Jeremiah6chapter 6

Jeremiah 6:1-5

blow the trumpet in Tekoa: Benjamin is told to flee Jerusalem itself, evacuation ordered from inside the very city under threat, while the enemy is pictured in Jeremiah's harshest irony, shepherds pitching their tents against Zion, the same word used elsewhere in the book for Israel's own careless leaders now describing a besieging army feeding on the daughter of Zion in her own place. The invaders debate their own timing, at noon, or failing the daylight, by night, an unhurried confidence the bench reads as more frightening than any battle cry, an enemy certain enough of victory to choose its hour.

Jeremiah 6:6-8

Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount: The Lord himself orders the siege works, trees felled and a mount cast up against his own city, language that names Jerusalem as the city to be visited rather than leaving the enemy's engineering unaccounted for. The fountain that casts out her waters names wickedness as Jerusalem's own continual output rather than an occasional lapse, and the last appeal in the unit, be thou instructed, lest my soul depart from thee, is offered before the desolation rather than after it, correction still open at the very edge of judgment.

Jeremiah 6:9-11

glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: The gleaning figure pictures the invasion as a second, more thorough harvest after the first, nothing left on the vine the way a careful grapegatherer leaves nothing in the field. Jeremiah's question, to whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear, answers itself in the next clause, their ear is uncircumcised, the same heart language chapter 4 used for the nation now applied to its hearing. His own confession, I am full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with holding in, is the licensed grief the book allows its prophet, the message costing the messenger before it costs anyone else.

Jeremiah 6:12-15

houses shall be turned unto others: The corruption named at 5:31 is restated here as total, from the least of them even unto the greatest, prophet and priest included, before it produces the book's most quoted false comfort, they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace, a diagnosis papered over rather than treated. Were they ashamed, neither could they blush names a conscience past the point of feeling its own wound, which the bench reads as worse than the sin itself, since shame at least still argues for a cure.

Jeremiah 6:16-19

ask for the old paths: The invitation to ask for the old paths where is the good way offers rest for your souls in the same breath the people refuse it, we will not walk therein, a refusal repeated when watchmen are set over them, we will not hearken, obstinacy named twice in consecutive verses rather than left to inference. The evil that follows is called the fruit of their thoughts, not an arbitrary stroke but the harvest of a mind that had already rejected the law it was warned by.

Jeremiah 6:20-21

incense from Sheba: Imported incense and sweet cane brought at real expense from Sheba are rejected outright, your burnt offerings are not acceptable, ritual performed at cost but without the obedience the old paths of verse 16 required, and the bench reads the sequence as deliberate, disobedience first and worship offered as a substitute for it rather than its fruit. The stumblingblocks set before this people in the next verse fall on fathers and sons and neighbors together, judgment reaching every relation the false peace of verse 14 had promised to protect.

Jeremiah 6:22-26

a people cometh from the north country: The invader from the north named already at 1:14 and 4:6 is finally given a face, cruel and without mercy, riding for war against the daughter of Zion, and the report alone is enough to break the city's nerve, our hands wax feeble, anguish hath taken hold of us, as of a woman in travail, the same labor figure 4:31 used for Zion's own coming grief. Mourning as for an only son is the sharpest grief the culture had a word for, and the chapter asks the daughter of my people to wear it before the loss has even arrived.

Jeremiah 6:27-30

a tower and a fortress among my people: Jeremiah is given a new office at the chapter's close, tower and fortress and assayer together, set to know and try their way the way a refiner tests ore for what it actually contains. The refining figure that follows is a report of failure rather than success, the bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain, the process run correctly and the metal proven worthless anyway, reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them, the assay finished and the verdict returned.