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15. Drought, Famine, Sword

¹ Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! ² And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says:

“‘Those destined for death, to death;
those for the sword, to the sword;
those for starvation, to starvation;
those for captivity, to captivity.’

³ “I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” declares the LORD, “the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the wild animals to devour and destroy. ⁴ I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

    ⁵ “Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
   Who will mourn for you?
   Who will stop to ask how you are?
⁶ You have rejected me,” declares the LORD.
   “You keep on backsliding.
So I will reach out and destroy you;
   I am tired of holding back.
⁷ I will winnow them with a winnowing fork
   at the city gates of the land.
I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people,
   for they have not changed their ways.
⁸ I will make their widows more numerous
   than the sand of the sea.
At midday I will bring a destroyer
   against the mothers of their young men;
suddenly I will bring down on them
   anguish and terror.
⁹ The mother of seven will grow faint
   and breathe her last.
Her sun will set while it is still day;
   she will be disgraced and humiliated.
I will put the survivors to the sword
   before their enemies,” declares the LORD.

    ¹⁰ Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth,
   a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!
I have neither lent nor borrowed,
   yet everyone curses me.

¹¹ The LORD said,

   “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose;
   surely I will make your enemies plead with you
   in times of disaster and times of distress.

¹² “Can a man break iron—
iron from the north—or bronze?

    ¹³ “Your wealth and your treasures
   I will give as plunder, without charge,
because of all your sins
   throughout your country.
¹⁴ I will enslave you to your enemies
   in Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac (see also 17:4); most Hebrew manuscripts I will cause your enemies to bring you / into a land you do not know,
for my anger will kindle a fire
   that will burn against you.”

    ¹⁵ LORD, you understand;
   remember me and care for me.
   Avenge me on my persecutors.
You are long-suffering—do not take me away;
   think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.
¹⁶ When your words came, I ate them;
   they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
   LORD God Almighty.
¹⁷ I never sat in the company of revelers,
   never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand was on me
   and you had filled me with indignation.
¹⁸ Why is my pain unending
   and my wound grievous and incurable?
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
   like a spring that fails.

¹⁹ Therefore this is what the LORD says:

   “If you repent, I will restore you
   that you may serve me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
   you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you,
   but you must not turn to them.
²⁰ I will make you a wall to this people,
   a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
   but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
   to rescue and save you,” declares the LORD.
²¹ “I will save you from the hands of the wicked
   and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”

But, there is a difference among interpreters as to the word גבול gebul. I indeed allow that it means a border: but Jeremiah, as I think, when he intended to state things that are different, made use of different forms of speech; but as the construction is the same, I see not how the word can mean the borders of the land. I hence think that it is to be taken here metaphorically for counsels; as though he had said, “On account of all thy wicked deeds and on account of all thy ends, that is, of all thy counsels, I will make thy wealth and thy treasures a plunder.” For true is that saying of the heathen poet,

There is something where thou goest and to which thou levellest thy bow. ¹⁴²¹⁴² Est aliquid quo tendis et in quod dirigis arcum. — Per. Sat. iii. 60.

When we undertake any buiness, we have some end in view. Then the Prophet calls their adulteries, frauds, rapines, violencies and murders, wicked deeds; but he calls their counsels, borders, such counsels as they craftily took, by which they manifested their depravity and baseness.

Then, in the first place, he declares that God would be a just avenger against their wicked deeds, and against all the ends which the Jews had proposed to themselves; and at the same time he points out and mentions the kind of punishment they were to have, — that the Lord would give for a plunder all their wealth and treasures, and that without exchanging; some read, “without price,” and consider the meaning to be, — that the Jews would be so worthless, that no one would buy them: but this is too refined. I doubt not but that the Prophet intimates, that whatever the Jews possessed would become a prey to their enemies, so that it would be taken away from them without any price or bartering; as though he had said, “Your enemies will freely plunder all that you have without any permission from you, and will regard as their own, even by the right of victory, whatever ye think you have so laid up as never to be taken away.” ¹⁴³¹⁴³     This verse and the following are said by Horsley to be “very obscure:” and there seems to be no way of understanding them, except we regard the Prophet as classed with the people; and the conclusion of verse fourteenth (Jeremiah 15:14) favors the idea, “On you, עליכם, it shall burn.” The Prophet himself did not wholly escape the evils which came on the people. Then this verse and the following I would render thus, —
   13. Thy wealth and thy treasures for spoil will I give, Not for a price, but for all thy sins, Even in all thy borders;
   14. And I will make thine enemies to pass To a land thou knowest not; For a fire has been kindled in my wrath, On you it shall burn.
   The “enemy” before is now “enemies.” The verb “make to pass,” has various readings, owing evidently to the similarity of two letters. The versions, except the Vulgate, have “I will make thee to serve thine enemies;” but the received text is the most suitable to the passage. Blayney’s rendering is, —
   I will cause them to pass with thine enemies —
   By “them” he understands “thy wealth and thy treasures;” but this sort of construction can hardly be admitted; and it seems incrongruous. — Ed. He afterwards adds —