15
📚Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be favourable toward this people. Throw them out of my sight, and let them go. 15:1 Moses and Samuel were probably the greatest intercessors for Israel in the whole Old Testament (Ex 32:11-14, 30-34; Num 14:13-23; Deut 9:18-20; 1 Sam 7:5-9; 12:19-25). See Ps 99:6. But the people had become so wicked and rebellious that even the prayers of such men would not save them from destruction and exile.⚜
2 📚And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where will we go?’ that you must tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD,
15:2 God knows whom to appoint for what punishment.⚜
Those who are for death,
to death, and those who are
for the sword,
to the sword, and those who are
for the famine, to the famine,
and those who are for captivity,
to captivity.’
3 📚“And I will appoint over them four kinds of destruction, says the LORD: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 📚And I will make them objects of horror 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,
Jerusalem? Or who will mourn for 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 tired of relenting.
7 📚And I will winnow them with a winnowing
fan at the gates of the land.
I will bereave them of children,
I will destroy my people, since
they do not turn from their ways.
8 📚Their widows will increase
before me more than the sand of the seas.
At midday I will bring a destroyer
on them, against the mothers
of the young men.
I will cause anguish and terror
to fall suddenly on the city.
9 📚She who has given birth to seven
will languish.
She will breathe her last.
Her sun will go down while it is still day.
She will be put to shame and dismay;
and I will deliver the rest of them
to the sword before their enemies,
says the LORD”.
15:5-9 The people refused to repent (v 7). God would no longer have pity on them (v 6; Jer 13:14). Destruction was certain.⚜
10 📚Woe to me, my mother,
that you have given birth 📖 to me,
a man of strife and contention
to the whole land 📖!
I have not lent money on usury,
nor have men lent to me on usury;
yet every one of them curses me.
11 📚The LORD said, “It will certainly be
well with your remnant.
I will certainly cause 📖 the enemy
to treat you well 📖at the time
of disaster and in the time of affliction.
12 📚Can anyone break iron,
the northern iron and the bronze?
13 📚I will give your wealth and your treasures
to plunder without cost,
because of all your sins 📖,
throughout your territories.
14 📚And I will make you go with
your enemies into a land which
you do not know,
for a fire is kindled in my anger that
will burn against you”.
15:12-14 God now speaks to the people of Judah through Jeremiah.⚜
Jeremiah’s prayer and God’s promise
15 📚O LORD, you understand.
Remember me, and look after me,
and avenge me on my persecutors.
Because of your patience do not take
me away.
Know that for your sake
I have suffered rebuke.
15:15 Comforting indeed it is to have a God of tender mercy and patience, Who understands completely and loves eternally.⚜
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 gathering
of the mockers, or rejoice
with them.
I sat alone because of your hand,
for you filled me with indignation.
15:17 The true man of God may be called to a lonely life, the whole world seemingly against him and he alone against the world. Jeremiah did not marry and had few friends. He was filled with anger at the sins of the people and the way they had rebelled against the true and living God.⚜
18 📚Why is my pain without end,
and my wound 📖 incurable?
It refuses to be healed.
Will you be to me like a deceptive stream
whose waters fail 📖?
19 📚Therefore thus says the LORD,
“If you return, then I will restore you,
and you will stand before me;
and if you take out the precious from the vile,
you will be as my mouth.
Let them return to you, but do 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 will not prevail against you,
for I am with you to save you and
to deliver you, says the LORD.
21 📚And I will deliver you out of the hand
of the wicked, and I will redeem you
from the hand of the violent”.
15:19-21 Did Jeremiah need to repent or turn to God anew? Evidently so. He had a tendency to complain against God’s dealings with him, to sink into depression instead of going ahead in living faith. Jeremiah, as all God’s servants, as all of Adam’s descendants, had a sinful nature. The truth of Jer 17:9 applied to him as much as to anyone else. See also Gen 9:21; 12:13; Ex 32:2-4; Num 20:9-12; 2 Sam 11; Matt 26:69-75; Jam 3:2.⚜