Deeper Commentary
Jeremiah 6:1 Flee for safety, you children of
Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, blow the trumpet in Tekoa and
raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north,
and a great destruction-
The frequent predictions of judgment upon Israel
were effectively calls to repentance, whereby the predicted judgment need
not actually happen. The more Israel resisted the call, the more they were
as it were tightening the bands which the prophetic word had laid around
them: "Now therefore be not mockers, lest your bands be made strong; for I
have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon
the whole earth" (Is. 28:22). Thus Jer. 6:2 appears to be a specific
prophecy of future destruction in Jerusalem: "The comely and delicate one,
the daughter of Zion, will I cut off" (RV). But the preceding verse is in
fact a call for the "daughter of Zion" to "Flee for safety out of the
midst of Jerusalem" (Jer. 6:1 RV). If they had obeyed that call, then the
prophecy of cutting off wouldn't have come true. Note in passing that this
is the basis for the Lord's command to flee out of Jerusalem in the "last
days" of AD70 and before His return to earth. The prophecies of
destruction within Jerusalem had [in AD70] and will yet have an element of
conditionality about them. Hence the appeal of Jer. 6:8,26 to the
"daughter of Zion" to "be instructed" and to mourn in repentance; if this
had been done, in Jeremiah's time, in AD70 and if it will be done in our
last days, so many prophecies of certain judgment will not in fact be
fulfilled.
Jeremiah 6:2 The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut
off- See on :1. The translation could refer to good pastureland,
which fits with :3. Or LXX: "And thy pride, O daughter of Sion, shall be
taken away".
Jeremiah 6:3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall
pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed each one in his
place- Again we note that "Babylon" is not mentioned here, and the
idea of nomadic shepherds encamping around Jerusalem leads us to think
that the nomadic Scyths are in view here. One prophetic potential was that
had Judah repented, then the invasion of the Scythian tribes mentioned in
Ez. 38 would have happened but would have been destroyed by Divine
intervention, and then a repentant Judah would have built the temple
system of Ez. 40-48. But this potential didn't come about. The Babylonians
weren't characterized as shepherds, and yet they fulfilled the essence of
the prophecy by besieging Jerusalem. See on Jer. 5:15.
Jeremiah 6:4 Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon-
Attacks were usually made at dawn and not in the midday heat, but the
invaders were to be so enthusiastic, having prepared / sanctified war
against Jerusalem. This jihad is going to be seen in the last
days, when these prophecies will come to their ultimate term.
Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out- Here we see how Jeremiah totally identifies with the people he is teaching. In the midst of stating how the invaders would act and speak, he himself cries out "Woe to us!". He sees that the word he is preaching is absolutely true and will really happen. The day of opportunity for repentance is drawing to a close, although it is a long evening, stretching out a long time, because God really so sought their repentance before the night of the invasion came.
Jeremiah 6:5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her
palaces- As noted on :4, Jeremiah is predicting the words of the
invaders, although he himself interjects an outburst of "Woe unto us!" in
:4. The "palaces" refer not only to the temple, but to the houses of the
wealthy, built on exploitation of the poor (Jer. 5:28). The historical
records in Jeremiah and 2 Chronicles stress that "the great houses" were
destroyed.
Jeremiah 6:6 For Yahweh of Armies said, Cut down trees, and cast up a
mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly
oppression in the midst of her- The invaders were under the direct
command of Yahweh of Armies; their armies were His armies, reflecting the
Angelic armies of heaven. Just as Ezekiel's cherubim were Angelic
chariots, manifested in the chariots of Babylon. God commanded the
invaders to cut down trees in order to make siege engines. This was
specifically the opposite of how He had commanded Israel to make war (Dt.
20:19,20). We could draw the conclusion that what God expects of His
people, He doesn't expect of the Gentile world; indeed He may expect the
very opposite. This would suggest that it is inappropriate for Christians
to demand that the secular world adopts exactly their positions.
Jeremiah 6:7 As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her
wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before Me
continually is grief and woundedness- The violence and destruction
were what the Jews were doing to each other; and so violence and
destruction came upon them. That judgment was merely a continuation of how
they themselves acted. The continual bubbling forth of their wickedness,
as from a perpetual fountain, was matched in God's continual woundedness.
That God can be wounded by our behaviour... is a stunning concept. This
reveals the extent to which God has sensitized Himself toward man, when we
are but ants before Him, the King of the cosmos. The same word is used of
the deep wounding of God's people by the invaders (Jer. 14:17; 30:14); but
God felt that Himself even before they did.
Jeremiah 6:8 Be instructed, Jerusalem- The appeal for Jerusalem to be
"instructed" uses the same word translated "punish" (Lev. 26:18). The idea
was that the punishments were to be instruction; they were not the lashing
out of an offended Deity. It was God's hope, even 'fantasy' would not be
too strong a word, that His people would realize this, and come to say
"You punished / instructed me, and I was instructed" (Jer. 31:18 s.w.).
Lest My soul depart from you; lest
I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited- See on :1,2. Here and Ez. 23:18 speaks of how God's soul "departed" from His
people- but the same word is translated to hang / crucify (Num. 25:4; 2 Sam.
21:6,9,13). It's as if God was crucified in His pain for Israel. And in the
death of His Son He went through that pain. And so never, ever, ever... can
we nor Israel complain that our pain is greater than God's. Never. The pain
of God at Israel's sin leads Him to exclaim (almost in the language of
piercing and crucifixion): "Before me continually is grief and wounds" (Jer.
6:7). We can wound God by our sin, so sensitive is He to us. In the end, we
read that God's "soul" departed from them, because "the Lord has rejected
you" (Jer. 6:8,30). This is the same language used about Saul- God rejected
him, and so His spirit departed from him (1 Sam. 15:23; 16:14). The
implication was that God's very soul / spirit is "with" us, and therefore He
can be so terribly wounded by us in His heart by the rebellions of those in
covenant relationship with Him. For His heart / soul / spirit is so
close to us His beloved people.
Jeremiah 6:9 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, They shall thoroughly glean the
remnant of Israel like a vine- The idea is that virtually no grapes
would be left. And yet in fact the majority of the population, the working
classes, were left in the land by the Babylonians. They had a policy of
only taking the upper classes into captivity, and they did this with
Judah. So here we see again God speaking in a wrath which He didn't
completely fulfil.
Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets- The idea seems to be as GNB: "So you must rescue everyone you can while there is still time". Perhaps the fact that not all were destroyed nor taken captive, as seems to be implied would happen, was because of the success of Jeremiah's ministry.
Jeremiah 6:10 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear?
Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the
word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it-
This would be Jeremiah somewhat rebellious response to the command in
:9: "So you must rescue everyone you can while there is still time" (GNB).
Jeremiah's response to this is that made by many believers today: 'But
nobody's interested in repentance'. They had been asked to circumcise
their hearts (Jer. 4:4), but Jeremiah considers that none have done so.
And therefore, they would not listen, in the sense of responding.
Jeremiah's lament that the people had no joy or delight in God's word is
the basis for his comment that when he found God's words, they
were his joy (Jer. 15:16). We might therefore detect there a sense of
spiritual superiority over the Jews for whom God's word was not their joy.
Jeremiah 6:11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. I am weary with
holding in- Seeing the world through the eyes of both God and man, Jeremiah said that
God’s wrath was his wrath, “I am full of the wrath of Yahweh”,
and yet he stood before God “to turn away thy wrath from them” (Jer.
18:20). Hence the huge psychological tension within the prophets.
Jeremiah 6:12 Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and
their wives together; for I will stretch out My hand on the inhabitants of
the land, says Yahweh- This is God's response to Jeremiah's request
that God pour out His wrath and end the tension of threatening to do so
but not doing it (:11). God likewise says in Jer. 15:6 that because He was
weary with repenting, with changing His mind, He would "stretch out My
hand" in judgment, using the same phrase found here.
Jeremiah 6:13 For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is
given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone
deals falsely- That all of society was guilty is a major theme of the
prophets. They were attracted by the idea of immediate wealth, they
coveted this, and therefore turned to idols which offered this. Hence
covetousness is here paralleled with dealing falsely, which is what they
were doing by proclaiming faithfulness to Yahweh whilst serving other
gods.
Jeremiah 6:14 They have healed also the hurt of My people superficially,
saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace-
Jeremiah 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush- We are either ashamed of our sins in repentance; or we will be made
ashamed of them in the judgment (Jer. 6:15 RVmg.)- it’s shame either way.
We either wail for our sins now, or we will wail for them at judgment day
(Jer. 9:19,20).
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says Yahweh, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the
old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest
for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it’- The "old"
paths are literally 'the paths of olahm', the ways of eternity,
the way that will lead to eternal life. This is the real sense of the
phrase; it has been much misused by those whose native conservatism leads
them to imagine that the old ways of their denomination must be correct
and worthy of defence, just because the phrase "old paths" occurs in the
Bible. But this is a mistranslation. Out of all the ways before Israel
suggested by the various idols, they were to choose the paths [or perhaps
it can be read as an intensive plural, the one great path, referred to by
the people as "it"] that leads to eternity. The ways of the idols led at
very best only to temporary betterment.
Jeremiah 6:17 I set watchmen over you saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the
trumpet!’. But they said, ‘We will not listen!’- The rejection of
Jeremiah was in line with the repeated rejection of the earlier prophets /
watchmen. It's unlikely that they actually said "We will not listen", but
God counts attitudes for what they effectively are, and imputes such
statements to men as this is what their attitudes are effectively saying.
And it is by such words that we shall be judged, and saved or condemned.
Jeremiah 6:18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is
among them- The appeal to God's people is parallel with an appeal to
the Gentile nations. It was the Divine intention that His people would
repent along with the surrounding Gentile nations, and all come together
in a revived Kingdom of God in Israel under a Messianic king.
Jeremiah 6:19 Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even
the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to My words;
and as for My law, they have rejected it- As noted on :17, the people
never formally rejected God's law and words (:20), but this was
effectively their attitude, and so these words and positions were counted
to them. This was what their thoughts implied; and we note the judgment of
thoughts as being of primary importance to God.
Jeremiah 6:20 To what purpose comes there to Me frankincense from Sheba,
and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not
acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to Me- They had "rejected"
God's law (:19) but still were obedient to parts of it. This is typical of
where form becomes more important than content in the lives of religious
people. The culture becomes the religion. Israel mixed Yahweh worship with
that of the idols, hence the offerings were of materials from "a far
country"; Babylon is probably in view.
Jeremiah 6:21 Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will lay stumbling
blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together shall stumble
against them. The neighbour and his friend shall perish- God confirms
men in the way in which they choose to go. He can deceive those who don't
have the love of the truth (2 Thess. 2:10), and so here He would lay
stumbling blocks. Ezekiel was prophesying at about the same time to the
same people, although from Babylon. He too mentions this feature of God
laying stumbling blocks before the wicked, although he says that the
prophets gave such people warning (Ez. 3:20). But they had in fact
themselves laid the stumbling blocks of their idolatry within their hearts
(Ez. 14:3). So here God is only psychologically confirming them in what
they had themselves chosen. He works directly on human hearts, through "an
evil spirit from the Lord" as with Saul, or positively through the
transforming of His Holy Spirit. This theme is continued in :22.
Jeremiah 6:22 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north
country. A great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of
the earth- Whoever the invaders refer to, be it Babylon or the
Scythians (see on Jer. 5:15; 6:3), they were from the very borders of the
eretz promised to Abraham, which is "the earth" in view. They
were "stirred up" in the same way as the spirit of Cyrus was later stirred
up (s.w. Ezra 1:1). As noted on :21, God works directly upon human hearts,
placing ideas and desires within the human psyche. Just as God stirred or
raised up Babylon to invade, so He would stir up, or psychologically
provoke, other nations to come and judge her (Jer. 50:9,41; 51:1,11). This
is greatly emphasized. The activity of God directly upon human hearts is a
great theme of the Biblical revelation, and is to encourage us that He is
eager to transform hearts, and to place desires within us beyond our own
unaided psychological ability.
Jeremiah 6:23 They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no
mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, each one
set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion-
The present tense is used although the events were still future; they were
that certain of coming true, because God's word is sure. This is the
language of the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah's time, and I suggested on
Jer. 4:5,8 ; 5:1 that the events in Judah at that time are often alluded
to in Jeremiah. There was still the possibility that at the last moment,
salvation by grace would be revealed in Jerusalem. But Is. 17:12,13 had
said that the great rushing of the attackers like the waves was going to
be turned back. There was still that potential.
Jeremiah 6:24 We have heard its report; our hands become feeble: anguish
has taken hold of us, pains as of a woman in labour- The audience of
Jeremiah generally rejected his message, insisting that no evil was going
to come (Jer. 5:12). So the "we" refers to Jeremiah and the minority who
repented. They were in labour, to bring forth the new Zion, the envisaged
reborn community of Israel. In Micah, the daughter of Zion was to be in labour pangs (symbolic of
their troubles in the 70 years captivity), and then give birth
to a new nation as a result of this (Mic. 4:9,10), as well as her Messiah
(Mic. 5:2), who would lead Judah in destroying Babylon (Mic. 4:13; 5:5-8).
But Judah didn’t want to destroy Babylon. Most of them preferred to carry
on living there. So, no Messiah. At that time. Another different sequence
of prophetic fulfilment had to develop.
Jeremiah 6:25 Don’t go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the
sword of the enemy and terror are on every side- This is a warning
from Jeremiah; those who believed no evil would come would have
disbelieved him (Jer. 5:12), and perished as a result. It's rather like
the command in the Olivet Prophecy to flee to the mountains.
Jeremiah 6:26 Daughter of My people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and
wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for
the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us- Jeremiah again appeals for
repentance, to believe that death would come and so to mourn as if
they had received their punishment.
See
on :1,2. The
Canaanite tribes spoke of how their gods were married to their land
and would defend it. But the prophets, especially Hosea, reveal Yahweh as
married to His people. “Thus says the Lord, O my dear people [bath
‘ami- as if they are God’s partner]… make mourning… for suddenly the
destroyer will come upon us” (Jer. 6:22,26). God delicately speaks as
if He is married to Israel, and that even in their sufferings, He would
suffer with them, as a husband suffers with his wife. “The destroyer will
come upon us” even sounds as if God let Himself in a way be
‘destroyed’ in Israel’s destruction; for each of us dies a little in the
death of those we love.
Jeremiah 6:27 I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among My
people; that you may know and try their way- This doesn't mean that
Jeremiah decided who was the faithful, the true metal, by testing their
way. Rather, the word of God which he preached was a test of the people,
and their response to it revealed "their way". Thereby it was God who
tried the way of His people (s.w. Jer. 17:10). Those who responded
positively would find Jeremiah and his words to be a fortress, and could
save themselves thereby.
Not only in our own self-examination should there be unity between our
judgment and that of the Father; Jeremiah was told to "know and try"
Israel's way, just as God said that He did (Jer. 6:27 cp. 9:7; 17:10). Our
'judging' of others, as well as ourselves, must be according to God's
judgments of them. And further; if we know the judgments of God, then we
will be more strongly motivated in our preaching and pastoral work, to
pull men out of the fire of condemnation (Jude 23).
Jeremiah 6:28 They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders;
they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly- This may
be Jeremiah's response to the command to use God's prophetic word to
refine the people. He reports that the people are corrupted brass and
iron, their encounter with God's prophetic word had not refined them.
They were epitomized by slander. This could
refer to the false prophecies they believed which slandered God. But it
seems more natural to take this as meaning that slander was their
characteristic sin. Because gossip is such an epitome of the flesh, it is ranked along with
sins like fornication, idolatry and murder in Ez. 22:9. And so there are passages
in Jeremiah which describe slander and gossiping as being the reason why
God condemned Judah (Jer. 6:28; 9:3-8). The soap operas of the world are
full of this kind of gossip and intrigue; they glorify it. And the more we
feed ourselves with these things, the more likely we will be to see gossip
as just part of life. And yet let's not mistake the words of the prophets;
it is seen as murder, because effectively it puts to death a man's
relationship with his fellows. God hates the man who sows such
discord among brethren through gossip in the church (Prov. 6:19). "The
words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost
parts of the belly" (Prov. 26:22). That casual remark, that passing on of
information under the guise of 'concern'- it was a body blow to the one
you gossiped about, a blow so hard that it caused deep internal damage.
Jeremiah 6:29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire:
in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away-
This is the tragedy of Israel throughout their history, just as it is the
tragedy of so many life histories. Terrible sufferings have been
experienced, but still repentance and transformation has not been
elicited. The fire was so intense that the lead itself was burned up by
it, without achieving the desired cleansing. And the bellows,
according to the AV, were also burned. Babylon themselves would be
destroyed.
Jeremiah 6:30 Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has
rejected them- The idea is that "men", the inhabitants of the
earth, will come to see Yahweh's judgments from His perspective.
"Rejected" is the same word translated "rejected" in Jer. 6:19 where
Israel rejected God's word. Their response to that word was therefore
their judgment, and the refining fire upon them. It is also translated
"despised", and Judah had despised the covenant and word of God (Lev.
26:15,43,44 s.w.). But as those verses in Leviticus bring out, although
Israel rejected / despised God, He would not "for all that" reject /
despise them eternally. This is the great paradox of God's grace to
Israel, which serves as eternal encouragement to His sinful people of all
ages. He does not actually operate a measure for measure policy,
of treating His people as they treat Him; although this is not to say that
He will not judge them. That generation were "rejected" (Jer. 7:29), but
that is not to say that there was no hope for their future acceptance; the
rejection by God was not eternal.
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