Hebrew-English Text

I. Summary

Jeremiah is incarcerated by Pashhur the priest and prophesies against him when he is released. Jeremiah calls on Yahweh to punish his enemies.

II. Photo

Jeremiah curses the day he was born: “Accursed be the day that I was born! Let not the day be blessed when my mother bore me!” (v. 14)

III. Select Verses

1-3a: Pashhur son of Immer, the priest who was chief officer of the House of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. Pashhur thereupon had Jeremiah flogged and put in the cell at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the House of the LORD. The next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah from the cell.

3b-7: But Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has named you not Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. For thus said the LORD: I am going to deliver you and all your friends over to terror: they will fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. I will deliver all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon; he will exile them to Babylon or put them to the sword. And I will deliver all the wealth, all the riches, and all the prized possessions of this city, and I will also deliver all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies: they shall seize them as plunder and carry them off to Babylon. As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you shall go into captivity. You shall come to Babylon; there you shall die and there you shall be buried, and so shall all your friends to whom you prophesied falsely.”

9: I thought, “I will not mention Him, No more will I speak in His name” — But [His word] was like a raging fire in my heart, Shut up in my bones; I could not hold it in, I was helpless.

10: I heard the whispers of the crowd — Terror all around: “Inform! Let us inform against him!” All my [supposed] friends Are waiting for me to stumble: “Perhaps he can be entrapped, And we can prevail against him And take our vengeance on him.”

14-15: Accursed be the day That I was born! Let not the day be blessed When my mother bore me! Accursed be the man Who brought my father the news And said, “A boy Is born to you,” And gave him such joy!

IV. Outline

1-6. Jeremiah’s incarceration

    1-2. Pashhur locks up Jeremiah

    3a. Jeremiah is released

    3b-6. Prophecy of exile for Pashhur and Judah

7-18. Jeremiah’s Psalm-like Petition

    7-10. Complaint: Jeremiah’s prophecies are not welcomed by the people

    11. Trust/imprecation

    12. Petition/imprecation

    13. Call to praise and give thanks

    14-18. Curse of Jeremiah’s birth day and birth announcer

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Photo copied from 

http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2009/0901/360_caesarian_0107.jpg

Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Jeremiah smashes a vessel to illustrate how Yahweh will smash the people of Judah on account of their idolatry.

II. Photo
Jeremiah smashes the vessel: “Thus said the Lord of Hosts: So will I smash this people and this city, as one smashes a potter’s vessel, which can never be mended.” (v. 11)

III. Select Verses
1-2: Thus said the LORD: Go buy a jug of potter’s ware. And [take] some of the elders of the people and the priests, and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom — at the entrance of the Harsith Gate — and proclaim there the words which I will speak to you.
4-5: For they and their fathers and the kings of Judah have forsaken Me, and have made this place alien [to Me]; they have sacrificed in it to other gods whom they have not experienced, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built shrines to Baal, to put their children to the fire as burnt offerings to Baal — which I never commanded, never decreed, and which never came to My mind.
9: And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall devour one another’s flesh — because of the desperate straits to which they will be reduced by their enemies, who seek their life.
10-11: Then you shall smash the jug in the sight of the men who go with you, and say to them: “Thus said the LORD of Hosts: So will I smash this people and this city, as one smashes a potter’s vessel, which can never be mended. And they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left for burying.
13: The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be unclean, like that place Topheth — all the houses on the roofs of which offerings were made to the whole host of heaven and libations were poured out to other gods.”

IV. Outline

1-13. The jug analogy
    1-2. Command to bring a jug and the leaders to Ben-Hinnom
    3. Disaster approaches
    4-5. Rationale: generational idolatry
    6-9. Death and destruction await Jerusalem
    10-11. Pedagogic action: Yahweh will destroy the city as one smashes a jug
    12-13. Jerusalem will be impure as the Topheth worship site (outside of Jerusalem)
14-15. Jeremiah preaches destruction to the rest of the people

V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Photo copied from http://vanpay.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/broken-vase.jpg

Hebrew-English Text

I. Summary

Yahweh shows Jeremiah that he can build or destroy a nation like a potter can build or destroy a vessel. The people will be exiled because they abandoned Yahweh. Jeremiah calls on Yahweh to kill his enemies.

II. Photo

Yahweh control’s Israel’s fate: “Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in my hands, O House of Israel!” (v. 6)

III. Select Verses

1-10: The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the house of a potter, and there I will impart My words to you.” So I went down to the house of a potter, and found him working at the wheel. And if the vessel he was making was spoiled, as happens to clay in the potter’s hands, he would make it into another vessel, such as the potter saw fit to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me: O House of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter? — says the LORD. Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hands, O House of Israel! At one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; but if that nation against which I made the decree turns back from its wickedness, I change My mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it. At another moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be built and planted; but if it does what is displeasing to Me and does not obey Me, then I change My mind concerning the good I planned to bestow upon it.

18-21: They said, “Come let us devise a plot against Jeremiah — for instruction shall not fail from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor oracle from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and we shall no longer have to listen to all those words of his.” Listen to me, O LORD — And take note of what my enemies say! Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You To plead in their behalf, To turn Your anger away from them! Oh, give their children over to famine, Mow them down by the sword. Let their wives be bereaved Of children and husbands, Let their men be struck down by the plague, And their young men be slain in battle by the sword.

IV. Outline

1-10. Visual analogy
    1-2. Command to go to a potter
    3. Jeremiah goes
    4. The potter’s method
    5-10. Yahweh can build and destroy a nation like a potter to a pot
11. Call for repentance
12. The people will not repent
13-15. Israel had abandoned Yahweh in an unnatural way
16-17. Punishment: desolation and exile
18-. Jeremiah’s petition/imprecation
    18. Complaint about enemies
    19. Petition
    20. Affirmation of commitment
    21-23. Imprecation of enemies

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Photo copied from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nt-MhJYDAtk/T8TEMJdgXSI/AAAAAAAABYA/TGknZRooU8k/s1600/potters_wheel_13120550.jpg

Hebrew-English Text

I. Summary

Jeremiah affirms that Yahweh carries out justice and asks for justice to be dealt. He then calls upon the people to observe the Sabbath day.

II. Photo

The Sabbath must be observed: “Thus said the Lord: Guard yourselves for your own sake against carrying burdens on the sabbath day, and bringing them through the gates of Jerusalem.” (v. 21)

III. Select Verses

5-8: Thus said the LORD: Cursed is he who trusts in man, Who makes mere flesh his strength, And turns his thoughts from the LORD. He shall be like a bush in the desert, Which does not sense the coming of good: It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness, In a barren land without inhabitant. Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD, Whose trust is the LORD alone. He shall be like a tree planted by waters, Sending forth its roots by a stream: It does not sense the coming of heat, Its leaves are ever fresh; It has no care in a year of drought, It does not cease to yield fruit.

11:  Like a partridge hatching what she did not lay, So is one who amasses wealth by unjust means; In the middle of his life it will leave him, And in the end he will be proved a fool.

15-16: See, they say to me: “Where is the prediction of the LORD? Let it come to pass!”  But I have not evaded Being a shepherd in your service, Nor have I longed for the fatal day. You know the utterances of my lips, They were ever before You.

21-22: Thus said the LORD: Guard yourselves for your own sake against carrying burdens on the sabbath day, and bringing them through the gates of Jerusalem. Nor shall you carry out burdens from your houses on the sabbath day, or do any work, but you shall hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

24-27: If you obey Me — declares the LORD — and do not bring in burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day and do no work on it,  then through the gates of this city shall enter kings who sit upon the throne of David, with their officers — riding on chariots and horses, they and their officers — and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited for all time. And people shall come from the towns of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Shephelah, and from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, meal offerings and frankincense, and bringing offerings of thanksgiving to the House of the LORD. But if you do not obey My command to hallow the sabbath day and to carry in no burdens through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will set fire to its gates; it shall consume the fortresses of Jerusalem and it shall not be extinguished.

IV. Outline

1-3a. Guilt: improper worship
3b-4. Punishment: exile and slavery
5-8. Pedagogic lesson
    5-6. Trusting in man brings doom
    7-8. Trusting in Yahweh brings blessing
9-17. Psalm-like prayer 
    9-10. Yahweh is a knowing judge
    11. Justice is always served
    12. Praise for Yahweh and his throne
    13. Doom for those who do not follow Yahweh
    14. Petition to be saved
    15-16. Affirmation of loyalty
    17. Petition and affirmation of trust
    18. Imprecation of enemies
19-26. Sabbath Prophecy
    19-20. Command to proclaim
    21-22. Prohibition of carrying on the Sabbath
    23. The people do not listen
    24-26. Honoring the Sabbath will bring the Davidic kingship back to Judah
    27. Sabbath violation will bring destruction for Jerusalem

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Photo copied from http://online.wsj.com/media/101811pod04_J.jpg

Hebrew-English Text

I. Summary

Yahweh will punish Judah no matter what. Jeremiah asks Yahweh to save him from the people and Yahweh acquiesces.

II. Photo

Yawheh will not forgive: “Their widows shall be more numerous than the sands of the seas!” (v. 8)

III. Select Verses

1:  The LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede with Me, I would not be won over to that people. Dismiss them from My presence, and let them go forth!

2: And if they ask you, ‘To what shall we go forth?’ answer them, ‘Thus said the LORD: Those destined for the plague, to the plague; Those destined for the sword, to the sword; Those destined for famine, to famine; Those destined for captivity, to captivity.

4: I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, on account of King Manasseh son of Hezekiah of Judah, and of what he did in Jerusalem.’”

17-18: I have not sat in the company of revelers And made merry! I have sat lonely because of Your hand upon me, For You have filled me with gloom. Why must my pain be endless, My wound incurable, Resistant to healing? You have been to me like a spring that fails, Like waters that cannot be relied on.

IV. Outline

1-4. Yahweh will not forgive     

    1a. Introduction

    1b. Even Moses or Samuel could not save Israel

    2-3. Lists of punishments

    4. Rationale: Manasseh’s deeds in Jerusalem

5-9. Yahweh’s lament

    5. Nobody will pity Jerusalem

    6. Yahweh must act

    7-9. Punishments: death, exile, shame

10-18. Jeremiah’s lament

    10. Complaint: the people curse Jeremiah

    12-14. Yahweh will spare some from the enemy

    15. Petition to be saved

    16-17. Affirmation of loyalty

    18. Complaint about pain

19-21. Yahweh’s Response

    19-20. The people will return to Jeremiah

    21. Jeremiah will be saved

   

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

http://www.jennieallen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/beach-sand-sun-vacation-close-up-854.jpg

Hebrew-English Text

I. Summary

The people of Judah confess their guilt and petition Yahweh for rain. Yahweh promises to kill the false prophets with the rest of the land’s inhabitants.

II. Photo

The people accuse Yahweh of a fleeting relationship: “Why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stops only for the night?” (v. 8)

III. Select Verses

3: Their nobles sent their servants for water; They came to the cisterns, they found no water. They returned, their vessels empty. They are shamed and humiliated, They cover their heads.

7: Though our iniquities testify against us, Act, O LORD, for the sake of Your name; Though our rebellions are many And we have sinned against You.

8-9: O Hope of Israel, Its deliverer in time of trouble, Why are You like a stranger in the land, Like a traveler who stops only for the night? Why are You like a man who is stunned, Like a warrior who cannot give victory? Yet You are in our midst, O LORD, And Your name is attached to us — Do not forsake us!

14: The LORD replied: It is a lie that the prophets utter in My name. I have not sent them or commanded them. I have not spoken to them. A lying vision, an empty divination, the deceit of their own contriving — that is what they prophesy to you!

22: Can any of the false gods of the nations give rain? Can the skies of themselves give showers? Only You can, O LORD our God! So we hope in You, For only You made all these things.

IV. Outline

1. Introduction

2-9. Psalm-like petition

    2-6. Complaint: Judah’s drought

    7. Petition/confession

    8-9a. Complaint/accusation: Yahweh stands by idly

    9b. Petition

10-18. A conversation about false prophets

    10. Yahweh will punish for sin

    11-12. Prayer, sacrifice, and fasting do not help

    13. The prophets predict salvation

    14-16. The false prophets will be killed with the rest

    17-18. Future lament

19-22. Psalm-like petition

    19. Complaint: Yahweh stands by idly

    20. Confession

    21. Petition

    22. Affirmation of confidence

    

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Photo copied from https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7141/6620018397_96c28e7e40_z.jpg

Hebrew-English Text

I. Summary

Israel is likened to a dirty loincloth worn by Jeremiah. Yahweh promises the king and queen mother that their people will be exiled. Yahweh berates the people for their inability to change.

II. Photo

Yahweh gives up hope on his people: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? If so you can do good.” (v. 23)

III. Select Verses

1-2: Thus the LORD said to me: “Go buy yourself a loincloth of linen, and put it around your loins, but do not dip it into water.”  So I bought the loincloth in accordance with the LORD’s command, and put it about my loins.

11: For as the loincloth clings close to the loins of a man, so I brought close to Me the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah — declares the LORD — that they might be My people, for fame, and praise, and splendor. But they would not obey.

18:  Say to the king and the queen mother, “Sit in a lowly spot; For your diadems are abased, Your glorious crowns.”

20: Where are the sheep entrusted to you, The flock you took pride in?

22: And when you ask yourself, “Why have these things befallen me?” It is because of your great iniquity That your skirts are lifted up, Your limbs exposed.

23-24: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, Or the leopard his spots? Just as much can you do good, Who are practiced in doing evil!  So I will scatter you like straw that flies Before the desert wind.

IV. Outline

1-11. Metaphoric action #1: Israel is like a sullied loincloth

12-14. Metaphoric action #2: the people will be filled with drunkenness

15-16. Call to repent

17. Jeremiah will lament wickedness

18-22. Future message for the king and queen mother (Jehoiachin and Nehusta?): all will be lost

23-27. Oracle

    23. The people cannot change

    24-25. Exile

    26. Future shame

    27. Condemnation and challenge

   

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

Photo copied from http://www.altaconservation.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/6/files/home-page-best/mark-hughes-amur-leopard-15.jpg