1And the LORD said, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, I would have nothing to do with this people. Send them away from Me and let them go out. 2And should they say to you, ‘Where shall we go out?,’ you shall say to them: Thus said the LORD:
and who for the sword—to the sword,
and who for captivity—to captivity.
3And I will set over you four clans, said the LORD, the sword to kill and the dogs to drag and the fowl of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy. 4And I will make them a horror for all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”
5For who will pity you, O Jerusalem,
and who will console you,
and who will turn aside to ask
how you fare?
6You abandoned Me, said the LORD,
backward you did go,
and I reached out My hand against you and destroyed you,
I could not relent.
7And I winnowed them with a winnowing fork
I bereaved, destroyed My people—
from their ways they did not turn back.
8Its widows were more numerous to Me
than the sand of the seas.
I brought upon them, on mother and young man as well,
a despoiler at noon.
I let fall on them all of a sudden
9Forlorn is she who bore seven,
she has gasped out her life-breath.
Her sun has gone down while it was still day.
She was shamed and disgraced.
And their remnant to the sword I will give
before their enemies, said the LORD.
10Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me,
a man of quarrel and a man of strife to all the land.
I have not loaned nor did they lend to me,
yet all of them curse me.
11Said the LORD: “Have I not bolstered you for good?
Have I not made the enemy plead for your intercession
in a time of evil and a time of distress?
12Can iron shatter iron
from the north, or bronze?
13Your wealth and your treasures
I will turn to spoils, cost-free,
for all your offenses, through all your regions.
14And I will make you serve your enemies
in a land you do not know.
For fire rages in My nostrils,
against you it burns.”
15It is You Who knows, O LORD.
Recall me and take account of me
and avenge me of my pursuers.
Do not take me back in Your anger’s slowness.
Know that I bore disgrace for You.
16Your words were found and I ate them,
and your words became gladness for me
and my heart’s rejoicing, for Your name was called upon me—
the LORD God of Armies.
17I did not sit in the gathering of revelers to make merry.
Because of Your hand, alone I sat,
for with wrath You filled me.
18Why is my pain everlasting
and my blow grievous, resistant to healing?
You have surely been to me a dried-up spring,
waters not to be trusted.
19Therefore thus said the LORD:
“If you turn back, I will bring you back,
before Me you shall stand.
And if you bring out what is precious from trash,
you shall be as My mouth.
It is they who shall turn back to you,
and you shall not turn back to them.
20And I will make you for this people
And they shall do battle against you
and shall not prevail over you.
For I am with you
to rescue you and to save you, said the LORD.
21And I will save you from the hand of the wicked,
and redeem you from the clutch of the ruthless.”
CHAPTER 15 NOTES
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1. I would have nothing to do with this people. The literal sense of the Hebrew is: “My inward self [nafshi] is not toward this people.”
2. Where shall we go out? Confronted with a decree of banishment—exile appears to be implied—the people ask where they should go. The grim answer is: to death or captivity.
Who for death—to death. The fate of the banished people is spelled out in lapidary fashion, with the dire words repeated in quick sequence: death, sword, captivity.
3. clans. The word choice looks a little odd, though the prophet might have in mind the set phrase “all the clans of the earth.”
the dogs to drag. One should recall that dogs in biblical Israel were semiferal scavengers, not pets.
4. because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah. Manasseh was one of the most notorious of the Judahite kings for instituting idol worship in the Temple (“for what he did in Jerusalem”). See 2 Kings 21.
7. in the gates of the land. As before, this is probably a synecdoche for the towns of the land, though it should be noted that attacking forces would storm the gates.
8. on mother and young man as well. The Hebrew syntax is crabbed. It reads literally: “on mother young man.” The Syriac shows “on mother and on young man.” It is possible that the particle meaning “and” originally appeared before “young man” and was scribally omitted. That would yield the sense reflected in this translation.
alarm. The translation, assuming a connection with the verbal stem that means “to rouse,” is conjectural. The Hebrew ʿir elsewhere always means “town.”
10. Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me. These words mark the beginning of another autobiographical passage. (The translation, in order to distinguish between Jeremiah’s first-person speech and God’s words, puts the latter in quotation marks.) More than any other prophet, Jeremiah repeatedly complains about the destiny of bitter contention that his calling has imposed upon him. It were better, he says here, had he never been born.
I have not loaned nor did they lend me. The giving and taking of loans could easily turn into a source of strife between lender and borrower. The prophet has done no such thing, yet he finds himself in perpetual conflict with those around him.
11. bolstered . . . / made the enemy plead for your intercession. Both verbs here are problematic and have generated wildly different understandings. This translation links the first term, sheiritakha, to a root associated with “armor,” but that is at best an educated guess.
12. iron / from the north. Asia Minor was known for its high-quality iron. But in general, invaders in Jeremiah come from the north. The menacing note of this verse and what follows is a pointed antithesis to the positive declaration in verse 11: I stood by you against the enemy, but you failed to change your ways, and now I will bring disaster upon you.
14. I will make you serve your enemies. The received text has “I will make your enemies pass,” wehaʿavarti, but the duplication of this verse in 17:4 as well as in many Hebrew manuscripts show waʿavadti, “I will make you serve.” One should recall that the letters resh and dalet are close in form.
15. Do not take me back in Your anger’s slowness. The force of the verb “take” here is unclear, but the gist of the line is that God should not be slow to anger in reversing Israel’s fortunes and exacting retribution from its enemies.
16. I ate them. This prophetic eating of God’s words looks like an anticipation of Ezekiel, who is enjoined to eat a scroll with God’s words on it.
17. Because of Your hand, alone I sat, / for with wrath You filled me. This is still another vehement expression of Jeremiah’s pained sense of isolation because of his prophetic mission.
19. If you turn back. The “you” is masculine singular and so must refer to Jeremiah. Nevertheless, the meaning of the verb repeated here in two different conjugations is not entirely clear. Usually, “to turn back” means “to repent,” but the prophet has no need to repent. Perhaps the reference is to his sense of distraught alienation because of his prophetic mission. That mission is clearly invoked in “you shall be as My mouth.”
20. a fortified wall of bronze. The image of fortification, used twice before, reflects Jeremiah’s sense of being embattled by enemies.