Year of the Bible

Access your family's weekly resource for the Year of the Bible HERE

Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 15

After giving many general warnings of the upcoming disaster, God now explains the warnings in more explicit detail. These include how God will enact on the people the same type of destruction they have enacted on others. No one will pity them when God finally tires of relenting and instead allows the consequences for the people’s regular backsliding to occur. Jeremiah turns to God with an honest concern about his situation: he loves God’s word but finds himself isolated and in pain because of it. He wonders where God is in the midst of his misery. God reassures Jeremiah that as long as Jeremiah clings to God’s truth, God will be with him, will strengthen him for his mission, and will deliver and redeem him from evil (see 1:7-8).

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 15:

Anguish and Terror Foretold

1 Then the Lord said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! 2 And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
and those who are for captivity, to captivity.”’
3 “I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
5 “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
or who will bemoan you?
Who will turn aside
to ask about your welfare?
6 You have rejected me, says the Lord,
you keep going backward; so I have stretched out my
hand against you and destroyed you;—
I am weary of relenting.
7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people;
they did not turn from their ways.
8 I have made their widows more in number
than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against 
the mothers of young men
a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
fall upon them suddenly.
9 She who bore seven has languished;
she has swooned away; her sun went down while it
was yet day;
she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
before their enemies,
says the Lord.”
Jeremiah Pleads Again and Is Reassured
10 Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 11 So let it be, O Lord, if I have not entreated you for their good, if I have not pleaded with you on behalf of the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress! 12 Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?
13 “Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. 14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for in my anger a fire
is kindled which shall burn forever
15 O Lord, you know;
remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me
on my persecutors.
In your forbearance take me not away;
know that for your sake I bear reproach.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart; for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
17 I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,
nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,
for you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will you be to me like a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail?
19 Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you return, I will restore you,
and you shall stand before me.
If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,
you shall be as my mouth.
They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.
20 And I will make you to this people
a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you,
for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord.
21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

*Daily Lectio Divina Question:

The LORD chastizes the people because they do not repent (v. 7), but upholds Jeremiah because he has made the words of the LORD his delight (v. 16). LORD, how can I more deeply delight in your commands and let go of the ways of darkness?

Biblical Commentary provided by the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan, an adult faith formation apostolate. cbsmich.org/join

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
Permission to use the RSV-2CE given for Bishop's Year of the Bible by Ignatius Press. Many thanks to Ignatius for this.
If you're looking for a good Catholic edition of the Bible, look no further