Jeremiah Part 1/4

The purpose of this wiki is not to go into a full commentary on Jeremiah, nor even to do the same thing I did with Isaiah. I only wish to use this space to highlight some important points in Jeremiah that will be useful in understanding the book of Revelation.
Note the picture that Jeremiah presents of Judah and Jerusalem just before the impending captivity under Babylon. The compare that to the image we see of the city of harlotry and murder in the book of Revelation. The comparison is unmistakable.
== Jeremiah 2:2,20 ==
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. 20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
Here Jehovah cries to Jerusalem, his once faithful city who now plays the harlot. Again we see the city of Jerusalem characterized in scripture as a harlot.
== Jeremiah 3:1 ==
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
This verse is significant not just because it characterizes Jerusalem as a harlot, but because it pictures the city as an unfaithful wife doing so. Throughout Jeremiah and Ezekiel the Jews are portrayed as the wife of God turned unfaithful and to harlotry. It is an important image.
== Jeremiah 3:6-8 ==
6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. 7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
Northern Israel and Southern Judah are seen as two sisters. Israel committed adultery against God and He divorced her. Judah is said to be doing the same thing as Israel. Could they expect any different outcome? When did this finally take place?
== Jeremiah 3:9-11 ==
9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. 11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Judah turns back to God time and again, but is said to be worse than Israel because Judah does not return with the whole heart. Israel, at least, is consistent.
== Jeremiah 4:4 ==
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
In His pleadings to Judah to repent, God cautions them to repent or He will destroy them with unquenchable fire. Fire is used as an emblem of judgment. Here in the imminent conquering of the Jews by Babylon and in the NT where the destruction is complete.
== Jeremiah 4:13 ==
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
Familiar symbols to any who have read Revelation and Isaiah and the Olivet Discourse. These clouds, whirlwinds, eagles...they are emblems of an invading, conquering army.
== Jeremiah 4:27-29 ==
27For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. 28For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. 29The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
In this prophecy, Jehovah promises desolation (emptiness) but not a complete end. This is one key to understanding that Jeremiah is speaking of the Babylonian conquest rather than the final destruction at the moment. But look at the statement he associates with this judgment against the Jews. The earth mourns (the people of the land) and the heavens are black (the rulers of the Jews). This emptiness will be caused by the coming of an army. The association of the heavens and the earth is made once again in the OT prophecies which Peter put us in remembrance of in 2 Pet. 3.
== Jeremiah 4:30-31 ==
30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. 31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
A vital picture of the nation of the Jews and of their capital city Jerusalem. One that we must take note of for comparison in the New Testament.
== Jeremiah 9:13-16 ==
"13 And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; 14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: 15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them."
For the cause of not walking after God's law, God makes the people of Judah to drink "wormwood", a bitter medicinal drink. Wormwood is always used in scripture in reference to the Israelites/Jews and compared to idolatry or adultery (Prov. 5:1-4) Other references: Duet. 29:18; Jer. 23:15; Lam. 3:15,19; Amos 5:7; Rev. 8:11.
== Jeremiah 9:25-26 ==
25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
And in their unfaithfulness once more Judah is compared to the other nations around them including Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab.
== Jeremiah 13:27 ==
I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?
At the end of the first quarter of the book we have seen Jerusalem compared to a whore/harlot countless times because of their unfaithfulness to God.
In Truth and Love.
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