of the Jews, to Egypt).
Jer 46 in the 4th yr of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah prophesies the eventual conquest of Egypt
Pharaoh-necho of Egypt is at the river Euphrates, feeling pretty full of himself. “Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.” Amongst his army are Ethiopians and Libyans (skilled in hand-to-hand battle), and Lydians (skilled archers). Jeremiah prophesies their defeat, which will cause a lasting Egyptian military weakness. Pharoah is beaten by , king of Babylon. Jeremiah goes on to prophesy that eventually Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, will come even to Egypt and conquer it.
25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
26 And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord. [After being conquered, Egypt will once again rise as a nation.]
But the Lord promises the Children of Israel that they will one day be gathered again to live in the land of Israel.
27 ¶ But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the Lord: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
Jer 36 Baruch writes for Jeremiah in Jehoiakim’s 4th yr as king; Jeremiah is in prison at the time
“And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord . . .” Jeremiah is to write the words of the Lord on a scroll in the possibility that the house of Judah (either the kingly lineage or the nation of Judah) will hear all the prophecies of trouble ahead, and will choose to repent and be forgiven. Jeremiah calls on Baruch to act as his scribe, since Jeremiah is in prison. Baruch writes for him, and Jeremiah sends him to read it in the Temple on an official day of fasting that had been called for all the people of the cities of Judah to come. Perhaps this has given rise to the hope that the people might be willing to listen. Baruch is faithful to the task (though it must have been a dangerous thing to do). This is evidence that God has given men free will to choose their own path, but must live with the consequences. People always have the possibility to choose good, and the Lord gives them the benefit of that possibility as He warns them of the consequences and holds out the opportunity to be forgiven if they repent/change their ways & come to Him in truth.
One of the Temple officials goes to the king’s house to tell the princes all Baruch has read in the Temple. They call for Baruch to bring the scroll to them. He does so, perhaps with great hopes. They tell him to read the scroll to them, which he does. They are filled with fear, and tell Baruch to take Jeremiah and hide. They then hide the scroll, but tell the king all it said. The king sends for the scroll and has it read to him and all the princes. The king cuts up the scroll and tosses it in the fire (it was winter and there was a fire going in the hearth). Only three have the courage to protest, but the king doesn’t listen. The scriptures specifically mention that no one tore their clothes in anguish at the blasphemy of burning God’s word. The king sends officers to take Jeremiah and Baruch, “but the Lord hid them.”
The Lord tells Jeremiah to rewrite the words of the scroll. He is to tell king Jehoiakim that because he burnt the warning words of the Lord (that the king of Babylon would come and destroy the land of Judah), the king will not have an heir to sit on the throne, and his own dead body will be tossed out into the elements. The king and his posterity, and his servants, will be punished for their iniquities. All the trouble prophesied against the kingdom will be fulfilled. So Jeremiah and Baruch do as the Lord has told them, and even more prophetic words are added by the Lord to the 2nd scroll.
Jer 27 Jeremiah tells both Jehoiakim and Zedekiah that they must accept Babylonian rule or be destroyed
“In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord . . .” Jeremiah is to put on yokes (used for carrying burdens, or for animals used in plowing) and fetters. He is to send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Tyre, Zidon, and the Ammonites via the messengers they have sent to Zedekiah in Jerusalem, along with a message from God: I am the Creator of the earth and all the people and beasts upon it, and I give control of it to whomever I want. I have given all your lands and animals to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. All nations will serve him, and his son, and his grandson. When their time is up, other nations and kings will conquer Babylon. Any nation that refuses to serve Babylon will be killed by the sword (war), famine, and pestilence/disease. So don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers who say it won’t be so. They are prophesying lies to you. But those nations willing to be tributary to Babylon will be able to remain in their own lands.
Likewise, Jeremiah tells Zedekiah the same thing when he is made king. He tells the priests and people not to listen to prophets who are pretending to be sent by the Lord, that the treasures of the Temple will shortly be brought back from Babylon (maybe they have some emissaries working toward/negotiating for that end?). If they really ae prophets of the Lord, let them intercede with the Him that whatever treasures are left in the Temple and the king’s house should not be taken as well to Babylon (as they were under Jehoiakim’s son, along with the captives). And yet, they will be carried away to Babylon, and remain there until the Lord brings them back again (when Babylon’s ascendancy it broken).
Jer 29 Jeremiah sends a letter to those carried away into Babylon under Jehoiachin
After Nebuchadnezzar carried away the “best” of the kingdom of Judah (in the reign of Jehoiachin) as captives into Babylon, Jeremiah sends a letter to their elders. He tells them to settle for the long run: build houses, plant gardens, take wives and have families (so your population can continue to grow) where you are. Seek the peace of the city where you are—in other words, don’t foment rebellion. In the peace of that city you will find peace. Don’t listen to any who pretend to be prophets that say anything different, for “I have not sent them, saith the Lord.”
10 ¶ For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
The Lord tells them not to look to the king (Zedekiah) and the remnant still in Jerusalem and the land around it, because they will yet be destroyed by sword (war), famine, and pestilence (disease). They will also be conquered and carried away captive, because they have not listened to the prophets I have sent to them. They have committed villany, adultery, lied in God’s name. Don’t listen to the false prophets who prophesy lies in the name of God. Zedekiah and the false prophet of his time, named Ahab (remember wicked king Ahab at the time of Elijah!), will be killed before your eyes, and roasted with fire.
Shemaiah sends a letter from Babylon to the people left in Jerusalem attacking Jeremiah for sending his letter to the captives in Babylon telling them to settle down for a long captivity. He says Jeremiah ought to be arrested and put in prison.
Shemaiah’s letter is read to Jeremiah. “Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie: Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord; because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord.”
Jer 20 Jeremiah is arrested by a Temple authority
Pashur, a governor of the Temple, hears of Jeremiah’s prophesies. He whacks Jeremiah and locks him up next to the Temple (in the high gate of Benjamin, Jeremiah’s tribe(. Next day he brings him out, presumably for “questioning”, and Jeremiah says his name is not Pashur, but an all-around terror, “For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it . . .”
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jeremiah/20-1.htm explanation of who Pashur was
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jeremiah/20-2.htm Pashur arrests Jeremiah, explanation
https://biblehub.com/topical/m/magor-missabib.htm Magor-missabib
“ . . . and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
Jeremiah pours out his heart to God. He feels like he’s been ill-used by the Lord, because people make fun of him constantly. He has spoken God’s word, but it’s got him nothing but trouble. So he thought he’d just quit speaking in God’s name, but His word was like a fire in him, until he couldn’t hold back from speaking. Even his old friends conspire to report on him if he says (or if they can entrap him into saying) anything they don’t want people to hear, in order to destroy him.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jeremiah/20-10.htm
But then Jeremiah takes heart, remembering that the Lord is behind him. All his persecutors will stumble into shame (or, be found out for what they are), which won’t ever be forgotten. “But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.” That is, Jeremiah has laid his case before God. He knows that the Lord tests the righteous to prove what’s in their heart and what they are made of. “Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.”
And yet Jeremiah struggles. He alternates between praising God and cursing the day he was born.
Jer 21 Zedekiah sends to Jeremiah for a message of hope, and Jeremiah prophesies destruction
King Zedekiah sends the priests Pashur (see Jer 20) and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord (or, to try to get him to intercede on behalf of the nation). Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has his armies and his allies the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem, capital of the kingdom of Judah. But Jeremiah only has bad news to send back—that the city will be taken, and that those who survive the siege, the fighting, the famine, the pestilence will be killed by the conquerors. The Lord will hand them over to their enemies, who will have no pity nor mercy on them.
Jeremiah tells them, “Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.” The way of life is to leave the city and surrender. Those that remain in the city will die. As for the king, if he doesn’t execute justice against the oppressor, he will find God’s justice executed on him for his ill deeds. This seems in reference to Jeremiah’s own case of unjust treatment by his enemies.
(Jer 22-25 to be covered in Jeremiah part 4 to come; Jer 26 & 27 above)
Jer 28 the false prophet Hananiah speaks in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah
Hananiah, son of Azur the prophet, speaks to Jeremiah in the Temple, in front of the priests and people. Hananiah says, “I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.” [Perhaps Hananiah has spies or allies in Babylon that pass on the rumors there?]
Jeremiah responds in front of everyone basically, that plenty of prophets in the past have likewise made such claims against other countries and kingdoms. Whose words come to pass, those are the ones who were in truth sent by God.
Hananiah takes the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and breaks it. (ref Jer 27) He says in such a way the Lord will break the yoke of Babylon from all the nations he’s conquered within 2 years. Jeremiah leaves.
The Lord sends Jeremiah to confront Hananiah and tell him, “Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.” Jeremiah says to Hananiah, as well, “Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord.”
Hananiah dies the same year.
Jer 37 Jeremiah imprisoned in a dungeon, then the court of prison early in Zedekiah’s reign
Following Nebuchadrezzer/Nebuchadnezzer’s carrying away Jehoiakim & all to Babylon (but the nation of Judah still wouldn’t listen to Jeremiah), Pharoah’s army from Egypt comes to help Jerusalem vs the Chaldeans (who leave). Zedekiah sends Jeremiah to pray for his people. But the Lord tells Jeremiah to tell the king that the Pharaoh’s army will leave and the Chaldeans will return, take Jerusalem, and burn it with fire. Don’t kid yourselves, thinking the Chaldean’s will leave. They won’t. And even if you could beat the Chaldeans so that only their wounded were left, they would come and burn the city.
When the Chaldeans leave the siege of Jerusalem at the coming of Pharaoh’s army, Jeremiah leaves Jerusalem to go back to his people, the tribe of Benjamin. But just as he is at the gate of his hometown, he is taken back to Jerusalem under a charge of treason, accused of being an ally of the Chaldeans, because of what he prophesied. Jeremiah denies the accusation, but he is imprisoned in a dungeon nevertheless.
After Jeremiah has been imprisoned a long time, Zedekiah brings him secretly to his own house and asks if there’s any word from the Lord. Jeremiah says, Yes, you will be delivered into the hand of Babylon’s king. Then Jeremiah asks the king, What’s my crime, for which I’ve been put in prison? Where are those “prophets” who told you the king of Babylon wouldn’t come against you? (essentially, I told you the truth, so why have you put me in prison?) Jeremiah petitions the king not to send him back to prison, lest he die there. Zedekiah makes Jeremiah’s imprisonment less harsh, has him put in less austere confinement, and orders that he be given bread from the bakers until it is all gone. And that’s where Jeremiah stays. One would think that after all these warnings that the king would follow Jeremiah's (the Lord's) counsel. But it seems evident to me that Zedekiah was weak and intimidated by the princes/elders of the people.
(Jer 29 above; 30-31 to be covered in part 4, ch 32 below; Jer 35-36 in the days of Jehoiakim above; 37 early in Zedekiah’s reign)
Jer 32 Jeremiah imprisoned in the 10th year of Zedekiah, while Jerusalem is under siege; destruction is reiterated, but then a return to the Land of Promise in the future—a beautiful chapter
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.”
Jeremiah has been prophesying impolitic predictions that Jerusalem will be conquered by Babylon and King Zedekiah will be taken to Babylon.
The Lord tells Jeremiah that his cousin will come to him in prison and offer to sell him some of his land inheritance in Anathoth (in the land of the tribe of Benjamin), as is his right by the laws of inheritance. (Remember from the Law of Moses and the Book of Ruth that the nearest of kin had first right to buy an inheritance for sale). When this happens, Jeremiah knows he wasn’t just dreaming it up himself. He has the means to buy it, and does (17 silver shekels, apparently a small sum; see commentary linked below) The transaction is lawfully witnessed by Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe/ally/friend. Jeremiah tells Baruch to put these evidences in a earthenware pot/jar and bury it for long term safe keeping, because God has promised that His people will one day return to possess the land.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jeremiah/32-9.htm
Jeremiah then prays and praises God as the powerful Creator of all, and “there is nothing too hard for thee: Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them . . . Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings . . .”
There is a seeming inconsistency in these words, that God recompenses the iniquities of the fathers on their posterity, but He gives everyone according to his own behavior. We see this in our society/culture: children and even generations suffer the consequences of their parents’ poor choices, such as alcoholism, law breaking, abuse. The opposite is true as well, children and posterity benefit from the wise choices and good lives of their parents. And yet in our court/Justice system people are tried for their own crimes, not for their parents’ or any others’. It’s a difficult reconciliation of this life. We trust, however, that all will be made right in the end—Judgment Day. Otherwise, it would be too difficult to live, it has seemed to me.
Jeremiah continues, referencing God bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt, “with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror; And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey . . .” And yet the people didn’t obey God’s voice (through the prophets), nor the Law of Moses (the Law of God). Thus, God has brought the consequences down on the people. God had promised them that if they would honor their parents (implying that they would honor their parents’ teachings: the parents were enjoined/obligated to teach the Law of Moses to their children), they would live long on the land. Such is the natural rise and fall of every nation/culture/civilization, when they live faithfully by just laws they prosper over time, and when they are corrupt they eventually weaken themselves and fall.
Jeremiah puts it to the Lord that he knows his nation is to be destroyed, how can it rise again (the buried evidence of the sale of the land contract testifies)? The Lord replies, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?”
The Lord reiterates the destructions that will come upon the city, including the burning of it by the Chaldeans in recompense for the inhabitants burning incense & making offerings to Baal on their rooftops. They have provoked Him, turned their backs on Him, despite that “I taught them [via the prophets], rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.” They have defiled the Temple with their false gods, they have sacrificed their children by fire unto Baal/Molech. The city will be given to the sword, famine, and pestilence.
And yet, He promises to gather them again from the lands they have been scattered, and brought back to live in safety in the Land of Promise. The desolate land will be inhabited, as God has promised. Lands will once again be bought and sold, and life return to normal.
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Jer 33 while Jeremiah was still in prison the Lord calls for repentance, offering forgiveness—He seems to be speaking of the future when the people return from the Babylonian captivity
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison . . .” The lord says “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not . . . Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.”
9 ¶ And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.
10 Thus saith the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,
11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord.
12 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
The Lord promises that as sure as day and night continue, so will His promises be fulfilled.
15 ¶ In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.
17 ¶ For thus saith the Lord; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
18 Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
Jer 34 Jerusalem is yet under siege by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah calls for a proclamation of liberty
The Lord sends Jeremiah with dire warnings of destruction, but holds out hope for a reprieve, if only Zedekiah will Proclaim Liberty to those in servitude. So Zedekiah, the princes, and the people make a covenant to set their Jewish servants free (proclaiming a Jubilee, as in the Law of Moses). And they do so! But then they have second thoughts, and press them back into service.
The Lord sends Jeremiah to rebuke the people, reminding them that in the Law of Moses, after 6 years of service, Hebrew servants were to be freed in the 7th year. But their ancestors failed to live the Law, and they have also broken their Temple covenant to live that law. So will the Lord return them to the sword, and famine, and pestilence, and scattering among all the kingdoms of the earth. They will be given into the hands of their enemies, and become carrion for the scavenging birds and beasts.
It appears that Nebuchadnezzar had drawn back from the siege, and perhaps that is when Zedekiah and the wealthy went back on their word and repressed their servants.
(see above for Jer 35-36 in the days of Jehoiakim; 37 early in Zedekiah’s reign)
Jer 38 Jeremiah, in the muck & mire, is rescued by an Ethiopian Eunuch; counsel to Zedekiah
A group of princes, hearing Jeremiah’s prophecies that all who remain in the city Jerusalem will die by the sword, famine, and pestilence (but those that join the Chaldeans will survive), petition the king to put Jeremiah to death, because he is weakening the will of the defenders of the city. Zedekiah gives them leave to do as they like. It is clear that Zedekiah feels intimidated by the princes of the people, who may be his seniors in age and power. So they take Jeremiah from the less austere part of the prison he has been kept in, and toss him in the dungeon: “and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.”
An Ethiopian Eunuch of the king’s household (who was not just a nobody servant) goes to the king and speaks up for Jeremiah: he will die there, as there is no bread left in the city. The king gives the man permission to take 30 soldiers and rescue Jeremiah. They take a bunch of old yucky rags and a cord to pull Jeremiah up from the pit. They lower the cord and toss in the rags, telling Jeremiah to put the rags in his armpits so the cords won’t cut into him while they pull him up. Jeremiah does so, and they pull him up. He then stays in the less austere confinement of the court of the prison.
Zedekiah, still only in his 30s or so, sends again for Jeremiah, this time to the inner chambers of the Temple. He says, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to tell me the truth, not hiding anything from me. Jeremiah says, If I tell you, you’ll surely put me to death, and you won’t follow any counsel I give anyway. The king swears (secretly) that he won’t have Jeremiah put to death, nor put into the hands of his enemies. So Jeremiah tells the king, If you put yourself in the hands of the Babylonians you will live and the city won’t be burned. But if you don’t, they will take the city and you will not escape them. Zedekiah replies, But what about the Jews that have already gone over to the Chaldeans? They will take me before the Chaldeans and ridicule me (implying that they will encourage the king’s demise). But Jeremiah promises him that if the king does what he says, he will be ok. If the king doesn’t follow his counsel, Jeremiah tells him that all the women and children left of his household, as well as himself, will be taken to Babylon and he, the king, will have caused Jerusalem to be burned.
Zedekiah says, Don’t let anyone know what you’ve told me, and you won’t die. If the princes hear about your coming and talking to me and try to get you to tell them all (promising they won’t kill you if you do), tell them you presented your petition not to be returned to prison. As the king predicted, the princes send for Jeremiah, and Jeremiah tells them what the king had advised. They don’t press him any further, and Jeremiah is left to live in the court of the prison until Jerusalem is taken.
Jer 39, 52 Jerusalem is captured, the nobles & heirs are killed, Jeremiah & the Ethiopian are spared
1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. [about a year and a half of siege; life became desperate for the besieged]
Jerusalem is captured by the Babylonian army. Zedekiah and his army flee by night, but the Chaldeans catch up with them in the plains of Jericho. They take Zedekiah and entourage to the Babylonian king who has Zedekiah’s sons/heirs and all the nobles killed right in front of him. Then he has Zedekiah’s eyes put out and takes him in chains to Babylon. The Chaldeans burn the city and break down the walls of Jerusalem. All but the poorest people of Judah are carried away captive to Babylon. Those poor are given fields and vineyard in the land.
Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian king, orders that Jeremiah be set free from his prison and taken to his home. While he was in prison, the Lord had told Jeremiah to tell his Ethiopian friend/protector that despite the destruction of Jerusalem, the Lord would deliver him from his enemies “For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.”
Jeremiah 52 just gives more details of the destruction of Jerusalem. It also mentions that Jehoiachin was taken from prison in Babylon and the Babylonian king elevated him among other captured kings there, feeding and clothing him with honor the rest of his life. This was no doubt meant to be another slap in the face for Zedekiah. It’s a clue as to the relative wealth of the rulers of these kingdoms and empires, the number of people they fed, clothed, and housed; not only their personal household (numerous wives, concubines, children) and attendants, as well as princes and bureaucracies, but the rivals and foreigners they wanted to keep tabs on.
Jer 40 Jeremiah is freed, Gedaliah made governor over remnant in Judah
“Nebuzar-adan the [Babylonian] captain of the guard [while at] Ramah, when he had taken [Jeremiah] being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon . . . took Jeremiah, and said unto him, The Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place . . . I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go . . . So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.”
Gedaliah had been made governor over those left in Judah. Jeremiah goes to live among those people. The Jews left in Judah are augmented by Jews that had been living in the countries of Moab, Edom, among the Ammonites and other countries, who came back to Judah to live under Gedaliah. They were able to gather a good harvest from the land. A plot to kill the governor is alleged, but he doesn’t put any stock in it.
Jer 41 Governor Gedaliah is assassinated, but the conspiracy is overpowered
It turns out that the conspiracy to assassinate Governor Gedaliah was real. He and his guard (both Jewish & Chaldean) are killed on the sly. When 80 men from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria come to make an offering to the Lord at Mizpah where Gedaliah’s court was, the assassins come out to meet them and bring them into the city, where they kill them also—except 10 who offer a bribe. The leader of the assassins, named Ishmael, takes the court and people of Mizpah captive and heads over to the Ammonites. A man named Johanan leads a force after them, and the captives manage to join him. Ishmael and 8 of his followers escape to the Ammonites. Johanan leads the captives he’s freed to a place near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt for fear of reprisals for Ishmael’s killing of Chaldeans.
Jer 42 The Jews that are left consult Jeremiah and ask for his blessing in fleeing to Egypt
Johanan and his followers come to Jeremiah and ask for his blessing. They promise that whatever the Lord says to do, whether to stay or to go into exile in Egypt. Jeremiah promises to tell them whatever the Lord says to do.
After 10 days Jeremiah returns to them with the Lord’s answer: they should stay in the land of Judah, and the Lord will bless them. He will deliver them from the hand of the king of Babylon, that is, cause him to have mercy on them, so they can remain in peace. But if they refuse the voice of the Lord and go to Egypt anyway (thinking they will be spared from war and hunger), they will find the war, famine, and pestilence they were trying to flee. They will die, never to see their homeland again. The Lord has seen the deception of their hearts in promising to do whatever the Lord counsels.
Jer 43 The leaders of the remnant of Judah go to Egypt, taking Jeremiah & Baruch with them
After having promised Jeremiah that they would do whatever the Lord said, whether to stay in the land of Judah or to go to Egypt, the leaders accuse Jeremiah of lying, and being influenced by the scribe Baruch (who had previously written for Jeremiah, see Jer 36) in order to turn them in to the Chaldeans. They take Jeremiah and Baruch along with all the remnant of Judah and move to Egypt.
The Lord tells Jeremiah to hide large stones in the clay of a brickkiln (or pavement) by the entry of one of) Pharoah’s houses (that in Tahpanhes), in front of the men of Judah, and to prophesy that Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, will come, conquer, and burn Egypt and her gods with fire.
https://bibleatlas.org/full/tahpanhes.htm Tahpanhes: city in the Nile delta of Egypt, on the caravan route
Jer 44 Jeremiah vs the Jews in Egypt: they worship the gods of Egypt, despite Jeremiah’s warnings
“The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying . . .” You’ve seen all that Judah & Jerusalem have suffered because of their wickedness, though I sent prophets from early in the day to plead with them not to turn to abominations, but they wouldn’t listen. So why are you committing the same evil? You burn incense to the gods of Egypt; have you forgotten the wickedness of the women/wives in Judah, and what it cost you? The destruction of your nation and land. “They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.”
12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:
14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.
But in this large gathering the men, who knew their wives had been burning incense to other gods, and the women themselves, tell Jeremiah, As for what you have to say to us in the name of the Lord, we’ll do whatever we want, “to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”
In a classic case of people seeing the same facts and coming to different (even opposite) conclusions, Jeremiah sees the worship of false gods as the cause of the destruction of Judah, while the women (with their men’s backing) see all their troubles brought on by failing to worship gods other than God. This points to the importance of educating women in the truth, and the influence women have on not only their children but their men.
Jeremiah then prophesies that because of their idolatrous worship He will see they are punished for their unfaithfulness to Him, “Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.” [Possibly Jeremiah & Baruch were among those that made it back to Judah, where Jeremiah had a pot buried with a land deed in it? Jeremiah was known by the Babylonians as counselling Judah and the other nations to submit to Babylonian rule. He had been saved from captivity in Babylon before, so it would be consistent for him to be saved again.]
29 ¶ And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:
30 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
(see above for Jeremiah 45 & 46, under the reign of Jehoiakim)
Jeremiah–part 2, Jer 11-19
Jer 11—God offers a renewal of His covenant under the Law of Moses
The Lord tells Jeremiah to go to the men (people) of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and offer/proclaim/remind them of His covenant to obey Him/His commandments—which if they did, they would be His people, He would be their God, and they would be given a land flowing with milk and honey: symbolizing a prosperous land, producing abundant agriculture (animals & crops, the basis of any nation’s prosperity). Otherwise, they will be cursed. It is a reiteration of the Exodus covenant, which included a blessing and a cursing—the natural consequences of obeying the Law of God given through Moses, or the disobedience/rejection of God’s laws. For what reason does God give commandments? Because in His wisdom/intelligence and compassion, He knows and tells us what will bring us happiness, peace, and prosperity, and what will bring our downfall/destruction/misery.
A couple notes: Jeremiah is to speak to the men, because they had charge/responsibility of/for the nation and its people (including their families, wives and children). In our culture we are more likely to speak of consequences rather than of curses, it’s a difference in our way of understanding life, the world, and even of God.
The people not only didn’t obey, didn’t listen, went after their own disparate goals, they conspired/agreed to do so. They were the ones who broke the covenant/sacred contract, so God is not obligated to fulfill His promises to them. He will allow bad/”evil” things to come, which they will not be able to escape (in olden times people considered anything bad as “evil”). Where is God’s mercy? God has worked with His people, been merciful to them, for hundreds of years—enough is enough. It is not Merciful not to be Just. A parent who is endlessly giving “2nd chances” (and 3rd, 4th, etc) is essentially an enabler, and isn’t doing his/her child any favors. A good parent must set boundaries and stick by them. Of course, mistakes can be made and repented of, if it is true repentance. But to pretend to repent merely to get a reprieve isn’t really repentance. Repentance means a change of heart, a change of behavior. Of course, we are imperfect beings, and God has offered means to make atonement for those imperfections, as much then as now.
When God doesn’t help the people of Judah they will go to their false gods, who can’t help them. Every city has had its favorite god, and Jerusalem has had altars to different gods in every street, and worse yet, to the particularly evil Baal (Jezebel’s god).
Again, God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people. He’s not going to listen to their false pleas. He likens them to an adulterous wife with many lovers, who rejoices in them. He likens the nation to an olive tree that will be broken down and burned. He was the one that planted the tree, and He will be the one who will take it out, because of their worship of Baal.
Jeremiah speaks of his personal experience, in that God showed Him all this, and because he has spoken God’s word, they conspire to “sacrifice” him to their own devices (leading him like a lamb or bull to the slaughter). They intend to cut him down like a tree, so that he will not be remembered (perhaps that he will have no descendants). Jeremiah prays that God, who judges righteously, and tests every person’s heart (intentions, character, what one values and desires, as well as faithfulness to Him), will hear his cause, which he has laid out, and punish his adversaries for their wickedness—who tell him not to prophesy in the name of the Lord, or they will kill him. God answers Jeremiah that He will indeed punish them, in particular the men of Anathoth. Their young men will be killed in war, and their children will die from famine. The men of Anathoth (Jeremiah’s hometown) will have no descendants.
https://bibleatlas.org/anathoth.htm about Anathoth
Jer 12—God will punish Jeremiah’s kin for betraying him
Jeremiah acknowledges God’s righteousness, and yet, he wonders why wicked people prosper, and treacherous ones are happy. Perhaps we have all wondered, or felt that frustration. Jeremiah says, You know me, you know my heart . . . “How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, [God isn’t going to punish us, in the end].” It sounds like they were suffering a dearth/drought, and God was not revoking it.
Jeremiah uses figurative words that perhaps would have been proverbial in his time, that if someone is weary from running along with footmen carrying a VIP’s litter how can they keep up with a horse-drawn carriage? Likewise, if one trusts in the peace of the river (Jordan), what will one do during the season of flooding? This seems to have some reference to the betrayal of Jeremiah by his kin, “though they speak fair words” they harbor ill for him.
Jeremiah, and/or God, has turned his back on his people/kin. They are like a lion roaring after him with threats of devouring him, so he renounces his inheritance (see the end of the previous chapter). He likens his inheritance to a speckled bird, referring either to a small songbird (or possibly an imperfect specimen not suitable for a sacrifice unto the Lord, but the next sentence seems to make it about the former). Other, presumably larger, birds fly about her menacingly. Wild beasts come to devour her.
Many pastors (who should be tending the flock or fields) have destroyed them, or have oppressed the people (pastors and flocks used as a metaphor, like today, for the religious leaders and their congregations). These leaders don’t take it to heart when they despoil the people. In consequence, the whole land from one end to the other will be spoiled/destroyed by conquest. In another figure the Lord speaks of the leaders of the people sowing wheat (as they suppose to get rich thereby), but will reap thorns. All their efforts will go for nought (nothing), and their revenues will be embarrassing. This because the Lord is angry at them. God will pluck His people out of their land, but He will again have compassion on them, and return them to their heritage/inheritance. He is speaking, in particular, of the leaders/pastors of the people, who instead of teaching the people of God, have taught them of Baal. If those leaders would turn to God, and turn the people to God, they will be prospered among the people. If not, God will destroy the entire nation (God will allow the conquest of the nation, but it’s actually the people and their leaders who have destroyed the nation morally, which causes the material destruction of the nation.)
Jer 13—Can a leopard change its spots?
Prophets anciently often used theatrics to make their message powerful in the minds of the people. The Lord instructs Jeremiah to dramatize the relationship between Himself and Israel by taking a piece of intimate clothing and burying it in the bank of the Euphrates River, later digging it up again, and showing how it has become worthless. Likewise, Israel was close to the Lord: “This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.” 'Girdle' is a term that could mean something like a loincloth.
Using wine as a metaphor, Jeremiah speaks of Jerusalem as being so drunken that even fathers & sons will be slammed together in destruction. Next is the warning that Israel should turn to God, rather than stumble around in the darkness looking for light, but finding the shadow of death. “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.” [God weeps for our suffering, even (or moreso) when it is the consequence of our own bad behavior/choices. He pleads with the king & queen to humble themselves before they are forcefully humbled, when armies from the north come and carry away their people captive like stolen flocks. They’ll be hurting like a woman giving birth. When you ask, Why? You can know that the greatness of your iniquities has uncovered you to shame.
Famous saying: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? If so, then even you that are accustomed to behaving badly can become good. Jeremiah uses the metaphor of the stubble of a harvested field blown away in the wind to the wilderness, and the visualization of a person caught with their skirts up in an adulterous act. Remember that in those days even men wore robes/skirts.
Jer 14—Jeremiah pleads to God vs a serious drought
A description of famine due to drought:
--the people mourn
--the wealthy send their young ones out of town into the countryside for water, but they find none
--the ground is parched for lack of rain
--farmers are embarrassed/ashamed by the failure of their crops
--domesticated animals leave their newborns to die in the field because there is no grass/feed for the females to produce milk to nourish their young
--donkeys sniff for water/grass from upon the hills, but there is none
Jeremiah prays/pleads for mercy, though Israel has sinned. “O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble . . .”, don’t just be a visitor or a sojourner that only stays for a night! We are called by Your name, don’t leave us! The Lord answers that the people have loved to stray from Him, and He will recompense them for their sins. He tells Jeremiah once again not to pray for them. He will not listen to their cries, nor take notice of their fasts and offerings. They’ll be devastated by war, famine, and disease.
Jeremiah replies that the prophets are promising the people peace and no famine. The Lord disavows those prophets who speak lies in His name. He denies that He has sent them; they are deceivers. The Lord says that those who say there will be no war and famine will be consumed by war and famine. Those that listen to them (eg rulers/leaders) will be tossed (dead) into the streets, and no one will bury them, not even their families. The Lord enjoins Jeremiah to tell them, “Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach [as in the wall of a city breached/broken through in a siege], with a very grievous blow.” If he goes into the country, he sees those killed in fighting, if he comes back into the city he sees people dying of famine. The prophets and priests are to be carried away to a foreign land. [A nation weakened by drought/famine would be easy prey for a marauding army, if they have their own supply line secure.]
Jeremiah again pleads with the Lord: Have You utterly rejected Judah? Do you loathe Zion/Jerusalem? Why have You hit us so hard that we can’t be healed? We looked/hoped for peace, and there’s nothing good in sight. We looked for healing and see only trouble. “We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor [hate] us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.” Jeremiah is pleading with the Lord that for His own reputation He shouldn’t abandon His people. Jeremiah continues, None of the foolish/false gods of the Gentiles can cause rain [remember the showdown between Elijah and wicked queen Jezebel’s priests]. Even nature is subject to the will of God in giving rain. Jeremiah affirms “therefore we will wait upon thee . . .” for God is the Creator of all. Jeremiah's we doesn't mean everyone.
Jer 15—the Lord to Jeremiah respecting the evils of King Manasseh and Jeremiah’s own cause
The Lord says, Even if Moses or Samuel (the epitome of righteous leaders who had pull with God) pled for the nation, His mind wouldn’t change for the sake of the people. If the people ask, Where shall we go? Tell them those slated for death to death; those for the sword (death in battle) to the sword, those for famine to famine, those for captivity to captivity. People will come to 4 ends: death in battle (by the sword), or predators/scavengers—dogs, birds, or beasts (either from war or famine). And they will be scattered to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of what king Manasseh did. Jeremiah’s calling came during the reign of good King Josiah, who was after wicked King Manasseh. But after Josiah the people returned to the wickedness of King Manasseh, led by their pastors/rulers.
Who will have pity on Jerusalem, or bemoan her, or ask after her welfare? The nation has forsaken the Lord, and He is weary of their pretenses to repentance. God will destroy them and take away their posterity because they haven’t really changed their ways. He will fan them in the gates of the land, perhaps a reference to the fan of a metallurgist getting the fire superheated to melting temperatures. There will be more widows than the sand of the sea, and even women with as many as 7 sons will lose them all to the sword (warfare).
Jeremiah speaks of his anguish in being born as a controversial person. Though he has neither lent nor borrowed, it seems like everyone curses him. (Perhaps one reason God forbad Israelites to lend with interest to their fellow Israelites was because of the bad feelings that tend to ensue between borrowers and lenders—each cursing the other as being dishonest/robbers). But the Lord promises good things for Jeremiah’s posterity, and that even his enemies will come to him in time of affliction.
Then the Lord returns to bad news for the nation of Judah, that it will be conquered, and its riches be despoiled, because of sin. The people will be taken captive to a land they haven’t heard of. He returns to the analogy of fire, as a symbol of His anger.
Jeremiah pleads again for himself. In that the Lord knows him, would He remember him, avenge him of his persecutors? He pleads for the Lord’s longsuffering/mercy, that he be not carried away captive, because he has suffered reproaches for God’s sake. Jeremiah internalized God’s word, “and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” Jeremiah reminds the Lord that he did not join those who mocked Him or His ways/commandments, and was alone because of it. He was indignant with those mockers. He cries out, Why must I be wounded and in perpetual pain, without healing? God, wilt Thou be a liar and like a dried up spring?
The Lord responds, If you’ll come back to me, I will bring you back again [perhaps out of their clutches] to stand before me. If you separate the good from the bad, you will be able to speak for me. They can come to you, but don’t you go to them [perhaps God is speaking of the king’s court]. I will make you like a brass fence/wall, and though they fight against you, they will not prevail, “for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord…I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.”
Possibly Jeremiah, in his efforts to persuade the powerful of his day, got caught up in their life. Perhaps God was telling him to bring those who would listen into his circle, and not to return to those who would not listen. They might come to him, but he was not to return to their company. Eventually, when the end did come, Jeremiah was indeed saved from captivity, because he was known for his opposition to those in positions of power in the nation of Judah (Jer 39:11-18).
Jer 16—the Lord tells Jeremiah not to have a family in the wicked land, that is to be destroyed
The Lord tells Jeremiah not to marry and have a family where he was, for they would die terrible deaths, unlamented and unburied. They would be like excrement, killed by sword and famine, their bodies food for birds and beasts (scavengers). The Lord tells Jeremiah not to mourn for the dead: “for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even lovingkindness and mercies.” The Lord lists the cultural ways of mourning at the time, indicating there would be none left to do so. The Lord tells Jeremiah not to go to feasts, including weddings, “For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth [merriment], and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.”
The Lord lets Jeremiah know ahead of time what people will say when he passes on what He tells him: Why is the Lord pronouncing all this terrible stuff on us? What have we done that’s so bad? Jeremiah is to say, Because your forebearers have forsaken me for other gods, and not kept my law, and you have done worse than them. Therefore, I [God] will throw you out of this land [the Land of Promise], to a land neither you nor your ancestors knew, and there you will have to serve their gods, and I won’t do you any favors.
One day, instead of saying, The God who brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt still lives, they’ll say “The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”
The Lord sees all the people’s wicked ways, and He promises to requite them double for their sins, because they have defiled the Promised Land, and filled it with “the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.” No doubt the evidence of idol worship, including child sacrifice.
Jeremiah replies, “O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction,” the Gentiles from the ends of the earth will say it’s because they inherited lies and foolishness [a false faith/religion]. But God counters rhetorically, Should a person make his own false gods? They will know my power and what I do, and that I am [the True God].
Jer 17—Jeremiah’s teaching and prayer, particularly a re-emphasis on the Sabbath
This chapter continues regarding the sins of the kingdom of Judah, and its consequences, as well as Jeremiah’s prayer for God’s help and grace, and God’s call for Jeremiah to stand at the gates of the city and reteach them about keeping the Sabbath holy. But here are some other gems/highlights:
5 ¶ Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. [deep roots provide water to the tree even through drought]
10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. [The Lord tests our mettle, not that He needs to know what we are made of, but that we need to know.]
11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. [presumably a partridge caught for food]
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jer 18—God is like a potter, totally in charge, but He will change His intentions according to behavior
The Lord sends Jeremiah to a potter’s shop, and likens Himself to the potter, in that He has total power over the pot. And yet, even after He has pronounced bad things for a wicked nation, if they repent, He will change how He treats them. Likewise, if He has promised good things to a nation, but that nation go bad, He will refuse to bless them.
The Lord appeals to Judah & Jerusalem (and to every person) to return from their wicked ways. They say, Our lot is hopeless, so we’re going to rely on our own devices. Rhetorically the Lord asks whether it would make sense for a person to forsake a fresh spring in the mountain, implying that God’s people have forsaken the living waters that spring from Him. Because they have turned from Him, causing people to whistle and shake their heads at His inheritance, the Lord will blow them away. [As in previous instances, the Lord intends to wipe out the old inhabitants and start rebuilding afresh. Examples: the Flood, Abraham, Sodom & Gomorrah, the Canaanites, the Children of Israel wandering for 40 years in the desert until all the older generation had passed away . . . ]
Jeremiah recounts the opposition he has been facing, then prays to the Lord to witness what his enemies say and to remember that he prayed for them, that the Lord would turn away His anger from them [compare Matt 5:11 & 44]. Now he prays that as God has foretold, His will be done, in recompense for the way they have treated His prophet [not merely as a man, but as the mouthpiece of God].
Jer 19—with a pot as a teaching device/visual aid, Jeremiah is sent to prophesy destruction
Jeremiah is to get a pot from the potter, take it and the elders of the people and priests, and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. There he is to prophesy desolation because of “the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal … Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.” The famine in the siege to come will be so bad that people will eat their own children and friends. Then to punctuate the point, Jeremiah is to break the earthenware bottle in front of his audience. Refer back to Jeremiah 7.
Jeremiah–part 1, chapters 1-10
The book of Jeremiah has 52 chapters, and his book of Lamentations has 5–thus, it will take me a few posts to cover his writings. Part 1 covers Jeremiah 1-10. For background on Jeremiah, see
https://www.biblestudytools.com/jeremiah/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeremiah-Hebrew-prophet https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-major-prophets/jeremiah https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/prophets/prophets-of-the-bible/jeremiah-the-prophet/
Jer 1 Jeremiah called in the 13th year of Josiah, serves through Zedekiah & the Babylonian captivity
1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
2 To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
I think there’s a strong indication that Jeremiah’s father was a counselor to young King Josiah, the priest spoken of in 2 Kings 22, and a part of the reformation of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah seems to have had a position/access to the king’s court. It’s possible that the priest Hilkiah “who was over the household” and “the chief priest” was the (or one of the) influence(s) that made an impact on young Josiah to turn him to God. Remember that the priests/Levites were sent to live among each of the tribes in order to be teachers and civil leaders among them long ago under Moses. King Josiah may have sent his right hand man, the priest Hilkiah, as an overseer in the land of Benjamin. Or, Hilkiah’s ancestors may have been assigned to the land of Benjamin, and his talents may have brought him to the notice of the court so that he might have been called into service there. See various references at
https://biblehub.com/topical/h/hilkiah.htm
Jeremiah served as prophet to the Kingdom of Judah for about 40 years, from the good years of King Josiah, through the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. He lived beyond that, and continued to counsel those that were left, but they didn’t listen to him either—though he did have some good and loyal friends. It’s no wonder that he wrote Lamentations, after having seen the great reforms of King Josiah, and then the utter wickedness and destruction that followed.
4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
6 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
7 ¶ But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
9 Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
The verses above make clear that God had a plan for Jeremiah even before he was born. Jeremiah, as Moses and others before, was overwhelmed with the role God was calling him to play. When he says he is but a child, I don’t think that meant that he was literally a boy like Samuel, though he might have been in his late teens or early 20s (considering he was prophet to the nation/kings for 40 years). What he is expressing is that he doesn’t feel adequate (like Moses at his call) in his speaking abilities. But God reassures him, as He did Moses and Joshua, that He would give him the words to say, and back him up in his assignment. As we will see, that doesn’t mean Jeremiah didn’t have hard things to go through and to suffer, but God would deliver him in the end. Jeremiah would not only pull down the corrupt, he would also build or plant the basis of a better kingdom or kingdoms (consider what his words have meant for God’s true followers since his time, and even now).
In vision God shows Jeremiah an almond branch, probably opening its blossoms, as God says that it represents the quickening of His work. Then God shows him a boiling pot facing the north. God says that it represents bad things to come from the north (probably the pot was boiling over, representing the spread of the ills of conquest over all the Middle Eastern lands). The ruling/military families will come against Jerusalem and all the cities of the kingdom of Judah—and this because of their wickedness and idolatry. God sends Jeremiah out with the warning that if he shows fear, he’ll lose his gift of speaking effectively. God reaffirms His backing with the word picture of protecting Jeremiah like an impenetrable city of defense. He forewarns Jeremiah that he’ll face opposition, but reiterates that He will be with him and deliver him.
Jer 2—Israel has turned from the all powerful God to sticks and stones
God sends Jeremiah out with a message to Jerusalem. He reminds them of their sojourn in the wilderness during the Exodus. It’s a little different picture of Israel than the Torah (5 books of Moses) paints, but I suppose God is referring to the 2nd generation, who had learned to live the Law of Moses (the Law of God). But then God accuses the ancestors of Jeremiah’s contemporaries of turning their backs on Him (as if they had found some fault in Him). God pleads with them, and their descendants. He says that no other nation has switched gods (who aren’t true gods), and yet the Israelites have. It’s astonishing! Poetically, verbally visually, He says, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (note Jesus’ declaration about Living Waters: John 4:4-26, John 7:37-39)
Rhetorically God asks if Israel is a servant (instead of a son). That is, why should he be mistreated? (speaking of the difference between the way servants were treated, vs sons) But the nation of Israel has brought this on themselves. “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.”
God reminds them that He has saved them before, and they have promised not to misbehave (for example the covenants under Hezekiah and Josiah). But here they are again dirtying themselves, and the strongest cleaners can’t wash them clean. Like camels or donkeys they take off to do as they like. Only when they are experiencing their cycle can they be found. They’ve had a taste of infidelity, and they choose their lovers instead of God.
You call rocks and sticks your gods, every city has their own, yet they can’t save you in time of trouble. Why do you come to Me, when you have sinned against Me? You won’t learn from my corrections. You kill the prophets like lions kill those in their paths. You proudly claim to be powerful in and of yourselves, and see no reason to come unto Me. Rhetorically God asks, does a young girl or a bride forget her jewelry or pretty clothes? Yet you have forgotten Me for “days without number.” Your sins are obvious as the blood of the innocent on your clothes. You claim to be innocent, (but I know better). You’ll be ashamed of trying to make Egypt an ally, just as you were shamed in making Assyria an ally (remember when the Israelites invited Assyria into partisanship when Israel & Judah were adversaries, and a few year later when Assyria became a super power they came to rue the day). Your confidence in your policies will not turn out well . . . you’ll be arrested (that is, stopped) and walk forth with your hands on your head.
Jer 3—Israel has played the harlot
In the days of Josiah the king was this condemnation made by God through Jeremiah, early in his calling. Perhaps Jeremiah was an influence for good in the life of Josiah. Jeremiah began to prophesy in the 13th year of Josiah. 2 Chron 34:3 says in the 12th year of his reign he began to purge the land of idolatry. If Jeremiah was not the impetus of the purging, he was surely a supporter of it.
Jeremiah paints a clear picture of the adulterous idolatry of Israel in the form of a parable that they would understand. A divorced wife who had remarried (or, worse yet, not remarried, but involved herself with other man/men) would not be taken back by her 1st husband. That would pollute the man’s inheritance (or the nation’s lands). And yet, though Israel had played the harlot with many false gods, God invites, even pleads, that Israel return to Him and He will welcome the one who had strayed. Look at all the high places (places of idolatrous worship) and consider what false gods with whom Israel hasn’t been untrue! Like a harlot sitting by the road in the Arabian wilderness (where travelers far from home would be tempted), Israel has polluted the land (earned the land a bad rep, for instance). For this reason the rains have been kept back. And yet, Israel has refused to be ashamed of infidelity. (Remember the story of Elijah, for example, how even after his powerful demonstration of the true God over the false—the miraculous lighting of the altar and the bringing of rain after a 3 year drought—yet Elijah mourned in a cave that there was no one that was true to God).
Next the Lord refers to the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah as sisters. For all Israel’s adulteries God divorced Himself from her (“put her away”: the Assyrian captivity). And yet, her sister kingdom, Judah followed her example. “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly [pretending], saith the Lord.” King Hezekiah, at the time of the Assyrian captivity, brought those that were left of Israel as well as his kingdom of Judah, to covenant with God, recommit themselves to Him. But Hezekiah’s son & heir Manasseh led the people into worse idolatry than ever.
Jeremiah is sent north to plead with the remnants of Israel to return to God and find His promise of mercy. “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” God promises to bless and prosper Israel. They will no longer look back to their history (being led by the ark of the covenant, as in the Exodus), but to Jerusalem for their leadership. The kingdoms of Israel and of Judah will be reunited, and the captives of Assyria will return to join them. Even Jeremiah is led to ask how this could all happen, but is answered that they will call God their father and not turn away from Him (with God all things are possible).
Jer 4—if the Jews would just turn to God, He would save them from the coming conquest from the North; a hint that God is preparing to create something out of the dust
God promises that if His people will just return to Him, destroy all the idolatrous worship, and swear their allegiance to Him, He will protect them from conquest & captivity. He uses the metaphor of farming: prepare the ground that has been left fallow, rather than plant amongst the weedy brambles. He uses the metaphor of circumcision to represent making their hearts tender/feeling toward God, lest they suffer God’s fury like a fire that can’t be quenched (because of their wicked behavior). God instructs His people to blow a trumpet in the land to gather the people into defensed cities, under the banner of Zion/Jerusalem/the kingdom of Judah. Like a lion, conquest is coming from the north, who will lay waste everything. God will allow such predations because He is angry with the wickedness of His people.
Jeremiah complains to God that surely He has deceived His people, promising peace, when like a powerful whirlwind destruction is coming. God pleads that Jerusalem wash herself from wickedness and rebellions against Him. It is her own doings that have brought all this on. Jeremiah voices his deep distress at the destruction and warfare to come. “For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish [foolish] children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
Interestingly, Jeremiah refers back to the state of the earth before Creation, “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.” (a premonition of the creation of a new state of Israel/Judah). God details the utter destruction of the land through warfare. He says, No matter what you do to make yourself look attractive to potential “lovers” (allies), they will all despise you. Then Jeremiah uses the metaphor of the pains of a woman giving birth. Such causes one to ponder what is to be created, born, of this clearing away of the debris & deadness of the land—witness the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity and the development of the Jewish state from there.
Jer 5—Israel’s pretensions: they have eyes & ears but don’t see or hear who God really is
A challenge: search high and low for someone that looks for the Truth and brings Justice. If any can be found, God will pardon the people. Their words say they believe, but their behavior belies their words. While God has offered correction, they have been incorrigible. Jeremiah believes that the people have been foolish because they have not been taught. He determines to go to the great men (rulers or elites) of the day, because they are educated. But he finds that they have broken away from the restrictions of the Law. Because of this, like a zoo of predators will destruction come upon the land.
How can they be pardoned? Their children swear by false gods. When God had prospered them, they were faithless to Him and assembled in crowds at the licentious places of idol worship. Like well-fed horses they have “neighed” after their neighbor’s wives.
Destruction is coming (yet not in total) for Israel’s treachery with God. They assure themselves that nothing bad will happen, so their prophets are just windbags. Jeremiah’s words, on the contrary, will be like fire devouring wood. An ancient nation speaking an unknown language will come, and like an open grave their arrows will devour the lives of Israelites. They will eat up the food of the land, and leave the cities impoverished.
When people ask, Why is God doing this to us? Jeremiah is to answer, “Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.” They have eyes to see, ears to hear, but neither see nor hear. “Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter [2 rainy seasons, that water the crops], in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest . . . your sins have withholden good things from you.”
Wicked men lay in wait, setting traps and snares to enrich themselves at the expense of others. Like a cageful of birds, their holdings (business dealings) are full of deceit. In their own prosperity they don’t bring justice to the needy poor and the fatherless. The prophets lie, the priests rule through their riches. And the people like things the way they are. What will you do when the consequences follow? What a message for today!
Jer 6—the people will suffer the consequences of their hypocrisy & wickedness
“O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.” See Jeremiah 1:1, and the following explanations of the place mentioned here:
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jeremiah/6-1.htm
https://www.bibleplaces.com/tekoa/
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/nehemiah/3-5.htm men of Tekoah
https://bibleatlas.org/beth-haccherem.htm map; Beth-hakkerem south of Jerusalem, Tekoa further south
Commentaries offer a better understanding of verses 2-3: “woman” is an insertion not in the Hebrew, and “comely” is often a reference to a pleasant pasture. That lovely pasture is going to be devoured by armies from the north. In verse 6 trees are hewn down, probably for siege engines. It’s a warning (v. 8), because Jerusalem has spouted/gushed wickedness (violence and plundering, no doubt to get gain, like gangster families) like a fountain or a geyser. As in a grape harvest, where the vines are gleaned clean, and the grapes gathered into baskets, Zion will be left fruitless.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jeremiah/6-2.htm
Jeremiah asks, Who can I speak to and warn? Their ears are insensitive and they don’t listen. They don’t want to hear the Lord’s reproaches. Jeremiah feels angry at them. He’s tired of trying to be tactful & politically correct. He’s going to just lay it all out: not just soldiers, but husbands and wives, old people, everyone will be pillaged. Because everyone, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, is greedy of others’ goods, and even prophets and priests are dishonest/liars. They try to soothe people’s fears by saying there will be peace, but there will be no peace. They are shameless.
The Lord tells Jeremiah to remind the people of the old paths, the good way (the Law of Moses) in which they would find peace (compare Matt 11:28-30), but people are not interested in walking in those ways. The Lord set watchmen over the people to warn them of trouble, but they refused to listen.
References to watchmen: Isa 52, 56, 62; Ezek 33; Jer 31 & 51; 2 Kings 18:8 the watchmen on the tower were to warn their citizens of danger approaching; 1 Sam 16 Saul’s scouts(?) see the bold success of his son Jonathan & armor bearer, and the Israelite army is emboldened to fight for their nation & win).
So the Lord says He will bring the fruit (consequences) of their own thoughts upon them. He says, What’s the point of your fancy, expensive incense from Sheba (used in worship of those days)? All your offerings are worthless to Me [because of their hypocrisy]. Fathers, sons, neighbors, friends will all perish by the hands of conquerors from the north [Mesopotamia]. “They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea [because there are so many of them come shouting in battle]; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.” We’ve heard of their reputation, which strikes trembling fear, anguish, pains like a woman giving birth. Nobody dares go out to the fields or the roads. “O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.”
The Lord tells Jeremiah that he is set as a tower (like a watchtower, to give warning), and a fortress (a defense against destruction). Jeremiah is to know what they are like, and test them to see what they are truly made of. But God knows they are grievous rebels, companions of slanderers, hard as brass/iron, corrupters. Jeremiah, like a foundry worker tries to purify metal, yet the impurities/the wicked continue. The Lord will toss them out as silver that can’t be purified.
Jer 7—what God told Jeremiah to tell the people as they entered the Temple gate
The Lord tells Jeremiah to stand at the gate of the Temple and proclaim His word: Amend your ways and [God] will cause you to be able to continue living here. Don’t trust in lying promises that the Lord will not destroy this place because of His temple. Execute Justice in the court system. Don’t oppress foreigners, the fatherless, and the widow [those without protectors or recourse]. Don’t shed innocent blood. Don’t follow/worship other gods. Then [God] promises this land to you forever, as He did your ancestors.
But you trust in lies that can’t profit you. Do you think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, commit perjury and the like, burn incense to Baal and other gods you don’t know, and then come and stand here in the Temple thinking you can get away with all that? “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (No doubt Jesus was referencing this when He said, “ye have made it a den of thieves.” Matt 21:13) Just go check on Shiloh, where God’s tabernacle was at first, and see what He did to it because of the wickedness of the northern kingdom of Israel. Because you have likewise polluted this Temple, while “I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not . . . ,” God will do the same here, where you trust you are safe because of the promises He made to your forebearers.
The Lord tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people, nor try to intercede for them. He refuses to hear. He asks Jeremiah, Do you see what they do in Jerusalem and the cities of Judah? The kids gather wood, the fathers build a fire, and the women make bread/cakes for the “queen of heaven” (a false god), and they pour out drink offerings to other gods. Are they provoking Me, or causing confusion to their own faces?
The Lord says that when He brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt He didn’t ask for burnt offerings [at first], “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.” (Remember what Samuel said to Saul, “Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam 15:22. The burnt offerings were to keep reminding the people of God and their covenant with Him, they were not the ends, but the means. They didn’t listen, but walked in their own imaginations and ideas. They went backward instead of forward (instead of progressing to a higher law, they were given the Law of Moses, a schoolmaster, to bring them to God. See Gal 3:24 etc). “Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.”
The Lord tells Jeremiah to tell the people all these things (at the Temple gate, as they enter to “worship”), but He says they will not listen. Jeremiah can call to them, but they won’t answer him. The Lord says, “But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.” Jeremiah writes of mourning and lamenting ritual of cutting off one’s hair, because the people of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah have done such evil, even polluting the Temple, and sacrificing their children in Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom. One day that place will be called the valley of slaughter. They will run out of place to bury people, and the corpses will be eaten by beasts and birds. There will no longer be happy songs and glad voices of brides and grooms in Jerusalem and the cities of Judah: the land will be desolate.
Jer 8—things will get so bad that people would rather die than live
Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, predicts that the bones of the kings, princes, priests, prophets (all of Judah), and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves and spread before the altars of the sun, moon, and other gods the people have served/worshipped to show the bones disrespect. “And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.” Presumably the conquerors are the “they” that would do the disrespecting, and the inhabitants of Judah & Jerusalem are ”they” that will wish they were dead.
And will the people then return to God and acknowledge their wrongs, asking/exclaiming to themselves, “What have I done?” No, they continue in their deceipt and refuse to come back to God. Though the creatures of the earth instinctively know their seasons, God’s people don’t recognize His judgments. How can they say they are wise and keep the Law of the Lord, and yet they are ashamed of Him, His words, and His ways.
Therefore, their wives and lands will be given to others (conquerors). Everyone from the least to the most powerful is covetous, the prophets and priests are dishonest. They try to soothe people by claiming “Peace…when there is no peace.” Are they ashamed of their abominations [such as sacrificing their children to false gods]? No. For that, their grape & fig harvests will be consumed [by the conquerors, or by Nature]. Why do we just sit here? We ought to get into (hide in) the walled cities and sit in silence for God has given us over to the consequences of our sins. We hoped for peace, and for health, but nothing came but troubles. We heard only the sounds of war horses as they advanced from the north, and the land is devoured by the conquerors. Like snakes and cockatrices [mythical or uncertain creatures], they won’t be charmed, but bite you. (“charmed, or charming” now has such a mild meaning, like a charming personality. But think in terms of snake charmers who don’t succeed, and get bit by a poisonous snake!)
Verses 18 to the end seem to be the lament of Jeremiah for his people, and their conquest by armies from a far away land. Where is God? They have provoked Him to anger with their idolatry (so He wants nothing to do with them). “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved . . . Is there no balm [medicine] in Gilead [a proverbial place of healing]; is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?”
Jer 9—Jeremiah, and the Lord, lament for the wickedness of the people
“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” Jeremiah wishes he had a lodge to stay, away from his iniquitous people, whose lying tongues are like bows (shooting deadly arrows), and they go from one evil to the next. Even brothers and neighbors can’t be trusted. They are all deceptive, speaking peacefully with their tongues, but in their hearts are setting traps for their neighbors.
God claims vengeance on the people for their iniquities. But God’s vengeance is not the same as human vengeance. God requires Justice (even while He sorrows for the people), while humans just want to delight in making people suffer. God weeps for the destruction of the land. “Who is the wise man, that may understand this?” The destruction of the land is a consequence of the people forsaking God’s laws. Not only the land will be destroyed, the people will be scattered among unbelieving nations. The women are invited to mourn for the land and the people. Not only Judah, but Egypt, Edom, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all that dwell in the region will be conquered for their iniquities.
23 ¶ Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
Jer 10—worshipping idols made by men is ludicrous; God is the true & living God, all powerful, Creator
“Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel . . .” Don’t fall for horoscopes, nor images made of wood & covered with silver or gold. They can’t speak or move on their own, nor can they do either good or evil. They are just foolish and vain. Compare contemporary veneration of crystals and the like.
In contrast, the Lord has true power. He is the true God, everlasting and living. He created the heavens and earth, and He can destroy all. He has not only the power, but the intelligence/wisdom as the Creator, who formed all.
Yet the Lord laments, and is grieved for the destruction of His people. Reference is made to the tabernacle of Exodus. Jeremiah humbly pleads for God’s correction for himself, but not to be destroyed. He pleads that those who have destroyed God’s people, and who have not believed in Him, be the objects of His anger.
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