The big picture
Drought and warnings of war have led God's prophet Jeremiah to plead for Judah, the southern kingdom. God says earlier leaders pleaded for the people with great effect. Even they would not turn this judgement aside now. Jerusalem, the capital, faces loss that reaches families and rulers alike. Jeremiah's own pain then comes forward. He has carried God's words with joy, yet his calling has left him opposed and alone. God answers his anguished complaint with a call to return and a renewed promise of protection.
In this chapter
- Even Great Intercessors Cannot Stop This Judgement Jeremiah 15:1-4
Moses and Samuel were earlier leaders who pleaded for the people.
- A City Loses Its Children and Comforters Jeremiah 15:5-9
God asks who will pity the capital or turn aside to inquire after it.
- Public Hatred Weighs on the Prophet Jeremiah 15:10-14
Jeremiah laments being born into conflict with everyone.
- Joy in the Word Has Become Loneliness Jeremiah 15:15-18
Jeremiah asks God to remember him and take vengeance on those who persecute him.
- A Renewed Commission Comes with Protection Jeremiah 15:19-21
A return to God will restore Jeremiah to service, the Lord says.
Central truth
God refuses further appeals for an unrepentant people while calling the wounded prophet back to faithful speech under his promised protection.
Scripture beside the summary
Jeremiah · King James Version · 21Jeremiah 15:1-4
Even Great Intercessors Cannot Stop This Judgement
Moses and Samuel were earlier leaders who pleaded for the people. God says that even they would not change his decision. The people must leave his presence. When they ask where to go, the answer names death, war, hunger, and captivity. God also names the sword and scavenging animals that will kill or consume the dead. Their removal among other kingdoms is linked to Manasseh, a former ruler, son of King Hezekiah, and his acts in the capital. A trusted leader cannot undo this refusal to change. The warning rules out that hope.
In everyday life
The disaster registrar sorts records for families facing several kinds of loss after their district collapses. Some need burial records, others help tracing people taken away. The varied forms of suffering fill the same desk. Jeremiah announces these outcomes as God's judgement; the registrar has no role in decreeing them or refusing mercy.
Notice
Jeremiah 15:1 Those two earlier leaders are named as advocates whose presence would still not reverse the decision. The refusal is not caused by Jeremiah lacking sufficient standing to plead.
Jeremiah 15:1-4
King James Version1Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
2And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
3And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
4And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 15:5-9
A City Loses Its Children and Comforters
God asks who will pity the capital or turn aside to inquire after it. The city has abandoned him, and he will no longer keep relenting. He pictures the people scattered like grain being sifted at the gates. Children will be lost because the people refuse to change. Widows multiply, and sudden destruction reaches mothers in daylight. Even a mother with seven children loses her strength, with life darkened before its expected end. Survivors are handed to the sword. The loss is felt in homes and families. No one comes to comfort them.
In everyday life
The bereavement coordinator studies a list of households needing visits and finds that the usual visitors are themselves grieving. She changes the rota. Each name stands for a home whose support has fallen away. No schedule can undo the losses. God here announces judgement on a refusing city; her work concerns care after bereavement.
Notice
Jeremiah 15:9 The sun sets while it is still day. The image places loss before its expected time, making the mother's collapse more than a routine end to life.
Jeremiah 15:5-9
King James Version5For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?
6Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
7And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
8Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
9She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 15:10-14
Public Hatred Weighs on the Prophet
Jeremiah laments being born into conflict with everyone. He has neither lent nor borrowed at interest, yet he is cursed as though caught in bitter debt disputes. God gives assurance that he will be treated well amid trouble, even by an enemy. A question about northern iron and steel then points to strength that cannot readily be broken. The people's wealth will be taken without payment because of their sins. They will pass into a foreign land with enemies. The prophet is promised help. His people still face the loss of their land.
In everyday life
A whistleblower leaves a factory meeting under angry stares despite having no financial dispute with anyone there. Her report has made her unwelcome. A worker from the opposing shift quietly offers her a safe ride home. Jeremiah receives God's assurance amid national judgement; a colleague's help cannot promise his future.
Notice
Jeremiah 15:10 Jeremiah mentions lending and borrowing to rule out a familiar cause of hostility. The widespread hatred has come through his public calling, not an unpaid private loan.
Jeremiah 15:10-14
King James Version10Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
11The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
12Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
13Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
14And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.
Jeremiah 15:15-18
Joy in the Word Has Become Loneliness
Jeremiah asks God to remember him and take vengeance on those who persecute him. He fears being lost while God remains patient with them. God's words once fed him and brought deep joy because he belonged to the Lord. Yet that same calling kept him apart from mocking company. Filled with indignation, he sat alone. Now he asks why his pain continues and his wound will not heal. He even questions whether God will prove as unreliable as a water supply that fails. He speaks from great pain. His trust is close to breaking.
In everyday life
A patient advocate sits alone after refusing to join colleagues in mocking a family. The work once gave her joy, but its cost now feels endless. She opens the mentor's old letter of support and asks whether that help still stands. Jeremiah's complaint questions God's reliability itself, not the availability of a human mentor.
Notice
Jeremiah 15:16 Eating God's words pictures receiving them deeply and gladly. That earlier joy makes Jeremiah's present accusation of failed help especially stark rather than merely habitual complaint.
Jeremiah 15:15-18
King James Version15O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
16Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
17I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
Jeremiah 15:19-21
A Renewed Commission Comes with Protection
A return to God will restore Jeremiah to service, the Lord says. He must separate what is precious from what is worthless in his speech and act as God's mouth. The people must turn towards him; he must not move towards their refusal. God will make him like a fortified bronze wall. They will fight him but fail to overcome him because God is there to save him. The final promise names rescue from wicked and violent hands. He must still speak for God. But his own words need care, and he also needs help.
In everyday life
A newspaper editor asks a threatened reporter to remove bitter personal attacks from a carefully evidenced report. She keeps the verified claims and promises support when it is published. Opposition will not decide what the report says. God restores Jeremiah as his own mouth and guarantees rescue; an editor cannot guarantee a reporter's safety.
Notice
Jeremiah 15:19 The command to separate precious from worthless addresses Jeremiah's own speech. God's protection does not mean that every word uttered in the prophet's pain needs no correction.
Jeremiah 15:19-21
King James Version19Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.
20And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
21And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Jeremiah 15:1 begins with “Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them…”
Where the chapter turns
Jeremiah 15:12 forms a natural hinge: “Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?”
The final note
Jeremiah 15:21 leaves the reader with “And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, hand, return, sword, deliver, destroy help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- usury
- Interest charged on a loan, a common source of disputes.
- spoil
- Goods seized by an enemy after defeat or invasion.
- brasen
- Made of bronze, used here to picture a strong defensive wall.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
