Jeremiah 15:1-9 | The Way of Scripture

Jeremiah 15:1-9

Why do even the names of great intercessors not cancel this announced judgment?

Berean Standard Bible

1 Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go! 2 If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’ 3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will make them a horror 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, O Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare? 6 You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion. 7 I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave and destroy My people who have not turned from their ways. 8 I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay. 9 The mother of seven will grow faint; she will breathe her last breath. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. And the rest I will put to the sword in the presence of their enemies,” declares the LORD.

What is the context?

The Lord names Moses and Samuel to express the severity of the situation: even their standing before Him would not turn this announced sentence aside.

Death, sword, famine, captivity, and exposed corpses show the breadth of the disaster. The text names Manasseh’s wrongdoing in Jerusalem within the account of Judah’s long failure.

The refusal to return and the Lord’s weariness with repeated compassion should be allowed their searching force. They are not a claim that every later appeal for mercy must fail.

Winnowing, multiplied widows, and the mother of seven losing strength bring the devastation into households. The sun setting before day’s end depicts life cut short.

The oracle concerns this people’s crisis. It must not become a general instruction to blame a bereaved mother for the loss she suffers.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley connects Manasseh’s provocation with the account in 2 Kings 23:26 and reads the household images through Judah’s loss. He understands the numbers and premature sunset as forceful pictures of a once numerous people brought low, rather than a calculation of every household’s future.

What is our position?

We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.

Where can I study this further?

No deeper study linked yet.

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