Jeremiah 13 Footnotes

13:4 Commentators are uncertain whether Jeremiah traveled all the way to the Euphrates River for the sake of an illustration, a distance in excess of four hundred miles. Such a journey would have taken about four months each way, and the prophet also had to go there again to retrieve the garment (v. 6). Some interpreters suggest that Jeremiah went to the spring called Perath (the name is similar to “Euphrates” in Hb) near Anathoth, his family home. If Jeremiah in fact went to the Euphrates, this act would have made a greater impression on his hearers and it would have been a fitting analogy: Just as Jeremiah’s garment was ruined at the Euphrates, so Judah’s pride would be ruined in exile in Babylon by the Euphrates.

13:14 The thrust of these words is that judgment was so near at hand that it was virtually too late to ward it off through repentance (36:31). In typical prophetic style, the prophet declared the Lord’s word in extremes. God may have been using such emphatic language to warn the people that they should not expect a reprieve unless the situation changed. Although God knew that the people would not repent, he offered the possibility of repentance to make clear that Judah’s judgment was justified (18:6-12; 26:3). Other passages in Scripture make it clear that it is never too late to repent (Jl 2:11-14; Lk 23:43); see note on Jr 7:16.