Jeremiah 11

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

2"Listen to the words of this agreement, and tell them to the men of Judah and to the people living in Jerusalem.

2Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

Note"Covenant" is the formal, binding agreement made at Mount Sinai after the escape from Egypt, of the kind a king made with a subject people: it set out obligations, and it listed the rewards for keeping them and the penalties for breaking them. The book of Deuteronomy is the version of it Jeremiah's wording echoes throughout this chapter.

3Say to them: This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says. A curse is on the man who does not obey the words of this agreement,

3And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,

Note"Thus saith the LORD" is the standard opening a messenger used when delivering a ruler's words verbatim; it marks what follows as quoted speech, not the speaker's own. The "curse" is not a magic spell but the penalty clause of the agreement, the named consequence a party accepted in advance if he broke the terms.

4the agreement I gave your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of that furnace hot enough to melt iron. I told them: Obey me, and do everything I command you. Then you will be my people, and I will be your God.

4Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:

Note"The iron furnace" is a smelting furnace, in which ore was heated until the metal ran out of it, a standing image for the crushing forced labor of Egypt. "You will be my people, and I will be your God" is legal contract language, close to the wording used in ancient marriage and treaty documents.

5I said this so I could keep the promise I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land rich with milk and honey, the land you hold today." Then I answered, "May it be so, LORD."

5That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

Note"A land flowing with milk and honey" is a set phrase for a fertile country: milk from herds and flocks that always have pasture, and honey most likely wild honey and syrup from dates and figs rather than anything kept in hives. Jeremiah's answer, "So be it," is the Hebrew word *amen*, the formal reply by which a person publicly accepted the terms just read out, including the penalties (see Deuteronomy 27, where the people answer "amen" to each curse in turn).

6Then the LORD said to me, "Announce all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Say: Listen to the words of this agreement, and carry them out.

6Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.

7From the day I brought your ancestors up out of the land of Egypt until this very day, I warned them seriously, over and over, again and again: Obey my voice.

7For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

Note"Rising early" is a Hebrew idiom for doing something urgently and repeatedly, the way a person who cares about a task gets up at dawn to do it; it is not a statement about the time of day. "Protested" here has its older legal sense of solemnly warning someone, not objecting.

8But they did not obey, and they did not pay attention. Each one followed his own stubborn, evil heart. So I brought on them everything this agreement said would happen, because I had commanded them to keep it and they did not."

8Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.

9And the LORD said to me, "There is a plot among the men of Judah and among the people living in Jerusalem.

9And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Note"Conspiracy" translates a word for a sworn political plot, the kind used of officials banding together to assassinate a king. The point is that the abandonment of the agreement is not scattered private failure but something organized and shared.

10They have gone back to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods and served them. The people of Israel and the people of Judah have broken the agreement I made with their ancestors.

10They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

NoteAfter Solomon's death the kingdom split in two: the northern kingdom, called Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital. The north had already been destroyed by Assyria about a century before Jeremiah spoke, which is why naming both together is pointed.

11So this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring a disaster on them that they will not be able to escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not listen to them.

11Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

NoteIn 1611 English "evil" covered disaster and misfortune as well as wickedness, and that is its sense here and in verses 17 and 23: the calamity being brought, not moral badness.

12Then the towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods they burn incense to. But those gods will be no help at all to them when the trouble comes.

12Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

NoteBurning incense was a routine act of worship, not an extra: aromatic gum resin was set alight on an altar so the smoke rose as an offering. To say a city "burns incense" to a god is simply to say it worships that god.

13Judah, you have as many gods as you have towns. And you have set up as many altars to that shameful thing as Jerusalem has streets, altars for burning incense to Baal.

13For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

Note"That shameful thing" renders the Hebrew word *bosheth*, "shame," which scribes and speakers used as a deliberate substitute for the name Baal, much as one might avoid saying a name outright. Baal, the word means "lord" or "master", was the Canaanite storm god held to give rain, crops and offspring, and so the obvious god to appeal to in a farming country.

14So do not pray for these people. Do not lift up any cry or prayer for them, because I will not listen when they call out to me in their time of trouble.

14Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

NoteA prophet was expected to plead with God on the people's behalf; intercession was part of the job, as Moses' and Samuel's stories assume. The instruction not to pray is therefore an order to stop performing the office's normal function.

15What business does the one I love have in my house, when she has done so many shameful things with so many others? Can meat set apart for sacrifice turn your punishment away, so that you can celebrate?

15What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.

Note"My house" is the temple in Jerusalem. "The one I love" is feminine in Hebrew, the nation pictured as a wife, and the "shameful things" she has done are described with the vocabulary of adultery, the standard image for worshiping other gods. "Holy flesh" is meat from an animal sacrifice: portions of many offerings were cooked and eaten by the worshipers as a shared meal. The Hebrew of this verse is damaged and unclear at several points, and ancient translators already disagreed about it; any rendering involves guesswork.

16The LORD once called you a green olive tree, beautiful, loaded with good fruit. But with the noise of a great roar he has set it on fire, and its branches are broken.

16The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

NoteAn olive tree was among the most valuable things a family could own: slow to mature, productive for centuries, and the source of oil for cooking, lamps and trade. Olive wood is also full of oil and burns fiercely, which is what makes the reversal in the second half of the verse bite.

17The LORD of Heaven's Armies, who planted you, has announced disaster against you. This is because of the evil the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done to their own harm, making me angry by burning incense to Baal.

17For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.

Note"The LORD of hosts", hosts meaning armies, is a title picturing God as commander of massed forces, the armies of heaven. It appears wherever the text stresses power to carry out what has been announced.

18The LORD let me know what was going on, so I knew. Then you showed me what they were doing.

18And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.

19I had been like a gentle lamb, or an ox, led away to be killed. I did not know they had made plans against me. They said, "Let us destroy the tree along with its fruit. Let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that no one remembers his name again."

19But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "or an ox" also means "tame" or "docile," which is why some translations read "a gentle lamb" and others, like the King James, take it as a second animal; the ambiguity is in the original. "Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof" appears to be a proverb for wiping out a man together with his offspring. Wiping out a name mattered because a person survived socially through descendants who bore it and remembered him; to be "cut off" without a name left was the most complete erasure available.

20But LORD of Heaven's Armies, you judge fairly, and you test a person's deepest feelings and thoughts. Let me see you pay them back, because I have handed my case over to you.

20But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

Note"The reins" is the old English word for the kidneys. Hebrew located the deepest emotions and impulses in the kidneys and the reasoning will in the heart, so the pair means something like the whole inner person, feelings and intentions alike. "I have revealed my cause" is courtroom language: to lay out one's lawsuit before a judge and leave the verdict to him. "Vengeance" here likewise means a judge's redress, not private revenge.

21So this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth, who want to kill you and who say, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand."

21Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:

NoteAnathoth was Jeremiah's home village, about three miles northeast of Jerusalem, and a town assigned to priests, Jeremiah is introduced in chapter 1 as coming from a priestly family there. The threat is therefore from his own townspeople and relatives.

22This is what the LORD of Heaven's Armies says: I am going to punish them. Their young men will die by the sword. Their sons and daughters will die of hunger.

22Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:

NoteDeath "by the sword" and "by famine" are the two standard outcomes of a siege: fighting men killed in the assault, and the rest starving inside the walls while the city is cut off.

23Not one of them will be left, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year I settle accounts with them.

23And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

Note"Visitation" here means an official coming to inspect and settle accounts, the moment an authority arrives to review conduct and impose consequences, not a friendly visit. "No remnant" means no survivors left to carry the community on.