Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21Therefore give their children over to famine;
hurl them out to the power of the sword,
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
22May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the marauder suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to catch me,
and laid snares for my feet.
23Yet you, O LORD, know
all their plotting to kill me.
Do not forgive their iniquity,
do not blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be tripped up before you;
deal with them while you are angry.
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a Cn: Heb of the field
b Cn: Heb foreign
c Cn: Heb Are…plucked up?
d Gk Syr Vg: Heb they made them stumble
e Heb strike him with the tongue
18.1–12 This prose narrative, originating during the exile or after it, involves another symbolic act coupled with a judgment oracle (see 13.1–11, 12–14). God has devised evil against Judah and Jerusalem, but will alter this fate if they will turn from their evil ways. The conclusion in v. 12 quotes the people as saying they will follow their own evil will.
18.2–4 The craft of the potter was a highly skilled one. Pottery was an important industry and most villages and cities had pottery workshops. Pottery was shaped by hand in several ways: pressing clay to the inside of a basket which was then fired; shaping clay in the palm of one hand with the other hand; piecing clay strips around a base; and connecting lengths of clay with slip (clay mixed with water); but a potter’s wheel was the most common way of producing vessels. The wheel was turned by hand or foot, while the free hand or hands shaped the clay. Some vessels were sun-dried, but most were hardened by firing. Decorations consisted of incision, painting, and especially burnishing (polishing the slip that coated the dried pottery before firing).
18.7–9 Pluck up, break down, build, plant. See note on 1.10.
18.11 The image of God as potter is common in the Bible. Gen 2.7 presents God as the potter fashioning humanity from clay. In other texts God shapes peoples and nations like a potter (see Isa 29.16; 64.8; Rom 9.20–24).
18.12 The people’s rejection of God’s will is as absurd as a vessel that argues against the potter, its creator (Isa 45.9).
18.13–17 The foolishness of idolatry. Once again Jeremiah brings charges against Israel for idolatry (see 2.1–3.5). God is both plaintiff and judge, the charges of religious apostasy and idolatry are set forth, the nations are called as witnesses to testify against Israel for abandoning God, rhetorical questions are raised with obvious though unspoken answers, and the judgment is rendered. The passage in form and content is strikingly similar to ch. 2. The oracle was probably uttered during the reign of Josiah as he sought to annex the former Northern Kingdom within his expanding territory.
18.14 Snow of Lebanon and crags of Sirion refer to the mountain range just to the north of Israel, which extends northward for a hundred miles. Sirion is another name for Mount Hermon, a mountain with three peaks (Deut 3.9; 4.48). It is some 9,230 feet above sea level and is the highest point in the region.
18.15 My people have forgotten me. See 2.32; 13.24–25. Delusion, a metaphor for idols (Ps 31.6; Jon 2.8). Ancient roads, the traditional Mosaic religion (see 6.16), which Israel has abandoned to follow other paths.
18.17 Wind from the east, often a violent and scorching wind that comes from the desert (“sirocco”). See Ex 10.13; 14.21; Ps 48.7; Jon 4.8.
18.18–23 Jeremiah’s fifth lament (see note on 11.18–23). The initial verse describes a plot against the life of Jeremiah (see the enemies of Jeremiah in other personal laments: 11.18–23; 12.1–6; 15.10–21; 17.14–18;20.7–12). The efforts against Jeremiah seek to preserve the priestly instruction (torah), the counsel of the wise, and the prophetic word (see Ezek 7.26). The Torah, counsel, and word were the three forms of divine revelation and teaching. Jeremiah is seen as standing contrary to the legitimate revelation of God announced by the three offices of religious leadership. Those plotting intend to kill the prophet (see v. 23). The wise were probably counselors to kings (cf. note on 8.8–13).
18.20 Jeremiah had even interceded for his enemies (4.10, 19–22). See 14.11–12; 15.1; also 16.5–9, where Jeremiah was forbidden to intercede.
18.21–23 The call for vengeance against enemies is common in Jeremiah’s laments (see 11.18–23; 12.6; 15.15; see also Pss 3.7; 5.4–10; 7.6). Jeremiah desires that his enemies perish during the invasion from the north.
JEREMIAH 19
The Broken Earthenware Jug
1Thus said the LORD: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with youa some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, 2and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3You shall say: Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4Because the people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, 5and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind; 6therefore the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter. 7And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth. 8And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters. 9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege, and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.
10Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you, 11and shall say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. In Topheth they shall bury until there is no more room to bury. 12Thus will I do to this place, says the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been made to the whole host of heaven, and libations have been poured out to other gods.
14When Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the LORD’s house and said to all the people: 15Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words.
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a Syr Tg Compare Gk: Heb lacks take with you
19.1–15 This prose narrative, coming from the exile, combines a symbolic act with a prophetic word of judgment (see 13.1–11, 12–14; 16.1–13; 18.1–12).
19.2 Valley of…Hinnom. See note on 7.31. Potsherd Gate, probably another name for the Dung Gate (Neh 2.13; 3.13–14; 12.31), possibly located in the south wall of Jerusalem. The gate was probably the exit for removing the garbage of the city. Among the garbage wo
uld probably have been broken pottery.
19.3–9 Idolatrous practices, including child sacrifice, are also condemned in 7.29–8.3. Topheth. See 7.30–34; note on 7.31. Eating children happened in times of famine and siege when food supplies ran out (2 Kings 6.24–31; Lam 4.10).
19.9 Eating the flesh of one’s children was a curse for disobedience to the law and covenant (Lev 26.29; Deut 28.53; Isa 9.20; 49.26; Zech 11.9).
19.10–13 The breaking of a vessel of pottery is a common symbol of destruction (see Ps 2.9). The most common example is Egyptian execration texts. The names of the king’s enemies were inscribed on pottery vessels, curses were uttered, and the pottery was smashed. This ritual was designed to break the power of the king’s enemies magically and to defeat them.
JEREMIAH 20
Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur
1Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Then Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. 3The next morning when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, The LORD has named you not Pashhur but “Terror-all-around.” 4For thus says the LORD: I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword. 5I will give all the wealth of this city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, shall go into captivity, and to Babylon you shall go; there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.
Jeremiah Denounces His Persecutors
7O LORD, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10For I hear many whispering:
“Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
“Perhaps he can be enticed,
and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.”
11But the LORD is with me like a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous,
you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
14Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15Cursed be the man
who brought the news to my father, saying,
“A child is born to you, a son,”
making him very glad.
16Let that man be like the cities
that the LORD overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17because he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18Why did I come forth from the womb
to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?
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20.1–6 Pashhur’s public persecution of Jeremiah. This prose narrative identifies one of Jeremiah’s enemies and is an example of the persecution about which the prophet complains in his laments.
20.1 Pashhur, a priest in charge of the temple police, who were to maintain order in the sacred precinct.
20.2 Pashhur took Jeremiah into custody, beat him, and put him in stocks for a day.
20.3–6 Jeremiah’s judgment oracle against Judah, Jerusalem, and Pashhur.
20.3 The act of naming and the meaning of names were important. Names at times embodied the character, faith, or fate of a person. Jacob in Hebrew means “supplanter,” for he supplanted his older twin brother in obtaining the birthright from Isaac (see Gen 25.24–34). Jacob’s name is later changed to Israel when he is blessed by God (see Gen 32.27–29). “Israel” means “he who strives with God” in Hebrew. Jeremiah’s changing of Pashhur’s name to Terror-all-around (see 6.25; 20.10) points to the coming siege of Jerusalem and exile, a fate that Pashhur and his family will share (see the prophecy against Hananiah in ch. 28; and the prophecy of Amos against Amaziah, priest of Bethel, in Am 7.10–17).
20.7–12 Jeremiah’s sixth lament (see note on 11.18–23). A thanksgiving, presumably sung by the prophet, follows in v. 13. The complaint is the most blasphemous in the Bible.
20.7–8 Enticed, which occurs twice in the first line, has two important meanings: “to deceive” and “to seduce.” The first may express God’s deception of a prophet (see the case of Micaiah ben Imlah in 1 Kings 22.19–22). The second, used for the seduction of a virgin in Ex 22.16–17, is metaphorically applied to God’s “seducing” Israel (Hos 2.14). A wife may “seduce”(i.e., deceive) her husband by her beauty and cunning (Judg 14.15; 16.5). Overpowered may suggest rape (see 2 Sam 13.14). In Deut 22.25–27, the law requires that a man who “over-powers” a betrothed virgin in the open countryside be put to death. The woman is spared, for when she “cries out” (see Jer 20.8) there is no one to rescue her. Thus, Jeremiah uses very harsh language, the language of rape, to describe his treatment by God. God has seduced and then raped him. When he cries out “Violence and destruction,” there is no one to hear and to save. Jeremiah’s enemies, called his close friends, use the same language of seduction and rape in their plans to take revenge against him (v. 10).
20.13 A fragment of a thanksgiving psalm, which, if delivered by Jeremiah, expresses his joy and thanks for God’s merciful acts of delivering the needy from the evildoers. Thanksgiving psalms are uttered either after salvation has come or in sure anticipation of its occurrence. They usually are in response to laments (see note on 11.18–20.18).
20.14–18 Jeremiah’s seventh and last lament. Jeremiah curses his own existence, i.e., the day of his birth (see Job 3). For other curses, see 11.1–17; 17.5–8.
20.14–15 Curses, power-filled language designed to bring death and destruction, were opposed to blessings, which were to enhance life and well-being. God is the creator who brings about conception, shapes the fetus in the womb, is the midwife who delivers the baby, and nurtures the newborn throughout life (see note on 1.5). Jeremiah’s curse against his birth (15.10) is also a rejection of his call (1.5). A child…glad. The birth of a son was considered good news and a reason for rejoicing (see Ruth 4.13–17; Prov 4.3; Isa 9.6).
20.16 Cities, Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19; see Isa 1.9–10; 3.9; Jer 23.14; Am 4.11; Zeph 2.9).
20.17 The prophet wishes he had been aborted.
&n
bsp; JEREMIAH 21
Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadrezzar
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, saying, 2“Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon is making war against us; perhaps the LORD will perform a wonderful deed for us, as he has often done, and will make him withdraw from us.”
3Then Jeremiah said to them: 4Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I am going to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will bring them together into the center of this city. 5I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath. 6And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both human beings and animals; they shall die of a great pestilence. 7Afterward, says the LORD, I will give King Zedekiah of Judah, and his servants, and the people in this city—those who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine—into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity them, or spare them, or have compassion.
8And to this people you shall say: Thus says the LORD: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. 9Those who stay in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but those who go out and surrender to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have their lives as a prize of war. 10For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says the LORD: it shall be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
Message to the House of David
11To the house of the king of Judah say: Hear the word of the LORD, 12O house of David! Thus says the LORD:
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