Jeremiahchapter 6
30 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →
Speaks with:Isaiah 1×4Jeremiah 4×4Jeremiah 49×3Jeremiah 50×3Jeremiah 8×3Jeremiah 15×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Siege poetry: blow the trumpet in Tekoa, for evil looks forth from the north; hew ye down trees and cast up a mound against Jerusalem. The wound is treated with cosmetics: 'they have healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace' (6:14). And no one blushes. At the crossroads comes the invitation the nation refuses: 'Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein' (6:16). Jeremiah is set as an assayer; the smelting fails, and they are called refuse silver.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–9 Flee, Children of Benjamin: Siege Mounds Against Jerusalem
- B. 10–15 Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace
- C. 16–21 Ask for the Old Paths — but They Said, We Will Not Walk
- D. 22–30 Reprobate Silver: the Refiner Melts in Vain
The outline
A.Flee, Children of Benjamin: Siege Mounds Against Jerusalemvv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →B.Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peacevv. 10 to 15
Read vv. 10 to 15 →C.Ask for the Old Paths — but They Said, We Will Not Walkvv. 16 to 21
Read vv. 16 to 21 →D.Reprobate Silver: the Refiner Melts in Vainvv. 22 to 30
Read vv. 22 to 30 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 6The history
The chapter names the alarm system by its stations: blow the horn in Tekoa, ten miles south of Jerusalem, and raise the fire signal over Beth-haccherem. Judah really ran on relayed fire signals. One of the letters written on pottery found in the ruins of Lachish, from an officer to his commander in the final year of the kingdom, says they are watching for the fire signals of Lachish because they can no longer see Azekah.
Then comes a siege, described in order. The attackers arrive at noon, when a defender hopes they will wait for dawn. Trees are cut down for miles around — orchards included — for timber. Earth is piled against the wall in a long ramp until it reaches the top, and the battering engine is dragged up it. A besieged city can watch this happen for months and can do very little about it.
The last picture is a metal refiner's shop. Silver was purified by heating the ore with lead in a shallow hearth and blowing air across it; the lead carried off the impurities and left clean silver behind. The bellows here blow until the lead itself burns away and the refining fails, and the smelter throws out the batch as rejected silver.
Two lines are quoted back to us by history. The people ask where the good old paths are and refuse to walk in them, and the prophets treat a deep wound like a scratch, saying peace, peace, when there is none.
What it meant to them
Hearers who had already heard several invasion warnings that came to nothing would recognise the accusation about healing a wound lightly. Cheap reassurance was the market-leading product of Judah's religion.
The refiner's furnace answers the obvious objection. God had already tried the fire. The point of preaching had been to purify a nation, and the assayer was now reporting that no clean metal had come out.
Sources cited
- The Lachish Letters (ostraca), in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 6. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.