Jeremiah 6:22

A distant, cruel people will execute the judgment, since Judah, under the trial, has proved to be worthless metal. - Jer 6:22. "Thus hath Jahveh said: Behold, a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great nation raises itself from the furthermost sides of the earth. Jer 6:23. Bows and javelins they bear; cruel it is, and they have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and on horses they ride, equipped as a man for the war against thee, daughter of Zion. Jer 6:24. We heard the rumour thereof: weak are our hands: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Jer 6:25. Go not forth into the field, and in the way walk not; for a sword hath the enemy, fear is all around. Jer 6:26. O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and besprinkle thee with ashes; make mourning for an only son, butter lamentation: for suddenly shall the spoiler come upon us. Jer 6:27. For a trier have I set thee among my people as a strong tower, that thou mightest know and try their way. Jer 6:28. They are all revolters of revolters; go about as slanderers; brass and iron; they are all dealing corruptingly. Jer 6:29. Burned are the bellows by the fire, at an end is the lead; in vain they melt and melt; and wicked ones are not separated. Jer 6:30. Rejected silver they call them, for Jahveh hath rejected them." In Jer 6:22 the stumbling-blocks of Jer 6:21 are explained. At the end of this discourse yet again the invasion of the enemy from the far north is announced, cf. Jer 4:13 and Jer 5:15, and its terribleness is portrayed with new colours. The farther the land is from which the enemy comes, the more strange and terrible he appears to the imagination. The farthest (hindmost) sides of the earth (cf. Jer 25:32) is only a heightening of the idea: land of the…

In this chapter, as before, we have, I. A prophecy of the invading of the land of Judah and the besieging of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army (Jer 6:1-6), with the spoils they should make of the country (Jer 6:9) and the terror which all should be seized with on that occasion (Jer 6:22-26). II. An account of those sins of Judah and Jerusalem which provoked God to bring this desolating judgment upon them. Their oppression (Jer 6:7), their contempt of the word of God (Jer 6:10-12), their worldliness (Jer 6:13), the treachery of their prophets (Jer 6:14), their impudence in sin (Jer 6:15), their obstinacy against reproofs (Jer 6:18, Jer 6:19), which made their sacrifices unacceptable to him (Jer 6:20), and for which he gave them up to ruin (Jer 6:21), but tried them first (Jer 6:27) and then rejected them as irreclaimable (Jer 6:28-30). III. Good counsel given them in the midst of all this, but in vain (Jer 6:8, Jer 6:16, Jer 6:17).

6:22-30 This dialogue between Jeremiah and the Lord probably took place at the beginning of the Babylonian invasion in 605 BC. In these three poems, Jeremiah declares the Lord’s message (6:22-23), identifies with his people’s fear, and urges them to repent quickly (6:24-26). He then receives a heart-to-heart message from the Lord (6:27-30). 6:22-23 The Lord reminded the people that the impending invasion was not fictitious; the soldiers had real bows and spears (Isa 13:18). • sound like a roaring sea: The sound of tens of thousands of soldiers with cavalry and chariots must have been terrifying (Isa 5:27-30).