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Jeremiah 15

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God Rejects Intercession for Judah 1–9

1
Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. ​
2
And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. ​
3
And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. ​
4
And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. ​
5
For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?
6
Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. ​
7
And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
8
Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
9
She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.

Jeremiah Laments His Calling 10–14

10
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me. ​
11
The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. ​
12
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? ​
13
Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
14
And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

Jeremiah Prays and Questions God 15–18

15
O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. ​
16
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; 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. ​
17
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. ​
18
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? ​

The Lord Reaffirms Jeremiah’s Mission 19–21

19
Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. ​
20
And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD. ​
21
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Jeremiah 15

Verse 1

Though Moses and Samuel stood before me — The two are named together as intercessors: Moses at Sinai and in the wilderness, Samuel who said ‘God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you’ (1 Sam 12:23; Ps 99:6). Jeremiah had himself ‘stood before’ the LORD ‘to speak good for them’ (Jer 18:20).

Verse 2

Such as are for death, to death — Four fates are named, each repeated: death, sword, famine, captivity (shebi), and each person goes to the one appointed. The same formula, with the sword, is spoken over Egypt in Jer 43:11. The answer to ‘Whither shall we go forth?’ is that there is no other place to go.

Verse 3

four kinds — Mishpachah is usually ‘family’; here it means four kinds of destroyer: the sword to slay, dogs to tear, and the birds and beasts to devour. The last two are the curse of Deut 28:26, ‘thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth’. Lev 26:22 names the beasts as a judgment.

Verse 4

because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah — The sins of his reign are recorded in 2 Kgs 21:11, where he ‘hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did’. The LORD later says that Judah’s removal came ‘for the sins of Manasseh… and also for the innocent blood that he shed’ (2 Kgs 24:3–4). ‘All kingdoms of the earth’ is the phrase of Jer 24:9; 29:18.

Verse 6

I am weary with repenting — ‘Weary’ (la’ah) is the verb of 12:5, where Jeremiah is wearied by footmen; ‘repenting’ is nacham, the verb of Jer 18:8, ‘I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them’. ‘Gone backward’ (achor) is the word of Jer 7:24, ‘went backward, and not forward’. The same stretched-out hand falls on Judah in Zeph 1:4.

Verse 10

a man of strife and a man of contention — ‘Strife’ (riv) is the noun of the verb in 12:1, ‘when I plead with thee’. ‘Usury’ (nashah) is lending at interest, the practice Ex 22:25 forbids toward the poor: money gave no cause for the quarrel. The lament, ‘Woe is me, my mother’, is taken up again in Jer 20:14, ‘Cursed be the day wherein I was born’.

Verse 11

cause the enemy to entreat thee well — ‘Entreat’ is paga, the verb of ‘made intercession’ in Isa 53:12; here the enemy is made to deal kindly with the prophet. Both halves are seen later: Zedekiah sends to say ‘Pray now unto the LORD our God for us’ (Jer 37:3), and Nebuchadrezzar charges his captain, ‘look well to him, and do him no harm’ (Jer 39:11–12).

Verse 12

the northern iron and the steel — The enemy ‘from the north’ is the one of Jer 1:14, and the LORD put ‘a yoke of iron’ on the nations to serve Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 28:14). ‘Steel’ is nechosheth, the word for copper or brass, ‘brasen’ in v.20 and in Jer 1:18, ‘an iron pillar, and brasen walls’. The question is whether Judah’s iron can break it.

Verse 15

for thy sake I have suffered rebuke — Cherpah is reproach, the word of Ps 69:7, ‘for thy sake I have borne reproach’, and of Jer 20:8, ‘the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me’. ‘Longsuffering’ is literally ‘long of anger’ (erek appayim), as in Ex 34:6: the prophet asks that patience toward his persecutors not take him away.

Verse 16

Thy words were found, and I did eat them — The words are taken in as food, the figure of Ezek 3:1–3, where the roll was ‘in my mouth as honey for sweetness’, and Rev 10:9–10; compare Ps 119:103, ‘sweeter than honey to my mouth’. ‘I am called by thy name’ is the plea of Jer 14:9, ‘we are called by thy name; leave us not’.

Verse 17

I sat alone because of thy hand — The prophet keeps out of the assembly of the ‘mockers’ (cf. Ps 26:4–5). ‘Because of thy hand’ is the pressure of the LORD’s hand, as Ezekiel’s was after eating the roll: ‘I went in bitterness… but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me’ (Ezek 3:14). He sits apart from rejoicing because the message fills him with ‘indignation’.

Verse 18

waters that fail — ‘Wound’ (makkah) is the ‘blow’ of 14:17, and ‘incurable’ (anash) is the wound of Jer 30:12, 15 and Mic 1:9. ‘Waters that fail’ are waters that cannot be trusted, the verb of ‘believe them not’ in 12:6. ‘Liar’ (achzab) is a deceitful stream; the word occurs only here and Mic 1:14. Job’s brethren ‘dealt deceitfully as a brook’ (Job 6:15).

Verse 19

If thou return, then will I bring thee again — Shuv is used four times, for each ‘return’ and for ‘bring thee again’, and the reply to the prophet’s complaint is a call to turn. ‘Thou shalt stand before me’ answers v.1: Jeremiah would stand where Moses and Samuel stood. ‘As my mouth’ recalls Jer 1:9, ‘I have put my words in thy mouth’.

Verse 20

a fenced brasen wall — The promise repeats the one given at his call: ‘I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls’, with ‘they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee’ (Jer 1:18–19). Here it adds ‘to save thee and to deliver thee’, two verbs for rescue (yasha, natsal).