Jeremiah 15

God tells Jeremiah that judgment on Judah cannot now be turned aside, even by the greatest intercessors. Jeremiah then pours out his own pain and near-despair at being hated for speaking God’s word. The LORD answers him with a call to return and a promise to make him a wall of bronze.

Jeremiah 15:1

Moses and Samuel were famous for praying successfully for Israel. Even they could not now change God’s mind. The people’s sin had gone too far for the usual appeals. God tells them to be sent out of His sight.

BSA: stand (“to stand in a strong sense, like in a position of intercession”): Standing before God pictures a go-between pleading for others, which makes God’s refusal here all the more sobering.

See also: Exodus 32:11-14; 1 Samuel 7:9.

Jeremiah 15:2

When the people ask where they must go, the answer is four grim destinies: death, sword, famine, captivity. Each person will meet the fate God has appointed. Judgment is not random; it falls as God has said it would.

BSA: destined (“appointed or ordained”): These outcomes are assigned by God, not left to chance.

Jeremiah 15:3

God names four destroyers: the sword kills, dogs drag the bodies away, and birds and wild animals eat what is left. It is a picture of unburied dead, the worst disgrace in that world. God is in control even of these terrors.

BSA: appoint (“assign, designate”): God Himself assigns each destroyer its task.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:25-26.

Jeremiah 15:4

Judah will become a horror to every nation. God points back to Manasseh, whose long reign filled Jerusalem with idolatry and bloodshed. The nation’s sins had piled up, and his example had shaped the people’s heart.

See also: 2 Kings 21:10-15; 2 Kings 24:3-4.

Jeremiah 15:5

Jerusalem will be so ruined that no one will grieve over her or even stop to ask how she is. The city that once felt secure will be left alone. God asks these questions with sorrow, not scorn.

BSA: welfare (“peace, well-being, shalom”): No one will even ask after the city’s shalom, the wholeness she has lost.

Jeremiah 15:6

The cause is stated plainly: they left God and turned their backs on Him. God has relented again and again. Now He says He is weary of it. Long patience does not last forever when it is always met with refusal.

BSA: weary (“tired, disgusted”): God’s compassion has been strained by repeated rejection.

Hebrew: נִלְאֵיתִי (nil’eti, H3811) — “I am worn out.” The Hebrew says God is tired of ‘relenting’ or being sorry. It shows how often He had held back judgment before.

Jeremiah 15:7

God pictures a farmer tossing grain with a winnowing fork so the wind carries off the chaff. At the city gates, the people will be scattered and left childless. The cause is that they would not turn from their ways.

BSA: turned (“return, come back”): The word is the common Hebrew word for repentance, a way back that they refused.

Jeremiah 15:8-9

Widows will outnumber the sand of the sea. A destroyer comes at midday, with no warning. A mother of seven, a picture of fullness and blessing, loses everything. Her sun sets while it is still day. The rest face the sword.

BSA: sun (“source of life, vitality”): Her life is cut off in its brightest hour. noon (“midday, when the sun is highest”): Disaster strikes when people feel safest.

Jeremiah 15:10

Jeremiah cries out in distress. He wishes he had never been born, since his message makes him a man of quarrels everywhere. He has not lent or borrowed, the usual causes of disputes, yet people curse him. He is hated for God’s word alone.

See also: Jeremiah 20:14-18; Job 3:1-3.

Jeremiah 15:11

The LORD promises to rescue Jeremiah for good and to make even his enemy plead with him in the day of trouble. The Hebrew text here is hard, but the message is clear: God has not forgotten His servant.

BSA: deliver (“set free, rescue”): God commits Himself to set Jeremiah free from his troubles.

See also: Jeremiah 21:1-2; Jeremiah 37:3.

Jeremiah 15:12

Iron from the north was thought the strongest of metals. The question seems to say that no one can break it. The northern army God is sending against Judah will be that kind of unbreakable force. It may also hint at Jeremiah’s own strength in God.

BSA: north (“Zaphon, a direction or location”): Babylon’s armies were the enemy that would come down from the north.

See also: Jeremiah 1:14-15.

Jeremiah 15:13-14

Judah’s riches will be taken as plunder, and it will cost the enemy nothing, as a judgment for her many sins. The people will serve their enemies in a land they do not know. God’s anger is like a fire lit against them.

BSA: plunder (“spoils of war”): Treasure the people trusted in will be carried off as war loot.

See also: Jeremiah 17:4.

Jeremiah 15:15

Jeremiah prays honestly. He asks God to remember him, to act against his persecutors, and not to let him be taken away while God is patient with the wicked. His plea rests on one thing: he suffers shame for God’s sake.

BSA: attend to (“visit, oversee”): Jeremiah asks God to come and care for him personally. patience (“longsuffering, slow to anger”): God’s slowness to punish his enemies puts Jeremiah in danger, so he fears it.

See also: Psalm 69:7.

Jeremiah 15:16

God’s words were Jeremiah’s food and joy. He took them in eagerly, and they delighted him. He belongs to God and carries His name. That is why he could not simply walk away from his calling.

BSA: ate (“devoured, consumed”): He took in God’s words fully, as food that feeds the whole person. bear (“carry, represent”): He speaks as someone who represents God’s own name and reputation.

See also: Ezekiel 3:1-3; Psalm 119:103.

Jeremiah 15:17

Jeremiah did not join the laughing crowd. God’s hand on him set him apart, and he sat alone, full of God’s anger at sin. Faithfulness to God can be lonely. Yet he was not alone in the deepest way.

BSA: hand (“power, direction”): God’s strong hold on him set his course and cut him off from the crowd.

See also: Psalm 1:1.

Jeremiah 15:18

Jeremiah’s pain seems endless, and he almost accuses God of being a dried-up stream: a mirage that promised water. It is a bold, honest cry. Scripture lets us hear such prayers, and God answers them rather than scolding.

BSA: mirage (“a deception, an illusion”): A seasonal brook that looks full but is dry when the thirsty arrive.

See also: Job 6:15.

Jeremiah 15:19

God answers with a call to return. If Jeremiah turns back from this doubt, God will restore him to stand before Him. If he speaks what is precious and not worthless, he will again be God’s mouth. The people must come to him, never he to them.

BSA: restore (“bring back, reinstate”): God offers to put Jeremiah back in his place of service. spokesman (“My mouth, My messenger”): Literally, he will be God’s own mouth.

Hebrew: שׁוּב (shuv, H7725) — “turn, return.” The same word is used three times in this verse: if you turn back, they must turn to you, you must not turn to them. It shows who must follow whom.

Jeremiah 15:20-21

God renews His first promise to Jeremiah. He will make him a wall of bronze that enemies cannot break. They will fight him but fail, because God is with him. God will save and redeem him from the wicked and the ruthless.

BSA: redeem (“ransom, set free”): God promises to buy Jeremiah back from the power of his enemies.

See also: Jeremiah 1:18-19; Romans 8:31.