Jeremiah15chapter 15

Jeremiah 15:1-4

Though Moses and Samuel stood before me: The chapter answers 14:19-22 directly: even Moses and Samuel, the two intercessors Scripture remembers as most effective in turning judgment aside, could not move the Lord's mind toward this people now. Henry reads the naming of these two men as deliberate, since both had once stood in the breach for Israel and been heard, which makes the refusal here heavier than a plain no. The four kinds appointed, sword, dogs, fowls, and beasts, and the charge laid on Manasseh son of Hezekiah name a specific reign the book holds responsible, the sins 2 Kings 21 records still bearing fruit generations later.

Jeremiah 15:5-9

For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem?: The question who shall have pity, who shall bemoan thee, pictures a city so friendless in judgment that no one even turns aside to ask how she fares. Keil reads I am weary with repenting as bold covenant language, not a change in the Lord's own character but a description of how many times mercy had already been extended and refused before this final word. The widow count above the sand of the seas and the mother of the young men struck at noonday describe a population loss so total that ordinary mourning customs, a spoiler expected under cover of night, are overturned; this horror comes in daylight.

Jeremiah 15:10-11

Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me: Jeremiah's first confession breaks in without transition, woe is me, my mother, a cry against his own birth into a life of universal contention, cursed by everyone though he has lent to no one on usury and owes no one anything. Calvin reads the outburst as honest rather than sinful, the same kind of complaint Job and the psalmists bring, grief spoken to the Lord rather than concealed from him. The Lord's answer at verse 11 promises the remnant will be well and the enemy made to plead with Jeremiah in the time of evil, mercy offered inside the complaint rather than a rebuke for making it.

Jeremiah 15:12-14

Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?: The question about iron breaking iron is read by the bench as naming Babylon's own strength, a northern power hard enough that Judah's resistance, however determined, cannot turn it aside. The sentence that follows repeats the substance Judah has already heard, treasures given to the spoil without price, exile into a land unknown, judgment framed once more as the fire of the Lord's own anger. Gill notes the verse's difficulty in the Hebrew text and reads it, with the bench generally, as underlining that no human strength on Judah's side will alter what has already been decreed.

Jeremiah 15:15-18

O Lord, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me: The second confession opens as a plea for vindication, remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors, and then turns to gratitude, thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, the same calling that has cost him everything still named as sweetness. The turn is sudden: why is my pain perpetual, wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?, a charge against God's faithfulness spoken by the man who has just called God's word his joy. Henry reads the contradiction as truthful to how grief actually speaks, love and accusation in the same breath, rather than as evidence of unbelief.

Jeremiah 15:19-21

Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again: The Lord's answer to the complaint calls Jeremiah back to his post rather than excusing him from it, if thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me, restoration tied to the prophet taking forth the precious from the vile and speaking as the Lord's own mouth again. Keil reads let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them as the standing rule of the prophetic office, the messenger never permitted to trade places with the people he is sent to warn. The promise closes the chapter where chapter 1 began, a fenced brasen wall against the whole city, they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail, deliverance guaranteed without the assignment ever being made easier.