Jeremiah 5:20

20 “Make this announcement to Israel, and say this to Judah:

Jeremiah 5:20 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 5:20

Declare this in the house of Jacob
That a mighty nation should come and destroy them, and they should be servants in a strange land; or rather the words seem to be an order to declare war against the Jews, and even in their own land; and do not seem to be addressed to the prophet, but to others, seeing the words are in the plural number; see ( Jeremiah 4:5 ) : and publish it in Judah:
the house of Jacob and Judah are the same, namely, the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah; for, as for the ten tribes, as observed on ( Jeremiah 5:15 ) , they had been carried captive before this time: saying:
as follows:

Jeremiah 5:20 In-Context

18 “Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,” says the LORD .

19 “And when your people ask, ‘Why did the LORD our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’

20 “Make this announcement to Israel, and say this to Judah:

21 Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.

22 Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the LORD, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew to the house of Jacob. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often interchanged throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation.