Jeremiah 15: 1 – 21
The wicked and terrible
1 Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go forth. 2 And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says 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 forms of destruction,” says the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. 5 “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing? 6 You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD, “you have gone backward. Therefore, I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting! 7 And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children; I will destroy My people, since they do not return from their ways. 8 Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, against the mother of the young men, a plunderer at noonday; I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly. 9 “She languishes who has borne seven; She has breathed her last; Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; She has been ashamed and confounded. And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies,” says the LORD. 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 for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me. 11 The LORD said: “Surely it will be well with your remnant; Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you in the time of adversity and in the time of affliction. 12 Can anyone break iron, the northern iron and the bronze? 13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder without price, because of all your sins, throughout your territories. 14 And I will make you cross over with your enemies into a land which you do not know; For a fire is kindled in My anger, which shall burn upon you.” 15 O LORD, You know; Remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. 16 Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. 17 I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. 18 Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail? 19 Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. 20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you and deliver you,” says the LORD. 21 “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”
Wicked people are terrible. Do you wonder why you do good to someone and he or she pays you back with evil? It is a manifestation of wickedness. Never expect everyone to be nice to you the same way you are to them. Many people have sold their souls to the devil. Therefore, no matter your goodness and love to them, they will want to pay you evil for good.
Is your heart broken by the same people you took pain and risk to save from trouble? Do you think kindness is not worth it? Have you made the decision to stop being nice and doing good to people because of that?
We cannot allow the enemy to lower the standards that our Holy God wants us to behave differently. He wants us to be godly and God-fearing in our everyday life.
The prophet Isaiah says in his book in chapter 26:10, “Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.”
Our Precious Holy Spirit points out to us through the words He gave to His prophet that the wicked do not have the fear of God in his heart, and therefore will find it difficult to live right. Favor does not change the wicked, but gives him or her the opportunity to change. So, whatever you do for anyone, do it as unto God. Only God can reward your goodness. Do not be tired of doing good. (Galatians 6:9). If you stop doing good because of people’s bad attitude to you, you will lose the reward of goodness and suffer the same fate with the wicked. Choose wisely.
In the face of Jeremiah’s plea YHWH now makes clear that nothing can now stop His judgment from coming. Even though those two great intercessors Moses and Samuel were to pray for them it would be of no avail. Whatever is their allotted end must now come upon them, with the result that Judah will be ‘tossed backed and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth’ as though they were a ball being tossed around in training. And all this was because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. It must not, however be thought that it was all because of one man. The point is rather that the nation had responded to Manasseh gladly, following his lead assiduously. It was what resulted from the people as a result of what Manasseh did that was the root cause of the problem. Had Manasseh been alone in his sin the situation would not have arisen. That is why Jeremiah then makes clear that it is the people who have rejected YHWH, and because of whom this judgment is necessary. For as YHWH explains, although He had made every effort to bring them back to Himself by various methods, all had failed. Whatever He had done to them they had not returned from their ways. That is why wholesale death and captivity was the only possible answer.
1 Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go forth.
YHWH has twice told Jeremiah not to pray for good for Judah any more. Now He explains that even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede for them in His very Dwelling place, either the Tabernacle or the Temple. His mind would not turn favorably towards His people. Jeremiah was thus, as it were, to cast them out of His sight and to cause them to go forth from the land.
Moses and Samuel were the two great intercessors who had prevailed in prayer for God’s people when they had least deserved it:
1. Moses at the time of the worship of the golden calf when YHWH had proposed destroying the people and beginning again (Exodus 32.11-13) and then when the people had rejected the advice of the two scouts, Joshua and Caleb, about obeying YHWH and going ahead with the invasion of Canaan, when His proposal had been the same.
2. Samuel in the face of the invasion by the Philistines (1 Samuel 7.8-9), and then when the people had rejected YHWH as their King because they wanted a human being to fight their battles for them (1 Samuel 12).
But even these great intercessors could not have helped Judah in their present predicament. Their corporate sin was a sin too far. YHWH’s mind had thus turned away from them and He wanted them cast out, both from the Temple and from the land, as He had warned would be the case in Numbers 18.25, 28.
2 And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says 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.”
Nor was their casting out to be a pleasant experience, for it was intended to teach them an important lesson. Thus when they asked, ‘where will we go forth’ the reply was not in respect of their geographical destination, but in terms of the fates that awaited them. Those destined for a quick death through some means, would die. Those who were destined to die by the sword would die by the sword. Those who were destined to waste away in the famine, would waste away in the famine. And those who were destined for captivity would go into captivity.
3 “And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
Furthermore, YHWH had appointed four kinds of executioners, the sword to slay, the dogs to tear at the carcasses (as they had that of Jezebel - 2 Kings 9.35-36), the scavenger birds to peck at the remains, and the beastly scavengers to finish off what was left. Nothing was worse by people of that time than to have one’s body a prey to scavengers after death but that was to be the fate of Judah.
4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
Those who survived would also find themselves in trouble. They would be ‘tossed to and fro’ among the kingdoms of the earth. No one would want them (Deuteronomy 28.25 where they were to be ‘a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth’). And it would be because of the wholesale idolatry that Manasseh had introduced in Jerusalem. But the thought is not that they were being punished for the sins of Manasseh, but that they were being punished because they had connived with Manasseh in his sins. Hezekiah had sought to purify Jerusalem and Judah, but the people had been only too glad when Manasseh had led them back into the old ways. They had cooperated fully.
5 “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
In consequence no one will have pity on Jerusalem Their future isolation is emphasized threefold. None will have pity on Jerusalem and its people. None will be sad because of their fate. None would be concerned about their welfare. They would be ‘on their own’ with no one caring for them.
6 You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD, “you have gone backward. Therefore, I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting!
And this was because of what they had done. They had rejected YHWH, that was ‘the verdict of YHWH’. And they had gone backwards, deserting His covenant. That was why He was stretching out His hand against them, and would destroy them. he was tired of changing His mind about judging them, only for them to re-sin again and again.
7 And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children; I will destroy My people, since they do not return from their ways.
It was not that He had made no attempt to get them to alter their ways. He had sought to remove their chaff (winnowed them with a winnowing fork, tossing them as it were as grain into the air for the wind to remove the chaff) either by seeking to ensure justice in the gates of the land (where the local courts of justice would meet), or possibly by enemies attacking their cities where the gates would be the prime target. He had allowed their children (whether young or old) to die in differing ways, hoping that this would wake them up to their sins. (Nothing brings men closer to considering God than a death in the family). He had brought destruction on them hoping that when His judgments were in the land the people would learn righteousness (Isaiah 26.9). But it had all been in vain. They had not returned from their ways. They had not sought to renew the covenant.
8 Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, against the mother of the young men, a plunderer at noonday; I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
Such is to be the slaughter that the number of widows in the land will multiply ‘above the sands of the sea’, a reversal of the promise made by God to Abraham that He would multiply his seed as the sand of the sea (Genesis 22.17). Mothers will see their sons of whom they were so proud destroyed by the destroyer ‘at noonday’ (thus so remorseless that they come at the most unexpected time, in the heat of the sun), and will recognise that it is also coming on themselves. They will be filled with anguish and terror. And all this will happen suddenly and unexpectedly.
9 “She languishes who has borne seven; She has breathed her last; Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; She has been ashamed and confounded. And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies,” says the LORD.
The woman who had borne seven sons (a full complement) should have been able to have confidence that at least some would survive, but even she will mourn and languish, because all her sons will have been taken. Her giving up of the spirit probably signifies hopelessness or fainting. She will have given up any hope of their survival. Her sun going down while it was yet day signifies that all brightness will have been removed from her life because of the death of her whole family. Her sons would have gone forth to battle with such great hopes and supported by the pride of their mother at the thought of their success, only for her to be ashamed and confounded at the terrible news of defeat and death. And any who did survive would only survive to become further battle fodder for the sword. It was death all round of the bravest and the best. This was the assured word of YHWH.
The thought of the mothers who have borne their sons only for them to die turns Jeremiah’s thoughts to his own situation, equally terrible in his eyes. Is his mother any better off? She may not have physically lost him but she has borne him only for him to cause strife and contention worldwide, and even in his own family (12.6), with the result that in spite of the fact that he has not become involved with debt or with lending (in other words not with anything of a doubtful nature) all men curse him, something that he is finding difficult to bear, and something which must have been a great grief and affliction to her. She too had cause to ‘give up the spirit’ and be ashamed and confounded (verse 9).
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 for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.
The ‘woe is me’ or ‘alas’ is wrung from him as he thinks about the mothers who will have lost their sons in verse 9, for he grieves over what his own mother has to bear. He recognizes that while his own mother may not have lost him to death she has lost him in another way. She has had to look on with grief in her heart as all men curse him and call him ‘traitor’ and she suffers the affliction of seeing every man’s hand turned against him, even that of his own family. And that is in spite of the fact that he has given them no reason to hate him apart from by his acting as YHWH’s mouthpiece. For he has lent no money, thus making men wary of him, nor does he owe money, causing dissension through not paying it back. He is not involved in anything that is the usual cause of dissension between men. As far as he is aware there is nothing in his personal life that should cause them to hate him. But they do.
The reference to lending and borrowing brings out how much such activity was despised in Judah if it related to obtaining gain by doing so. This was in fact in accordance with the covenant which forbade lending for interest, apart from to foreigners (Deuteronomy 23.19-20; 15.2-3). Any loans to fellow Israelites had to be made in goodwill without any hope of gain (Deuteronomy 15.7-11).
YHWH’s response is to encourage him by pointing out what He is doing through him, and what the future holds for him. He will act on his behalf ‘for good’. The general meaning is, however, clear, that YHWH will act on his behalf and watch over him.
11 The LORD said: “Surely it will be well with your remnant; Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you in the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.
YHWH’s response to Jeremiah’s despair is to assure him that while it may not appear like it, He is using him and his disciples (those who remain loyal) ‘for good’. They are the one bright spot in the gathering darkness. As with Elijah before him God has those set apart who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and they would be the foundation for the future.
In the future YHWH would cause some of those who were his enemies (opposed to him) to make supplication to him, both for his prophetic guidance, and for help in their distress, when the times of evil and affliction came on them.
12 Can anyone break iron, the northern iron and the bronze?
But their supplication to Jeremiah would be in vain, because the future was already determined and would not be altered. Nothing could break the iron coming from the north accompanied by its bronze allies. They were powerful, unbreakable, invincible, and relentless, and they were coming at YHWH’s behest. Iron was the strongest of metals, especially in warfare, while bronze was somewhat inferior but was also regularly used in warfare. Both were difficult to break. Thus the reference is to the power of Babylon and its slightly inferior allies. give the most satisfactory interpretation.
13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder without price, because of all your sins, throughout your territories.
The words are spoken to Jeremiah as representative of the people of Judah. The iron (Babylon) coming from the north would take Judah’s substance and their treasure for spoil, at no cost to themselves. It would not be by trading or negotiation, but by expropriation. And that would be because of Judah’s widespread sins, sins committed all over Judah ‘within all her borders’. Judah had overall ceased to be the people of God.
The emphasis on ‘without price’ is intended to bring out the shame of their defeat, and to emphasize that they will be unable to do anything about it. They will be helpless in the hands of their enemies.
14 And I will make you cross over with your enemies into a land which you do not know; For a fire is kindled in My anger, which shall burn upon you.”
For all their treasures, as well as they themselves, will ‘pass over’ with their enemies into a land which is strange to them, an unknown land, and this was because YHWH’s anger had caused the kindling of a fire which will burn on them and their land. There is possibly a deliberate contrast here with the way in which Israel ‘passed over’ Jordan with the Ark of the covenant and with all their treasures when they first entered the land. Then it had been in triumph. Now that was being reversed. Judah would be passing out of the land and their other treasures. It would be to a land ‘which they do not know’. And this time they would have no Redeemer going with them (at least in the short term).
In this passage where he is wrestling with self-doubt Jeremiah stresses that he has been faithful to God’s word (verse 16) and God’s ways (verse 17) and reminds Him of the loneliness that he has endured in serving Him (verse 17). In his anguish at what ministering for Him has meant for him (verse 18), for it has been very costly, he calls on God and asks Him to step in on his behalf (verse 15). He is clearly both troubled and puzzled as to why things are as they are. He was learning that God’s ways are not men’s ways and finding it very hard.
We must never underestimate what Jeremiah had to go through. For long periods he stood ‘alone’ against the world with almost every man’s hand against him, while he himself bore the burden of the nation’s sin. We can understand therefore why it had begun to get him down.
YHWH’s reply is intriguing for it reveals that to some extent He saw Jeremiah as faltering in his ministry (verse 19). But He graciously promises him that if he will but return to Him with all his heart, and seek what is pure, true and right (verse 19), He will give him the strength to endure and make him strong in the face of his adversaries (verse 20), delivering him out of their hands (verse 21). He will restore him to be a successful ‘man of God’.
We have a reminder in this that while God will make all provision for us as we seek to serve Him, walking with Him does not promise an easy and carefree life, nor is it a guarantee of outward success. Indeed, like Jeremiah, we might find ourselves alone against the world. For like Jeremiah, some sow and see little reward, laying the foundation for others who will follow and reap. That is God’s way. Some sow in hardship for others to reap in rejoicing (John 4.34-38). And it is such lonely sowing that requires the greatest grace from God. But what all His people are called to do, whether they sow or reap, is to receive and rejoice in His word (verse 16), and not to be conformed to this world, but to keep themselves separate from ‘worldliness’ and worldly attitudes (verse 17), by having a new and transformed mind (Romans 12.2).
15 O LORD, You know; Remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.
The first thing that he stresses here, and which is a comfort to him, is that YHWH knows exactly what his position is. ‘O YHWH you know.’ So he is confident in this at least that God has not forgotten him, and that He is acquainted with all his ways. Nevertheless he calls on Him urgently to take note of those ways (‘remember me’), and prays that God will ‘visit him’ by acting on his behalf, and will avenge him on his persecutors. This cry for vengeance may initially surprise us in the light of Jesus’ later teaching, but we should note that he is not himself by this seeking to take personal vengeance but, aware that what they are doing to him is because their hearts are hardened towards God, he is following out the injunction that declares, ‘vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord and calling on Him to vindicate His word. We must remember in this regard that, unlike us, he is speaking of those for whom God has forbidden him to pray because their doom is determined. Thus he knows that only judgment awaits them and his desire is to survive in order that he might see the vindication of his ministry as God brings His will about and obtains vengeance on His adversaries, as indeed He had promised him when He initially called him.
He recognizes that now God is showing longsuffering towards the people, giving them an opportunity, if they will, to repent, and he prays that such longsuffering may not result in his own demise. So, he reminds Him in this regard of the reproach that he is suffering for His sake, and indicates firmly that he does not want to be cut off in the middle of his ministry with his work left undone.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.
He draws attention to his faithfulness to the word of YHWH. He had, he points out, fully absorbed His words (‘eaten them’) and they had been a delight to him. But he stresses what a joy those words of God had been to him, and how they had rejoiced his heart. This was because he was one of God’s true people. He was ‘called by His Name’ that is, the name of YHWH, God of hosts. To be ‘called by YHWH’s name’ was to be someone who responded to and served Him, honored Him in his life, and revealed His attributes in his own life. That is what happens to anyone who is truly ‘begotten by the word of truth’
17 I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation.
Jeremiah points out the loneliness that he had suffered because of his concern for the truth of YHWH, and the price that he had been willing to pay. He had not joined in with those who made merry, he did not enter into the general rejoicing of men and women, he had not set out to ‘enjoy life’, rather he had ‘sat alone’ because God had had His hand on him and had filled him with indignation at the behavior of the people, whose ways were so contrary to YHWH’s covenant. He had refused to compromise what he stood for by partaking in what was displeasing to YHWH, and this was because he was responding to the call of God. The idea was of His irresistible power and pressure.
18 Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?
But such dedication to YHWH had not been easy, and he finally asks why it is that, if God is pleased with him, he is suffering such pain and anguish, unable to find healing? Why do his wounds hurt so much and continue doing so? He asks, whether God will be to him like a river that is there one moment and gone the next, a flash flood, a river that appears to be permanent and then dries up? He is referring to a wadi, a river that flows in the rainy season, giving an impression of permanence (being ‘deceitful’) but dries up in the hot summer, and he wants the assurance that God will not be like that, and will not desert him in the end. We can contrast this with his previous confident certainty that God was like an ever-flowing spring of living water, in contrast with cisterns that did dry up (2.13). But the change of life had begun to wear him down and he senses that he is going through periods when, in the midst of his travail, he feels that God is not satisfying the needs of his soul. How treacherous such feelings are when they cause us to doubt the One Who is our Rock. But it happens to most of us, for such an experience is often that of Christians when they are being chastised or tested with a view to their refinement.
19 Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them.
YHWH’s response was to bring home to Jeremiah that the fault lay at his own door. His problem lay in the fact that he had gone astray from his own dedication and needed to sort out his life and return to God in repentance. Then God would bring him again to the place where he could ‘stand before Him’ and his ministry would once again be powerful. To ‘stand before God’ was a technical description for effectively coming before Him as a prophet or a priest. But it was Jeremiah’s choice (‘if you return’) whether he did so.
And if he did truly return, seeking the pure spiritual gold and rejecting the dross, becoming righteously zealous instead of begrudgingly reluctant, speaking words of God’s truth rather than the ideas of his own mind, then his ministry would be restored, and he would once more become God’s mouthpiece, the one through whom the mouth of God would speak (compare Exodus 4.16). But he must certainly not let himself become like those against whom he spoke. They might turn to him, but he must not ‘turn to them’ and become like them.
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you and deliver you,” says the LORD. 21 “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”
And if he did once again turn back to God with all his heart then his prophetic calling would be restored. Once again (compare 1.18) He would make him like a strong city wall reinforced with bronze, (which helped to absorb the impact of the siege machines). The people would still fight against him, but they would not prevail (compare 1.19). And this would be because YHWH was with him to save him and to deliver him (compare 1.19). No matter how wicked and terrible his opponents might be, he would be delivered out of their hand as Israel had been ‘redeemed’ from the mighty Pharaoh so long ago (Exodus 20.2).
