U A¹ 14:1-6. Mourning of Judah. A² 14:7- 15:21. Intercession.
497 or 480 B.C.
14) 1: That which proved to be the word of Yehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. (Heb. "the restraints": the holding back of rain, put for the famine caused by it. 1 of 13 recorded famines. See Gen.12:10. Deut.28:23,24. Before the 1st siege, 497 B.C., or before the 3rd siege )
2: Judah mourns (country), and the gates thereof languish (put for the people assemling there); they sit in black to the ground (Cp. 8:21; 13:18. Job 2:8,13. Isa.326; 15:3. Ps.35:14); and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. (city)
3: And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters (i.e. to fetch water): they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. (the symbol of mourning,. 2 am.15:30; 19:4. Ezek.6:12)
4: Because the ground is cleft (craked, open in slits. Heb. = to be broken), for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed (absence of rain causes today great anxiety. Job 29:23), they covered their heads.
5: For, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6: And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind (ruach) like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
A² B 14:7-9. Deprecation. Jeremiah. C 14:10-12. Rejection. Yehovah. D 14:13-18. Prophets. (False). B 14:19-22. Deprecation. Jeremiah. C 15:1-9. Rejection. Yehovah. D 15:10-21. Prophets. (True).
7: O Yehovah, though our iniquities testify (or, answer) against us, You it for Your name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.
8: O the Hope of Israel (fig., put for Yehovah, Who was, or should have been Israel's hope. See 17:13; 50:7; and cp. Gen.49:18. 1 Tim.1:1), the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why should You be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
9: Why should You be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet You, O Yehovah, are in the midst of us (see Ex.29:45. Lev.26:11,12), and Your name wass called upon us; leave us not.
10: Thus says Yehovah to this People, “Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore Yehovah does not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.”
11: Then said Yehovah to me, “Pray not for this People for their good. (See Ex.32:10. Cp. 7:16; 11:14)
12: When they fast, I will not hear their cry (see 7:16; 11:14; Ezek.8:18. Amos 5:23. Mic.3:4); and when they offer up burnt offering and a gift offering, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.” (often thus conjoined. See Lev.26 and Deut.28. Cp. 21:6,7,9; 24:10, &c.)
D E¹ 13. Jeremiah's complaint. E² 14-18. Yehovah's answer. Threatening.
13: Then said I, “Ah, Adonai Yehovah! behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You al shall not see the sword, neither shall you all have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ”
14: Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke to them (cp. 7:22; 23:21): they prophesy to them a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
15: Therefore thus says Yehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in My name, and I sent them not, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land;’ By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
16: And the People to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their calamity upon them.
17: Therefore you shall say this word to them; ‘Let my 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, with a very grievous blow.
18: If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yes, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.’ ”
19: Have You utterly rejected Judah? have You Yourself lothed Zion? why have You smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace (cp. 8:15; 15:1, where it has a stronger refusal), and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold terror!
20: We acknowledge (these are the prophet's words), O Yehovah, our lawlessness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against You.
21: Do not abhor us, for Your name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of Your glory (see 3:17): remember, break not Your covenant with us.
22: Exist there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not You He [that gives rain], O Yehovah our Elohim? therefore we will wait upon You (see Gen.49:18, the first occ. in this sense): for You have made all these things.
15) 1: Then (or, And) Yehovah said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me (see Ps.99:6. and Ezek.14:14. where other names are thus connected. See also x.17:11; 32:11. Num.14:13. 1 Sam.7:9; 8:6; 12:16-23), yet My soul 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 to you, ‘to which place shall we go forth?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says Yehovah; Such as are for death (see 43:9-11. 2 am.12:21; 8:2. Cp. Rev.13:10), 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 (see Lev.26:16), [is] Yehovah's oracle: 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 (see eut.28:25), because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah (see 2 Kings 21:3, &c.), for that which he did in Jerusalem.
5: For who shall have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan you? or who shall go aside to ask of your welfare?
6: You have forsaken Me, [is] Yehovah's oracle, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out My hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.
7: And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land (put for cities, or for the outlet of the land); I will bereave them of sons, 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 (choice ones, or warriors) a spoiler at noonday: I have let fall upon her [the mother], sudenly, anguish and terror. (One MS. adds, "Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out", as in Ch. 6:4)
9: She that has borne the seven languishes (not even these will suffice): she has breathed out her soul; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I give to the sword before their enemies, [is] Yehovah's oracle.”
D w 10. Complaint of Jeremiah. x 11-14. Promise of Yehovah. w 15-18. omplaint of Jeremiah. x 19-21. Promise of Yehovah.
10: Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury (see Ex.22:25), nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me.
11: Yehovah said, “Verily it shall be well with thy remnant (i.e. Israel's); verily I will cause the enemy to entreat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
12: Shall iron break the northern iron and the bronze?
13: Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
14: And I will make you to pass with your enemies into (some codices read, "make you serve with your enemies in) a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in My anger (see Deut.32:22), which shall burn upon you.”
15: O Yehovah, You know: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in Your longsuffering: know that for Your sake I have suffered reproach.
16: Your words were discovered (in the 18th year of Josiah, 513 B.C.. Heb. mãzã. Not used of revelation. See 2 Kings 22:8. 2 Chron.34:14,15), and I did eat them; and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for Your name was called upon me (only those thus called feed upon Yehovah's words, and suffer reproach, v.15. Cp. John 17:14), O Yehovah the Elohim of Sabaioth.
17: I sat not in the assembly of the merry-makers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Your hand (put for guidence): for You have filled me with indignation.
18: Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will You be altogether to me as a decietful [brook] (fig., put for as a brook that disappoints), and as waters that fail?
19: Therefore thus says Yehovah, “If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before Me (i.e. as My servant. Cp. 1 Kings 18:15. 2 Kings 3:14): and if you take forth the precious from the vile (see Lev.10:10), you shall be as My mouth: let them return to you; but do not return to them.
20: And I will make you to this People a fenced brasen wall (cp. 1:18,19; 6:27): and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to rescue, [is] Yehovah's oracle.
21: And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked ones, and I will redeem you (by power. See Ex.6:6 and 13:13) out of the hand of the terrible.”
T F¹ 1-9. Symbol. No wife. F² 10-21. Signification.
F¹ y¹ 1,2. Prohibition. Not to marry. x¹ 3,4. Reason. y² 5-. Prohibition. Not to marry. x² -5-7. Reason. y³ 8. Prohibition. Not to feast. x³ 9. Reason.
16) 1: The word of Yevovah came also to me, saying,
2: “You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place.
3: For thus says Yehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
4: They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground (or, soil): and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
5: For thus says Yehovah, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them:
for I have taken away My peace (or, blessing) from this people, [is] Yehovah's oracle, even lovingkindness and tender mercies (or compassion).
6: Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them: (see Lev.19:28; 21:5. Deut.14:1. Cp. 41:5; 47:5)
7: Neither shall men break bread for them in mourning (see Isa.58:7. Ezek.24:7. Hos.9:4), to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8: You shall not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
9: For thus says Yehovah Sabaioth, the Elohim of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. (cp. 7:34; 25:10; 33:11)
F² a 10-13. Threatening. Expulsion. b 14,15. Promise. Restoration. (Israel). a 16-18. Threatening. Pursuit. b 19-21. Promise. Restoration. (Nations).10: And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this People all these words, and they shall say to you, ‘Why has Yehovah pronounced (see Deut.29:24,25) all this great mischief (or, calamity) against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Yehovah our Elohim?’
14: Therefore, behold, the days come, [is] Yehovah's oracle, that it shall no more be said, Yehovah lives, that brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt’ (see Ex.12-15);
15: But, ‘The LORD lives, that brought up the son of Israel from the land of the north (Babylon on the east; but entrance from there into the Land was by the north), and from all the lands wherever He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.
16: Behold, I will send for many fishers, [is] Yehovah's oracle, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters (refers to Judah's enemies. Cp. v.18. Amos 4:2. Ezek.12:13.Hab.1:14), and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17: For My eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity hid from My eyes.
18: And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double (see Isa.40:2); because they have defiled My land, they have filled My inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.’ ”
19: (O Yehovah, my strength (for protection), and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come to You from the ends of the earth, and shall say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.)
20: Shall a mankind make gods to himself, and they are no gods?
21: Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yehovah.” (see Ex.3:15; 15:3)
U G 1,2. Incrimination. H J 3,4. Threatenening. K 5-8. Trust. False and True. G 9,10. Incrimination. H K 11-14. Trust. False and True. J 15-18. Defiance.
17) 1: The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; (some codices read "their")
2: While their sons remember their altars and their asherim by every green trees and upon the high hills. (see Deut.6:21)
3: O My mountain in the field (put for Jerusalem. Cp. "rock of the plain", 21:13), I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places in sin (i.e. as a punishment for sin), throughout all thy borders.
4: And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you all have kindled a fire in My anger (see Deut.32:22. Cp. 15:14), which shall burn for ever.” (cp. Isa.33:14)
K c 5. Curse. False. d 6. Comparison. Heath in desert. " c 7. Blessing. True. d 8. Comparison. Tree in garden. "
5: Thus says Yehovah; “Cursed be the strong man that confides in mankind, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yehovah.
6: For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7: Blessed is the man that trusts in Yehovah, and whose confidence Yehovah is.
8: For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters (see Ps.1:1-3), and that spreads out her roots by the steam, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9: The heart is crooked above all things (referring to the old nature of the natural man), and it [is] sick to death (i.e. it is incurable): who can know it?
10: I Yehovah search the heart (put for the mind, or intellect), I try the reins (put for thoughts, or affections), even giving every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (quoted in Rom.8:27. Rev.2:23. Cp.6:19; 32:19)
K e 11-. Forsaking. Partidge her eggs. f -11. False trust. f 12,13-. True trust. e -13,14. Forsaking. People their God.
11: As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not;
so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his day, and at his end shall be a fool.”
12: A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13: O Yehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake You shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken Yehovah, the Fountain of living waters.
14: Heal me, O Yehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for You are my praise. (see Deut.10:21)
15: Behold, they say to me, “Where is the word of Yehovah? let it come now.”
16: As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow You: neither have I desired the incurable day; You know: that which came out of my lips was right before You.
17: Be not a terror to me (see 1:17): You are my hope in the day of calamity.
18: Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of calamity, and destroy them with double destruction. (cp. 16:18, and see Isa.40:2)
F g¹ 19-22. Yehovah. Command. h¹ 23. Disobedience. g² 24-26. Yehovah. Promise. h² 27-. Disobedience. g³ -27. Yehovah. Threatening.
19: Thus said Yehovah to me; “Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the People (probably the main entrance to the Courts of the Temple), whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
20: And say to them, ‘Hear you all the word of Yehovah, all you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21: Thus says Yehovah; Take heed to your souls, and bear no burden on the sabbath day (see Ex.20:8; 23:12; 31:13. Cp. Neh.13:15-19), nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
22: Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do you all any work, but hallow you all the sabbath day, according as I commanded your fathers.’ ”
23: But they did not listen, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
24: “And it shall come to pass, if you all diligently listen to Me, [is] Yehovah's oracle, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
25: Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on their horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
26: And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain (= Philistia, between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea), and from the central land, and from the Negeb (see Gen.12:9; 13:1. Deut.1:7. Ps.126:4), bringing burnt offerings (see Lev.1:1,2), and sacrifices, and meal offerings (see Lev.2:1), and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, to the house of Yehovah.
27: But if you all will not listen to Me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day;
then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof (see v.4. Cp. 21:14. Lam.4:11), and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.’ ”