6
📚“O children of Benjamin,gather yourselves to flee out of the midst
of Jerusalem,
and blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
and set up a signal-fire in Beth-Hakkerem;
for disaster appears out of the north 📖,
and great destruction.
2 📚I have compared the daughter
of Zion to a beautiful and
delicate woman.
3 📚The shepherds 📖 with their flocks will come
to her;
they will pitch their tents against her
all around;
each of them will pasture in his place”.
4 📚“Prepare war against her! Arise,
and let us go up at noon.
Woe to us! for the day passes away,
for the shadows of the evening
are lengthened.
5 📚Arise, and let us go by night,
and let us destroy her palaces”.
6:4-5 This is the voice of the enemy invaders.⚜
6 📚For thus the LORD of hosts has said:
“Cut down trees, and throw up
a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city to be punished;
she is full of oppression
to the center.
6:6 Signifies God’s permission to the enemy to attack Jerusalem.⚜
7 📚As a fountain pours out its waters,
so she pours out her wickedness.
Violence and plundering are heard in her.
Grief and wounds are continually
before me.
6:7 Outwardly Jerusalem may be “beautiful” and “delicate” (v 2), but in God’s eyes she was filthy and sick to the point of death.⚜
8 📚Be instructed, O Jerusalem,
so that I do not depart from you,
so that I do not make you desolate,
a land not inhabited”.
9 📚Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“They will thoroughly glean the remnant
of Israel like a vine. Put your hand back
into the branches like a grape gatherer”.
6:9 That is, few of the people would be left.⚜
10 📚To whom will I speak, and give warning,
that they may hear? See,
their ear is not circumcised 📖,
and they cannot listen.
See, the word of the LORD is an
object of scorn to them;
they have no delight in it.
6:10 Jeremiah speaks and reveals the sadness of his heart (and of the hearts of all of Christ’s true spokesmen when people will not obey the word of God).⚜
11 📚Therefore I am full of the fury
of the LORD;
I am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out on the children outside,
and on the young men gathered together;
for even the husband will be taken
with the wife,
the aged with him who is full
of days.
6:11 Jer 15:17; 20:9. In the first part of the verse Jeremiah still speaks. He is experiencing God’s anger against the people and he is filled with an overflowing zeal for God’s name. Then God tells him not to try to hold it in but to speak it out and so pave the way for God’s judgments to follow (v 12).⚜
12 📚And their houses will be turned
over to others,
together with their fields and wives;
for I will stretch out my hand
on the inhabitants of the land”,
says the LORD.
13 📚“For from the least of them to the greatest
of them everyone is greedy for gain;
and from the prophet to the priest everyone
deals falsely.
14 📚They lightly heal the hurt
of the daughter
of my people, saying,
‘Peace, peace’, when there is no peace.
15 📚Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed,
nor could they blush.
Therefore they will fall among those
who fall.
At the time that I punish them
they will be thrown down”,
says the LORD.
6:15 Their conduct is extremely abominable because they keep people in ignorance and make them ripe for God’s judgment.⚜
16 📚Thus says the LORD,
“Stand by the roads and see,
and ask for the old paths 📖,
where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 📚Also I set watchmen over you,
saying, ‘Listen for the sound
of the trumpet.’ But they said,
‘We will not listen.’
18 📚Therefore hear, you nations,
and know, O congregation,
what is among them.
19 📚Hear, O earth! See,
I will bring disaster on this people,
the fruit of their plans, because
they have not listened to my words,
or to my law, but rejected it.
6:17-19 What could God have done to save His people when they repeatedly refused to listen to Him? There remained only just judgment.⚜
20 📚To what purpose does incense come
to me from Sheba,
and sweet cane from a far country?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
nor your sacrifices sweet to me”.
6:20 In spite of their wicked rebellion against God the people kept up some form of religion. But God will not accept such. See 1 Sam 15:22-23; Ps 50:7-23; Isa 1:10-17; Ps 51:17; Micah 6:8. Worship without obedience to His Word, and religion added on to a sinful life are detestable to God.⚜
21 📚Therefore thus says the LORD,
“See, I will lay stumbling blocks
before this people,
and the fathers and the sons
will fall on them together.
The neighbour and his friend
will perish”.
22 📚Thus says the LORD, “See,
a people is coming from the north country,
and a great nation is being raised up
from the ends of the earth.
23 📚They will take hold of bow
and spear;
they are cruel and have
no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
and they ride on horses,
as men of war set in array
against you,
O daughter of Zion”.
24 📚We have heard of its fame.
Our hands have become feeble.
Anguish and pain have seized us,
like a woman in labour.
6:24 Jer 4:31. Words of Judah facing the Babylonians.⚜
25 📚Do not go out into the field,
or walk by the road;
for the sword of the enemy and fear
are on every side.
26 📚O daughter of my people,
tie sackcloth on yourselves,
and roll in ashes.
Mourn in most bitter lamentation,
as for an only son,
for the despoiler will suddenly
come on us.
27 📚“I have appointed you as
a tower and a fortress
among my people,
so that you may know and test
their way.
28 📚They are all stubborn rebels,
going about with slanders.
They are brass and iron.
They are all corrupters.
29 📚The bellows blow fiercely;
the lead is consumed by the fire;
the smelter refines in vain, because
the wicked are not purged out”.
30 📚People will call them
rejected silver,
because the LORD has rejected them.
6:27-30 Here God speaks to Jeremiah. The word of God which Jeremiah spoke was that which tested the people. That word was like a fire – Jer 5:14; 20:9; 23:29. Unfortunately, in this refining process, no true gold, no true silver appeared. The wicked would not repent, the hardened rebels would not melt. The Lord rejected them as something worthless.⚜