Jeremiah 15

Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not feel any kindness toward these people. Send them away from me. Let them go.

1Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

Note"Stood before me" is court language: to stand before a king is to plead a case. Moses and Samuel were both remembered as men whose pleading had once turned God's anger away from Israel, so they are named here as the strongest imaginable advocates. Also, where the King James prints LORD in capitals it is standing in for the personal name of Israel's God, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; "Lord" in ordinary letters translates a different word meaning master.

2"And if they ask you, 'Where are we supposed to go?' tell them this is what the LORD says: those meant for death go to death, those meant for the sword go to the sword, those meant for famine go to famine, and those meant for captivity go to captivity.

2And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

NoteThe word behind "death" here is literally "death," but in Jeremiah it regularly names deadly epidemic disease, which is why modern versions render it "plague" or "disease." The four-part list (disease, war, hunger, deportation) is a stock formula in Jeremiah for the whole range of ways a besieged nation dies.

3"I will put four kinds of destroyers in charge of them, says the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag the bodies away, and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth to eat them up and finish them off.

3And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

NoteDogs in this world were not pets but half-wild scavengers around the edges of a town. To be left for dogs and carrion birds instead of being buried was the deepest disgrace an ancient reader could imagine, worse than the death itself.

4"I will make them a thing of horror to every kingdom on earth, because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

4And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

NoteManasseh reigned in Jerusalem for about fifty years, roughly a century before Jeremiah spoke, and was remembered as the king who filled the city with foreign worship and with innocent blood. The point of naming him is that the debt being collected is generations old.

5"Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem? Who will grieve for you? Who will even stop to ask how you are doing?

5For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?

NoteThe last question is literally "turn aside to ask about your peace", the ordinary courtesy of stopping a traveler to ask after their welfare. Jerusalem is pictured as someone lying by the road whom nobody will even greet.

6"You have walked away from me, says the LORD. You keep going backward. So I will reach out my hand against you and destroy you. I am tired of holding back.

6Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.

Note"I am weary with repenting" does not mean God repents of sin. In older English "repent" simply meant to change one's mind or relent, and the line means God is tired of relenting, of drawing back from a punishment already announced.

7"I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will take away their children. I will destroy my own people, because they will not turn back from the way they live.

7And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.

NoteA winnowing fork tossed threshed grain into the wind so the light chaff blew away and the heavy grain fell back. It is an image of sorting and scattering at once. "The gates of the land" are the fortified entry points of the country, the places where an invading army comes in.

8"Their widows have become more to me than the sand of the seas. At noon I brought a destroyer against the mother of the young men. All at once I made anguish and terror fall on her.

8Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

NoteRaids normally came at dawn. A destroyer arriving at noon, in full daylight, means an enemy so confident he does not bother with surprise. "The mother of the young men" is deliberately open in the Hebrew: it can mean mothers who lose their grown sons, or a young man's own mother, and translations differ.

9"The woman who gave birth to seven children grows weak and breathes her last. Her sun goes down while it is still day. She is shamed and humiliated. And whoever is left I will hand over to the sword in front of their enemies, says the LORD."

9She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.

NoteSeven sons was the proverbial mark of a completely blessed woman, so "she that hath borne seven" is the last person anyone expects to be left desolate. "Given up the ghost" is older English for breathed her last, died. A sun setting at midday is an idiom for a life or a fortune cut off long before its time.

10How terrible for me, my mother, that you ever gave birth to me, a man who is fought with and argued with by the whole land. I have not lent money at interest, and no one has lent to me at interest, yet every one of them curses me.

10Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

Note"Usury" in 1611 meant lending at interest of any kind, not the extortionate rates the word suggests today. Money-lending was the classic source of village quarrels, so Jeremiah is saying he has given nobody the ordinary reason to hate him, and is hated anyway. "The whole earth" here means the whole land, his own country.

11The LORD said, "I promise I will set you free for a good purpose. I promise I will make your enemy plead with you in the time of trouble and the time of suffering.

11The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

NoteThis verse is one of the most damaged in the book; the Hebrew is uncertain word by word, and ancient copies disagree. The first line has been read as "I will set you free," "I will strengthen you," and "your remnant will be well." In the second line "entreat thee well" is old English that can mean either that the enemy will treat Jeremiah well or that the enemy will come begging to him.

12"Can anyone break iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

12Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

NoteA riddle, left unexplained in the Hebrew. Ordinary iron cannot break the harder iron that came from the north, and "the north" is also the direction from which Babylon's armies invade throughout this book. What the King James calls "steel" is bronze, an alloy of copper and tin.

13"Your wealth and your treasures I will hand over as loot, at no charge, because of all the sins you have committed inside all your borders.

13Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

Note"Without price" means God gets nothing for it: the nation's wealth is not sold but simply handed over, with no payment and no ransom taken in exchange.

14"I will make you pass over with your enemies into a land you have never known, because my anger has lit a fire that will burn against you."

14And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

NoteThe Hebrew here differs by one letter between copies, giving either "I will make you pass over into a land you do not know" (that is, deport you) or "I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know." The nearly identical line at Jeremiah 17:4 has the second reading.

15LORD, you know how it is. Remember me and take care of me. Pay back the people who are hunting me down. You are patient, but do not be so patient that I am taken away. Understand that I am insulted because of you.

15O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

Note"Visit me" means come to my aid, take notice of my case, not pay a social call. "Revenge me" is older English for avenge me, give me justice against them. "Take me not away in thy longsuffering" is a complaint about God's patience with Jeremiah's enemies: if God waits too long to act, Jeremiah will be dead before help arrives.

16Your words came to me, and I ate them. Your words became the joy and delight of my heart, because I am called by your name, LORD God of the armies of heaven.

16Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

NoteEating a written message is a prophet's image for taking it entirely into himself, so that the words are no longer external instructions but part of him; Ezekiel is told to eat a scroll in the same way. To be "called by your name" means to belong to someone, the way a household or a wife bore the name of its head. "God of hosts" means commander of armies.

17I did not sit in the company of those making merry, and I did not join their celebrating. Because your hand was on me, I sat by myself, since you had filled me with anger.

17I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.

Note"The assembly of the mockers" translates a phrase meaning the circle of people making merry, the ordinary drinking and joking of village life, which the King James word makes sound more malicious than it is. "Thy hand was upon me" is standard prophetic language for the pressure of God's message on a prophet, which here has cut him off from normal company.

18Why does my pain never stop? Why is my wound one that will not heal, that refuses to get better? Will you be to me like a stream that lies, like water that dries up when I need it?

18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

NoteIn this country most streams ran only after the rains and vanished in summer heat, so a traveler who counted on one could arrive to find dry stones. To call God "as waters that fail" is to accuse him of being that kind of stream: there in the season you did not need it, gone in the season you did.

19So this is what the LORD says: "If you come back to me, I will bring you back, and you will stand in my presence. And if you speak what is worth something instead of what is worthless, you will speak for me. Let these people come over to you; do not go over to them.

19Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

Note"Take forth the precious from the vile" is a metalworker's image, separating valuable metal from the worthless dross burned off with it, applied here to speech, so that it means saying what is of value and not what is worthless. "Be as my mouth" means serve as God's spokesman. The last line reverses the ordinary pressure on a prophet to fall in with popular opinion.

20"I will make you a strong bronze wall standing against these people. They will fight against you, but they will not beat you, because I am with you to rescue you and set you free, says the LORD.

20And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

NoteWhat the King James calls "brass" is bronze; brass as we know it did not yet exist. "Fenced" means fortified. A bronze-faced city wall is the strongest thing in the ancient imagination, and Jeremiah is told he will be that wall, not sheltered behind one.

21"I will pull you out of the hand of wicked people, and I will buy you back out of the grip of the cruel."

21And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

Note"Redeem" is a family and market word before it is a religious one: it means buying a relative back out of slavery or debt by paying what is owed. "The terrible" in older English means the terrifying, the ones who inspire dread, not people of poor quality.