Jeremiah 18 Study Notes

18:13 God called on the nations to verify that Judah had done a most horrible thing by defecting from him. On virgin Israel, see note at 14:17.

18:14 Nature is a lot more dependable and constant than Judah had been.

18:15 Idols make people stumble on the good paths and misdirect them onto bad paths. See 6:16.

18:16 Judah had become a land of horror and an object of scorn, or of “hissing” or “whistling.” This was the ultimate expression in the Near Eastern “loss of face.” People would make a hissing sound at a guilty person and shake their heads in scorn and disbelief.

18:17 The east wind was the hot wind or sirocco from the desert (4:11; 13:24; Hs 13:15), the same direction from which Babylon would come. Instead of the Aaronic benediction of Nm 6:24-26 with the Lord smiling on Judah, he had turned his back—a universal symbol of rejection (Hs 5:15).

18:18 The people foolishly believed that divine revelations would continue and life would go on as usual despite Jeremiah’s gloomy predictions.

18:19-23 This is another of Jeremiah’s “confessions” (see note at 4:19-22). His accusers said, “Come, let’s denounce him” (18:18), or literally, “Let us smite him with the tongue.” Jeremiah charged his opponents with the following: (1) paying “no attention to all his words” (v. 18), (2) digging a pit for him (vv. 20,22), (3) hiding snares for his feet (v. 22), and (4) planning to kill him (v. 23).