Jeremiahchapter 11
23 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.’
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
Jeremiah was a young priest from Anathoth when he spoke these words, a few years after King Josiah led Judah in swearing again to keep the covenant of Moses. The hearers had taken that oath in public and still remembered the day. This chapter holds them to what they swore, in the shape a treaty took in their world, with its terms and its curse. Listen for the word covenant and for the people who are said to have broken it. Then watch the scene move from the capital to the prophet's own village. The chapter closes on the first of his private prayers.
Context
- Who
- People who had recently signed on to a national covenant renewal and had already drifted
- What
- A prophecy that charges Judah with breaking the covenant, followed by the first plot against Jeremiah's life.
- Where
- The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and then Anathoth, the prophet's home village a few miles north-east of the city.
- When
- The years after Josiah's covenant renewal of 621 BC, about 621 to 609 BC, an estimate, since the chapter carries no date.
- Why
- To show a people who had renewed the covenant that the renewal had not reached their homes.
Historical context
A covenant in that world was a treaty, and treaties had a fixed shape: the terms were read aloud in public, the parties agreed, and a list of blessings and curses was attached for keeping or breaking them. Copies of Assyrian treaties of the same century survive and read the same way. The phrase repeated here, cursed is the man who does not hear the words of this covenant, is that closing curse formula.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The reading has a recent memory behind it. In Josiah's eighteenth year the book of the Law was found during temple repairs, read out to the whole assembly, and sworn to by king and people together. Shrines were smashed and the Passover was kept on a scale nobody remembered.
The chapter says the reform did not take. Judah had as many gods as she had towns, and as many altars for burning incense to Baal as Jerusalem had streets. Household religion is harder to demolish than a hilltop platform.
Then the chapter turns personal. The plot to kill Jeremiah comes from Anathoth, his own priestly village, his own relatives. Their threat is that he must stop prophesying or die by their hand. He compares himself to a tame lamb led to slaughter, an animal that walks alongside the man with the knife because it trusts him.
Significance
First hearers had lived through a genuine revival and were being told that a national ceremony had not changed a single street. That is an uncomfortable thing to hear about a movement you were proud of.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the attempt on the prophet's life tells them where opposition would come from. Not from Babylon or from pagan Egypt, but from the religious professionals of a village of priests.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Jeremiah 11, and no festival reading for the book. Across chapters 1 to 26 of Jeremiah the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 16 and 17.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Rashi reads the prophet's "Amen, O Lord" as his assent to the curse on the one who breaks the covenant (Rashi on Jeremiah 11:5:1). What was brought on the people was "The curses stated in the covenant" (Rashi on Jeremiah 11:8:1).
On the lamb brought to the slaughter he reads the plot against the prophet as the plot of his own town. "He cursed the people of Anathoth" (Rashi on Jeremiah 11:19:1 and 11:20:1).
The corpus carries thirteen further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Jeremiah 11:1:1, 11:2:1, 11:3:1, 11:4:1, 11:6:1, 11:9:1, 11:10:1, 11:17:1, 11:21:1 and 11:22:1. The same holds for Metzudat David on Jeremiah 11:2:1, 11:11:1 and 11:13:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 39 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 5 in the Talmud and 34 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Midrash Shmuel 9:5. On verse 3 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 30, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 12:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 9:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 556:1. On verse 4 it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 48:13. On verse 5 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:35, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 2:5:2, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:20:1, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:20:7 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 1:4:1. On verse 8 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 30:15:8.
On verse 11 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 6:12, Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 6:14 and Yevamot 63b:7. On verse 13 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 22, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:25:1, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:25:3 and Sifrei Devarim 321:11. On verse 14 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 231:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 86:1. On verse 15 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:20, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 35, Eikhah Rabbah 1:20 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 24.
On verse 16 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 16:11, Berakhot 57a:8, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 18 and Esther Rabbah 9:2. On verse 17 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 34:10, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 1:1:11 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 61:1. On verse 19 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 17:20:4. On verse 21 it holds Pesikta DeRav Kahana 24:11 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 512:1. On verse 22 it holds Vayikra Rabbah 10:5.
On verse 23 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:20, Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 13:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Yelamdeinu, Last Composition from Midrash Yelamdenu 43.
The corpus also files Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 10:1:6 under Jeremiah 11:30, a verse this chapter does not have. It is left out of the list above rather than cited on a verse that is not there.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 11:5:1 to 11:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 11:2:1, 11:11:1 and 11:13:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 11:1:1, 11:2:1, 11:3:1, 11:4:1, 11:6:1, 11:9:1, 11:10:1, 11:17:1, 11:21:1 and 11:22:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/11.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 11: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Hear Ye the Words of This Covenant
Jeremiah 11:1-5
the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: The chapter opens as a covenant lawsuit, “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant”, addressed to Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah closes the unit with “Amen, LORD”, assenting to the curse and blessing he must preach against his own people.
Jeremiah 11:1
“The prophecy contained in Jer. 11–12 seems to belong to an early period of Jeremiah’s life. The covenant Jer 11:2 was that renewed by Josiah in his 18th year, after the discovery of the Book of the Law in the temple 2Ki 23:3; while Jer 11:13 apparently refers to the public establishment of idolatry by Manasseh Jer 21:3. The people took no hearty part in Josiah’s reformation, and the prophet therefore sets before them the consequences that will inevitably fellow upon their disloyalty to their covenant-God.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 11:1
“He opens the charter upon which their state was founded and by which they held their privileges. They had forgotten the tenour of it, and lived as if they thought that the grant was absolute and that they might do what they pleased and yet have what God had promised, or as if they thought that the keeping up of the ceremonial observances was all that God required of them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tie this covenant to the book of the law that Hilkiah found in the temple, five years after Jeremiah's call. Wesley takes it as the law given through Moses. The people had promised more than once to keep it.
Jeremiah 11:2
“Hear ye the words of this covenant - It is possible that the prophet caused the words of the covenant made with their fathers in the desert (Exo 24:4-8) to be read to them on this occasion; or, at least, the blessings and the cursings which Moses caused to be pronounced to the people as soon as they had set foot in Canaan, Deuteronomy 27, 28.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cursed is the man who does not obey: Adam Clarke reads the line as the sum of what was read: the man who disobeys is cursed, and the man who obeys is blessed. Matthew Henry adds that the curse fell on a single man, and much more on a whole nation in revolt.
Jeremiah 11:3
"Hear," then, "the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded your fathers." Who most of all hears "the words of the covenant which God commanded the fathers"? Is it those who believe in Him, or those who are shown not even to believe Moses by the very fact that they have not believed in the Lord?
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Jeremiah 9patristic
which I commanded your forefathers: The iron furnace is Egypt, as in Deuteronomy 4:20. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the furnace as a hard trial and the iron as its long years. Albert Barnes notes how often Jeremiah echoes Deuteronomy, the book of the covenant read after it was found in the temple.
Jeremiah 11:4
“From the iron furnace - Rather, out of “the iron furnace,” Egypt (see Deu 4:20). The constant reference to Deuteronomy shows how great had been the effect upon Jeremiah’s mind of the public recitation of the “Book of the covenant” found in the temple.”
This was in order to establish the oath: Albert Barnes reads the words as it is to this day as proof that God had kept his side of the covenant. Judah would keep the land only by keeping its own side. Barnes also hears in the prophet's Amen the word Deuteronomy 27 gives the people after each curse.
Jeremiah 11:5
“As it is this day - God had kept the terms of the covenant. Whether the promised land would permanently remain the property of the Jews would depend upon their observance of their part of the covenant. So be it, O Lord - Or, “Amen, Yahweh.” The prophet was literally obeying the command given in Deu 27:14-26, and the same word should be kept in both places.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 11:5
“Here the Prophet teaches us, that the Jews, though they continued to profess God's holy name, were yet wholly perfidious, and had departed altogether from the law. The import of this discourse is, that the Jews gloried in the name of God, and yet were violaters of his covenant, for they had broken their faith pledged to God, and wholly cast aside the doctrine of the law.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Jeremiah 11:5
“God was ready to fulfil the promise, but then they must fulfil the condition; if not, the promise is void, and it is just with God to turn them out of possession.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 11:6-8
The command to proclaim is doubled by the record of how long the warning had run, “I strongly warned them again and again”. Verse 8 gives the verdict the covenant predicted, “each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart”. The curses now falling are the covenant's own words returning.
Jeremiah 11:6
“Then the Lord said unto me,.... Again; for this is a repetition of the above order: proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: with a loud voice, and openly, that all may hear: saying, hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them; which their forefathers promised, when the covenant was made with them, Exo 24:7, but did not perform; hearing without doing is of little avail; not the hearers, but the doers of the law are justified; wherefore men should not be content with hearing only, Rom 2:13.”
For from the time I brought your fathers: Matthew Henry notes that Moses pressed this command again and again, precept upon precept and line upon line. Obedience was the one term on which God took Israel into his care. The warning ran from the exodus to Jeremiah's own day.
Jeremiah 11:7
“He never intended to take them under his guidance and protection upon any other terms. This was what he required from them in gratitude for the great things he did for them when he brought them from the iron furnace. He redeemed them out of the service of the Egyptians, which was perfect slavery, that he might take them into his own service, which is perfect freedom, Luke i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Yet they would not obey or incline: The charge opens with what Judah left undone. Charles Spurgeon calls these sins of omission, placed ahead of the sins committed that the next verses name. Albert Barnes reads the curses as already brought on Israel, in the fall of the ten tribes and in Manasseh led to Babylon.
Jeremiah 11:8
“What then could they expect, but to fall under the curse of the covenant, since they would not comply with the commands and conditions of it? Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, that is, all the threatenings contained in it, because they did not what they were commanded. Note, The words of the covenant shall not fall to the ground.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 11:8
“I will bring - Rather, I have brought. The breach of the covenant upon their part had always brought temporal calamity. The last examples were the deportation of the ten tribes by Salmanezer, and the leading of Manasseh prisoner to Babylon in chains (2Ch 33:11).”
A Green Olive Tree with Its Branches Broken
Jeremiah 11:9-10
The word “conspiracy” names the covenant breach as a deliberate plot. Verse 10 states its breadth, “The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant”, north and south joined in one indictment. The fathers here are the wilderness generation “who refused to obey My words”.
Jeremiah 11:9
“Jeremiah himself saw that many lived in open disobedience to God, but the Lord told him that the matter was worse than he thought of: A conspiracy is found among them, by him whose eye is upon the hidden works of darkness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 11:9
“A conspiracy - The defection from the covenant was as general as if it had been the result of preconcerted arrangement. The decided course taken by Josiah may, however, have led the opposite party to secret combinations against him.”
They have returned to the sins: Adam Clarke sets the verse after Josiah's reform. Under his sons the public idols came back, and Judah returned to the sins of the fathers. John Gill notes that Kimchi dates this word to the days of Jehoiakim.
Jeremiah 11:10
"A conspiracy," then, "has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." "They have turned back to the injustices"—of whom? He does not say simply "of the fathers." What is the addition? "They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." We were saying that these things are spoken to us and to those among us who sin.
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Jeremiah 9patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 11:10
“They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers - A great reformation had taken place under the reign of Josiah, and the public worship of idols had been abolished, and most of the high places destroyed; but under the reign of his son and his successors, they had turned back again to idolatry, and were become worse than ever. It required a captivity to cure them of this propensity: and God sent one: after that, there was no idolatry among the Jews.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 11:10
“They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers,.... According to Kimchi, this prophecy was delivered out in the times of Jehoiakim.”
Jeremiah 11:11-13
The judgment is inescapable and closed to prayer, “They will cry out to Me, but I will not listen to them”. Verse 13 counts the idols by the cities themselves, “Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah”. The count answers the polemic of chapter 10.
Jeremiah 11:11
“Though God justly does not hear those who do not hear him, the demons will be unable to save the just in those who burn incense to them, whenever the time of troubles arrives. Thus, whenever God does not listen, it is dangerous to seek help from demons. But one must depend on God, who has turned away from us due to sins, yet who does not disregard the great and lasting refuge in himself.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Fragments on Jeremiah 7patristic
Then the cities of Judah and the residents: Judah's incense buys no help on the day of need. Matthew Henry notes that the idols cannot help themselves, so they can give no help to those who serve them. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown pair the verse with 2:28, where the same gods are dared to rise and save.
Jeremiah 11:12
“They shall not save them at all, shall do nothing towards their salvation, nor give them any prospect of it; they shall not afford them the least comfort, nor relief, nor mitigation of their trouble. It is God only that is a friend at need, a present powerful help in time of trouble. The idols cannot help themselves; how then should they help their worshippers?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Your gods are indeed as numerous: Shame here is a name for Baal. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, after Calvin, read the word as the idol itself, the thing that will bring shame on those who serve it. Albert Barnes points to Manasseh, who set up Baal worship as the public religion of Judah.
Jeremiah 11:13
“That shameful thing - Baal, called a shameful thing, because it was what they had reason to be ashamed of, and what would certainly bring them to shame and confusion. Baal - Signifies Lord, and was a common name given to more idols than one; the Phoenicians used the name Baal, the Chaldeans, Bell.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 11:14-17
do not pray for these people: The order “do not pray for these people” repeats 7:16 nearly word for word. The LORD “once called you a flourishing olive tree, beautiful with well-formed fruit”. Verse 16 then turns the tree to kindling, “He will set it on fire, and its branches will be consumed”.
Jeremiah 11:14
“Therefore pray not thou for this people - I am determined to give them up into the hands of their enemies; I will neither hear thy intercession, nor regard their prayers. Their measure is full.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
What right has My beloved in My house: Adam Clarke gives two readings of the beloved: a great man of prayer such as Abraham or Moses, or Israel under a name of love. Wesley reads the consecrated meat as sacrifice set before idols as well as God, and so made unclean. Such offerings bought no escape.
Jeremiah 11:15
“What hath my beloved to do in mine house - This has been supposed to refer to Abraham, Moses, or such eminent servants of God, whose intercession was very powerful. Were even they to appear as intercessors, their prayer should not be regarded. Others think that this is an endearing expression which properly belonged to the Israelites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 11:15
“They were originally God's beloved, his spouse, he was married to them by the covenant of peculiarity; even the unbelieving Jews are said to be beloved for the fathers' sake, Rom. xi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 11:15
“Rather, "that great (or, manifold) enormity"; literally, "the enormity, the manifold"; namely, their idolatry, which made their worship of God in the temple a mockery (compare Jer 7:10; Eze 23:39) [HENDERSON]. holy flesh-- (Hag 2:12-14; Tit 1:15), namely, the sacrifices, which, through the guilt of the Jews, were no longer holy, that is, acceptable to God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The LORD once called you a flourishing: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the olive as Judah adopted by free grace, its oil an image of plenty. The mighty roar is the noise of the invading army, as Maurer takes it. Fire follows the noise.
Jeremiah 11:16
It is probable, therefore, that Jesus compares the synagogue of the Jews with a fig tree, for the sacred Scripture also compares them with various plants: the vine, for instance, and the olive, and even a forest. … Jeremiah says, "The Lord called you a beautiful olive tree, well shaded in appearance. At its pruning time, a fire was kindled in it. Great tribulation came to it. Its branches were destroyed." And another of the holy prophets, comparing it with Mount Lebanon, thus speaks: "Open your doors, O Lebanon, and the fire shall devour your cedars."
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Luke, Homily 96patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 11:16
“Their remembrance of them shall be no comfort to them under their troubles, and God's remembrance of them shall be no argument for their relief. It is true God had done great things for them; that people had been favourites above any people under the sun; they had been the darlings of heaven.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD of Hosts, who planted you: The One who planted Judah now decrees her ruin, as the vine planted at 2:21 turned wild. Matthew Henry notes that the evil done to provoke God falls back on those who do it. God is out of their reach, and they ruin themselves.
Jeremiah 11:17
“And thus it proves that the evil done against God, to provoke him to anger, is really done against themselves; they wrong their own souls; God is out of their reach, but they ruin themselves. Note, Every sin against God is a sin against ourselves, and so it will be found sooner or later.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A Gentle Lamb Led to the Slaughter: Plots at Anathoth
Jeremiah 11:18-20
And the LORD informed me, so I knew: This unit opens the run of confessions the book carries through chapter 20. He was “like a gentle lamb led to slaughter” and “did not know that they had plotted against me”. Verse 20 answers with the appeal the confessions repeat, “let me see Your vengeance upon them”.
Jeremiah 11:18
“The Lord hath given me knowledge of it - The men of Anathoth had conspired against his life, because he reproved them for their sins, and denounced the judgments of God against them. Of this God had given him a secret warning, that he might be on his guard.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I was like a gentle lamb: Barnes reads the Hebrew as a tame lamb, raised at home and trusting to the end. He calls the tree and its fruit a proverb. Jerome says the whole church hears Christ in these words, the lamb of Isaiah led to the slaughter.
Jeremiah 11:19
“Like a lamb or an ox - Rather, “like a tame lamb.” Jeremiah had lived at Anathoth as one of the family, never suspecting that, like a tame lamb, the time would come for him to be killed. The tree with the fruit thereof - The words are those of a proverb or dark saying. All the Churches agree in understanding that under the person of Jeremiah these things are said by Christ.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 11:19
“But I was like a lamb, or an ox,.... The word "alluph", rendered an ox, is by many considered as an adjective to the word lamb (n); since the disjunctive particle or is not in the next; and is differently translated; by the Vulgate Latin version, "as a meek or tame lamb"; by the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "as an harmless lamb": and by the Syriac version, "as a pure" or "clean lamb"; and by the Targum, "as a choice lamb;'' and so R.”
Jeremiah 11:19
“Let us destroy - We have no other mention of this conspiracy, but it is plain both from this verse, and what follows, that the men of Anathoth (which was Jeremiah's own town) were offended at his prophesying, and had conspired to kill him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as part of his office, in line with what God had already made known against the men who plotted. Matthew Henry sees human frailty, and Adam Clarke reads the verb as a plain future: the prophet will see the vengeance of the LORD.
Jeremiah 11:20
“Jeremiah prays judgment against them: " Let me see thy vengeance on them, that is, do justice between me and them in such a way as thou pleasest." Some think there was something of human frailty in this prayer; at least Christ has taught us another lesson, both by precept and by pattern, which is to pray for our persecutors.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 11:21-23
the people of Anathoth who are seeking your life: The plotters are the people of Anathoth, Jeremiah's priestly hometown from 1:1, his own kinsmen demanding silence. The sentence answering them, “Their young men will die by the sword”, is the first judgment the book records Jeremiah asking for and receiving.
Jeremiah 11:21
“Their forbidding him to prophesy was in effect seeking his life, for it was seeking to defeat the end and business of his life and to rob him of the comfort of it. It is as bad to God's faithful ministers to have their mouth stopped as to have their breath stopped.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Their young men will die by the sword: Sword and famine are two of the four sore judgments, as Matthew Henry names them. Albert Barnes reads the young men as those of age for war, though Henry notes that at Anathoth many were young priests. Their office gave them no shelter.
Jeremiah 11:22
“Two of God's four sore judgments shall serve to ruin their town:-- The sword shall devour their young men, though they were young priests, not men of war (their character shall not be their protection), and famine shall destroy the children, sons and daughters, that tarry at home, which is a more grievous death than that by the sword, Lam. iv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
There will be no remnant: Albert Barnes notes that 128 men of Anathoth came home from exile, as Ezra 2:23 records. He limits the sentence to the men who sought Jeremiah's life. Matthew Henry reads it as measure for measure: they meant to cut off his name, and their own is cut off.
Jeremiah 11:23
“No remnant - 128 men of Anathoth returned from exile Ezr 2:23; Neh 7:27. Jeremiah’s denunciation was limited to those who had sought his life. The year of their visitation would be the year of the siege of Jerusalem, when Anathoth being in its immediate vicinity would have its share of the horrors of war.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 11:23
“They sought Jeremiah's life, and therefore they shall die; they would destroy him root and branch, that his name might be no more remembered, and therefore there shall be no remnant of them; and herein the Lord is righteous. Thus evil is brought upon them, even the year of their visitation, and that is evil enough, a recompence according to their deserts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 838: “Sins of Omission” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2:110.2-4; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.