jeremiah 5 and 6

Read Jeremiah 5 and 6 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Jer 5:1-9 {s} No one seeks truth + receives correction, but have forsaken YHVH + increased in transgressions
Jer 5:10-13 {s} Destroy but not completely, take away her branches, they have not believed YHVH’s word
Jer 5:14-19 {p} My word shall therefore devour you, by a mighty + far off nation, but not a complete end
Jer 5:20-29 {s} YHVH’s foolish people who do not fear Him/ their iniquities have turned away good from them
Jer 5:30-6:5 {p} They have loved falsity + oppression, so disaster + destruction shall come from the north
Jer 6:6-8 {p} Build a siege mound against Jerusalem for she wells up with wickedness
Jer 6:9-15 {s} They shall glean the remnant of Israel, who delight not in My word, for all covet + deal falsely
Jer 6:16-21 {p} Calamity is coming upon this people, because they not heeded My Law but rejected it
Jer 6:22-30 {p} A nation is coming against them from the north, cruel + without mercy/ YHVH has rejected them

The chiastic structure:

1a) Jer 4:3-4a, YHVH calls Judah + Jerusalem to repent: circumcise the foreskin of your hearts;

1b) Jer 4:4b-8 {p} For I will bring disaster + the destroyer of nations from the north, to make your land desolate;

1a) Jer 4:4b, Lest My fury come forth like fire + burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings;
1b) Jer 4:5-6a, Blow the trumpet in the land; cry, ‘Gather together,’ + ‘Assemble yourselves,’ do not delay;
1c) Jer 4:6b, For I will bring disaster from the north, and great destruction;
1d) Jer 4:7a, The lion has come up from his thicket;
central axis) Jer 4:7b, and the destroyer of nations is on his way;
2d) Jer 4:7c, He has gone forth from his place;
2c) Jer 4:7d, To make your land desolate; your cities will be laid waste, without inhabitant;
2b) Jer 4:8a, For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail;
2a) Jer 4:8b, For the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us. {p}

1c) Jer 4:9-21 {s+p+p} Priests astonished + prophets wonder/ the sound of the trumpet warning of war;

1) Jer 4:9-18 {s+p} The heart of the king shall perish/ priests astonished + prophets wonder;
2) Jer 4:19 {p} My heart is in anguish, for it hears the sound of the trumpet warning of war;

1d) Jer 4:22-5:9 {s+p+s} The foolish people, without understanding/ their transgressions/ Shall I not punish them;

1e) Jer 5:10-11, Go up and destroy them, but not completely, for they have dealt treacherously with Me;

1) Jer 5:10a, Go up on her walls and destroy;
2) Jer 5:10b, But do not make a complete end;
3) Jer 5:10c-11, Take away her branches, for they are not YHVH’s/ Israel + Judah have dealt treacherously with Me;

1f) Jer 5:-13 {s} They have lied about YHVH + said this is not His word/ we shall not see sword or famine;

2f) Jer 5:14, Thus says YHVH: I will make my word in Jeremiah’s mouth fire + people wood/ it shall devour them;

2e) Jer 5:15-19 {p} A mighty nation shall destroy you, but not completely, for you have loved foreign gods;

1) Jer 5:15-17, I will bring a mighty + ancient nation against you/ they shall eat you up + destroy your cities;
2) Jer 5:18 Nevertheless in those days, says YHVH, I will not make a complete end of you;
3) Jer 5:19 {p} Because you have served foreign gods in your land/ you shall serve foreigners in a land not yours;

2d) Jer 5:20-29 {s} Foolish people, without understanding or fear of YHVH/ their rebellions/ Shall I not punish them;

2c) Jer 5:30-6:1, Prophets prophesy falsely + priests rule oppressively/ blow the trumpet of alarm;

1) Jer 5:30-31, A horrible thing: prophets prophesy falsely + priests rule oppressively/ My people love this;
2) Jer 6:1a, Benjamin, flee from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet + set up a signal-fire;

2b) Jer 6:1b-29, Disaster appears out of the north, and great destruction/ build a siege mound against Jerusalem;

2a) Jer 6:30 {p} People will call them rejected silver, because YHVH has rejected them.

The A pair: Because Judah and Jerusalem did not circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, but persisted in their transgressions these chapters indict them on, rejecting the warning of God’s prophets, and rejecting obedience to His word and His Law, then YHVH has likewise rejected them.

In particular the 2B section from Jer 6:1b-29 forms its own complex chiastic structure, which I have saved in my notes to complete the next time I am studying Jeremiah.

But because His people rejected His Law, or Torah, and not walked in His ways, this disaster is decreed for Judah and Jerusalem. The ancient nation from the north is the nation of Babylon, which destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, and took Judah captive in 588 BC. I am sure many of these warnings are why the prophets of today prophesy judgment on our own country – but I do not believe it applies. Am I a false prophet, crying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace? (Jer 6:14). This is why I believe as I do:

When Judah returned from the Babylonian captivity, they no longer had uncircumcised hearts to YHVH. In fact they were so insistent upon worshiping YHVH alone, and rejecting all other gods, that from the Greek and Roman conquests of Judea, no emperor could establish false idols in the land without inciting rebellion, war, and bloodshed. It is this total abhorrence of foreign deities that got the Jews expelled from their homeland in 70 and 135 AD.

Christians/ Gentiles (the house of Ephraim/ Israel) shared this dedication: this is why Rome waged ten brutal persecutions upon the Christians from 64 to 313 AD, trying to wipe them out as a sect – they would not deny Christ and offer sacrifices to the emperor as a god.

Fast forward to today: the Jews are once again in their homeland, and true biblical worship is once again returning to the ekklesia after a sleep, and oppression, of many centuries. Reverence for the Torah of YHVH and obedience to it is increasing among Christians/ Gentiles, not decreasing. Yes, not all see it yet – just as all of Judah do not yet see Messiah Yeshua. But the time of the prophesied latter days is upon us, and the eyes of both Judah and Ephraim are increasingly being opened, year after year. We are in the time of the healing of YHVH’s people, so that the knowledge of YHVH covers the earth as the waters cover the seas, not the time of judgment of them – for in the latter days, His judgment is reserved for His enemies, not His people!