Jeremiah 15:6
in Jeremiah 15You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary with repenting.
KJV
Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
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This verse in Jeremiah 15
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 6.) You have forsaken me, says the Lord: you have gone backward. The reason is given why no one has pity on Jerusalem, nor is she grieved for; nor is she beseeched for the sake of her peace: which, according to the Apostle (Philippians 3), should forget the things that are behind and extend oneself to the things that are before, is on the contrary turned backward, and desires the fleshpots of Egypt.
This site's exposition
Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem
on Jeremiah 15:5-9
The questions of verse 5 picture a city so friendless that no one will “turn aside to ask about your welfare”. The words “I am weary of showing compassion” follow the charge “You have turned your back”. Widows and “a destroyer at noon” describe a ruin that comes in daylight.
This site's exposition
You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD
Judah has forsaken the LORD and turned its back. Adam Clarke reads the LORD as weary of holding back the punishment again and again, and he will hold it back no longer. Barnes adds that the long delay had made Judah turn further from the LORD.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
And to each interpretation of Jerusalem what follows will also fit: "You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You shall go backward." That you have turned away from the Son of God, and because of having turned away from the Son of God you have turned away from God — what need is there even to say it? And since Jerusalem in Judea turned away from Christ — from which we must understand all the Jews — for this reason "you shall go backward." For there was a time when she did not go backward, but forward; but now she goes backward, and "they turned in their hearts to Egypt," clearly so that they might go backward. But concerning what "you shall go backward" means, or what it is to reach forward to the things that are ahead, we shall present it thus. The righteous man "reaches forward to the things that are ahead, forgetting the things that are behind." Clearly the one disposed contrary to the righteous man remembers the things behind and does not reach forward to the things that are ahead. But he who remembers the things behind disobeys Jesus who teaches and says: "Let him not turn back to take up his garment"; he disobeys Jesus who says: "Remember Lot's wife"; he disobeys Jesus who says: "No one who has put his hand to the plow and turned back to the things behind is fit for the kingdom of God." And in the law also it is written that the angels said to Lot who had gone out from Sodom: "Do not look around to the things behind, nor stand in all the surrounding country; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away with them." And this too has a meaning worthy of an angelic spirit: "Do not look around to the things behind" — ever reach forward to the things ahead. You have left Sodom, do not turn to Sodom. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
): " Thou hast forsaken me, my service and thy duty to me; thou hast gone backward into the ways of contradiction, art become the reverse of what thou shouldst have been and of what God by his law would have led thee forward to." See how the impenitence is described (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
Miserable is the case of those who have sinned so long against God's mercy that at length they have sinned it away. (2.) Their own country expels them, and is ready to spue them out, as it had done the Canaanites that were before them; for so it was threatened ( Lev. xviii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
I am weary with repenting - With repeatedly changing my purpose. I have often, after purposing to punish, showed them mercy. I will do it no longer; it is useless. I took them often at their promise, and in every instance they have failed.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
This verse gives the reason of the refusal of Yahweh to hear the prophet’s intercession. The punishment due has been delayed unto wearisomeness, and this seeming failure of justice has made Judah withdraw further from God.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַ֣תְּ | ʾat | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| נָטַ֥שְׁתְּ | natasht | you abandoned | H5203 → | 40 times |
| אֹתִ֛י | ʾoti | <obj.> me | H853 → | 10935 times |
| נְאֻם־ | neum- | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אָח֣וֹר | ʾachor | backwards | H268 → | 41 times |
| תֵּלֵ֑כִי | telekhi | you go | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| וָאַ֨ט | vaat | and I have stretched out | H5186 → | 214 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| יָדִ֤י | yadi | hand my | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| עָלַ֙יִךְ֙ | ʾalayikh | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| וָֽאַשְׁחִיתֵ֔ךְ | vaashchitekh | and I have destroyed you | H7843 → | 146 times |
| נִלְאֵ֖יתִי | nileiti | I had wearied myself | H3811 → | 19 times |
| הִנָּחֵֽם׃ | hinachem | to relent | H5162 → | 108 times |
אַ֣תְּyou
ʾatH859 →1094 times
נָטַ֥שְׁתְּyou abandoned
natashtH5203 →40 times
אֹתִ֛י<obj.> me
ʾotiH853 →10935 times
נְאֻם־[the] utterance of
neum-H5002 →376 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אָח֣וֹרbackwards
ʾachorH268 →41 times
תֵּלֵ֑כִיyou go
telekhiH1980 →1546 times
וָאַ֨טand I have stretched out
vaatH5186 →214 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
יָדִ֤יhand my
yadiH3027 →1618 times
עָלַ֙יִךְ֙on you
ʾalayikhH5921 →5755 times
וָֽאַשְׁחִיתֵ֔ךְand I have destroyed you
vaashchitekhH7843 →146 times
נִלְאֵ֖יתִיI had wearied myself
nileitiH3811 →19 times
הִנָּחֵֽם׃to relent
hinachemH5162 →108 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hosea 11:7My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:5
Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 8:5
Through
Zechariah 7:11But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
it leads to
- Nehemiah 9:29
You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly…
- Nehemiah 9:29
Through
Jeremiah 7:24Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
it leads to
- Psalms 81:11–12
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Deuteronomy 29:19
because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This…
- Jeremiah 7:26
Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.
- Psalms 81:11–12
Through
Isaiah 1:4Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on…
it leads to
- Isaiah 5:24
Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected…
- Jeremiah 2:17
Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?
- Jeremiah 2:13
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- Isaiah 5:24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 13.