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Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 4:

This chapter begins with a plea for people to return to God’s ways and circumcise their hearts. Circumcision is an external action that joins one to the covenant community. The visual of circumcising one’s heart reveals how the covenant must also be lived internally.  The urgency for renewed repentance and dedication to the covenant becomes clear as God speaks through Jeremiah to explain that other nations are preparing to attack. The descriptions of the enemy pile up: evil, a lion, a destroyer, a sword, a hot wind, besiegers. In its wake there will be ruin, waste, destruction, desert, and murder. The chapter ends with an image of prostitution to remind Judah that she has turned from God, her spouse, to go after other gods that cannot help her.

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 4:

1 “If you return, O Israel,
says the Lord, to me you should return.
If you remove your abominations from my presence,
and do not waver,
2 and if you swear, ‘As the Lord
lives,’
in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,
then nations shall bless themselves in him,
and in him shall they glory.” 3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to the inhabit-
ants of Jerusalem:
“Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the
Lord,
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your doings.”
Judah Threatened with Invasion
5 Declare in Judah, and pro- claim in Jerusalem, and say,
“Blow the trumpet through the land;
cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let us go
into the fortified cities!’
6 Raise a standard toward Zion,
flee for safety, stay not,
for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.
7 A lion has gone up from his thicket,
a destroyer of nations has set out;
he has gone forth from his place
to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.
8 For this clothe yourself with sackcloth,
lament and wail;
for the fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned back from us.”
9 “In that day, says the Lord, courage shall fail both king and princes; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astound- ed.” 10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you’; whereas the sword has reached their very life.”
11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, 12 a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.”
13 Behold, he comes up like clouds,
his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are swifter than eagles—
woe to us, for we are ruined!
14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness,
that you may be saved.
How long shall your evil
thoughts lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan
and proclaims evil from Mount Ephraim.
16 Warn the nations that he is coming;
announce to Jerusalem, “Besiegers come from a distant
land; they shout against the cities of Judah.
17 Like keepers of a field they are
against her round about, because she has rebelled
against me, says the Lord.
18 Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is bitter;
it has reached your very heart.”
19 My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly;
I cannot keep silent;
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
the alarm of war.
20 Disaster follows hard on disaster,
the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed,
my curtains in a moment.
21 How long must I see the standard,
and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For my people are foolish, they know me not;
they are stupid children,
they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil,
but how to do good they know not.”
23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved back and forth.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no man,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
27 For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
28 For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be black,
for I have spoken, I have planned;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.”
29 At the noise of horseman and archer
every city takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
all the cities are forsaken, and no man dwells in them.
30 And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you
dress in scarlet,
that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold,
that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.
31 For I heard a cry as of a woman with labor pains,
anguish as of one bringing
forth her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands, “Woe is me! I am fainting
before murderers.”

*Daily Lectio Divina Question:

Jeremiah prophesied that the people of Judah will experience great instability in their lives, leading to anguish, darkness, and desolation because they turned from Him and did not repent from their evil ways. How is the Lord calling you make to Him the rock, the stable foundation in your life and those around you?

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

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
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