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The Imminence and Horror of the Invasion6 Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looms out of the north, and great destruction. 2 I have likened daughter Zion to the loveliest pasture. 3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her. They shall pitch their tents around her; they shall pasture, all in their places. 4 “Prepare war against her; up, and let us attack at noon!” “Woe to us, for the day declines, the shadows of evening lengthen!” 5 “Up, and let us attack by night, and destroy her palaces!” 6 For thus says the L ord of hosts: Cut down her trees; cast up a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her. 7 As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me. 8 Take warning, O Jerusalem, or I shall turn from you in disgust, and make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.
9 Thus says the L ord of hosts: Glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel; like a grape-gatherer, pass your hand again over its branches.
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? See, their ears are closed, they cannot listen. The word of the L ord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it. 11 But I am full of the wrath of the L ord; I am weary of holding it in.
Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the gatherings of young men as well; both husband and wife shall be taken, the old folk and the very aged. 12 Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the L ord.
13 For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. 14 They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. 15 They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the L ord. 16 Thus says the L ord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, “We will not walk in it.” 17 Also I raised up sentinels for you: “Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!” But they said, “We will not give heed.” 18 Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. 19 Hear, O earth; I am going to bring disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not given heed to my words; and as for my teaching, they have rejected it. 20 Of what use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me. 21 Therefore thus says the L ord: See, I am laying before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; parents and children together, neighbor and friend shall perish.
22 Thus says the L ord: See, a people is coming from the land of the north, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. 23 They grasp the bow and the javelin, they are cruel and have no mercy, their sound is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, equipped like a warrior for battle, against you, O daughter Zion!
24 “We have heard news of them, our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor. 25 Do not go out into the field, or walk on the road; for the enemy has a sword, terror is on every side.”
26 O my poor people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only child, most bitter lamentation: for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
27 I have made you a tester and a refiner among my people so that you may know and test their ways. 28 They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron, all of them act corruptly. 29 The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed. 30 They are called “rejected silver,” for the L ord has rejected them.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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The prophet here rises higher; for it was not enough simply to set forth the truth to refractory men, but it was necessary to stimulate them even sharply, and sometimes to wound them, for they could not otherwise be roused, so great was their hardness. Hence the Prophet proceeds in the same strain with what we observed yesterday; and he declares that he was full of the indignation of God. This may be taken passively and actively, — that the Prophet was indignant with holy zeal, because he undertook the cause of God, — or, that he dreaded the judgment, which the Jews nevertheless in no way heeded. But he speaks here no doubt according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as though he said, that he did not announce what his own mind suggested, but what was dictated by the Spirit of God. This indignation is, in short, to be applied to what was taught, as though he had said, “If I address you with great vehemence, think not that as a man I forget moderation, being influenced by wrath; but the Spirit of God leads and impels me. Whatever indignation then is found in my language, whatever vehemence and sharpness and menacing, all this is from God’s Spirit, and not from my own feelings as a man.” It was on this account that he says, that he was filled with the indignation of God. What follows confirms this statement; for he says, that he was wearied with restraint; as though he said, that so great was the impulse of God’s wrath, that it could not be withheld from breaking out into vehemence. And hence we learn, as I have said, that the Prophet declares no other thing than that he was not moved by his own indignation, or by any feeling of his own nature, but that he of necessity followed where he was led by the hidden influence of God’s Spirit, lest what he taught might be despised; for the Jews had long accustomed themselves to use their taunts and to say, that they were not to be frightened like children. That the Jews then might not thus trifle, Jeremiah declares, that he was so filled with the indignation of God, that he could contain himself no longer, but must denounce on his own kindred what God had committed to his charge. As we shall elsewhere see the same mode of speaking, and in more express terms, I shall proceed without making any farther remarks. He afterwards says, I shall pour it out, etc. He no doubt continues the same subject. He then says, that since he could no longer suppress the vengeance of God, whose herald he was, he would now pour it out, and that upon the children, he says, in the streets He doubtless means by these words that there was nothing pure among the people, for the very children were involved in the same guilt. Since, then, impiety so prevailed that even children in their tender age were not exempt from it, it was an evidence of a hopeless condition. This is what the Prophet means by saying, that he would pour wrath upon children. Then he adds, upon the assembly, etc. The word סוד, sud, means a congregation, or an assembly; and it means also counsel. But as the Prophet speaks of streets, there seems to be a contrast between streets and counsels, as though he said, that children playing in the streets were without any counsel or understanding: but still I include with them the old and the grown up men, for they are all exposed to God’s judgment. He then adds, the counsel of young men; for there is more discretion and prudence in young men grown up to maturity. The Hebrews do not call youths of fifteen בחורים, bachurim, but men of full and mature age; and the word is derived from a verb which means to choose. They then who are in the flower of their age are called בחורים, bachurim, because they are endued with discretion, and do not play in the streets like children. The Prophet then says, that God’s wrath would now be poured forth on children, and also on men grown up to the age of twenty or thirty. For the husband, he says, with his wife shall be taken, the aged with the full of days Some think that the full of days was the
decrepit: but by זקן, zaken, I understand the aged, and by the full of days, all those already grown into maturity, as those from fifty to eighty may be so called. He means, in short, that no one would be exempt from suffering God’s vengeance, as impiety had pervaded all stations, ranks, and ages.
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There are two or three points in this verse differently explained. The fury or indignation of Jehovah has been viewed as the message which the Prophet had to deliver, which strongly expressed God’s displeasure. See Jeremiah 1:9, and Jeremiah 20:9. The verb for pouring forth is
either in the imperative or in the infinitive mood. The Vulgate and the Syriac render it as an imperative; but the Septuagint, the Targum, and the Arabic give it, as in our version, in the future indicative, the first person. Venema follows the Vulgate: but Blayney takes it to be in the imperative mood; which seems most consistent with the whole of the passage. The view of most as to “the old” and “the full of years” is, that the first is
mature old age, and that the second is the last stage of life, the age of decrepitude. The full of days is “one” as Blayney says, “who has arrived at the full period of human life;” and hence “Abraham, Isaac, David, and Job are said to have died full of years, or of days.” See Isaiah 65:20. Though the general meaning is given in our version, yet the more literal I conceive to be the following,
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