Category Archives: Jeremiah

Jeremiah 32: Purchasing a Field During the Siege

Jeremiah 32: 1-15: The Purchase of the Field

Orthodox Icon of the Prophet Jeremiah

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, 3 where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say: Thus says the LORD: I am going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; 4 King Zedekiah of Judah shall not escape out of the hands of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye; 5 and he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I attend to him, says the LORD; though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed?”
6 Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me:7 Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.” 8 Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
9 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13 In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

The first two verses of the chapter fix the context of when this prophetic action takes place, during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian forces while Jeremiah has been placed under arrest for his prophecy. Jeremiah’s words have been heard by the king enough that he can parrot them back to Jeremiah, and what I believe is the dominant question of the chapter comes out for the first time: Why? From the king’s mouth to Jeremiah: Why have you said these things. For Jeremiah his calling doesn’t give him a choice in this matter, there are many times Jeremiah would have preferred to stay silent but the words were like burning fire within him (Jeremiah 20: 9-10).
While Jeremiah is in the court of the guard the word of the Lord comes to him telling him that he is to redeem a piece of property from a relative. This concrete action of what seems like foolishness becomes an action of hope. Jeremiah publicly purchases the field of Hanamel in Anathoth, his hometown, a place where he has met opposition in the past but it is the land of his family and he redeems it. In a time of siege this would be a questionable investment, but there is the obligation to ensure the land remains in the family as well as the word of the Lord commanding Jeremiah to purchase this field. For this to happen the action must come to Jeremiah and Jeremiah is surprised when Hanamel comes. Perhaps Jeremiah has been charged with a proclamation of destruction, a proclamation that went against the cheap hope of many other prophets of his day, that this message from the Lord seems so out of step with his previous messages. Hanamel’s coming confirms the word of the Lord and Jeremiah seals the deal, weighing out the silver, signing the deed, getting witnesses to ensure it is a public and legal act. Jeremiah has the deed placed in an earthenware jug to be preserved for the end of the exile, but the action signals for Jeremiah and the people that in the midst of the death and destruction of the siege that the coming exile is not ultimate, the people will return and life will return to normal.

Jeremiah 32: 16-42: Jeremiah’s Prayer and the Lord’s Answer

16 After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying: 17 Ah Lord GOD! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show steadfast love to the thousandth generation, but repay the guilt of parents into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of hosts, 19 great in counsel and mighty in deed; whose eyes are open to all the ways of mortals, rewarding all according to their ways and according to the fruit of their doings. 20 You showed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all humankind, and have made yourself a name that continues to this very day. 21 You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror; 22 and you gave them this land, which you swore to their ancestors to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; 23 and they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or follow your law; of all you commanded them to do, they did nothing. Therefore you have made all these disasters come upon them. 24 See, the siege ramps have been cast up against the city to take it, and the city, faced with sword, famine, and pestilence, has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has happened, as you yourself can see. 25 Yet you, O Lord GOD, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”– though the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans.
26 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 27 See, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore, thus says the LORD: I am going to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall take it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come, set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and libations have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 30 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; the people of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, says the LORD. 31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built until this day, so that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the people of Israel and the people of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger– they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the citizens of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I have taught them persistently, they would not listen and accept correction. 34 They set up their abominations in the house that bears my name, and defiled it. 35 They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter my mind that they should do this abomination, causing Judah to sin.
36 Now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, “It is being given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence”: 37 See, I am going to gather them from all the lands to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation; I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. 38 They shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for all time, for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
42 For thus says the LORD: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good fortune that I now promise them. 43 Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, It is a desolation, without human beings or animals; it has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans. 44 Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, of the hill country, of the Shephelah, and of the Negeb; for I will restore their fortunes, says the LORD.

Now it is Jeremiah asking why, we hear his prayer narrated much like a Psalm or many of the other prayers in the Hebrew Scriptures where the way God has acted in the past is lifted up as a prologue, preparing the way for the question to be asked. Jeremiah in this narration reminds himself and God who God is, how God has acted and the frame in which he views God’s action (God’s actions in bringing the people of Judah under siege by Babylon are directly linked to the continuing disobedience and idolatry of the people over a span of generations). Jeremiah’s why in all of this is simple, Jeremiah wants to know why, at this very moment of judgment, has Jeremiah been commanded to buy a field, an act of hope in a time of hopelessness. The Lord’s answer does indeed confirm that the disobedience and idolatry has led to the siege and the upcoming exile, but a return is in the future. The Lord indeed will gather the people from all the places they have been scattered, the social and economic life of the nation will resume and like in chapter 32 the language of covenant returns. “I will make an everlasting covenant with them. (40) There will be another great reveral, misfortune will be transformed into fortune, in a place of death life will be reborn, disobedient hearts will have the fear of the Lord placed within them, and in Jeremiah’s actions we see the prefiguring of the return here at the beginning of the exile.

Jeremiah 31: Out of the Nightmare A Dream For A New Future

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Jeremiah 31: 1-14: The Poet’s Hope

James Tissot, The Flight of the Prisoners

At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus says the LORD:
The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
3 the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!
Again you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim:
“Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.”
7 For thus says the LORD: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel.”
8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back,
I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;
for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.”
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.
13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty,
says the LORD.

Chapters 30 and 31 are together a part of the book of consolation in Jeremiah and they along with the chapters that follow are brought together by the editor of the book (remember Jeremiah is assembled in a non-linear fashion jumping throughout times of his ministry) as the heart of the prophet’s hope. Where one places these chapters in Jeremiah’s story matters greatly for how you understand the prophet. If, like Rabbi Lau, you place these chapters at the beginning of Jeremiah’s calling (Lau, 2013, pp. 22-28) you see him ending his ministry in a place of hopelessness. It may reflect a personal bias to want to see hope at the end of the story, but I tend to see this emerging, much like what is often referred to by scholars as second Isaiah (Isaiah beginning at chapter 40) in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s destruction and in the midst of exile.

These chapters are some of the more familiar chapters of Jeremiah, probably because they are the most hopeful. Although Jeremiah probably has a framework for understanding the way God is at work in the world Jeremiah does not write as a systematic theologian but more as a poet and a prophet. As Brueggemann states eloquently:

Clearly the prophet is not a systematic theologian, but a poet who lives very close to the hurts and hopes of God’s own heart. It is God’s heart made visible here which gives Israel a new chance in the future. (Brueggemann, 1998, p. 282)

And as a poet, Jeremiah lapse into the language like that of the Psalmist, recasting the events of the Exodus and pointing toward a new future on the other side of exile. God’s judgment is not to be misunderstood as an abandonment of God’s faithfulness. The current time of mourning and lamenting is not the permanent state, dancing and rejoicing will return. The experience of ending will make a place for a new beginning. The lame and the blind, those with children and those in labor, the weeping: all those who have been looked upon as weak and worthless in the eyes of the nation will be brought back to a place where they are valued by God. A new day will dawn, a new beginning and there will be an abundance where now the people know scarcity and deprivation. Even Ephraim, northern Israel gone into exile many years earlier than Judah will know the return and the Lord will reunite the long divided nation.
It is the language of poetry and utopia, projecting a future that is not there which can be dreamed and hoped for and infects the present of hopelessness with new possibilities. Does it ever occur exactly as the poet sees, if we look at second temple Israel we would have to honestly answer no, at least not in the way that many envisioned. Yet, if this is from the time of the exile, the prophet was able to emerge from the desolation of despair brought on by the destruction of the world around him into the hope of a new future under the promise of God.

Jeremiah 31: 15-22: Wiping Away Mother Rachel’s Tears

Francois-Joseph Navez, the Massacre of the Innocents 1824

15 Thus says the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
16 Thus says the LORD: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work, says the LORD:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
17 there is hope for your future, says the LORD:
your children shall come back to their own country.
18 Indeed I heard Ephraim pleading: “You disciplined me, and I took the discipline;
I was like a calf untrained. Bring me back, let me come back, for you are the LORD my God.
19 For after I had turned away I repented; and after I was discovered, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was dismayed because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he the child I delight in?
As often as I speak against him, I still remember him.
Therefore I am deeply moved for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the LORD.
21 Set up road markers for yourself, make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway, the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities.
22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth:
a woman encompasses a man.

Continuing on with the poetic recasting of the present in terms of the past, Jeremiah harkens back to the ancient figure of Rachel, the favored wife of Israel and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin (and because of this associated with Northern Israel or Ephraim). She takes on a representative role mourning the lost generations of the children of Israel who have seen so much war and desolation, heartbreak and homelessness. Like a mother grieving the loss of a child who is inconsolable she represents the people who have lost their identity, loved ones and many of them perhaps their children as well. Rachel’s grief also plugs in to the grief of both the prophet and God. God takes on a fatherly type identity with the people of Israel, and the people of Israel take on the role of the prodigal son who the father is waiting to welcome home. The road for Israel to return is poetically opened in the words of the prophet and yet, as will happen among the people when the opportunity comes to return under the Persian empire, the is a reluctance. God shows an openness to do something new out of the desolation of the past and the present and to create hope in a time of hopelessness.
For Christians this passage of Jeremiah has a second recasting when it is placed by Matthew into the story of King Herod the Great’s slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem.

16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled,
because they are no more.”
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,
Matthew 2: 16-19

The evangelist Matthew, like Jeremiah and many other faithful Jewish people before him goes back into the language of the story of God’s interaction with Israel to make sense of events in his own time. Here, appropriately, Matthew is able to find hope in the senseless violence of a king. Matthew is also very keen to tell the story of Jesus intentionally as the story of the people of Israel and finding points of resonance between the scripture and the story of Jesus. In neither case does the hope for the future erase the disaster of the past or the present of the stories, but rather it points to a reality that the disaster is not the final answer.

Jeremiah 31: 23-30: From Blessing to Curse

23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its towns when I restore their fortunes:
“The LORD bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!”
24 And Judah and all its towns shall live there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks.
25 I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish.
26 Thereupon I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
27 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 28 And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. 29 In those days they shall no longer say:
“The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
30 But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

The poetic language of reversals continues in this vision of return where the God of Israel restores the fortunes of the people who seem to have lost everything. The city of Jerusalem and specifically the temple are blessed again. Judah is now safe and secure, farmers return to their fields to bring in the harvest, shepherds have returned to the pastureland. Israel and Judah are replanted and growing healthily and God is watching over the growth. For it seems, perhaps the nightmare the prophet has lived has come to an end and the prophet can finally rest peacefully. No longer will the current generation bear the weight of the unfaithfulness of the previous generations, but now there is the chance for a new beginning where they will have a new chance at a new beginning in their covenant with God. It is the language of new beginnings, but it is always a beginning in a relationship, in a covenant with the God who desires nothing more than to be their God and for them to be God’s people.

Jeremiah 31: 31-34: The Torah Written on their Heart

Ancient Olive Tree in Pelion, Greece

31 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt– a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

For Christians, this is the most commonly heard piece of Jeremiah with its image of the law written on the heart and new covenant. Because it is so familiar and so often heard extracted from the wider context of Jeremiah it is often easily applied to either a supercessionist (Christians as the new covenant, the Jewish people as the old covenant-highlighted by the use of Old Testament, New Testament) or particularly for American Christians steeped in individuality, a very individualistic and judgmental reading. Jeremiah is writing this to the Hebrew people in exile about the opening and hope that God has granted them for a new beginning, a new start in their covenant relationship. It is a new start where the past is forgiven, the law is known by all and written on their heart rather than being the prerogative of the elite (kings and priests) to verbalize. Knowledge and access to God is also no longer restricted to the priests but now all are enabled to know the Lord.
That doesn’t mean that these words are meaningless for Christians, as those grafted onto the olive tree, to use the Apostle Paul’s evocative image in Romans 12, we too are brought into this covenant relationship in a new way. Our being grafted in does not eliminate the natural branches, but just as Jeremiah’s language talks about is entirely the prerogative of the God who cares for God’s covenant peoples. Just as Matthew was able to interpret the words of Jeremiah 31: 15 to reflect the needs of his time we also are able to hear Jeremiah’s words and the similar images in Ezekiel as opportunities where God’s covenant can become as natural as the heartbeat that makes our lives possible and we can all have access to the God who makes new beginnings possible, from the greatest to the least.

Jeremiah 31: 35-40: The Expansion of the City

James Tissot, Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod, painted between 1886 and 1894

35 Thus says the LORD,
who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar– the LORD of hosts is his name:
36 If this fixed order were ever to cease from my presence, says the LORD,
then also the offspring of Israel would cease to be a nation before me forever.
37 Thus says the LORD: If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all they have done, says the LORD.
38 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Wadi Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall never again be uprooted or overthrown.

The hope for home is a powerful hope. Jeremiah’s images of hope are grounded in a physical place, the city of Jerusalem and the territory of Judah and here the concrete image of the city being rebuilt and God now dwelling in the midst of the city again. In the midst of this image of the city which is rebuilt bigger and better than before is the promise of God’s unfaithfulness. Finally God’s wrath has passed and is overtaken by God’s love which is greater. God has never stopped loving the people, never abandoned them and it is only in the unmeasurable could be measured, the unending would end that God would abandon the covenant people. The poetry brings together the past and the future longing for the dreams of what will be emerging out of the ashes of the nightmare of the recent past. The God of new creation is opening the eyes of the prophet to see something new and finally the long years of despair give birth to hope and promise.

Jeremiah 30: Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness

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Jeremiah 30: 1-11: Judgment Will Not Last Forever

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors and they shall take possession of it.
4 These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah:
5 Thus says the LORD:
We have heard a cry of panic,
of terror, and no peace.
6 Ask now, and see, can a man bear a child?
Why then do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor?
Why has every face turned pale?
7 Alas! that day is so great there is none like it;
it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be rescued from it.
8 On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will break the yoke from off his neck, and I will burst his bonds, and strangers shall no more make a servant of him. 9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
10 But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, says the LORD,
and do not be dismayed, O Israel; for I am going to save you from far away,
and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and no one shall make him afraid.
11 For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you;
I will make an end of all the nations among which I scattered you,
but of you I will not make an end.
I will chastise you in just measure,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Chapters 30-33 of the book of Jeremiah are chapters of hope, it is not the easy pie in the sky, everything is going to turn out all right kind of hope, but it is a hard won hope born out of the disappointment and heartbreak of the exile and the ending of the misconceptions of privilege that come with the collapse of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Davidic Monarchy. The events that have occurred in the Near East, with the rise of Babylon, the conquering of Judea and Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple: all of this is interpreted theologically by Jeremiah. As the people find themselves in exile, beyond the ends of their strength where the military leaders find themselves powerless, compared to women in labor, in the double play of this metaphor that precisely in their powerlessness and their inability to bring something new to birth, the God of Israel is working to do just that. This is not the far too hasty breaking of the yoke of Babylon we saw attempted by Hananiah in chapter 28, but the breaking of the bonds at the time God has appointed. God’s judgment for the people in Jeremiah is not easy, it is not cheap, but it is also not without end. God will again show compassion and mercy to God’s people. God will not let what appears to be the end of the Davidic line or the destruction of the temple be the end of the Jewish people’s identity as the people of God.

Jeremiah 30: 12-24: The Turning in God

Nehemiah View the Ruins of jerusalem’s Walls, Gustav Dore 1866

12 For thus says the LORD:
Your hurt is incurable, your wound is grievous.
13 There is no one to uphold your cause,
no medicine for your wound, no healing for you.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you;
for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe,
because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous.
15 Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable.
Because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous,
I have done these things to you.
16 Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured,
and all your foes, everyone of them, shall go into captivity;
those who plunder you shall be plundered,
and all who prey on you I will make a prey.
17 For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the LORD,
because they have called you an outcast: “It is Zion; no one cares for her!”
18 Thus says the LORD: I am going to restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob,
and have compassion on his dwellings;
the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound, and the citadel set on its rightful site.
19 Out of them shall come thanksgiving, and the sound of merrymakers.
I will make them many, and they shall not be few;
I will make them honored, and they shall not be disdained.
20 Their children shall be as of old, their congregation shall be established before me;
and I will punish all who oppress them.
21 Their prince shall be one of their own, their ruler shall come from their midst;
I will bring him near, and he shall approach me,
for who would otherwise dare to approach me? says the LORD.
22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
23 Look, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand this.

There is a sense of justice that undergirds the book of Jeremiah that the guilty will be punished, that goes back to the Mosaic memory and covenantal understanding that Jeremiah understands the world through. The punishment had come, but it is not final or ultimate. There is an ending, a rescue. This is by no means cheap, it takes a generation in exile, a complete reconfiguration of the people’s identity of what it means to be the covenant people of God without the land, temple, king. In this time of exile they return to the promise and calling of their identity, they become truly a people of the book as they record their stories and the promises and covenant of God into many of the books that will make up the Hebrew Bible. On their own they are in an incurable state, there is no balm in Gilead that will heal their sin sick souls, yet they now rely upon the turning of God’s compassion to them. Like when their ancestors remembered the captivity in Egypt and God’s hearing of their cry, now the people of God in exile in Babylon rely upon their Lord hearing their cries in their displacement and oppression. As Walter Brueggemann says very well:

 Nothing has changed about the propensity of Israel. Israel is still guilty, is still sick, still under threat. Everything however has changed about God….The Indignant One has become the compassionate One. God who would abandon Judah is now prepared to intervene to save Judah. The poem traced in dramatic fashion, albeit with elliptical articulation, the transformation of God from enemy to advocate. (Brueggemann, 1998, p. 277)

God’s wrath has now turned from the people of Israel’s to the oppressors of Israel, and in the compassion of God there is the hope for the return home, for a new identity as the people of God and for a future beyond the crisis of the exile.

Jeremiah 29: A Letter to the Exiles and the Recurring False Prophets

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Letter to the Exiles

Jeremiah 29
These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: 4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD.
10 For thus says the LORD: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
15 Because you have said, “The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,”– 16 Thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who live in this city, your kinsfolk who did not go out with you into exile: 17 Thus says the LORD of hosts, I am going to let loose on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. 18 I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of cursing, and horror, and hissing, and a derision among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they did not heed my words, says the LORD, when I persistently sent to you my servants the prophets, but they would not listen, says the LORD. 20 But now, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon, hear the word of the LORD:

The beginning of this chapter spends a long time situating when this letter is sent by royal courier to the people (predominantly the elites of Judean society) already in exile in Babylon after the first deportation in 597 BCE and the second invasion and massive deportation in 586 BCE. Here in the beginning of chapter 29 we can see some glimmers of hope for those already in Babylon. The Jewish people in Babylon now are charged with constructing their identity in the midst of exile, of getting on with their lives: planting gardens, building homes, getting married and having children for this will not be a short exile. They are to learn how to be the people of God as a minority culture in a very different culture. In their time they are to learn to embrace the exile as the place where God has placed them, that this is indeed from God and to oppose the exile is to oppose God. Also there is a hope in the long term for a restoration to their homeland, but the time is not near and certainly not now. For those already in exile Jeremiah writes a letter intending to bring comfort.
The Babylonian exile is a very productive time for the exiles, most scholars agree that this is when much of the Hebrew Bible reaches its final form. There are still books written after the exile, but being a conquered people in a foreign land caused the people to bring the traditions together to pass on their identity to their children and their children’s children. They became for the first time people of the book, rather than people of the land or oriented around the temple or the city of the Davidic dynasty. In particular these elites who are taken away in the first exile are the bearers of the hope for the future and, despite appearance to the contrary, are objects of God’s affection. Even in exile they are still the chosen people and they have a calling in the exile.
Even in exile they are to be a blessing to the nation they are exiled to. They have to learn how to be faithful to their identity as people of God, and that involves also seeking the well-being (shalom) of the city they are sent to. In contrast to the message they may be hearing from their own kin still in Jerusalem and Judah, they are bearers of God’s blessing. Those still in Judah and Jerusalem still have very dark days ahead, there is still more judgment before they can receive the consolation in the exile, but for those already in the exile they can begin the process of settling into their identity in the midst of the empire. Moving on with their lives in a new place, finding their new identity and holding fast to the covenant and promise that God intends for them.

More False Prophets

21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: I am going to deliver them into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall kill them before your eyes. 22 And on account of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,” 23 because they have perpetrated outrage in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them; I am the one who knows and bears witness, says the LORD.
24 To Shemaiah of Nehelam you shall say: 25 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: In your own name you sent a letter to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying, 26 The LORD himself has made you priest instead of the priest Jehoiada, so that there may be officers in the house of the LORD to control any madman who plays the prophet, to put him in the stocks and the collar. 27 So now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who plays the prophet for you? 28 For he has actually sent to us in Babylon, saying, “It will be a long time; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat what they produce.”
29 The priest Zephaniah read this letter in the hearing of the prophet Jeremiah. 30 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 31 Send to all the exiles, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and has led you to trust in a lie, 32 therefore thus says the LORD: I am going to punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants; he shall not have anyone living among this people to see the good that I am going to do to my people, says the LORD, for he has spoken rebellion against the LORD.

Even in the midst of this time between the exile we continue to see false prophets who will continue to encourage a false version of hope. Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah are the latest examples mentioned. Ahab and Zedekiah are mentioned at the end of the letter that begins the chapter while Shemaiah is mentioned in a second letter included in the chapter. The accusations against Zedekiah and Ahab also include personal accusations of morality as well (committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives) and while we will never know about what actually happened to these false prophets spoken of only here their punishment is one of particular horror (being roasted on the fire). Shemaiah once again tries to get Jeremiah punished for speaking words that would have been considered treasonous by many of his contemporaries. Jeremiah we see again at least has some who listen to him or respect him. Zephaniah reads to Jeremiah the letter and Jeremiah is captured again by the word of the Lord and utters condemnation against Shemaiah. These false messengers continue to confuse the people and allow them to hear the words that are more palatable and trust in them even when they are not true. In our own context there are many times I could point to where pundits or politicians or even religious leaders have obscured or overstated ideas that fit their view of the way things were or told people what they wanted to hear. But for those who claim the role of prophets their words are to come from God even when the message God has is one nobody seems to want to hear.

Jeremiah 28: The True and the False Prophet

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The Breaking of Jeremiah’s Yoke by Hananiah

Jeremiah 28

In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD; 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles. 7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”
10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, and broke it.
11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: This is how I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” At this, the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
12 Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the LORD: You have broken wooden bars only to forge iron bars in place of them! 14 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations so that they may serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they shall indeed serve him; I have even given him the wild animals. 15 And the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD: I am going to send you off the face of the earth. Within this year you will be dead, because you have spoken rebellion against the LORD.”
17 In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.
Like the previous chapter this occurs in the time of King Zedekiah, the king appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar after the initial exile of the nobles and elites in 596 BCE. It is a time where the Kingdom of Judah has already suffered one defeat at the hands of the Babylonians and Jeremiah’s words have been shown to be a more accurate reading of the times than the many other prophets around him, yet even in a time of defeat the withdrawing of Babylonian forces and the rise of a new Egyptian dynasty leads to a political and religious resurgence of the ideology that the Kingdom of Judah, the temple and Jerusalem are the chosen people because of the Davidic king, the temple and the city of David not because of the covenant they are called to live out of. It is a time where there remain powerful competing visions of what it means to be the people of God, and where prophets have very different messages.
Hananiah son of Azzur proclaims a message that people want to hear, that their time of punishment is over, that the vessels of the temple taken away from Jerusalem will soon be returned along with the King Jeconiah and the other leaders taken into exile. It is a message of hope in a time of confusion and chaos and it is a message that even Jeremiah would rather hear, but Jeremiah also knows it runs counter to his experience of God’s message. The prophet Hananiah acts in visual ways similar to Jeremiah. Jeremiah wears the yoke symbolizing the domination of King Nebuchadnezzar being a divinely allowed reign. Hananiah shatters that yoke as a symbol of the ending of that reign.
For the people how do they tell a false from a true prophet? Ultimately it is only once their words become reality, especially for the prophet of hope and peace. For the prophets who prophesy destruction that never comes there is the reality expressed by the prophet Joel:
Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who know whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind. Joel 2: 13b-14a
We have seen throughout Jeremiah that God’s desire is to turn, but at this point the people have crossed a threshold where there is no immediate return. Jeremiah’s words, although unheard, are meant to bring about repentance in the hope of averting an even greater disaster. Hananiah’s words bring a comfortable lie which allows people to trust in a false promise and ideology which leads them once more into conflict with Babylon and into the greater exile of 586 BCE.
Jeremiah’s words and prophecy would have been unsettling and unpopular and treasonous, but that doesn’t mean they were untrue. In many times, including our own, it is often easier to speak the easy lie that doesn’t challenge anyone’s preconceptions than the hard truth. We have seen in previous chapters that speaking as a prophet has a high price for those prophets who come in conflict with the royal and priestly authorities of Jeremiah’s time. Yet for Jeremiah his calling places him between the God who will not be taken for granted and the shepherds who have led the flock astray. Yet Jeremiah continues his impassioned plea to attempt to prevent the destruction of the city, temple and people he loves. Yet, the people to use the poetic language of the gospel of John’s prologue:
He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him John 1:11
Yet the easy truth covered the harsh reality, the promised return to independence combined with political allegiances to Egypt and other regional kingdoms would only exchange the wooden yoke for an iron yoke, allegiance to Babylon while remaining in the land to the harsh reality of exile in a foreign land.

Jeremiah 27: The Yoke of Babylon

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Weigel Engraving, Hananiah and Jeremiah

In the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD. ² Thus the LORD said to me: Make yourself a yoke of straps and bars, and put them on your neck. ³ Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah. ⁴ Give them this charge for their masters: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: ⁵ It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever I please. ⁶ Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him. ⁷ All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.

⁸ But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says the LORD, until I have completed its destruction by his hand. ⁹ You, therefore, must not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁰ For they are prophesying a lie to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will perish. ¹¹ But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, says the LORD, to till it and live there.

¹² I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. ¹³ Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are telling you not to serve the king of Babylon, for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁵ I have not sent them, says the LORD, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.

¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, “The vessels of the LORD’s house will soon be brought back from Babylon,” for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? ¹⁸ If indeed they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, then let them intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. ¹⁹ For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, ²⁰ which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem– ²¹ thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay, until the day when I give attention to them, says the LORD. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.

The NRSV corrects the text since the context set for Jeremiah’s actions are almost universally accepted to be during the reign of King Zedekiah after the exile of Jeconiah and many of the elites in the land. In this context where Zedekiah is ruling over the remnant in the time before the much larger Babylonian exile of 586 BCE, so the prophets actions are in the time of Zedekiah rather than Jeconiah. At some time during this ten year span there is some type of regional meeting of the envoys of the nations of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites,Tyre and Sidon with the king of Judah, most likely to discuss how they are going to respond to the continued domination of the Babylonian empire. Would the regional kings perhaps ally themselves with a resurgent Egypt, would they rebel against Babylon or would they submit to the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar? We know from a viewpoint removed from history that Judah would set a policy that would rely on Egypt and eventually provoke the wrath of Babylon leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the nation.

In a symbolic act Jeremiah wears a yoke around his neck commanding not only Judah, but the other representatives at the regional summit to submit to Babylon’s rule. The message goes to the nation, to the king of Judah and then to the priests and all the people. The strong claim that God is behind the power of the empire of Babylon and that at least for this time to oppose Nebuchadnezzar is to oppose God’s will and to invite disaster. Nebuchadnezzar is given control of not only the nations but even the wild animals of the field as for the time being all creation seems to have a pro-Babylonian tilt. Yet, this is not an unqualified endorsement of the Babylonian or any other empire since God’s favor is only for a time, yet to the generation in this time prior to the final exile it must have seemed like an eternity. Apparently, as we have seen elsewhere in Jeremiah, there are other prophets declaring that even after this first defeat the time is rapidly approaching where the furnishings of the house of God will represent a return to power for the people of Judah. These other prophets are saying hope is on the horizon, but for Jeremiah even now hope is a long way off. The hope of these false prophets is a false hope, that rather than things getting better Jeremiah is trying to prevent what remains of the temple from being taken as the spoils of yet another Babylonian invasion. Jeremiah’s voice goes unheard, the temple and the city a sacked, and the people like the remaining treasures of the Lord’s house are taken to Babylon where they stay until the end of the exile as appointed by the Lord.

Jeremiah 26 The Prophet, the Temple and the Elders

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Jeremiah 26: 1-19 The Prophet, the Temple and the Elders

Ilya Repin, Cry of the Prophet Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem (1870)

At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came from the LORD: ² Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD; speak to them all the words that I command you; do not hold back a word. ³ It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn from their evil way, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings. ⁴ You shall say to them: Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, ⁵ and to heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently– though you have not heeded– ⁶ then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

⁷ The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. ⁸ And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! ⁹ Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

¹⁰ When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the LORD. ¹¹ Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

¹² Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “It is the LORD who sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. ¹³ Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will change his mind about the disaster that he has pronounced against you. ¹⁴ But as for me, here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. ¹⁵ Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

¹⁶ Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.” ¹⁷ And some of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembled people, ¹⁸ “Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied during the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’ ¹⁹ Did King Hezekiah of Judah and all Judah actually put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and did not the LORD change his mind about the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster on ourselves!”

This passage is traditionally linked with the ‘Temple Sermon of Jeremiah’ in Jeremiah 7 and into chapter 8 based on the dating and the circumstances lined out in the first lines. Jeremiah goes into the temple, the heart of the royal and priestly justification of the people’s favored status and compares the temple to Shiloh, which was an earlier site of the tabernacle site in the time of 1 Samuel. The prophet calls the people back to the two sided covenant of Deuteronomy, ‘If you will do these things, then you will be blessed, if you will not do these things you will be cursed.’ Since the construction of the temple by Solomon there has been a critique of the possibility of relying solely on the temple for maintaining the people’s status with God. For example when God answers Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 9, it relates the answer as this:

² the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. ⁴ As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, ⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. ⁸ This house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the LORD has brought this disaster upon them.'” (1Kings 9:2-9)

Yet in the time of King Jehoiakim this way of understanding the covenant with God is either forgotten or neglected. For the prophet claims of obedience to God’s law/Torah are more important than any human authority. This undercuts the certitude of not only Jehoiakim, but particularly here the priests in the temple where Jeremiah makes his proclamation. Their lives are invested in the maintaining of the centrality of the temple worship and the proclamation of the prophet threatens not only their temple with its words but their livelihood. The react quickly and harshly demanding the death of Jeremiah because he has spoken against the temple and the city and bring him before the leadership of the city. It is a tense picture painted where the priest and temple authorities and the crowd have surrounded the prophet and the city leaders quickly move to bring calm to the situation and hold judgment in the case of this troublesome prophet.

For his part, Jeremiah denies nothing that he is accused of and yet he claims his role as a prophet of God speaking on God’s behalf and still in the hope of both the prophet and God that the people will hear and turn from their ways. What the priests have heard as condemnation is from Jeremiah’s perspective a hope for turning and rescue by God, but the words have fallen on unreceptive ears. Jeremiah knows that his life rests in these officials’ hands and yet he warns them that if they take his life they will be liable for innocent blood.

The elder’s rely on the precedence of Micah, one of the examples of intertextuality in the Bible. This instance refers back to the prophet Micah who a century earlier had spoken harsh words against the city, and yet Micah was not killed by the leadership then. The ‘elders’ override the ‘priest’ and the historical memory of prophetic witness and Torah piety hold out in this case and the elders too are able to see this as an opportunity for repentance rather than a certain doom. Unfortunately for the people the repentance does not come as the priestly and royal authority are hostile to this message that Jeremiah proclaim.

Jeremiah 26:20-24 The Risk of the Prophetic Challenge

²⁰ There was another man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words exactly like those of Jeremiah. ²¹ And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.²² Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor and men with him to Egypt, ²³ and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and threw his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

²⁴ But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over into the hands of the people to be put to death.

King Jehoiakim is not receptive to Jeremiah’s message, and while Jeremiah apparently has some protection from Ahikam son of Shaphan another prophet, Uriah son of Shemaiah does not. The words of Uriah infuriate the king enough to send men into Egypt to capture, bring the prophet to the king and then to be killed by the king. This is not a welcome time for prophets and death and torture are real possibilities to ensure the message of King Jehoiakim is the dominant message heard.

Jeremiah 25- Drinking the Cup of Wrath

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Jeremiah 25: 1-14- The Voice of Frustration

The Prophet Jeremiah by Michelangelo

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah (that was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon), ² which the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ³ For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. ⁴ And though the LORD persistently sent you all his servants the prophets, you have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear ⁵ when they said, “Turn now, everyone of you, from your evil way and wicked doings, and you will remain upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your ancestors from of old and forever; ⁶ do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.” ⁷ Yet you did not listen to me, says the LORD, and so you have provoked me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ⁹ I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the LORD, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace. ¹⁰ And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

After going through Jeremiah for the past several months, for whatever reason writing this chapter I wanted to stop. Twenty five chapters of darkness with little hope is difficult to go through intentionally and I can only imagine the pain that Jeremiah went through in not only bearing the difficult message he is given to bear but also the constant rejection and persecution by his people. Yet, after letting sit for a couple days I was ready to return again to hearing Jeremiah’s words and trying to understand them. This is a chapter that is filled with frustration, broken dreams and lost hope. For twenty three years Jeremiah has spoken the message given to him and for twenty three years it has not been heard and so the time of change is coming. In the frustration there is the promise of an everlasting disgrace, of a falling never to rise again, of a complete loss of joy and gladness. It is a picture of the exile to come, and yet even in the language of everlasting in English comes from the Hebrew ‘olam which doesn’t refer to a timeless future but rather the forseeable future. Regardless the judgment is harsh and at the beginning of the time of exile the prospect of being alienated from one’s homeland and all one knows for seventy years must have seemed like an eternity.

Jeremiah probably seemed like a traitor to his people and his faith in saying that Nebuchadrezzar was a servant of the Lord, and yet he gives theological significance to the rise of the Babylonian empire and its king. Jeremiah gives voice to what others will not, that God is at work in the movement of nations and that even this pagan empire can be a tool that the Lord is using, and that the chosen people can be the recipients of both the Lord’s blessing and curse. The land and people that were meant to be a light will become darkness, the land of milk and honey will become a waste and ruin, and hope of a new light will have to come at some other time. In this time of the prophet’s heartbreak it is not here.

Jeremiah 25: 15-38- The Cup of Wrath

¹⁵ For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.

¹⁷ So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, an object of hissing and of cursing, as they are today; ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people; ²⁰ all the mixed people; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines– Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; ²¹ Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; ²² all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea;²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have shaven temples; ²⁴ all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples that live in the desert; ²⁵ all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; ²⁶ all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach shall drink.

²⁷ Then you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, get drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.

²⁸ And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of hosts.

³⁰ You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:

The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice;

he will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes,

against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹ The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth,

for the LORD has an indictment against the nations;

he is entering into judgment with all flesh,

and the guilty he will put to the sword, says the LORD.

³² Thus says the LORD of hosts:

See, disaster is spreading from nation to nation,

and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth!

³³ Those slain by the LORD on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become dung on the surface of the ground.

³⁴ Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in ashes, you lords of the flock,

for the days of your slaughter have come—

and your dispersions, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.

³⁵ Flight shall fail the shepherds, and there shall be no escape for the lords of the flock.

³⁶ Hark! the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock!

For the LORD is despoiling their pasture,

³⁷ and the peaceful folds are devastated, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

³⁸ Like a lion he has left his covert; for their land has become a waste because of the cruel sword, and because of his fierce anger.

In this vision of the cup of wrath, where Jeremiah takes it to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem and eventually ending with Babylon which seems as unforgiving a passage as one will find in scripture. The language is so angry it almost spits when it is said and yet perhaps it is precisely this language of cursing that is needed to move beyond the woundedness. As the cup and its wrath and curse pass among all the nations of the region no one is exempted. The sovereignty of God is completely and utterly unquestionable to the prophet. What is the pot to say to its creator when it is used in a way that the pot might find objectionable? To be honest I find this a very distasteful passage, it reveals a dark side of God in Jeremiah’s view that I have difficulty coming to terms with at times. It is a picture of God who is so wrapped up in God’s anger that the wrath must be spread over every nation, that each people is now being held to the same curse as the chosen people. Perhaps it only the language of brokenheartedness, the rage that needs to be given vent. Perhaps it is Jeremiah and others trying to assign theological meaning to the crisis and destruction going on around them. Regardless of where it comes from I know that as a 21^st Century American I stand in a very different place than Jeremiah and there are times where I cannot faithfully place myself in his shoes nor give voice to the pain and anger in his words about the brokenness of his people and of all the nations.

Jeremiah 24-Exile, Figs and Reversals

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1 The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. This was after King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the artisans, and the smiths, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”
4 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8 But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them a horror, an evil thing, to all the kingdoms of the earth– a disgrace, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they are utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their ancestors.

This vision takes place in the time between the initial exile of 598 BCE and the final massive deportation of 587 BCE. In 598 BCE, when the Babylonians come and deal with the people of Judea and the city of Jerusalem without the Judeans being able to effectively oppose them they take the elite of the land into exile leaving Zedekiah to reign in place of the removed Jeconiah. For the elite taken into exile it seems like the ending of everything they know, but they are the basket of good figs. This is the same exile spoken of, for example, in the beginning of the book of Daniel:

3 Then the king commanded his palace master Ashpenaz to bring some of the Israelites of the royal family and of the nobility, 4 young men without physical defect and handsome, versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight, and competent to serve in the king’s palace; they were to be taught the literature and language of the Chaldeans. (Dan 1:3-4)

With the officials, the artisans and the smiths taken into exile with King Jeconiah, what remains to surround the newly appointed Zedekiah are those who have risen to fill the void of power left by the removal of the elite. As Binyamin Lau describes it:

Whereas the exiled leaders had the capacity for leadership, their replacements come from the dregs of society, seizing the leadership vacuum as an opportunity to accumulate power. Violence and aggression prevail as paupers become princes overnight. Might makes right. King Zedekiah, young, weak, and bankrupt, cannot control the situation. (Lau, 2013, p. 131)

To those in exile there is now a word of hope. With their homes, wealth, position and status gone now God will act on their behalf to bring them back, to plant and to give them a new heart. Perhaps in the exile they will again find what it means to be the people of God. But for those still in Judah, the new officials of Zedekiah, the city of Jerusalem and the people of the land the nightmare is not over. Zedekiah will be led once again into conflict with Babylon and Babylon’s answer will be decisive. At this time where the people remaining in the land probably look upon those in exile as cursed and themselves as blessed, Jeremiah points to the opposite reality. Their horror still remains to come, they are not yet ready to receive a word of hope. Their course will still rely upon Egypt rather than the Lord. Just as the Assyrians became the instrument of judgment for the northern kingdom of Israel according to the prophets of that time, Babylon is the instrument of God’s judgment for Jeremiah. To oppose Babylon is to oppose God’s will at this time. The baskets of figs, good and bad point to a reality that defies the reality the people are experiencing at the time. The first harvest of the people out of the land become the first-ripe figs and in Jeremiah’s world of absolutes those left on the tree have spoiled and the time when they are swept away is quickly approaching.

Jeremiah 23-A Righteous Branch and Unrighteous Prophets

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Jeremiah 23: 1-7: The Righteous Branch

1 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. 3 Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.
5 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”
7 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, “As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” 8 but “As the LORD lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” Then they shall live in their own land.

Anyone who reads Jeremiah has to make educated guesses about the context that Jeremiah is writing to, especially when the time period is not made explicit. I see this as an extension of what comes before at the end of chapter 22 which is addressing the beginning of the exile (the first exile where the leadership is taken into exile but the people are left primarily in the land) in the time of Jechoniah and so this passage comes very late in the story of Jeremiah. The chapter verse delineations in scripture come much later and probably reflect an effort to highlight the messianic hope of this passage rather than see it buried at the end of a long chapter of judgment against the king, yet this passage probably belongs as an extension of chapter 22. Rabbi Lau has a different perspective, that it comes much earlier in the time of Josiah and contrasts between Josiah and the local leaders of his time (Lau, 2013, p. 28ff.) but this is an area where I think both Walter Brueggemann and Patrick Miller, who I have been reading as I have gone through Jeremiah, are correct. (Brueggemann, 1998, p. 205) (Elizabeth Actemeir, et. al., 1994, p. VI:744)

The themes of these verses are full of echoes throughout the prophets and in the gospels as well. The verses about the shepherds and the ways they have not been faithful is echoed in Ezekiel 34:
2 Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them– to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.
7 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 As I live, says the Lord GOD, because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild animals, since there was no shepherd; and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep; 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
10 Thus says the Lord GOD, I am against the shepherds; and I will demand my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them. 11 For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out Ezekiel 34: 2-11
And is echoed in John chapter 10 where Jesus talks about being the good shepherd in contrast to the previous shepherd, or in Mark 6: 34 where the people are discussed as sheep without a shepherd. Here in Jeremiah at the end of verse four the promise is for a new and faithful shepherd who will come. After a long passage of judgment now comes the hope of the coming days.
Again the passage about the righteous branch has echoes in other places as well, for example in Isaiah 11:
A shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Isaiah 11:1
And the hope is that out of the defunct lineage of David which seems to be coming to an end that the God of Israel will maintain the commitment to the line of David and from that line will raise up a righteous branch who will live out of the vision of the Lord’s peace. And the renewal that the Lord will bring will make even the paradigmatic event of the Jewish people’s story, the Exodus, take second place to the new renewal that the Lord will do when the people are returned from exile. This is a story of hope for at least two sets of people: for the Jewish people it was a hope of renewal and return with a righteous and faithful king where God would gather from all the lands of the diaspora God’s people once again, and for Christians is also is an image of hope for from the story of Jesus we cannot help but hear that story in the hope of the righteous branch that arises out of the line of David. One passage can bring hope in two different ways, and hearing the hope of one another should also help us to see our dependence upon the Hebrew Scriptures to understand the life and ministry and hope of Jesus and his followers.

Jeremiah 23: 9-40: The Failure of the Prophets

The Breaking of Jeremiah’s Yoke by Hananiah, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Amiens, France

9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is crushed within me, all my bones shake;
I have become like a drunkard, like one overcome by wine,
because of the LORD and because of his holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns,
and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course has been evil, and their might is not right.
11 Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
even in my house I have found their wickedness, says the LORD.
12 Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness,
into which they shall be driven and fall;
for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, says the LORD.
13 In the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.
14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a more shocking thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from wickedness;
all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets:
“I am going to make them eat wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink;
for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”
16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They keep saying to those who despise the word of the LORD, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”
18 For who has stood in the council of the LORD so as to see and to hear his word?
Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
19 Look, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
21 I did not send the prophets, yet they ran;
I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off? 24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” 26 How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back– those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27 They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. 29 Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30 See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31 See, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the LORD.” 32 See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the LORD.
33 When this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the LORD?” you shall say to them, “You are the burden, and I will cast you off, says the LORD.” 34 And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, “The burden of the LORD,” I will punish them and their households. 35 Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, “What has the LORD answered?” or “What has the LORD spoken?” 36 But “the burden of the LORD” you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone’s own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you shall ask the prophet, “What has the LORD answered you?” or “What has the LORD spoken?” 38 But if you say, “the burden of the LORD,” thus says the LORD: Because you have said these words, “the burden of the LORD,” when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, “the burden of the LORD,” 39 therefore, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors. 40 And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

First the critique goes towards the ruling elite, the shepherds, the king but now it turn on the religious authorities and in particular the other prophets. There are several points in the book of Jeremiah where we hear about other prophets who are proclaiming a different message than Jeremiah is called to proclaim and the people hear different religious authorities proclaiming a very different message, or more likely they hear Jeremiah as a voice that is so different from the message others are saying that he goes unheard. In giving the people a false message they have prevented the people from having a realistic hope of turning. The narratives from the political and religious elites are going in the opposite direction of the proclamation given to Jeremiah. They proclaim an unconditional peace which serves the people rather than the covenantal shalom which calls the people to live in justice.
Perhaps these other prophets feel compelled to live into their roles, prophets are supposed to have a message from the Lord, dreams to dreams and visions to tell and so in the absence of these visions they have kept up the appearance, or perhaps the prophets have been coopted into the royal and priestly power systems to be additional mouthpieces for these authorities. Whatever the case they have failed in their calling, according to Jeremiah they are producing only lies and false visions and they are leading the people astray. They have become worse than the prophets of northern Israel which led Israel to worship Baal, for they perhaps are constructing a misleading image of the Lord. God’s judgment is on the prophets who have misled the people. Their condemnation will be harsher, everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame, and unlike the promise of a righteous branch that will arise out of the stump of Jesse, there is no promise for the prophets-they are also to be cast out of the city.

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular