Jeremiah 32:24
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See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
In this chapter we have, I. Jeremiah imprisoned for foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of king Zedekiah (Jer 32:1-5). II. We have him buying land, by divine appointment, as an assurance that in due time a happy end should be put to the present troubles (Jer 32:6-15). III. We have his prayer, which he offered up to God upon that occasion (Jer 32:16-25). IV. We have a message which God thereupon entrusted him to deliver to the people. 1. He must foretell the utter destruction of Judah and Jerusalem for their sins (Jer 32:26-35). But, 2. At the same time he must assure them that, though the destruction was total, it should not be final, but that at length their posterity should recover the peaceable possession of their own land (Jer 32:36-44). The predictions of this chapter, both threatenings and promises, are much the same with what we have already met with again and again, but here are some circumstances that are very particular and remarkable.
Open source ↗32:24 Jeremiah was amazed at the skill of the attacking Babylonians. They used ramps to lay siege to the walled city. Within Jerusalem, he saw the horrors of war, famine, and disease. It was obvious that the Babylonians would conquer the city. A sense of awe swept through Jeremiah as he realized that he was seeing the fulfillment of everything the Lord had said.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
Now therefore, about this city of which you say, ‘It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and famine and plague,’ this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:
For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword:
For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the LORD says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.
But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp, and to erect a siege wall.
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
Yet You, O Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Buy for yourself the field with silver and call in witnesses, even though the city has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans!’”