Jeremiah 15 Study Notes

15:1 Even if great prayer warriors such as Moses and Samuel came before him, they could not persuade God to change his decision. The people had gone so far in sin that no prayer would help them. Moses successfully interceded for Israel numerous times (Ex 32:7-14,30-32; Nm 14:13-19; Dt 9:13-29) as did Samuel (1Sm 7:8-9; 12:17-25). But Judah was now beyond all hope.

15:2 The people’s prospects were grim. None of their possibilities was appealing.

15:3 The fourfold curses (death, sword, famine, captivity) appear frequently in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The same afflictions appear with the four horseman of Revelation (Rv 6:1-8).

15:4 Judah would be made a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, just as Moses had predicted in Dt 28:37 (Jr 24:9; 29:18; 34:17). This verse contains the only reference to King Manasseh (696-642 BC) in the book of Jeremiah. He is listed here as the reason for the terrible state of affairs in Judah. So far-reaching was the evil Manasseh introduced that Judah was still bound for destruction, even after the revival introduced by his grandson, King Josiah, in 621 BC (2Kg 23:26).

15:5 The understood answer to these questions is “No one.”

15:6 You (emphatically, “It was you who”) have left me first, declared the Lord; this is why God rejected them.

15:7 God will use a winnowing fork to toss the nation of Judah like grain into the wind so the chaff will be blown away. The metaphor suggests that the destruction would not be total. A remnant of faithful people would be spared. The phrase city gates of the land refers to the outlying towns of Judah.

15:8-9 The image of the sand of the seas is familiar from Gn 41:49 but here has just the opposite meaning. The mother of seven was the image of fruitfulness until she lost all seven.

15:10-12 This is another “confession” of Jeremiah (see note at 4:19-22). Here he wished he had never been born. He was tempted to reject his call and mission.

15:10 The prophet felt he had incited dispute and conflict—words for legal strife and contention—always taking his people to court. Jeremiah insisted he had not done any lending or borrowing, which were often associated with ill-gotten gain through charging outrageous interest (Dt 23:19).

15:12 Anyone may actually refer to the false prophet Hananiah. He had broken the wooden yoke around Jeremiah’s neck, but he would not be able to break the yoke of iron (28:10-13). Neither would he be able to stop the iron from the north—Babylon.

15:13-14 This prophecy was given to Pashhur the priest in 20:5 and was fulfilled in 597 BC (2Kg 24:13).

15:15-18 This is another of Jeremiah’s “confessions” (see note at 4:19-22). God’s answer occurs in 15:19-21.

15:15 Avenge me, Jeremiah cried. He did not seek his own retribution but left it to God. His enemies were actually opposing God, not his prophet.

15:16 Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Ezk 2:8-3:3) initially found God’s words delightful. In the expression Your words were found, there may be an allusion to the discovery of the book of the law in the temple in King Josiah’s time (2Kg 22:13; 23:2).

15:18 Jeremiah accused God of being a mirage, or “a deceitful brook”—a stream that went dry in the summer and could not be depended on to supply water. Contrast this image with 2:13, where the prophet described God as a “fountain of living water.”

15:19 God startled the prophet by calling on him to return (Hb shuv, “turn, repent”). God wanted him to stop talking this way so he could take him back (Hb shuv, hiphil, “cause to turn”) and make him stand in his presence once again. God called Jeremiah’s words in vv. 15-18 worthless. The prophet must repent if he is to continue to serve as the Lord’s spokesman.

15:20-21 These words amount to a recommissioning service for Jeremiah (1:18-19). God would make him a fortified wall of bronze (see note at 1:17-19) in the presence of his people who had become his enemies. The three verbs of rescue, featured also in the exodus story, emphasize several sides of God’s salvation/redemption: save (Hb hoshia’), to bring out from bondage into a wide place; rescue (Hb natsal), to snatch a person from a predator or a powerful oppressor; and redeem (Hb padah), to liberate a person by paying a ransom to set him free.