4
📚“If you will return, O Israel”, says the LORD,
“return to me.
And if you will put your abominations
out of my sight,
then you will not be moved.
2 📚And you will swear in truth,
in justice, in righteousness,
‘The LORD lives’;
and the nations will bless
themselves in him,
and in him they will glory”.
4:1-2 Here we have the response of the LORD (Jehovah) to the confession of Israel in Jer 3:22-25. The meaning is that words alone are not enough. There must be deep and genuine repentance, strong and resolute action. When they obey His word great blessing will result, not merely to Israel, but to all nations. A principle is here for us all – our obedience to God brings blessing to many others (Gen 12:1-3; 22:15-18; Rom 5:18).⚜
3 📚For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
4:3 Hos 10:12; Mark 4:18-19; Heb 6:8. Much of the “ground” of their hearts and lives lay fallow, unused for God’s service, producing thorns, briars and weeds which would choke the word of God. It needed breaking up.⚜
Prophecy of coming destruction from Babylon
“Break up your fallow ground,
and do not sow among thorns.
4 📚Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;
circumcise your heart,
you men of Judah and inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
so that my fury 📖 does not come out
like fire,
and burn so that no one can quench it,
because of your evil deeds.
4:4 Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; 30:6; Jer 6:10; 9:25-26; Ezek 44:7, 9; Acts 7:51. People cannot, of course, literally circumcise their hearts to make them new and obedient. The meaning is that Judah should turn their hearts to God Who could make them new. Circumcision was a symbol of faith and obedience to God’s covenant (see Gen 17:10).⚜
5 📚Declare in Judah, and proclaim
in Jerusalem, and say,
‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’
Cry out, gather together,
and say, ‘Assemble yourselves,
and let us go into the fortified cities.’
6 📚Set up the signal toward Zion.
Take refuge! Do not delay!
For I will bring disaster from the north 📖,
and a great destruction.
7 📚The lion has come out of his thicket,
and the destroyer of the Gentiles is
on his way.
He has come out of his place
to make your land desolate;
and your cities will be laid waste,
without an inhabitant”.
8 📚Because of this, tie on sackcloth!
Lament and wail!
For the fierce anger of the LORD
has not turned away from us.
9 📚“And it will happen in that day”,
says the LORD, “that the heart
of the king will fail,
and the heart of the princes;
and the priests will be astonished,
and the prophets will wonder”.
4:9 Rulers, priests and prophets will get what they deserve (Jer 2:8).⚜
10 📚Then said I, “Ah, Lord God!
Surely you have caused this people
and Jerusalem to go utterly astray,
saying, ‘You will have peace’,
while the sword reaches for the heart”.
11 📚At that time it will be said to this people
and to Jerusalem,
“A dry wind from the high places
in the desert blows toward
the daughter of my people,
not to fan, or to cleanse,
12 📚a wind too strong for these will come
at my command;
now also I will pronounce judgment
against them”.
4:11-12 God’s coming wind of judgment would be only for the purpose of destruction, not for correcting or refining the people.⚜
13 📚See, he will come up like clouds,
and his chariots will be like a whirlwind.
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us! for we are plundered.
14 📚O Jerusalem, wash your heart
from wickedness,
that you may be saved.
How long will your evil thoughts lodge
within you?
15 📚For a voice declares from Dan,
and proclaims affliction from Mount Ephraim:
16 📚“Make mention to the nations, see,
proclaim against Jerusalem,
that watchers come from a far country,
and raise their voice against the cities
of Judah.
17 📚Like keepers of a field,
they are against her all around,
because she has been rebellious
against me”, says the LORD.
4:13-17 The Babylonians (Hab 1:5-8).⚜
18 📚“Your way and your deeds have
brought these things on you.
This is your wickedness.
How bitter it is! How it reaches
to your heart!”
19 📚My soul, my soul 📖! I am pained
to my very heart.
My heart makes a noise in me.
I cannot keep silent, because you have heard,
O my soul, the sound of the trumpet,
the alarm of war.
20 📚Destruction on destruction is announced,
for the whole land is ruined.
Suddenly my tents are ruined,
and my curtains in an instant.
21 📚How long will I see the standard,
and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 📚“For my people are foolish;
they have not known me 📖;
they are senseless children,
and they have no understanding.
They are clever in doing evil,
but to do good they have no knowledge”.
23 📚I looked at the earth,
and saw that it was formless
and empty, and the heavens,
and they had no light.
4:23 Jeremiah’s vision seems to go beyond the destruction of Israel by the Babylonians.⚜
24 📚I looked at the mountains,
and saw that they trembled,
and all the hills moved back and forth.
25 📚I looked, and saw that there was
no man,
and all the birds of the heavens had fled.
26 📚I looked, and saw that the fruitful place
was a wilderness,
and all its cities were broken down
at the presence of the LORD,
and by his fierce anger.
4:19-26 Jer 8:21; Lam 2:11. In a vision Jeremiah sees the Babylonian destruction of Israel as though it had actually happened (see note at Isa 55:10-11). And he expresses his terrible grief. Can we not say he expresses God’s grief as well? (See Jer 48:36-39; Gen 6:6-7; 2 Sam 24:16; Luke 19:41-44). God does not punish His people gladly. He is afflicted when they are afflicted (Isa 63:9). In this passage Jeremiah’s heart and God’s heart are united in suffering.⚜
27 📚For thus says the LORD,
“The whole land will be desolate;
yet I will not make a full end.
28 📚For this the earth will mourn,
and the heavens above be black,
because I have spoken it,
I have purposed it,
and will not repent, nor will
I turn back from it.
29 📚“The whole city will flee from the noise
of the horsemen and archers.
They will go into thickets,
and climb up on the rocks.
Every city will be forsaken,
and not a man will live in them.
4:27-29 God would not change His mind unless His people repented, and He knew they would not. Nothing else could avert the coming disaster.⚜
30 📚And when you are ruined,
what will you do?
Though you clothe yourself
with crimson,
though you deck yourself
with gold ornaments,
though you enlarge your eyes
with paint,
you will make yourself beautiful
in vain;
your lovers 📖 will despise you,
they will seek your life.
4:30 The nation of Judah may behave like Jezebel (2 Kings 9:30), but will not escape any more than she did.⚜
31 📚For I have heard a voice like a woman
in labour pains,
and like the anguish of one who
gives birth to her first child,
the voice of the daughter of Zion,
crying out for herself,
spreading her hands and saying,
‘Ah, now woe to me!
For my soul is worn out because
of murderers.’