Jeremiah 6:19

19 Listen, earth! I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting, for they have paid no attention to My word. They have rejected My law.

Jeremiah 6:19 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 6:19

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people,
&c.] The people of the Jews; the evil of punishment, for the evil of sin committed by them; wherefore the earth, and the inhabitants of it, are called upon to bear witness to, the righteousness of such a procedure: even the fruit of their thoughts;
which they thought of, contrived, and devised; which shows that they did not do what they did inadvertently, but with thought and design. Kimchi interprets it of sinful deeds and actions, the fruit of thoughts; but his father, of thoughts themselves. The Talmudists, ^F25 comment upon it thus,

``a thought which brings forth fruit, the holy blessed God joins it to an action; but a thought in which there is no fruit, the holy blessed God does not join to action;''

that is, in punishment; very wrongly. For the sense is, that God would bring upon them the calamities and distresses their thoughts and the evil counsels of their minds deserved. The Targum renders it,

``the retribution or reward of their works.''

Because they have not hearkened unto my words;
spoken to them by the prophets: nor to my law, but rejected it;
neither hearkened to the law, nor to the prophets, but despised both. The Targum is,

``because they obeyed not the words of my servants, the prophets, and abhorred my law.''

---

FOOTNOTES:

F25 T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 40. 1.

Jeremiah 6:19 In-Context

17 I appointed watchmen over you [and said:] Listen for the sound of the ram's horn. But they protested: We won't listen!

18 Therefore listen, you nations and you witnesses, learn what [the charge] is against them.

19 Listen, earth! I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting, for they have paid no attention to My word. They have rejected My law.

20 What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.

21 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am going to place stumbling blocks before these people; fathers and sons together will stumble over them; friends and neighbors will [also] perish.