Chapter 1
Very specific information given as to when Jeremiah prophesied.  From the 13th year of Josiah to the end of the 13th year of Zedekiah, until Judah's captivity in the fifth month.  This is about 627-570 BC.  (Isaiah is believed to have "stopped" in 686 BC, 60 years before Jeremiah started.)

5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." [Jer 1:5 ESV]
I believe this verse says that NO Christian, no one with any belief and understanding of God AT ALL, can say that abortion is ok.  God knows children before they are even formed into human appearance.  MSB says God knew Jeremiah before he was even conceived.

Jeremiah protests his office as prophet based on his youth.  God over rides that and says He will protect him.  God's commission to Jeremiah, in so many words:
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." [Jer 1:9-10 ESV]

In vs 11, Jeremiah's first vision, of an olive branch, and God says it symbolizes how He watches over His word, making sure that what He says comes to pass.  

In vss 13-16, Jeremiah's second vision.  A boiling pot facing away from the North.  God tells Jeremiah that Jerusalem will be besieged by all the tribes of the kingdom of the north.  Not just that Jerusalem will fall, but to siege.
In vss 17-19, God tells Jeremiah that He will protect him from those who come to hate him for his prophesies - from kings, officials, priests, and people.  Is there comfort in this?  Knowing that the whole world will oppose you but God will protect you through it?  It certainly anticipates a difficult life.

Chapter 2
This chapter begins with what the MSB outline calls Jeremiah's first message to Jerusalem, 2:1 to 3:5:
God remembers the beginning, in the desert, when the people followed him.  He remembers Israel as a bride.  vs 3:
3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD." [Jer 2:3 ESV]
Firstfruits would make an interesting study.  Is Adam not included, or Noah?  Or even Abraham?  The firstfruits are the nation of Israel when it was saved out of Egypt.  I think this word firstfruits continues all the way into the NT.  
A quick look says that this word is only used this once to describe Israel.  In the NT, it can be found in Rom 8;23, 1Cor15:20, 23, 2Thess2:13, Jas 1:18, and then in Rev 14:4 of the 144,000.  So the NT church sort of appropriated this term to themselves.  Is this where all the arguments about the church being the recipient of the promises to Israel come from?

2023 - An interesting visual here...those who "eat" of the firstfruits incurred guilt.  Doesn't this sound like Adam eating the forbidden fruit?  Disaster certainly fell on Egypt, on those two Kings east of Israel.  But perhaps God only did that to the firstfruits of the harvest, because he does not seem to be doing it today.

In vss 4-8 God "puts the question" to the house of Jacob:  What wrong did I do?  You never once asked "Where is the Lord...", it was not that God abandoned them, and they looked for Him and couldn't find Him.  They just walked away on their own, and began to look to false gods.  These verses are God's "justification" for what is about to happen.  It is his proof that Israel/Judah has abandoned him, and they did so beginning very early, and they failed to look to Him in time of trouble but instead turned to false gods.  Even when they needed Him, they turned elsewhere.  It is interesting that God speaks of these things in terms of a single human lifetime, though we are really talking about 1000 years of history or more, from Moses to Jeremiah.  God just doesn't see time as we do.

Vss 9-19 begin with a "therefore".  This verse:
10 For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing. [Jer 2:10 ESV]
God says that what Israel has done in turning their backs on the God of their fathers, is unprecedented in the world.  Even the pagans stay loyal to their gods, but Israel did not do so.  What an indictment!
2021, Here is the rest of it:
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
Jeremiah 2:11 ESV

This verse, with the crux of the whole matter:
13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. [Jer 2:13 ESV]
Pretty self-explanatory.  This is what God's anger is about.  Two things.  Note also here that God calls himself the fountain of living waters.  Jesus does the same, when he is in Jerusalem that last time, during the ceremony in the Temple when water is poured out.  He tells them that He is living water, making himself God.  This is the verse I am thinking of: 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" [Jhn 7:37-38 ESV], but it isn't really quite the same.  With the woman at the well he says:  10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." [Jhn 4:10 ESV]  Jesus offers living water, God is the source of living water.  MSB and John all say this water refers to the Holy Spirit.  

2021 This verse:
Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way?
Jeremiah 2:17 ESV

vss 20-25, God accuses Israel of refusing to serve the One who freed them from bondage.  He compares them to a wild desert donkey in heat, sniffing the wind as she looks for a mate.  Seems to me this is referring to Israel running after - craving almost instinctively - other gods.  Turning to anyone, anything, but the God to whom they owe.  This verse in particular:
20 "For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, 'I will not serve.' Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. [Jer 2:20 ESV]  They just refused to be "under" God.

This verse, this accusation:
24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. [Jer 2:24 ESV]
Almost as if nature itself conspires to make Israel fall.  And it is nature.  It is human nature, it is the nature of man.  We don't want to be servants of anyone, anything, anytime.  Because of our pride.  This is the sin caused by the fall.  As the wife won't want to serve her husband so man does not want to serve God.  And it is just a matter of time before our corrupt nature, our fallen minds and bodies, are overcome and we sin, knowingly, willingly, almost helplessly.  And yet, because Adam sinned when he did not have to sin, we are still responsible for our own actions.  There was a choice.  Now there is not.  None can avoid sin, and all would go to hell were not God willing to have provided a way to bring us back to Him.  Like this donkey, we cannot overcome our nature.  God must provide a way that "circumvents" our nature in order to reconcile us to him.  He did that with a divine combination of Himself with man in Christ Jesus, who was the second man ever who was able to say no to sin, in the flesh, and he must substitute for us because we are just beyond cleansing.  He told us in 22 that we cannot possibly cleanse ourselves:
22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD. [Jer 2:22 ESV]
Possible FB post in the paragraph above.  Will need some work though.

vss 26-28, Israel compared to a thief caught red-handed.  Israel shall be ashamed in this same way.  Then, they will cry out to God, but He will say "where are your gods that you made for yourself?", and says there's a god for every city in Judah.  
vss 29-32, Israel has killed the prophets God sent, and insists they are free to abandon God without consequence.  This verse:
30 In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. [Jer 2:30 ESV]
They have bolted, and even as God has chastised them, in increasingly severe ways trying to bring them back, they have not only refused to listen to the message, but they have killed the messengers!  Perhaps this is why the prophets died out, why we don't have them today as they were present in the OT.
Next, He says they are like a bride who has forgotten that she is dressed for a wedding.  This is the ludicrous, almost insanely hallucinatory restating of reality to which Judah has come.  They have so denied God, in the very face of the fact of God, that it is like a woman walking around in a wedding dress saying she is not a bride.  That she belongs to no one.  That she can do what she likes.  Anyone who looks can see that she is nuts to the core.
It is ridiculous that they have turned their backs on their history!  Oh my...this is what they were doing, and it is what we are doing.  We act as if our history never occurred, we deny that God has blessed us, we attribute our good fortune and our affluence to ourselves and our system but not to God, even though ours is a history based on men who believed that God's providence was on this nation.  And now, we are trying to wipe that out, so we won't be ashamed, like a thief caught in the act is ashamed.  We don't want to be accountable to our God, so we "write him out" of our history, and we create for ourselves countless substitutes!  Oh my...Maybe FB someday.  Website certainly.

vss 33-37, God is angry that Israel does all these things, and yet claims they are innocent, and that God has no cause to judge them.  This verse:
35 you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.' [Jer 2:35 ESV]
Short and sweet, but a profound verse.  Sums it all up.  This is a good post for FB.

2021, I wonder if the point here is that they realize they've abandoned their history, but surely God realizes it is because they have grown so wise in their own right and longer need Him.  Surely God is not offended that His people no longer trouble Him and can get along fine without Him?  He might have been upset at first but surely now He sees, and His anger is abated!
This is how arrogant they had become!  Are we not the same!  Overturning all that made us a great nation because we have have just soared above all those juvenile commitments and immature misunderstandings, and have only now arrived at comprehension.

Chapter 3
(2020...just read straight through this chapter before babysitting took over, spent the time on 1, 2.  Hoping to come back to it tonight...but it won't be quite the same.  Looking at this, I spent a lot of time on it 2019.)

God's questions to Israel continue:
1 "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD. [Jer 3:1 ESV]
God is pointing out that they are asking of Him what they would not do themselves.  They would not take back such a wife, and yet they expect God to take them back.

The next verse is even more direct about the degree of unfaithfulness in Israel"
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. [Jer 3:2 ESV]
It is interesting that God says they have polluted the very land itself.  It is not just about the people and how they have treated God, it is about how they have treated the land that he blessed and gave to them.  The land is also God's creation, and He "tends" that land, "cares" for it.  We have seen this theme many times also.  "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the land..."  This would be a very interesting study.  What exactly pollutes the land?  Look how it goes on in the next verse:
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. [Jer 3:3 ESV]  Because of how they defiled the land, nature itself is disrupted.  Here too cause and effect are disconnected.

2022 - I think it is interesting that when a NATION turns against God, a sure sign is that what we call NATURE turns against that nation.  But the connection we really ought to see is that God is working through nature to correct, at first, and if that is unsuccessful, to chastise whole nations at once.  What does that say about those shouting global warming and increasing CO2 and man alone as the cause of these things?  How is that not a designed deception to keep us from knowing that these "global changes" we are seeing come from God, and ought to be motivation for turning back to God instead of excuses to declare ourselves powerful enough to affect the global climate.
Possible FB post.  On the right day.  When it's way cold, way hot, way stormy, etc.

Vs 5 is the end of this first message.  I see it, and MSB outline says it.  Vs 6 starts the second message, which continues to 6:30.

God addresses Jeremiah directly, and notes that Israel first played the harlot, in all kinds of ways, with stone gods, and wooden ones.  God says He expected they would get over this, maybe they would see that these false gods were of no use to anyone, and would return to Him.  But they did not.  So in the end, God has wiped them out.  This verse:
8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. [Jer 3:8 ESV]

Then Judah, seeing this, did not make any reforms of their own.  They had this object lesson, this undeniable example of where their ways were leading, and they ignored it.  Or worse, they pretend to repent and return, but God knows better.

This verse:
10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD." [Jer 3:10 ESV]
This was in Josiah's time, amidst all the reforms he brought about.  Remember in Zephaniah I said that the return to God was not sincere on the part of many in Judah?  Doesn't this verse corroborate that?  Doesn't it also say that they were back to the ritual, but their hearts were not in it?

2023 - Looking at it now, it seems that the corruption and ill treatment of the poor, the "cheating" that characterized every interaction in Israel and Judah before they fell, as bad as they were, did not "tip" God toward wrath.  In both cases - both Israel and Judah - the tipping point was the idol worship and the sin that accompanied it.  The language here in Jeremiah does not ignore the sexual nature of much of this idol worship.  In this chapter it talks of "ravishing" and waiting for lovers by the side of the road.  It makes immorality a metaphor for idolatry.  Is this insight into the mystery of marriage making two into one, such that in marriage, we ought to be so faithful to our spouse that immorality is like putting another spouse before our own?  Is it that "critical"?  
2023 - Note also the idea that though Judah is "practicing" the Law, they have no real commitment to it.  It is external, not a heart thing.

(pick back up here...)
vs 11 is a strong indictment.  It says Israel's faithlessness is still better than Judah's treachery.  Then God gives Jeremiah the next message, to be proclaimed "toward the north".  As the verses unfold, this message is for Israel - gone already into captivity.  God tells them they can STILL return, if they will only confess their rebellion and sin and and return to God as their master.
This is surely the plan of salvation in the OT.  Also a good argument for Lordship salvation as a requirement.  I think this is very important, so I will paste it all:
13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. 14 Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. [Jer 3:13-14 ESV]
((I don't think that this can be about the Northern Kingdom.  God divorced the North.  He will not take her back, it is unlawful.  These verses, though phrased with "Israel" as subject, are about the Southern Kingdom, not yet officially divorced.)))
2022 - Yes, they definitely ARE addressed to the north.  Look at vs 12:  12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, "'Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. [Jer 3:12 ESV].  These words were to be spoken TOWARD the NORTH.  That is where Israel used to be.  God says that even against these whom he specifically divorced, he will NOT be ANGRY FOREVER.  Even the Northern Kingdom can still come home.  And we know that they will!  That is why Ezekiel talks about the Land being divided between ALL 12 tribes!  At the end, even faithless Israel will turn back to God.  This is their invitation.  Wow.  That gets rid of sooooo much confusion on my part!

2022 - Pulling vs 14 down here for a closer look.  Here are some translations:
14 Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. [Jer 3:14 ESV]
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: [Jer 3:14 KJV]
14 "Return home, you wayward children," says the LORD, "for I am your master. I will bring you back to the land of Israel--one from this town and two from that family--from wherever you are scattered. [Jer 3:14 NLT]
14 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares the LORD; 'For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.' [Jer 3:14 NASB95]
Quite a bit of variation.  I looked at the word for word translation in BLB, and it does use the word "married".  Several versions translate it as I am master, rather than I am married.  If the NASB95 is correct, and the word is "sons" instead of children, then it is obvious that married cannot be right.  There is also a problem, to me, with translating it married since God divorced Israel.  The word translated sons in NASB95 is a masculine noun.  BUT, in the list of Biblical usage, it also sometimes means children, of both sexes.  I hope this is not another case of the ESV trying to be inclusive, and choosing the more politically correct translation instead of staying true to the Hebrew.  I think the NASB95 makes the most sense in this context.  The verse as a whole seems more "solid" using that translation.  This also allows us to see the whole idea of divorce from the Northern Kingdom as metaphorical, a picture of Israel as an unfaithful wife, and yet, here, a different metaphor is in use - that of a prodigal son!  Yes.  This "unveils" a lot of things I was confused about.
ALSO, the same word ESV translated "children" in vs 14 is translated "sons" in vs 22.  Why would they do it differently, if not for political reasons?

vss 15-18 foretell the Millennial Kingdom, when both Israel and Judah return to Zion, and all the nations look to Jerusalem where Jesus reigns.  

2022 - This verse:
16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. [Jer 3:16 ESV]
Ezekiel's temple has no ark.  It is one of the furniture items that does not get reconstructed at the end.  I would call this verse corroboration that Ezekiel's Temple will be a physical temple.

2022 - Oh my - here it is again.  How have I not seen this before:
18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage. [Jer 3:18 ESV].
Absolutely Israel - the Northern Kingdom - will return.  Is "north" just a metaphor, or will "all the Jews" somehow end up in Turkey, Eastern Europe, and Western Russia - all "north" of present day Israel?

vss 19-23 refer to fallen Israel as sons that can be brought back.  They can be among the sons, part of the family of God, adopted in with the faithful.  

vss 24, 25 end the chapter, saying that these non-sons have been in rebellion from the first.  It is their own fault that they are excluded - outside God's protection for them.  He will not accept them while they are in rebellion.  They must "lie down in our shame" before He will take them.  This is about repentance before salvation.  This was not a new thing Jesus preached.  This is how it has always been.

Chapter 4
Per MSB outline, Jeremiah's second message continues through chapter 6.

2022 - So...if I am "correct" about chapter 3 being about the return of the Northern Kingdom to God up to and during the Millennial, then that message - that subject - continues through 6:30, and I have never noticed before that it was about Israel.  I always tried to make it about Judah.  This is a significant change in the way I read these chapters.  And think how important it is if Jeremiah spends 3 chapters on it!

First two verses...a little confusing for me.  It's an if then, but I don't really get the "then" part.  Capitalization in NKJV indicates that "in Him" is about God.  But these pronouns are not capitalized in ESV.  MSB has zero notes on these two verses.  Says if Israel returns, as they should, then the nations will glory in Him, or in him.  Reading this in 2020, I think the "hims" should be capitalized.  I think they refer back to "the Lord" at the very beginning of verse 2, and the point is that if Israel will turn back to God, then all nations will turn to Him.  In fact, this is what will happen during the Millennial reign.  Here is the difficult verse:
2 and if you swear, 'As the LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory." [Jer 4:2 ESV]  There is no MSB comment needed in the NASB version because "Him" is capitalized there, making the meaning obvious.  The ESV caused me confusion here.

vss 3, 4 are together.  Jeremiah passes on the words of God to Judah and Jerusalem.  A call to repentance.  And to "remove the foreskin of your hearts".  God is not overly concerned with physical circumcision, but with spiritual.  Compliance physically is not an automated ticket machine for heaven.  This agricultural reference is also interesting, because similar phrasing occurs elsewhere:
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. [Jer 4:3 ESV]
Our fallow ground is the time we spend sitting on the couch flipping channels, watching games we don't really care about, and that sort of thing.  We have a lot of time in our lives that are not really productive for God.  Instead of YouTube, read a book that is spiritually stimulating.  I think it is fine to read other books that we find interesting or just entertaining, but to sit and "kill time" browsing with no purpose at all in mind, is fallow ground, that could be used to produce a useful crop.
Did a quick search for the word "fallow".  Appears four times in the ESV OT, none in the NT.  Two of them don't really apply here, but this one does:
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. [Hos 10:12 ESV]  I had this one memorized at one time.  I think this reinforces the verse in Jeremiah.

2022 - Ummm...It looks to me like Jeremiah's words switch in vs 3 and he addresses Judah again.  He leaves off discussing Israel, and turns to those for whom wrath is still future.  Babylon is still a "maybe" at this point.  Yes.  The end of vs 4 warns of exactly that kind of catastrophe.

2022 - Just read straight through from here through 5.

vss 5-8 warn Judah and Jerusalem to abandon their homes and flee into the fortified cities, for God says "...I bring disaster from the north...".  Also described as a lion, a destroyer of nations, who will make the land waste.  Something really bad is coming.  Why the command to flee to the fortified cities?  Was there really any safety there?  Was the Babylonian army already on the march when this was written?  I don't think it was.  So maybe this prophecy - if we assume it is a literal instruction to those who want to follow God's commands - was to prepare for evacuation to the cities once the invaders were getting close.  Maybe this is about preparedness, not about immediate flight?  If we read this book as chronological, then there are perhaps decades yet before Babylon comes...

vss 9-12 are sort of an aside between Jeremiah and God.  God says "in that day" courage will fail kings and prophets, but Jeremiah asks, "...surely you have utterly deceived this people".  False prophets and so on are saying that Jerusalem is safe, that nothing bad is going to happen.  That is, the prevailing expectation of the people in Judah at this time is that everything will be all right...because that is what their prophets are telling them!  (This is paraphrasing MSB note).  Yet God has just told Jeremiah that the sword is about to strike.  MSB says sometimes people mistake events as something God does when it is in fact something God allows.  In this case, God sees how people - and the prophets that tell the people what they want to hear - willingly almost purposefully delude themselves - and He lets them do so - right up until "that day" arrives.  This is a hard thing.  How do we know?  Today we have the Holy Spirit, each of us individually, and if we pray sincerely God is not going to let us be deceived.  But back then, they didn't have this.  They had only these false prophets.

vss 13-18, are a description of the coming invasion.  Chariots like whirlwinds, swift horses - irresistible force.  Then a call for repentance, and turning from wicked ways, so that Judah can be saved.  Their deeds have brought this upon them.  Turn from those deeds quickly.  

vss 19-21, Jeremiah (I think) is anguished over what is coming.  Like Habakkuk when he is told the Chaldeans are coming.  For one thing, this is a surprise, because even Jeremiah thought all these false prophets preaching peace were accurate.  Jeremiah's own sense of security was shattered in vss 5-8, and now the details of the invasion have scared the daylights out of him.  Meaning it is ok for us to be afraid when we look at what is happening in this country!  His heart speeds up in panic as he envisions the coming disaster.  He refers to the suddenness of the disaster when it comes.

vs 22...let it never be said of the US...:
22 "For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are 'wise'--in doing evil! But how to do good they know not." [Jer 4:22 ESV]

vss 23-26, A "vision" if you will of a devastated country, laid bare by the invaders.  Then vs 27 says this:
27 For thus says the LORD, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. [Jer 4:27 ESV]
God will preserve some of Judah, because through Judah Christ will come, fulfilling promises to David, to Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. God preserves his own promises.  This statement also anchors us in the time of Jeremiah, rather than in the still future time of Tribulation, when much will also be laid bare and desolate

vss 28-31, Very long verses!  God says this disaster cannot be averted.  It will come.  Cities will be abandoned before the invader.  People will hide in thickets and rocks.  Wealth will be meaningless.  Vs 30 seems to say that some will try to appease the oncoming horde, to "offer themselves" to the invaders, to help and serve them.  Traitors, so afraid for themselves that they will betray anything and everything.  Verse 31 is a "visible" description of the time to come:
31 For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, "Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers." [Jer 4:31 ESV]  We get this description of coming doom, though in vs 1 of this chapter there was an if/then saying it was possible to avert it.  God seems always to be this way.  He is telling them what is coming, and only He can avert it.  It is God's mind that much change to avert this disaster, and He will only change if the people sincerely turn from their evil and look to God for their help.  Political intrigue, tribute payments, and military force are all going to be useless when this horde invades.  They will utterly overwhelm the nation.  But despite their lopsided capabilities, a return to God will make Israel the winner.  It is never too late to turn back to God - as an individual or a nation - because these things only happen as just punishment, but a merciful God can and will delay that punishment all the way to the end of time. 

Chapter 5
vs 1 is reminiscent of the impending doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, as Abraham sought to spare the city:
1 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her. [Jer 5:1 ESV]
As in the case of Sodom, I think this means literally a single, just man.  He did not exist in Jerusalem.  I cannot imagine a place so evil that not one good man lives there.  Strange as it may seem, here, I find hope for America.  I go to church with several good men.  We are not lost yet!
In Jerusalem, the problem is that the inside is not like the outside.  They act "good", but they are insincere.  A country full of hypocrites.

vss 4, 5, are interesting.  Jeremiah tells God that these are only the poor and stupid who behave this way.  Jeremiah says he'll go to the rich, to the leaders.  But he finds them no better.
vs 6 is very long, and has lions, wolves and leopards lying in wait for Judah.

vss 7-9 indict Judah for their sins.  For their ungratefulness to God.  For their seeking after sin.  For not knowing that their affluence is from God, who can also take it away in an instant.

vss 10-13, God says both Israel and Judah have treated Him treacherously (I've seen this word a lot already in Jeremiah.  Did a word search.  Treacherous is used 8 times in Jeremiah, ESV.) and that His forbearance is about to end.  He lists their sins, and declares their punishment.

In vs 14, God tells Jeremiah that the words he is giving Jeremiah are fire to Judah's wood.  I think he means the gloves are off, and there will be no further delay about what is happening and what is coming.  I expect this would not make Jeremiah popular when he begins to deliver the message.  vs 15 talks about the invaders speaking a language that Israel does not know.  (As when the converts spoke in tongues on Pentecost).  The invader is coming.

vs 18...when the disaster is done, and the survivors ask why, here is the answer from God, in advance:
19 And when your people say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'" [Jer 5:19 ESV]
Does this not seem like justice?  

22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. [Jer 5:22 ESV]
Another passage where God says He created it all.  Jeremiah is another who claims it.  

And in vs 24, God makes clear that He didn't just create and walk away.  He takes care of the seasons, the rains, and everything else that happens on earth:
24 They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.' [Jer 5:24 ESV]  Judah is taking all this for granted.  They no longer credit God with how nature works, they find other explanations for why the sea stops at the beach and never overrides it, they don't see that their crops depend on God's benevolence.  People cannot make it rain.  People cannot make it cooler.  And it is not just a crap shoot from Mother Nature.  Further, we can't make the whole planet hotter.  God takes cares of these things.  Surely today we also give God no credit even for the creation of man, much less for making a world that would suit him and preserve him.  We are getting ourselves into a lot of trouble here with our self-serving science, our "brilliance", and so on.  Verse 25 tells them why their crops fail, why it is too hot in summer, why the rain doesn't come:
25 Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you. [Jer 5:25 ESV]  When the climate goes crazy, it is not about global warming.  It is about our sins offending God, and God chastising us with nature.

The section - vss 20-29, which is a further listing of the people's arrogance toward God, are summed up this way in 29:
29 Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" [Jer 5:29 ESV]

Chapter 6
Starts with a call to "Flee for safety...", for death is coming from the north.  Here is the verse:
1 Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms out of the north, and great destruction. [Jer 6:1 ESV]
This is addressed to Benjamin, not Judah.  And instead of telling them to run into the fortified city, as in 4:5, they are to leave it.  Perhaps the warning is that Jerusalem will be the focal point of God's wrath against Judah.  Be anywhere but there.

5 Arise, and let us attack by night and destroy her palaces!" [Jer 6:5 ESV]
Jerusalem was besieged, I believe.  I wonder if Babylon broke into the city at night, ultimately.  Is that when she fell?

Attack will come from all directions.  
vs 7 is appalling:
7 As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me. [Jer 6:7 ESV]
God says there is no one who will listen to His warnings (from Jeremiah?) because to all in Judah, His word is scorned.  So the invader will take them, old and young, husband and wife.  None spared in this time.  

2023 - This about what is going on inside the walls of Jerusalem.  It is a place filled with always fresh evil.  That is why it must be destroyed.  Vs 6b ends with "...there is nothing but oppression within her."  These are terrible things to have God say about you.  These are his chosen people, and they have so abandoned God that he can say they keep evil fresh as a well keeps water fresh.  And look what he did to them?  We have to keep such things in mind when we think about how the Jews were treated in WWII, and about how the whole world - or almost the whole world - is against them now.  So many are calling for genocide, for extermination of all Jews.  This verse might be relevant:  17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. [Rev 12:17 ESV].  This was Satan's reaction when the woman was protected in the desert.  So far as I am aware, nothing like this sequence is in progress.  What we have now, and what has been going on since the crucifixion, is that blindness is come upon the Jews.  Here are the verses:
8 as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day." ...
25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. [Rom 11:8, 25 ESV]
What I am getting at is that the horrible things that happen to Israel now may be a part of the punishment for rejecting the Messiah when he came.  If God would send Babylon to besiege Jerusalem over their idolatry and pervasive oppression and evil in those days, why are we surprised when Israel is hated and violently attacked today?  We ought to see these things less as atrocity against the chosen and more as an ongoing sign of God's continuing wrath toward them.  We ought to shake our heads and feel sorry for them.  Could we even say that by migrating back to Israel, these concentrated Jews are inviting concentrated wrath against themselves. Would they not be "safer" if they remained scattered until the time that God himself protects them against all enemies on the wide highways of their journey home?  Perhaps in establishing this nation in 1948 they are in fact preempting God's plan for them, and THAT is why such violence and hatred continues to be turned on them?  Maybe.  It ought to be considered.

2023 - Another one that might be written about Oct 7:  21 Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will lay before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish.'" [Jer 6:21 ESV]

2023 - WAY too much time on these first verses.  Reading straight through the rest...

This verse:
14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. [Jer 6:14 ESV]
I have heard this before...but I don't know where.  Word search says Jeremiah uses the phrase twice, second time will be in Chapter 8.  I think I heard it from a secular source though....It is a very ... hmmm....It really grabs your attention, pulls you right to it, focuses you.
2023 - In Hebrew, if I am getting  BLB correct, it would be Shalom, shalom, ayin shalom.  Worked on it quite a while.  Pretty sure this is the right pronunciation.

vss 16, 17, God says He has warned them, time and again, but they refuse to listen.  Therefore....
What is about to happen is summarized in 26b:
26 ...for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. [Jer 6:26 ESV]

vss 27-30, This seems new to me.  The people are compared to iron and bronze, silver.  God says He is using bellows and fire to try and refine them but even that does not work.  They are called "rejected silver".  They are a precious metal that cannot be refined.  It is too  corrupt.  Never seen this analogy before.  MSB says instead of "precious metal" they were iron, bronze, lead, and un-refinable silver.  Same thing...Jeremiah was the "tester", looking for some value in Judah and Jerusalem and finding none at all.  The point of all this is that God has repeatedly, continuously, and ever more drastically sent His correction to these people, but nothing has gotten their attention.  Nothing can change them from the dross that they are into something that is useful to God.  They resist refinement as a corrupt metal cannot be purified.  There are "contaminants" that cannot be removed by any method available to the refiner.  The metal must be discarded.

2020 - Isaiah, and the minor prophets of his time, have a lot of prophecy about the Millennial, and even later.  Much of what they said could be applied both near and far.  So far in Jeremiah, it has all been pretty clearly about the coming Babylonian invasion of Judah and Jerusalem.  I've seen very little that might be pointing to Tribulation or the Millennial or the new heaven and earth.  So far, Jeremiah is about the "right now" of his own lifetime.

Chapter 7
This begins the third message, introduced with the phrase "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord", Jer 7:1.  Leaves little doubt as to the source.

This message is to be delivered as a "sermon", or a speech, at the entrance to the Temple.  Jeremiah himself is to stand there and proclaim this message.  This verse:
4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' [Jer 7:4 ESV]
This is a warning that the current religious authorities are mistaken in saying that Jerusalem "cannot" fall because it is the home of God's own Temple.  So Jeremiah is not making any friends among the clergy with this speech.  He is calling them all liars in fact.

Going to paste all of vss 5-7:
5 "For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. [Jer 7:5-7 ESV]
These are the conditions for withdrawal of the coming catastrophe.  There is nothing here about sacrificing bulls, donating money, perfect church attendance, or time in prayer. God does not care about the external show of religious fervor.  God cares about the most basic, fundamental desires of the heart.  He wants us to do good without expectation of payment, to do justice without need of a court, to cherish innocent blood even if the Supreme Court says we don't have to. He wants our hearts to be this way because His heart is this way.  He just wants us to be as much like Him as we can be.  
FB 10/24/19

9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!'--only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. [Jer 7:9-11 ESV]
Jesus quotes this verse in the NT.  These people are the worst kind of hypocrites.  We see this so much today, also, in "Sunday only Christians".  Such was I for much of my life.  In fact, I didn't show up on Sunday a lot of the time.  But I "considered" myself a Christian, saved by grace, and exempt from hell no matter what I did.  This is a very dangerous attitude to have.  Might make you feel better in good times, but as things start to go south (where did this figure of speech come from?  Going south is a bad thing???), as the dam nears the breaking point, you better get things right because your opportunity to do so is now.  If you wait, events will overcome you, and there won't be a quiet, reflective moment to repent of all the sins we've let ourselves indulge in because we convinced ourselves we were "safe".
This is a MUST FB post, and soon.  10/4/20
This chapter is a truly great sermon, no punches pulled.  Jeremiah was putting himself in harms way when he attacked the powers that were in Jerusalem at that time.
2023 - All in vss 9-11, we see the necessity of repentance - not just a "be good on Sunday", not just a "bring in a sacrifice when you're supposed to", but a life changing constant effort to OBEY the things that God commands for us.  
2023 - Also, in Jeremiah's context, the people were seeing the priests as robbers because they begrudged the offering they were bringing to them.  They saw the priests as parasites, and perhaps at that time they were.  Think of that, and think about Jesus pronouncing the Temple a den of robbers in the New Testament.  In the NT, the priests were had taken "fleecing the congregation" to a whole new level with their currency exchanges and their sacrifice inspections and so on.  BUT, in context, Jesus wasn't just upset at the priests but also at the unrepentant, religion by rote pilgrims who came to Passover.  This was not just a one-sided thing.

God orders Jeremiah not to pray for "this people", because He will not hear that prayer.  God is requiring performance of the people, not the intercession of one who's heart is true.  Sooner or later, it is individuals who must truly change.  Good people required, not good intercessors!  This tells us that sometimes, perhaps for long periods, the only thing that holds back God's judgement are the prayers of those committed to intercession.  Surely we would have to consider this "borrowed time".  This too would be a good FB post, as we come down to the election.
2023 - Here are the verses reference above:
16 "As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. [Jer 7:16 ESV].  Wow.  Jeremiah is told NOT to bother praying for Jerusalem, because he is punishing them and will not be turned aside.  Today, as we saw in those verses from Romans, God is punishing them.  Are we really sure we ought to be praying for them?  How does this fit with Psa 122:6-9?  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem...but perhaps the way to understand that is to pray that God will turn his wrath away from them, rather than praying that he will help them through the wrath?  Help is not what wrath is about!
I am only seeing this things this year because Oct 7, 2023 is so current.

In vss 22-23 God reminds Jeremiah that when He brought Israel out of Egypt, he said nothing about sacrifices.  He required ONLY this:
22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' [Jer 7:22-23 ESV]23
They just had to hear Him, and do what He said.  FB.
2023 - The Law was NOT for God.  All God required was obedience to His word!  The Law was to teach them about holiness, about their, and OUR, extreme lack of holiness.  


Another statement from God as to His clear message that Israel was wrong.  He has tried, with countless warnings from countless messengers to avoid sending the devastation that is about to come:
25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. [Jer 7:25-26 ESV]

vss 30-34 foretell that there will be so many dead in Jerusalem that the bodies will be buried in The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, the same place the people are sacrificing their own children to false gods.  They will be thrown there, and the birds will eat their bodies, and no one will try and stop the desecration of their bodies.  They consider this valley a "sacred place", and their bodies will be desecrated there. It's new name will be "The Valley of Slaughter".  Even the bones of the dead will be desecrated, removed from their burial places and laid out under the sun and moon that the people worship.  Their bones will be treated like dung.

Chapter 8
8:4 starts with "You shall say to them..." but MSB does not identify this as a new message....
vss 4-7 speak of how even nature knows when it is time to turn back.  Birds know when to migrate, they know the times.  But Judah does not.  They won't repent despite the time being upon them.  They persist in doing things wrong, they refuse to turn back.  The implication is that they KNOW they should, it is in their hearts to do so, but they CHOOSE to get it wrong.
vss 8-13 speak of the fate that awaits those who claim to be wise.  Their wives will be given to others, their fields to conquerors.  Because they have sinned and not felt guilty.  They have forgotten how to blush.  Sin is so prevalent that it isn't even noticed.
vss 14-17, The land, the whole land, is to be devastated by the invaders.  When they come, there will be no pacifying them.  No stopping them.  No mercy to be had from them.
vss 18-21, Jeremiah expresses his personal grief at the implications of the message he is delivering.  He mourns, and is dismayed.  It is summed up in this last verse of the chapter, a well-known phrase, but I didn't realize the context until now:

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? [Jer 8:22 ESV]
2023 - This is about the curing of a nation, about the need to provoke a national repentance and set a whole nation back on the right path.  God has tried all kinds of things with Jerusalem, and still they refuse to turn back to him.  Despite God's corrections, punishments, declarations, and condemnations through the prophets he sent them, Judah and Jerusalem would not turn away from following their own methods, which included everything EXCEPT obedience to God's commands.  Look at us today.  We sneer at morality, make fun of the hillbillies that get married first, we take God out of schools, we take the Ten off the courthouse lawn, the overt, open worship of Satan is on the rise and being called free exercise.  We hear now and then that if the US doesn't soon change its ways, God is going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.  Read Jeremiah, and you will see that he will have to apologize to Jerusalem also, and God calls them WORSE than Sodom and Gomorrah.
Possible FB post.

12/29/20 - See the notes on Mark 11, about the cursed fig tree, in connection with the timing of this prophecy.  This is about 70 AD, not the Tribulation or the Millennial.

Chapter 9
2023 - For some reason, Jeremiah is just grueling to read.  It beats me down every year.  And maybe it is not that it is Jeremiah, maybe it is this reading plan.  The chapters in Jeremiah are VERY LONG, and the plan calls for three LONG chapters every single day plus one in the NT.  Just the reading can take half an hour or 45 minutes if you don't take a single note.  And this go on for days and days.  To me, this is the "hill" that I have to get over to get the Bible read every year.  After Jeremiah, it goes pretty quickly.  But Jeremiah is tough.  And that is likely why I so struggle with posts this time of year.  I'm just trying to keep up.

In vss 1-6, God is listing the current condition of the land.  Sin is pervasive, all are wicked, no one can trust anyone else, even down to the next door neighbor.
vs 7 starts with "Therefore..."
Four things God says He will do:
1, in vs 7, He will refine them and test them.  Implies that some will come out better on the other side.
2, vs 9, He will punish them for the things they've done.
3, vs 10, He will weep - not for the people - but for the desolation of the landscape and wildlife.
4, vs 11, "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins..."

2021-There is this repeating theme of just how completely dishonesty permeates this society.  Neighbors are not living together in peace, but spying out how best to cheat each other.  Look how it is stated in vs 6:
6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. [Jer 9:6 ESV].  They will not change direction.  It has gone too far, leaving God to do what He must do in order to restore justice of some kind, to refine - which is to remove the dross and leave only the purest and finest - however little there is.  He must keep some loyal to Him, lest there be no one to receive the promises.  He could not let them forget him completely.  Action had to be taken before there were none at all who worshipped the only true God.  This is certainly what Satan wanted.  He wanted "God-worship" to become just an archaic religion that some used to follow.  A quaint memory from a bygone time.  Satan is still trying to do that.  He has had more than a little success in some places.  In Jeremiah's day he was substituting idol worship for God-worship. Today, we have/Satan has elevated science as the source of our help, our explanation, our understanding.  We worship what science tells us about our origins, our destinies, and the meaning of our lives.  This is what is substituted for Godliness in a world beyond idol worship.
Possible FB post, using vs 7 also:  6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. 7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? [Jer 9:6-7 ESV]
Here's the thing for the USA.  He has no need to refine us.  We are Gentiles, not promised anything.  (Is there any verse where Gentiles are promised a place in the Millennial kingdom?  Find out before saying it is true.)  For us, total annihilation is possible without making God a liar.  For us the fire may not be to refine but to remove.

vss 12-16, God gives His reason for what is about to happen, in so many words.  I have noticed this the last few days.  So many people say they don't understand how a loving God could....  These last few days, I see that God has been very forthcoming with his reasons for bringing punishment and chastisement on his own chosen people.  He has reasons, and He told them what they were at the time, and He told them how to stop it, and yet they would not.  So who is it in this scenario that is unloving?  Who in this scenario is callous toward the other party?  This could all be put together into a pretty good lesson about how God operates.  Start with God's own explanation in 7:12.

2023 - This verse:
16 I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them." [Jer 9:16 ESV].  How is this NOT being fulfilled, even today?  How can we say that this has already happened, was completed, and we've moved on?  Surely THIS is what Hitler was about and THIS is what is going on now in the world with all the hatred of Israel and calls for their genocide.  The sword is STILL after them!  God says he will stop when they have been punished double for what they have done.  I think the crucifixion of Jesus just added to God's on-going wrath at that time.  It is still ongoing.  The church age is part of God's wrath as the special place of Israel in God's view is replaced with the church, leaving generation after generation doomed to hell.  It won't stop until the 70th week begins.  Only then will their eyes see again, their ears hear again, and their hearts soften.

vss 17-22 call for the women to mourn, because the land will be conquered, and the bodies will fall like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.  The picture is of a tremendous, needless, unnecessary waste.

These two verses.  These awesome verses that ought to be memorized.  God tells us who He is, how can we claim confusion about it:
23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." [Jer 9:23-24 ESV]
This is God's own personality, revealed to us directly.

This may be the first true end times reference I've seen in Jeremiah:
25 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh-- 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart." [Jer 9:25-26 ESV]

So many lessons here.  Weeks of posting on FB are here!

Chapter 10
The third message ends with this chapter.  11-13 are the fourth message.  So we get through them both today.
vss 1-5 are about not having fear of "signs" discerned in the heavens (direct rebuttal of astrology), nor of idols made from trees cut down in the jungle.  This verse has an interesting way to classify idols made by hands:
5 Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good." [Jer 10:5 ESV]
Scarecrows.  That's all they are.  They only work about half the time even for scaring birds, so why should man fear them?
2021-The first 5 verses are a message to Israel not to fear the gods of other nations, nor the "predictions" they come up with based on astrology.  Their gods are powerless.

2021- Vss 6-10 seem to be Jeremiah's prayer, reciting the true power of the true God, the God of Israel.  But the point is that this seems to be Jeremiah talking and no longer "the Word of the Lord".

vss 6-10, God's true power to shake the earth and over kings and nations is contrasted with the scarecrows of the previous section.
vs 11 starts with "Thus you shall say to them:...", but this is still part of the same message that Jeremiah is delivering at the door of the Temple.
vss 12-18, The message seems to me like the way we are to reach unbelievers today.  If they don't believe God to start with, then talk about creation, and how inexplicable it is without God.  This message first says that God is the creator of all things.  Second, it says that with His voice, God controls nature.  Today.  From morning mists to lightning in the storms, He controls.
Then the message continues that the idols can do none of this.  Not breathe, not speak, not move.  They are powerless pieces of adorned wood.  God is not like these.  He is creator of all, and Israel is "...the tribe of His inheritance..."  This section ends with the prophesy that God is about to bring distress on these people, that they may know it is He who acts.  These two verses:
14 Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. 15 They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. [Jer 10:14-15 ESV]
I like "a work of delusion".  Possible FB post from this.
vss 19-21, Jeremiah speaks as those conquered by the invader will speak.  No one to raise their tents for them, their children gone - taken as slaves or killed by the merciless invader.
vs 22, Names the coming aggressor.  He comes from the north.  At that time in history, there was no doubt who this meant.

vs. 24 is a great prayer to be prayed, by each one of us.  It is here:
24 Correct me, O LORD, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. [Jer 10:24 ESV]   
If we are trying, and foul up, as we invariably will, then God will correct us in justice.  Like we correct little children.  But if we ignore that correction, and willfully continue to flaunt God's rules, then we make Him angry, and He unleashes that anger on us.  Only God can do that, and we most certainly do NOT want that to happen.  Good one for FB.

Chapter 11
MSB outline says this is a new (4th) message.  Apparently the key phrase to identify it as new is this:
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [Jer 11:1 ESV]
(First messsage, at 2:1, started like this:
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [Jer 11:1 ESV]
Second message at 3:6 like this:
6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? [Jer 3:6 ESV]
Third message at 7:1 like this:
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [Jer 7:1 ESV]
But there are others...9:7 for instance says this:
7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? [Jer 9:7 ESV]
Why is this part of the previous message instead of a new one?  That might be worth looking into.)

These words are spoken directly to Jeremiah, telling him to deliver the message to the people.  This does not tell him where he should go to speak, just that he needs to tell them.
The message is that they made a bargain with God when He brought them out of Egypt.  They committed to a covenant.  They were to listen to all God commanded, and He would give them a land flowing with milk and honey.  Then the phrase in vs. 5, "...as it is this day."
vs 6 says this was to be preached in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem.  (How did these prophets scare up an audience for such an unpopular message?)
God says what is about to happen was part of the covenant.  They are not holding up their end.  It is bad to break a covenant with God.  The consequences were stated back when they came out of Egypt.  This is not something God threw in after the fact.
vss 10b, 11 are God's words for this:
10 ...The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. 11 Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. [Jer 11:10-11 ESV]
He goes on to say that even as this disaster unfolds, they will pray to their idols and not to the One God of Israel.  They still won't turn.  Much like in Revelation when the end comes.  They still won't repent.  
This verse:
14 "Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. [Jer 11:14 ESV] This is the second time Jeremiah is told not to pray for Jerusalem because God won't listen anyway.  This is not like Abraham praying for Sodom and Gomorrah.  Even for those places God was still willing to listen.  But not for Jerusalem at this time, because it is worse than they were.  Is it because they were favored, believed that God would bless and keep them no matter what?  Were they  head over heels for "once saved always saved"?  Did they believe that based on their "God's favored nation" status that they could do absolutely anything and retain his protection?  So in a sense, the blessings God gave them led to their rebellion and that to their destruction?  Something is wrong with this...but I need to be able to explain it.

vs 15 compares Israel to a wife who has done vile things.  Should she be welcome in his house?
vss 16, 17, God called Israel the good vine.  But they offended Him with offering to Baal, and now he is about to torch that vine.

vss 18-23,  This section sounds at first like a prophecy of Jesus' rejection by the Pharisees, but MSB does not claim it is that.  18-20 are that part, but then 21-23 explain what it is really about.  And interestingly, these verses are God's promise to Jeremiah that those who are trying to silence him, and intending to murder him if necessary to silence him, will be wiped out by God.  It implies that the whole city of Anathoth, Jeremiah's home town, will be destroyed.

2021 - This whole book, so far, has been a message of indictment against Israel.  It is going on and on about WHY they are about to be overrun, scattered to nations they do not know, refined as metal in a fire.  The list of charges is long, and repeated several times.  The patience of God to this point is held up as a reminder of how far this has gone.  But the bottom line is that time is up.  Wrath is coming and no amount of prayer, sack cloth, or fasting is going to avail.  The line is crossed, and God must now be God.

​

Chapter 12
vss 1-4, Jeremiah asks God how long before he will go ahead and do this.  Jeremiah seems to think the time should be immediately.  It is an old question.  Why do the wicked get to thrive and prosper - for generations sometimes! - while God does nothing?
I needed to see what MSB made of God's answer, which starts in vss 5, 6.  God does not answer directly.  He doesn't say why He waits.  What He says is, if you are dejected to the point of quitting now, how will you deal with things when they get harder.  Implication is that they are going to get way harder to deal with!  Good one for FB.  If you think Washington is corrupt now, what will you do when it gets bad?  Not posted as of 10/5/20.

2021, Vss 3, 4:
3 But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter. 4 How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? For the evil of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away, because they said, "He will not see our latter end." [Jer 12:3-4 ESV]
Jeremiah is asking God to destroy those who are evil in Judah because even nature is corrupted and wasting away because of the unrepentant, ongoing sin, corruption and evil they are doing.  Not just crops, but the very grass is withering.  Animals are scarce, fleeing the area, migrating to other places because this place - its very climate - is becoming inhospitable to natural things.  I am not prepared to say that our climate change today is due to sin rather than CO2, but if I wanted to say that, if I was going to try and build a case for that, this verse would be at the top of the list!

2021, vss 5,6:
These are worded so eloquently.  Isaiah said a lot of profound things, but I can't help but think that Jeremiah was more "poetic":
5 "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? 6 For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you." [Jer 12:5-6 ESV]
When things get really tough for those who know God, believe God, trust in God, when persecution is around every corner, what do we do?  This seems to say "Don't trust anyone, not even family, because they are ALL out to get you."  This was probably advice unique to Jeremiah, because he was so high profile, delivering messages at the very doorstep of the Temple.  Better to take this as a specific command to Jeremiah rather than a general command.  We know in the NT that Jesus himself told them not to prepare remarks for when they were persecuted and arrested.  On the other hand, the NT also does not say to preach on the street corners when it is made illegal.  We know early Christians had underground churches.  They witnessed person to person, not in mass public meetings in defiance of Roman law.  It is a complex issue.  I will save it for another time.

vss 7-13, Seems to be Jeremiah's reply to God's answer of the original question.  Or instead of reply, maybe it is a lament.  Maybe Jeremiah is saying that the evil people of his time, in addition to attacking him, are also destroying Jeremiah's heritage, his future, the hope for the children being born.  These people are laying waste to the country, but God's vengeance, when it comes, will devastate all the land.
Then there is this verse, God speaking again:
15 And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. [Jer 12:15 ESV]
MSB says this is to be fulfilled in the Millenial Kingdom.  Not necessarily before then.  Israel did return from Babylon, and in 1948 they became a nation again against all odds and much opposition.  But 1948 is not the fulfillment of this prophecy.  Because the promises of the covenant made on exit from Egypt are not yet fulfilled again.

Chapter 13
Illustration of God's intentions for Judah.  The loincloth was useful to start with, but after being buried it became sodden, dirty, and so useless.  As long as Israel stayed close to God, they were of use to Him.  But when they turned away, and dirtied themselves with false gods, they because totally without purpose, worthy only to be trashed.  So God was trying to give them a sign, sort of speaking to them in a parable that at least the wise among them might interpret...as in the NT.

Next, another part of the message, starting with:
12 "You shall speak to them this word: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel...." [Jer 13:12a ESV]
I still don't get why this isn't a new message?  Maybe someone decided it is in the same vein, on the same theme still.  That would get into some pretty deep study, if so.
The people compared to jars of wine.  God will dash one against another, destroying all.  He also says they will be like drunkards when the invader comes.  Powerless to oppose.
vss 15-17, An appeal to turn back to God.  It is not too late.  If they don't, they will be taken captive.
vss 18, 19, The king and queen mother are to take a lowly seat, because all of Judah is taken into exile.  Even the Negeb is taken - the southern extremity of Judah, and not such great property.  Even this will not escape what's coming.  There is nowhere to run.
vss 20-27, When the people ask God why this has come upon them, He asks them this question:
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. [Jer 13:23 ESV]
He says their evil has become their nature.  They are what they are, and cannot be different.  That is why the destruction has come.  They've gone so far in sin and idolatry that they are no longer capable of "fixing themselves".  They have to go.  God will choose a few, and restore from there.

There are terrible images here of what is coming for Judah.  In vs 22 the phrase "...your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence." and in vs 26 the phrase "I myself will lift your skirts over your face,...."  Conquest in those days, and in the days of first Germany and then Poland - in fact I'm sure in all the wars that have ever occurred, men sink to the lowest of the low, and they rape the women of the conquered land.  This is the basest part of the consequences of being

invaded an conquered.  There is no rule of law, there is no decency.  Men abuse women at such a time.  God is telling Judah that they will be that abused woman.  They will suffer this level of indignity, pain, helplessness, derision.  This is where they're going...yet even these words did not make them repent.  I think of that scene in Apocalyto where  the "good" village is invaded by the "bad" people.  That is what conquest looks like.  I never want to be part of either side of a conquest.

2021 - I have to say that I am noticing that the chapters in Jeremiah are very LONG, but the plan still calls for three chapters a day.  It gets pretty long.
I note also that Jeremiah is still warning Jerusalem, and there is very little of far future events in what he writes.

Chapter 14
This chapter begins the 5th message, which runs through 17:18 per MSB outline.  So we'll see all this one today.  The sixth message, an apparently short one, runs from 17:19-27.  So we'll also get all that one today.
The introductory phrase for this 5th message is:
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: [Jer 14:1 ESV]  Still need to see why this makes it a new message...
vss 2-6 describe the effects of the drought.  This drought is apparently going to occur before the invasion of Babylon.  Among the descriptions are cisterns that are dry - no water to be drawn, doe's abandon their fawns because there is no grass, wild donkeys go blind because there is nothing to eat...it's too dry for anything to grow.  Do we ever, ever, ever consider that natural events like droughts and floods could be God trying to get our attention, to turn us back to Him?  In this modern day, I don't think even the church ever considers that possibility.

2021 - We should consider what's going on today in the US in light of this prophecy.  The grocery stores have plenty of food, but less than they once did.  Perhaps this is just the beginning of a trend.  The rich productive farmland in California is in danger of catastrophe because of the ongoing drought out there.  States are fighting each other over water rights.  And then add Covid.  This website, https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 , today on 12/22/21, says that 810,364 people have died of covid in this country alone.  We blame the drought out west on climate change, and we blame climate change on...what?  Greedy capitalists who refuse to cut back on CO2?  Really?  We think we can change the entire climate all by ourselves?  How much did the climate change when we pulled out of the last ice age, and what did hunter gatherers have to do with that?  
Hmm...If one believes in creation, and a young earth as consequence of that, how do we explain the evidence of large moving ice sheets?  When was that?  How did that happen?  Now that is a needed study.  I can't even begin to answer that right now.
Facebook post?

vss 7-9 are an appeal for God to stay with them, though their iniquities are many.

vs 10 is God's reply.  It has gone far enough.  God will now punish the people's sin:
10 Thus says the LORD concerning this people: "They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins." [Jer 14:10 ESV]
It has simply gone far enough.  There is no time left for repentance.  They have crossed the line.  The circuit breaker has kicked open, Dad is taking off his belt, the jury says guilty and the judge's sentence cannot be stopped.  That is the sense of where Judah is at this time in Jeremiah.  Even though their desolation by Babylon is still future, wrath is already being poured out.  Things are bad, they are getting worse, they will continue to get worse, right up until the time when the dam breaks - or the bulge in the wall shatters - and it is all over in a night.

In vss 11, 12, God gives Jeremiah some unusual instructions.  This is the second (2020 - third time.  1st was 7:16, second was 11:14 which I read yesterday and now this third one today in 14:11) time we've seen this in Jeremiah:
11 The LORD said to me: "Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence." [Jer 14:11-12 ESV]
God gets to the point where He can send very severe punishment on his people - a sentence to serve - that does not kill them.  And when he gets to this point, there is no turning away nor diminishing the punishment.  This is another case where God is requiring something from those punished, and will not accept intervention from anyone on their behalf.  Sometimes He does, but not here.

2021 - Sword, famine, pestilence.  In Jerusalem, the sword came last.  Wonder what is next for the US?  Will it be internal, or will we finally have our homeland invaded?
2023 - There are several other places where it is famine, sword, pestilence...and wild animals.  The animals are missing here.  I wonder why?  Those other places are Eze 14:21, Lev 26:22, and Rev. 6:8.  All have this same tag.  But wild beasts are missing here...

In vss 13-16 Jeremiah tells God that there are prophets in the land saying that invasion is NOT coming, and that there won't be famine (though it is upon them?  Or maybe it is not there yet?)  God answers that He did not give these messages to these prophets.  They are liars, diviners, and deceived in their own minds.  God says famine and sword will kill them, along with men, their wives, and their children.  

Vs 17 starts a specific message Jeremiah is to deliver.  He is to tell them that the prophets and the priests they're listening to have no knowledge.  To look and see - there are dead people killed with the sword in the countryside, and there is disease caused by famine in the cities.  This made Jeremiah no friends among the religious sect I'm sure.

Vss 19-22 are a prayer of repentance, asking God why the famine continues though they  have repented and prayed.  I would question the sincerity of this repentance, especially in light of the quick return to abomination that followed hard on Josiah's reign.  We've already been told in this chapter, however, that the repentance ship has sailed.  Punishment is due, and will be dispensed now.  To me, this is like a parent to an unruly child.  You tell them over and over to behave, but eventually, the spanking comes.  And when that child sees that you're really going to punish, then and only then do they cry out, and promise to do better.  This is where Jerusalem is, but it is too late for repentance.  Punishment must come.

Chapter 15
2021-Remember that this year, the 5th message is broken into two days.  It started yesterday, and continues to the end today, and we also get the very short 6th message.

God's answer to the prayer in the previous chapter:
1 Then the LORD said to me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! [Jer 15:1 ESV]  2021-This is not a "new" message, because it is spoken directly to Jeremiah, and perhaps because of "then".
You never want to find yourself in this situation with God.  This in connection with the previous verses, shows why sometimes punishment cannot be averted.  Events cannot be averted.  Perhaps a sickness must run its course.  Sometimes these things are random and because sin corrupted the perfect natural system God created.  But other times....God still works in the world, every day.  Sometimes, He dispenses punishment.  (2022 - this first verse is similar to the verses that say though Job, Noah, or Daniel...)
God has sent the people out from His sight.  From His throne if you will.  They have made a petition to the King, and the King has said for them to get out his very sight.  He is done with them.  
In vs 2 they ask where they are to go?  What is to become of them if the "King" will not help them in their current straights.  And this is God's answer:
2 ..."'Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and
   those who are for the sword, to the sword;
   those who are for famine, to famine, and
   those who are for captivity, to captivity.' [Jer 15:2b ESV]
God doesn't care what death awaits them, they are to depart to the sad end appointed to them.  

vs 3, The four forms the punishment of Judah will take:
3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD:
   the sword to kill,
   the dogs to tear, and the
   birds of the air and the
   beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. [Jer 15:3 ESV]
Are there four because four is the number of man?  
2021 - There are no Babylonian soldiers listed among the destroyers...oh yes there are.  That is the sword.  Then dogs to attack the wounded survivors and finish them off, and birds and beasts to feast on the carrion of war.  No aid for the wounded, no mourners for the dead.

vs 4 is the reason for the punishment.  God points to the specific sin that has brought this one.  Is this like "the straw that broke..."?  Does God work that way?  Or was this just the sin that ran the bucket over and required action?  Is this how God works?
4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem. [Jer 15:4 ESV]
I seem to recall that God told Hezekiah that the nation would be punished because of him, but that it would not happen in his time, but in a later time.  God knew already that Manasseh would be an exceedingly evil King, and that He would be a provoker, a repeat offender, and go further in sin than those who had come before.  Manasseh went past the line, as God knew he would.  As much as Hezekiah had earned retribution from God, Manasseh earned it more.  God waits.  He forbears.  But then His justice must be done.  

2023 - Manassah was from 696 BC to about 650 BC.  I forgot exactly but it's in the chart.  I thought Manassah was way earlier than Hezekiah, and that the end of Israel was pronounced long before 700 BC.  But apparently it is just that I read it much earlier than I read Jeremiah.

vss 5-9, God is still talking, speaking of the punishment and His reasons for it:
Does this verse sound like a parent at the end of their patience?
6 You have rejected me, declares the LORD; you keep going backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you-- I am weary of relenting. [Jer 15:6 ESV]

vs 10.  Jeremiah wishes he'd not been born, because it seems everyone in Judah hates him.  And you can see why they would!

An interesting verse, in light of all the book eating that is done in the Bible:
16 Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. [Jer 15:16 ESV]
Has some bearing on whether books were literally eaten, or the phrase means read/studied/understood/assimilated and that sort of thing.  Ties to the book John eats in Revelation.

God answer him though:
God first says that he will save and protect Jeremiah from what is coming.  Jeremiah still complains further, and is feeling that God promised him water to refresh him through all this but that there is none.  God has an answer for that also.  He answers in vss 19-21.
God seems to me to promise Jeremiah that the people's scorn will turn to respect.  They will end up coming to Jeremiah for help, instead of wishing he was dead.  God tells Jeremiah to hang on and then this verse:
21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless." [Jer 15:21 ESV]
What a promise!
These verses, 10-21, have the same "ring" to them as I have seen in several chapters of the Quran.  Muhammad seems often to have complained about his treatment by those around him, and often receives the answer that in the next world, things will be better.  Here, Jeremiah is told things will be better also in this world.  It seems almost like Muhammad seized on the book of Jeremiah, and this aspect of Jeremiah's life, and put himself into it, and wrote from Jeremiah's perspective here.  Could Muhammad have had a copy of Jeremiah?  Interesting if he had Jeremiah, and only Jeremiah...no, that's not right.  Muhammad could not read...

2023 - These verses:
15 but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
16 "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ...
I wonder if this is an actual reference to the purpose of the 144,000 sealed in Revelation.  We are not told what their purpose is, nor is it even hinted.  First fishers, to lure those interested in the bait, and then hunters, to find those hiding from fishers?  Is that what it means?  Or is is just about underwater and hiding.  Maybe none of them come of their own volition but must be sought out and brought home from the places they have been hidden for so long.


18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations." [Jer 16:15-16, 18 ESV]

Chapter 16
(Double punishment referenced in vs 18.)
So 14 started with "The word of the Lord that came..."
15 with "Then the Lord said to me...."
and now 16 starts with "The word of the Lord came to me..."
The difference in these three is is that 14 begins a narration, while 15 and 16 are from Jeremiah's perspective.  Third person vs first person.  Is this the divider for the messages?
Jeremiah is told not to marry, not to reproduce, because sons and daughters will remain unburied, as dung, as food for birds.  This was desecration.  Perhaps a tactic of the Babylonians to instill fear into those they came against.
This verse, giving a specific time frame for when these bodies were going to be laying around everywhere, unmourned, unburied:

2021 - But look how this is worded:
4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. [Jer 16:4 ESV]
This is about the fall of Jerusalem, conquered by Babylon.  But disease seems to be a large part of it too, perhaps weakening the city before Babylon even arrived.  So many were dying of disease - at some point...I guess it could be during the siege - that they couldn't be buried.  Hmm.  This would also be the case if they were surrounded and could not take the bodies outside the walls for burial.  The bodies would just be stacked.
Vs 5 has this phrase - "...for I have taken away my peace from this people..."  Surely that is a factor in the unrest, the constant distress and friction and "playing the victim" that characterizes this country.  Can I make a FB post of this?  Here is the whole verse: 5 "For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD. [Jer 16:5 ESV]

9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. [Jer 16:9 ESV]

God gives Jeremiah an answer for the question that will inevitably be asked by these people.  A stupid question, but an expected question.  They will ask why this has happened to them.  As if they don't know, as if it is not obvious.  They will ask why as if they are innocent.  And perhaps they were so far gone that they thought they were innocent (Romans 1).  Here is God's specific answer, in depth:
11 then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. [Jer 16:11-12 ESV]
Because of these sins of your fathers:
1.  Going after other gods
2.  Serving and worshiping other gods
3.  Forsaking God
4.  Forsaking God's law.
5.  For being worse in these things than your fathers!!!  This is why it is coming on your generation specifically!

2020 - I don't think we worship idols today.  I think we put things before God, but I don't think we worship idols.  (2021-Today we worship science.  We look to science for all the explanations.  I commented on that elsewhere recently - could look it up - but that's our idol now.  Science can explain it, it don't have to invent God to explain it.  God is just the answer required by the ignorant, superstitious masses of the past.  We are now too smart to need that.  So said Nietzsche.)   The Bible talks at length about what an idol is, what it is made of, that is made to be worshiped, that sacrifices are offered to it, and so on.  Idols are the object of religious worship and activity in the Bible.  Today, we might go fishing every Sunday instead of going to church.   That does not make our bass boat our idol, nor does it make the lake our idol.  I never heard of anyone sacrificing a frog or a chicken to his bass boat.  No one prays to his boat to get rid of his cancer or release his child from jail.  No.  These things are NOT idols.  These are a different thing.
So it is interesting that the first two things on the list pretty much went away after the Babylonian captivity.  In the Jerusalem of Jesus' time, idols in the temple didn't happen.  There were no statues to Aphrodite in the streets...though the Romans may have brought their own with them.  There are cultures in the world today that do still have idols - Japan, China, and almost certainly others.  But in the US?  In Israel?  In England and France?  No.  There is no idol worship in these places.  So if the US is being punished today, it is not about the first two things on the list, it is about the last three.  

Hmm...This just hit me (2020)  The US displaced the American Indian and occupied his land.  If we make that an analogy to Israel conquering Canaan - or any other invasion in history - and we say a successful invasion is by God's hand - then the invaded and occupied country continues and is blessed only so long as the invaders avoid items 1-5 better than the people they displaced.  But once the invaders are worse than what went before, then God's wrath is invoked.  He does not want places to be worse than they were before.  So could we do a compare and contrast of the Indians that were here when the US was invaded with the practices in this country today?  Go even further...look at other invaded and occupied countries through history and use the checklist above...Talk about an interesting study...


These verses:
14 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' 15 but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. [Jer 16:14-15 ESV]  So this speaks to a "re-start" with the people.  Instead of those God brought out of Egypt to Canaan, we will someday have the people God brought out of the north, and the rest of the planet back to the land of Canaan.  So Babylon is the first punishment, and they will return from the North.  This may have to do with the return in Nehemiah's time.  (2021 - Sure looks to me like this prophecy is confined to the return from Babylon.)  The return from everywhere else may refer to the second scattering in 70 AD, which was the end of Israel as a nation until 1948.  Then in '48, they begin to return, from here there and everywhere.  Surely they are now spoken of as a people brought from all the countries where he'd driven them.  I think this is a reference to the Tribulation and on into the Millennial.  We haven't seen Jeremiah look this far down the road very much, but I think that is exactly what he is doing here.

Then the next verse:
16 "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. [Jer 16:16 ESV]  Jesus tells his disciples he will make them fishers of men.  Jesus was talking about the start of the church age.  The fishers are about the church age.  Then the hunters...the 144,000 of Revelation?  Are they referred to as hunters?  (Not that I can see.  144000 is used three times in Revelation, but I see nothing that could be construed to make them hunters. They are, however, seen as witnesses who go out and convert and bring home the Jews scattered abroad during Trib and Great Trib.  (No...I don't think they're portrayed as witnesses, either.  We've all heard that, but I cannot find the verse.)  So maybe it is in that sense that they are hunters, searching and rescuing the scattered of Israel.  I do like this as the distinction between fishers and hunters though.  Fishers who pull up the remnant and keep God's people moving forward though in limited numbers, and then the hunters to find them ALL and bring them home.  I do like how this fits with the 144,000.)

2023 December - This verse:  16 "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. [Jer 16:16 ESV].  Is this a prophecy of both the 144,000 and their purpose.  In context, the Jeremiah passage is about the return from Babylon...and yet in vs 18 we get "but first I will doubly repay".  So you get into whether Babylon was one, and 70 AD was two, and that we're still in progress.  You have to say near far.  But I am liking the "wrap-around" interpretation of such prophecies better than the near far right now.  So I would say the taking away to Babylon is the beginning of the double punishment in 586 BC, and in vss 16:1-13, and then to the final coming home of Israel during the seventieth week, AFTER his wrath is spent, after the whole double is complete.  I think looking at it this way works very well.  AND, if you don't try to make this Jewish homecoming about the return from Babylon, then you don't have to do a lot of slicing and dicing within verses for the parts that came true at the return from Babylon and the parts that have not yet come true, but will in the 70th week.  Arguably they will ALL come true in the 70th week, and the ones that we think of as already coming true are really just shades and shadows of how obviously they will come true then.  Also copying this back to Jeremiah.

Wrote this next today (12/23/23) at Rev 7 about the 144,000 and copied it back here:
2023 December - This verse:  16 "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. [Jer 16:16 ESV].  Is this a prophecy of both the 144,000 and their purpose.  In context, the Jeremiah passage is about the return from Babylon...and yet in vs 18 we get "but first I will doubly repay".  So you get into whether Babylon was one, and 70 AD was two, and that we're still in progress.  You have to say near far.  But I am liking the "wrap-around" interpretation of such prophecies better than the near far right now.  So I would say the taking away to Babylon is the beginning of the double punishment in 586 BC, and in vss 16:1-13, and then to the final coming home of Israel during the seventieth week, AFTER his wrath is spent, after the whole double is complete.  I think looking at it this way works very well.  AND, if you don't try to make this Jewish homecoming about the return from Babylon, then you don't have to do a lot of slicing and dicing within verses for the parts that came true at the return from Babylon and the parts that have not yet come true, but will in the 70th week.  Arguably they will ALL come true in the 70th week, and the ones that we think of as already coming true are really just shades and shadows of how obviously they will come true then.  Also copying this back to Jeremiah.
And then moving on to this next paragraph on vs 18...

And then this verse...so many "heavy" verses right here together:
18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations." [Jer 16:18 ESV]  Double has to mean something.  I don't think it is a reference to severity - twice as bad - but to how many times it is inflicted.  As in 40 lashes two different times.  This is how I see this.  I think this is right.
2021 - I did a word study on "double", saved elsewhere.  This means twice, not intensified.  And if we look at the prophecy with this in mind, it should be pretty obvious that the return in vs 15 is first about Babylon, and specific to that.  But when you throw this "twice" into the prophecy, you must look forward to the dispersion of 70 AD and the still future return from that second time.  
2023 - I like this as corroboration of the interpretation that the fishers and hunters are the church age and the 70th week.  I think it is critically important that vs 18 starts with "But first...".  First, there is DOUBLE REPAYMENT.  How can that be JUST about Babylon and not about 70 AD also.  Before he brings them home the double repayment must be complete.  This is talking about week 70, not about Babylon.

This is an interesting verse:
21 "Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD." [Jer 16:21 ESV]
I don't know what this is about, what it is that God will only do this once.  MSB says it turned Israel against idols once and for all, and not only them, but many surrounding Gentiles.  MSB says that after they came back from Babylon, the Jews entirely and permanently renounced idols.  And many Gentiles did also.  We don't worship idols in the US today.  There are no idols in Islam.  I think some still exist in Buddhism, maybe in Taoism?  But for the most part, the world no longer worships idols.  This is not what I'd have pulled out of this verse.  It took someone else to explain it to me.  However, the difference is that the explanation is based on other scripture, not on a personal explanation from Jeremiah of what he meant, as told to someone else, but from the context of the previous verses:
19 O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. 20 Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!" [Jer 16:19-20 ESV]
It would be long, but might work on FB.  Better for website.

Chapter 17
(Double punishment referenced in vs. 18.)
An indictment.  A recounting of Judah's sin, and justification for what is coming for all to see and read:
4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever." [Jer 17:4 ESV]
Their hand is loosened, but not removed?  As in they will some day grasp again the heritage that God gave them after Egypt?  Interlinear does not indicate this really.  Interlinear gives more the idea that Israel chooses to give up their heritage.  Which is more what their abandonment of God's covenant and the law and their embracing of idols instead was about.  They loosened their own grip.  Oh my...the first punishment was for turning against the stips of the Mosaic covenant and worshiping other God's.  The second was for violating the word God gave them as they  left Egypt, but before the law.  To worship and honor God.  There was that earlier verse saying that at the beginning, all God had required was that they look to Him.  And in 70 AD, they had abandoned that also, even though they were not worshiping idols.  They just flat rejected God...no.  They didn't do that.  Many still tried to worship the right way in 70 AD.  But it was too late.  This is not part of the double.   And does this mean God was against the Jews at the coming of Christ because his anger still burned?  Does it mean their rejection of Him was inevitable because they had to pay double, and because God says this punishment for the sins of Manasseh will continue without end?  Is this what Hitler was about - that even in exile God's wrath still burned against them?  Is this the root of antisemitism worldwide and still continuing to this day?  The question then becomes...when does forever end?  Interlinear says this form of "forever" is either a preposition or a conjunction.  It is not the noun "forever".  ESV seems to have translated it as a noun.  NLT says "my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever".  YLT says it this way: For a fire ye have kindled in Mine anger, Unto the age it doth burn.  I don't think this verse means that God will be angry with His people Israel forever.  If that were so, they would never see heaven, none of them ever would.  We know this is not the case.  So we cannot really accept the ESV translation.  I think we should read this as God is very angry, and so that we can "visualize" how angry He is, picture a fire so bright so hot so unquenchable that it seems as if it will burn forever.  This is maximum anger.  This is as angry as you can get, and this is where God is at this time in Jeremiah with respect to Israel.

So much today...I'm "full".  And this is true once again in 2020.  These four chapters have sooo very much in them!

vss 5-13 contain a direct revelation of the words of God.
Those who trust in flesh are contrasted with those who trust in God.  The picture is of a desert shrub, parched, alone and desolate vs a tree planted by the water, whose roots always have water, and whose leaves stay green through any drought.  Beautiful picture.
The second one is what all men crave.  Peace through trial.  Not just a source of water, but a source that never dries up, that can be counted on without a second thought.  No worry about the necessities.  The first one is what most men have.  Isolation.  Worry.  They never see good.
This would be really good for FB.

2021 - Seems like the summary verse for 5-13 is actually in 5:  
5 Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. [Jer 17:5 ESV]
This may just be hitting me because of Beyond Order chapter 12 that I read last night.  Peterson makes man his own god in that chapter.  That's the current state of things.  We don't need God because we are already god ourselves.  We are making flesh our strength.
This right after it - this is what Peterson was trying to explain without resorting to the supernatural - and he couldn't do it except by promoting flesh to the divinity:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? [Jer 17:9 ESV]  Only God can understand it.  Only God can understand the true implications of the fall.  It is not about resentment building up because life is not fair.  It is because of sin.

vs 10, God says all will get justice:
10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." [Jer 17:10 ESV]

vss 14-18 are Jeremiah's prayer for deliverance and protection.  This verse:
18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction! [Jer 17:18 ESV]
This too sounds like many chapters of the Quran.  Surely Muhammad must have been familiar with Jeremiah's writings.

Verse 19 starts a new message.  It is introduced by the words:
"Thus said the Lord to me:".  This is in first person.  So the voice is NOT the key to where the breaks between the messages are.  I am not sure those breaks are really there.   I am pretty sure that if they are, the reasons and explanations are over my head.
The next words are "...Go and stand in the People's Gate...".  So God tells Jeremiah where He wants this messaged delivered, exactly, precisely, a spot on the map.

The message starts with a warning to all Jerusalem to not bring goods in through the gates on the Sabbath.  It goes on to say no work should be done on the Sabbath.  
This seems almost like an aside from what has been going on in the book.  Suddenly we are told to keep the Sabbath, and that doing so will result in permanent habitation of Jerusalem and so on.  But if the Sabbath is not honored, God will kindle a fire in Jerusalem that "...shall not be quenched."  Perhaps the point is to get back to the most basic of all laws.  The simplest one to keep.  Just honor the sabbath, just do that...

2021 - This verse:
21 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. [Jer 17:21-22 ESV]  In Chosen season 2, they have Simon saying this is just oral tradition and not the Law.  But in this verse, God says it.  This calls into question even more whether the story of the healing of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda is accurate, or complete.  I get the whole thing about being wise enough to understand the intent of the law, and the necessity sometimes of breaking the letter to maintain the intent.  But this case at Bethesda...This is a tough one.  And the easy way out is to note that the story does NOT appear in all the manuscripts.  Some consider it a later addition, that maybe ought not to be there anyway.  Just like the story of Jesus writing in the dirt and the last several verses of Mark.

2021 - Vss 24-27 I think point to the sacrificial system that will be in place during the Millennial.  I think this makes it very certain that sacrifices will take place in Ezekiel's Temple.  There will be sacrifices - animal sacrifices - in the Millennial.  These verses pretty much insure that.

Chapter 18
This begins Jeremiah's 7th message.  The opening phrase is "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord..."  Back to third person.  So...maybe third person except when the message was for Jeremiah to go to a specific place and preach?  Except...The word was for Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house.

4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. [Jer 18:4 ESV]
Surely I have heard some sermon's on this?  If you mess up the purpose God has for you, then he will just make you into something else, according to what HE, the Potter, decides for us.  We don't choose what we will be for Him, but He can always use us in some way.  So never, ever stop trying.  Needs to go on FB for sure.  HOWEVER, in context this was about a nation, not a person.  God goes on to say that if he plans disaster for that nation, and they turn from their sin, He will relent.  Conversely, if He plans good for a nation, and they turn to sin, He will also relent of the good He had planned.  Perhaps this applies to individuals, perhaps not.  Why risk it?  The point in vss 7-10 is that God can do what he wants with nations in the same way that the potter can do as he wants with clay.  The Potter is not obligated in his purpose by the clay that he works with.  It has no claim on his ambitions.  It is only clay.  Nations are just clay in God's hands.  He works with nations and peoples with the same sovereignty over them as a potter has over his clay.  God can change his mind in the middle.  You wouldn't fault a potter for changing his mind and making a chamber pot instead of a goblet after the clay is on the wheel.  Why then would you fault God for changing.  This is a good FB post.  But first, look back and see how many other posts you've made about this passage...

2023 - It is also possible that the lesson here was that Israel should not depend on ancient promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to protect them from God's just wrath no matter what they do.  This was likely the attitude of Jeremiah's audience.  The lesson, in context, was not that God can always make you a useful vessel, but that God can make you a chamber pot after promising you he'd made you a King's crown if he decides that's what he wants to do.  In this case, God changed the direction of Israel because of their idol worship, their insincere worship, and their corruption in all that they did.  We can understand this without much trouble.  However, God could have just picked another people for his own, and since he is the Master Potter, we'd have no more grounds to complain about the second case than we do the first.
Did a FB post on this in 2024.

In vs 12, Judah rejects this message, and says it won't work anyway (They are hearing as if from Jeremiah, and not from the living God?), so they will just stick with what they've been doing.  Evil and injustice in all quarters.

In vss 13-17, God replies to this.  17 sums it up:
17 Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity." [Jer 18:17 ESV]

And in the face of this message, this continuing warning, this offer to bless them if they will only behave?  Judah comes up with a counter-strategy:
18 Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words." [Jer 18:18 ESV]
Kill the messenger.  Ignore the message.  Listen to the lies we like and not the truth.  Here's the deal...that only works if God isn't paying attention.  They believed there was a God, but they didn't believe Jeremiah was delivering an accurate message.  They chose to believe what they wanted to believe from fake prophets.  They believed liars.  How can we tell the difference?  Another for FB..

vss 19-23 are Jeremiah's prayer concerning the plots against him.  He asks that good (his) not be repaid with evil (theirs).  He reminds God that he spoke good of Judah, he interceded for them, and this is how they 're repaying them.  Then for several verses Jeremiah prays the worst for them.  Death and destruction and sorrow.  This is surely a non-defensive prayer, and this time, it isn't David that is praying it!  NDP
I have read sura's that are like this, where Muhammad wants his enemies killed.  But I don't remember Muhammad ever saying he tried to do good for them.  Mostly, he only wants revenge.  One might do a study comparing these sura's and the specifics of what they call for against Muhammad's enemies to what Jeremiah wishes on his enemies in these chapters.  Almost seems like Muhammad identified with Jeremiah and so believed he could pray the same kind of prayers.  That would be interesting...

2021 - A few verses as examples:
21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by the sword in battle. 22 May a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. 23 Yet you, O LORD, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger. [Jer 18:21-23 ESV]  Jeremiah has changed over from advocate for them to enemy.  Look at the horror he is praying for.  Keep in mind though, that God has already promised that all these things are coming to them anyway because their time has run out.  So as severe as these prayers are, they are exactly in sync with what God has already said he will do.  Perhaps that is the secret to our own NDP's.  We need verses, preferably from the NT, like the ones I read today in 2Tim3, asking for the false teachers, the lovers of self rather than God, to be exposed for all to see.  Let them be shamed, exposed, revealed as the self-serving charlatans they are.  That is a good NDP for our time.

Chapter 19
Jeremiah is again sent to a specific place.  He takes an earthenware pot to the infamous Valley of Hinnom, and takes some elders with him.  His message is that because of the things that have taken place in this valley, especially because they have sacrificed children to idols, God is bringing down a disaster that will make those who hear of it cringe.  And this valley will no longer be the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.  This was also prophesied, in almost the same words, in Jer. 7:32.  That time, Jeremiah had been sent to the entrance of the temple.  To a specific place, as in this message.  God gives details:
8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. [Jer 19:8 ESV]
In those days, most people were familiar with what kinds of things went on when a city was thoroughly sacked.  They would understand the horror of what went on to reduce a city to the condition that Babylon would leave Jerusalem in.  Today, in this country, indeed in most countries, we don't truly appreciate that picture.  Isis gave us an inkling of it with their atrocities.  But all of Jerusalem received that treatment.

Then it gets still worse:
9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.' [Jer 19:9 ESV]
I am sure not one of his audience enjoyed this prophesy.  The message was so blunt, so direct, so inescapable that it compelled a response from the hearers.  They either repented on the spot, or they were enraged on the spot.  The first reaction would prevent the horror, the second would hasten it.  The same message is delivered today, but not so bluntly.  It is not physical destruction that we're are warned about today, it is eternity in hell.  But these two reactions are still there.  We can repent, or we can rage against God's right to send us to hell.  No amount of rage, no amount of logic, no amount of "A loving God would not..." can change the nature of God.  His nature requires that we follow Him as He is, or we go to eternal punishment.

After all this, Jeremiah was to shatter that earthenware vessel, demonstrating that God was about to shatter Jerusalem in a way that it could never be restored to what it was before.

2021 - I note again that Jeremiah's prophecy is almost exclusively near term.  Where Isaiah was near/far, or just far, Jeremiah is only near.  Jeremiah's predictions are confined almost exclusively to things that would happen in his own lifetime.

Chapter 20
2021 - So now switch to more of a chronology of events, rather than the chronology of prophecies.

Pashhur the priest beat Jeremiah for this prophesy, and put him in stocks for a day.  Pashhur was not high priest, but chief officer, meaning he was over the temple police and charged with keeping order.  When released, Jeremiah told that priest that his (the priest's) new name was "Terror on Every Side".  MSB says the change was from "ease" or "deliverance is round about" to Magor-Missabib, meaning "terror on every side".  Then Jeremiah tells this priest what will happen specifically to him in the future.  He will watch as his friends that he's lied to about the future are killed in front of him, he and his family will go into captivity, and he will die in that foreign land.  

2021 - This was Jeremiah's reaction to being beaten and put in stocks overnight for delivering God's true word.  The one responsible has a specific prophecy - likely to incense him even more than the original "crime" had - spoken against him.

vss 7-18 are Jeremiah's prayer, his complaint really at his treatment, and at the message he is required to continually deliver.  He says he has tried to shut up, to stop "offending" his friends and others, so that they won't hate him.  But he is unable to stop.  Keeping it in wears him out, and he has to speak.  Then Jeremiah again requests vengeance on those who persecute and torment and ridicule him.  (He can be pretty sure in this case that those who bother him will meet with a sad end.  His prayer is certainly aligned with God's purposes here!)

2021 - This NDP:
12 O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. [Jer 20:12 ESV]

Jeremiah wishes he had never been born.  He wishes he'd been killed in the womb.  Aborted if you will...This verse:]
17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. [Jer 20:17 ESV]
What a phrase.  My mother would have been my grave.  How does this play in the face of the abortions of today.  Women walking around, carrying the graves of their children on their person.  Children's cemeteries, walking around on their feet, acting as if all is well.  What horror we have going on here!

This is the thought that message 7 ends with.

Chapter 21
This begins message 8.  The opening phrase is: "This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord..."  Third person.
We get a fixed point in time for this chapter.  Zedekiah is King, and sends Pashhur (seems to be a different Pashhur than the one in 20, as a different father is named) to ask Jeremiah to inquire of God whether they can expect Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw from making war on them.  (Is he kidding?  Has he been living under a rock???)

vss 3-10 contain God's answer.  An expected answer if you've read to this point.  It seems that at this time, the Chaldean's were besieging Jerusalem itself, had it surrounded, and were demanding surrender.  A few compelling verses:
4 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. [Jer 21:4 ESV]
A good one to look up.  Is this how it came about?

6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. [Jer 21:6 ESV]  This makes it seem as if some disease ran rampant in the city even before the besieging army broke in.  Starvation, poor sanitation, cannibalism perhaps, and just infectious disease from the close quarters for so long a time may have been the primary cause of death, even before the sword was used.  God making clear that the fall of Jerusalem is from Him perhaps.  Note how this next verse begins:
7 Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.' [Jer 21:7 ESV]  So first this pestilence is going to waste the inhabitants, and only after that has run its course do the invaders get in.

8 "And to this people you shall say: 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. [Jer 21:8-9 ESV]

The language is compelling.  Choose.  The way of life or the way of death?  Even in the face of the foretold destruction on the horizon, God still gives them an out.  Not a good out, but at least a way to save their own lives.  your "life as a prize of war".  Jeremiah's prophecy ends this way:
10 For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.' [Jer 21:10 ESV]  Because God has determined that His wrath is going to play all the way out here, and there will be no relenting, no salvation for the people of Jerusalem, the choices that they have at this point are few and not very good.  Here, they can flee the city, give themselves up as captives of the invading army, becoming slaves to them and giving up all that was ever theirs - homes and possessions - and being the poorest of the poor and serving people who's language they don't even understand, or they can stay in the city and face the horrors of pestilence, disease, sword, cannibalism, and ultimately death by the sword.  This is an avoidance/avoidance conflict if ever there was one.

This concludes message 8

Chapter 22
This starts message 9:  "Thus says the Lord: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah..."  So a specific location is ordered, one of the criteria for classifying this as a new message.
The message is that if Zedekiah will turn back to God's ways, then the throne of David will be preserved, and Kings will sit on it.  There seems to be a clear implication that if he does not do this, the line of David is in danger.  But this cannot be a right interpretation since we know the Messiah comes from this royal line...MSB is no help here.  2020-After Babylon, no king has even sat on the throne of David literally.  In Nehemiah's time there was a high priest, but no king.  After Jesus, there was neither priest nor king.  Maybe that is what this is about.  This was the choice that ended the Kings of Judah until the time of Messiah.

2021 - Is this strictly correct?  Surely there was a head of civil government after the return from Babylon wasn't there?  So maybe there wasn't technically a king, but there was still a person.  Does the genealogy of Jesus give us a clue of who was "king" through all those intervening years - in heritage if not in title?  Maybe that's the key phrase.  No one had the title of King, there was no recognized monarch as there had always bees before.  But the line continued, just as God had promised.  That's the key.  There are no kings in Israel today, nothing even much like a king.  But we don't need one anymore because the last king is on his heavenly throne and will assume an earthly throne at his coming.  The Davidic line was preserved and documented all the way to Jesus, and is not needed after that.

vss 6, 7 indicate that this "threat" is about the physical throne, about the city itself, and NOT AT ALL about the descendants of David.  
vs 11 starts a prophesy about Shallum, another son of Josiah, who was carried away.  There is much to look back at here, in Kings and Chronicles, if one wants to understand the details of each prophecy.  I will leave it to another time.  Five chapters of Jeremiah is a lot of chapters!  I think there is even more here.  Look at what this says about Judah:
6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: "'You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city. 7 I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire. 8 "'And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?" [Jer 22:6-8 ESV]
These verses contain the history of Israel from 70 AD until and beyond 1948.  A desert, an uninhabited city.  NOT in any way a country.  The Palestinians had no country there, Israel had no country there, this whole area was just a "blemish" that didn't amount to anything.  The place was abused by first one nation and then another all the way up to 1948.  It was all foretold here, in three verses.

vss 13-17 tell the fate of Shallum (or Jehoahaz), and make a negative comparison of Shallum to his father Josiah.
vss 18-23 are about Jehoiakim, yet another son of Josiah.  He will be buried as a donkey, not as a king.  Dragged outside the city and dumped by the gate.  God then speaks of the flaws in Jehoiakim's character, and of his refusal to follow God's ways.
2023 - It seems to me that this makes better sense if we understand that Jeremiah is now talking about things that happened after the "first fall" of Jerusalem...or is it prophecy that Jehoahaz will be taken away later?  I really think I could get a lot more out of this if I understood whether Jeremiah is talking about history or prophecy here?  Found this note in 2Kgs 23:  "Josiah is killed by Pharoah Neco, when Josiah goes out to meet Neco as he approaches Assyria.  He kills Josiah at Megiddo as soon as he sees him.  No talk, no questions, just kills him.  Josiah's body is taken by chariot to Jerusalem, where he is buried.  MSB says we don't know why Josiah went to talk to Neco, or why he didn't want Neco's army to join the Assyrian army against Babylon.  Says there will be more detail in 2 Chron 35.  Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, reigns in his place."  So this goes way back.  It is history, not prophecy.  This helps a little, but I still don't get how Jehoahaz "...shall return here no more, but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die..."  This implies that Jehoahaz was still alive, living in captivity, when Jeremiah wrote this.  
2023 - Could have just kept reading.  Next, in 2Kgs 23, Jehoahaz is captured, after only three months of being the King, and is taken away to Egypt  So this pretty well nails down where we are.  I note also that in the Chronological Bible, 2Kgs 23 comes BEFORE this chapter of Jeremiah.  

Then we hear about Coniah, a short form of Jeconiah, who was also called Jehoiachin.  Per MSB.  vss 28-30 say that no heir of this man will sit on the throne of David.  I seem to recall that an invading king deposed his brother, and put this man on the throne as a vassal king.  He wasn't much of a king.  A coward most likely.  Again, a lot to look back at here if one wants to do so.

Chapter 23
Continues message 9, which started at 22:1, and has talked about the fate of the city - desolation - and about the fate of certain of Josiah's sons.

vss 1-4, God tells the bad shepherds that He is going to deal with them, and then He will bring His sheep home, and set good shepherds over them, and they will fear no more.  Beginning in vs 2 we have a Messianic prophecy.  I think this is a reference to the Millennial when the Jews return to Zion.
2023 - I think the first four verses all refer to the Millennial.  Has there been a time since Jeremiah when the priests were as they should be?  Not in Ezra and Nehemiah.  They were good, but they were constantly reprimanding the rest who were lining their own pockets with the "perks" of the priesthood.  Like our Congressmen, Senators, Governors and Presidents do today.  

2021 - This is, I think, the first prophecy from Jeremiah that looks out past the immediate problems of Jerusalem.  He has not really talked past the Babylonian captivity, but now he does.  Actually, beginning in vs three we look out to the tribulation period, when Israel is gathered home in huge numbers.  The shepherds spoken of here might well be - I think are - the 144,000 who will go out preaching and teaching and converting Israel and they will turn to Jesus - they will finally recognize him.  This is in vss 3, 4.


Then these two verses:
5 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.' [Jer 23:5-6 ESV] Jehovah-Tsidkenu.
No doubt what this is about.  Jesus reigning as King.  Again, I don't see how one can maintain that the church has replaced Israel proper as the recipient of these promises.  Israel is going to be drawn home from all over the world.   And to tie it all up, vs 8 ends with "...Then they shall dwell in their own land."  There is a contrast here between those who were freed from Egypt and came out to conquer Canaan, and have now disintegrated into this defiant, rebellious, worse than those they drove out people, and the future nation - the Millennia nation - that God will gather from all over the earth (instead of just Egypt).  That future nation is sort of  "restart" for Israel.  
2021 - Vss 5,6 are about the Millennial reign following the second coming.  Jesus as King on earth over his people Israel, and the whole world at peace for 1000 years.

2023 - These verses:
7 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' 8 but 'As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land." [Jer 23:7-8 ESV].  This is about the return of the people to Israel, and it gives us the "age" in history when that will happen.  It will be when Jesus is on the throne (as vss 5,6 above tell us).  This is the Millennial reign.  It is NOT today.

As formatted, vss 9-15 go together, more as poetry or prose than as narration.  Seems to be a sort of confession to God by Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is broken hearted about the immediate future of Judah and Jerusalem.  He understands what is coming, and is devastated at the thought of his homeland in ruins and his people made captives and slaves.

Looks like 9 and 10 are Jeremiah talking, but at vs 11, God speaks.  (Yes.  Pretty sure that's how to read it.)  God contrasts the prophets in Israel with those in Jerusalem.  In Israel they were doing unsavory things, making offerings to Baal.  But in Jerusalem, they do horrible things - much worse:
14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah." [Jer 23:14 ESV]
They encourage evil.  They make the evil the stronger.  They are elevated in society by adopting sin as the way of things.  There is no good left in them.  Instead of just leading those who choose to come along with them in worshiping Baal, these Jerusalem priests are promoting evil.  Like that are priests of Satan in disguise as priests of God.  Their purpose is to multiply evil.

2021 - This is what happens when religious leaders become as corrupt as the people in general.  There is no reason to be "good" when those in authority in religion are openly adulterous, openly corrupt, and "selling" salvation to the highest bidder.  This was the state of the priesthood in Jeremiah's time.  I couldn't help but think of the Catholic church when I read this, selling favors down through the years, taking money to pray people out of purgatory, and more recently the sex scandals - the sick combination of adultery and pedophilia so widespread among their priests and so covered up by the hierarchy.  How can we read vss 11-15 and not see that situation, progressing right down the line as it did in Jerusalem.  And how are we to react?  This verse:
16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. [Jer 23:16 ESV]
We need to be careful with this, we need to know who is real and who is false.  We need to pay a LOT more attention to those in power - not accepting everything they say, but instead testing every single word.  Look at the identifying characteristics of the bad ones:
17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'" [Jer 23:17 ESV]
They DO NOT CONDEMN, and in fact they cater to, support, and promote those that are very obviously not followers of God.  When the religious authority "blesses" those who live by sin, endorse sin, promote sin, then you are not to listen to that religious authority.  Pelosi and Biden - pro-abortion, right up to birth.  And the Catholic church won't condemn them, won't excommunicate them, won't even censure them publicly.  Yeah, it is true about the Catholics, and we see this because they are so public.  But make no mistake, other religions, other leaders, are doing the very same thing.  It is foolish to assume this prophecy applies only to the papists.

vs 16-22 continue in this same vein.  God indicts the prophets because they speak from themselves and not from Him, and instead of revealing sins and encouraging repentance, they say all is well, that God is not angry, and that no disaster is coming.  They are giving the people assurance that what Jeremiah is saying is the lie, and that they should be listened to instead of him.   Here is an interesting verse:
20 The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. [Jer 23:20 ESV]  In the latter days, it will be understood clearly.  This is that same theme that says the closer a prophecy gets to fulfillment, the more clear it is what is happening and why.  Revelation will get more clear as we get nearer to its fulfillment.

23 "Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. [Jer 23:23-24 ESV]
This is always truth.  Believing this makes it very hard to sin on purpose.  He is right there, watching.  Would you dare to do drugs in front of your Mom or Dad?  I mean if they were right there looking you in the eye?  Would you, could you be so defiant?  Or do you at least have to be in a situation where you can pretend they don't know, they don't see you, and that they won't find out?  We shouldn't kid ourselves.  There is no place so secret and invisible that God isn't there waiting for us when we arrive.  FB.  

in vss 23-32, God continues to declare the prophets of that time and place liars, deceivers, and dishonest by any measure.  God makes it clear that these prophets who say what they want and attribute it to God are far worse than the prophets who worshiped Baal.  

I don't see this as characteristic of present day US.  Our politicians have lost their minds, and much of our populace has turned away from God and gone their own way.  But I don't hear pronouncements from religious authorities that say the politicians are correct.  I don't here preachers saying all is well.  I don't hear that, and I don't hear about that.  I guess you could make a case for Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, etc being contrary to God's word, but none of these talk about how great things are in the world.  So we have not yet come to this point...I don't think.  Will this be part of it?  Can we say that until we see false teaching abound by evil pretenders that we still have a chance?  That these show up only very near the day when God says "don't even pray for these people, because it is too late for intervention"?

vss 33-40 are still more of God's indictment of the false prophets, and also of the people who repeat after them.  The people are mocking Jeremiah - and so mocking God - by saying things like "So, Jeremiah, what horrible prognostication do you bring us today???"  They laugh at him, and at God.  So God tells Jeremiah to just mock them right back, "What word?  That God will abandon you."  Nothing complicated here.  God is not longer trying to inform, to persuade, or to "recall" these people.  All that is done, so all they need to know is that God's wrath is imminent and unpreventable.  God tells them NOT to prophesy in His name at all.  The consequences of ignoring this command are summarized here:
40 And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.'" [Jer 23:40 ESV]

Chapter 24
This chapter switches to historical narrative again.  MSB outline says message 10 starts at vs 1.  Really seems to be some history inserted here.  The message looks more like it starts at vs 4 with the words "Then the word of the Lord came to me..."  Hmm.  First person I think.  Jeremiah is talking.  Haven't seen first person Jeremiah, only first person God.  This all needs a re-look now that I've read so many messages.  It might be a very revealing study.

We again get a fix on when this prophecy occurred.  Nebuchadnezzar has taken Jeconiah (Coniah of a previous chapter) into captivity.  The impression I get is that Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem.  It was not devastated and destroyed, but had certainly fallen to a Babylonian siege.  MSB says this was after Babylon's second deportation of Judeans in 597 BC.  I think there is yet another coming in about 587 BC...

Vs 5 says this:
5 "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. [Jer 24:5 ESV]
Are we to take this as God calling the Chaldeans and Babylonians by a common name?  (Yes.  Because they were the same.  My ignorance showing.)  That would sort of explain the previous reference, a few chapters back, to Babylon and the Chaldeans taking Jerusalem together.  MSB does not address this question.  (2020 - because the Chaldeans and the Babylonians are the same people.  I thought they were different, but they are not.)

Found this excerpt in Wiki.  I know...but it was there.  
"The Chaldeans remained quietly ruled by the native Babylonians (who were in turn subjugated by their Assyrian relations) for the next seventy-two years, only coming to historical prominence for the first time in Babylonia in 780 BCE, when a previously unknown Chaldean named Marduk-apla-usur usurped the throne from the ...
The complete article is here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldea
I think it would be well worth reading, perhaps while on vacation in DC, the seat of power.  Might give some perspective.

Point is that God says he will protect those who've gone into captivity.  Things won't be harsh for them.  They are the good figs in the vision.  The bad figs, presumably, are those left to try and survive in a devastated Judah.  God had previously told them to go out and present themselves as captives to the besiegers, and so gain their lives.  God has sentenced them to "prison", and all who balk at this will forfeit their lives.

As stated above, vs 4 starts as a direct revelation in God's own words.  It restates the "summary" in the first few verses.  While this certainly came true when the Jews returned from Babylon, it would be a stretch to say that God elevated them to "full honors" as His people.  Therefore, this would seem to be pointing again to the Millennial Reign, when these verses will be 100% fulfilled:
7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. [Jer 24:7 ESV]
This may also point back to God saying that "just this once" He will make sure they know that idols are a waste of time.  MSB note said that after the return, Israel never worshiped idols again.  I am keeping an eye out for that.  The "whole heart" reference may be about this - maybe their complete abandonment of idolatry is the near fulfillment and the Millennial is the far?  2020-No, I think this is a near/far prophecy, only truly fulfilled in the Millennial.  Remember where we are in time here.  This is, according to MSB, the second carrying away of captives to Babylon.

2023 - Note that those in captivity, those carried away forcefully and against their will to become slaves of the Babylonians...which all seems a very cursed thing to have happen to you - are in fact to be looked after by God while they are there.  The ones who seem  to have come out of things the worst in that they are now slaves, are in fact the ones in God's favor.  And look at what happens to them!  They are GIVEN a heart to know the LORD.  The lesson is that a consequence that seems unbearable when viewed from an earthly perspective may in fact result in a closer relationship with God, and with future rewards we cannot anticipate.  In fact, the best place we can be is not on Google Maps, but is in submission to God and doing the things commanded in his word.

vss 8-10 tell us the bad figs are definitely not favored, not preserved.  Zedekiah and all his government will become a reproach to all the earth.  They will have sword, famine, and pestilence until they are entirely destroyed.  Hmm...remember the previous warning where God tells all those who want their lives spared to surrender to the Chaldeans?  This seems to be a direct follow on to that.  Would be nice to put these verses all side by side.  What lesson would be there?  Surrender yourself to slavery and live, or stay home and die?  Surely there is something more than that here?
2021 - Is this about what happens if you try to escape God's plan for you?  God meant for Israel to go into captivity in a land they did not know.  But some evaded, some ran away.  They went to Egypt or the remained in Judah.  Somehow, they avoided deportation.  And those who didn't go into captivity God promises to wipe out completely, and not only will they die, but in such a way that others wonder what they did to offend their God so badly that this fate would come upon them.  

Sword, famine, and pestilence will overtake them.  Always pestilence.  It is most certainly a correction, and sometimes a punishment from God.  We ought to be looking at this covid thing in a much more "direct application of God's anger toward this country" sort of way.

2023 - This verse:
10 And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers." [Jer 24:10 ESV].  Only these three are listed.  There are two ways that God says this.  There are the places where only three means of punishment appear, and the places where "wild animals" or "beasts" are added.  It might be interesting to see what other differences we can find, depending on whether there are three, or four.  It might be that three are not permanent, but four are a final judgment.  Maybe the Northern Kingdom had four, and the Southern only three, because Judah had to survive?  Would be a good study, even just using the tags I have so far.


Chapter 25
Here begins the 11th message, with the words "The word that came to Jeremiah..."
Another chronological fix here:  4th year of Jehoiakim, first year of Nebuchadnezzar.  So...is this going backwards to before Chapter 24?  That one was the second carrying away, and now we are back to Neb's first year as King?  MSB has some specific dates to put on these years.  In 24:1, he says the year was 597 BC.  The 4th year of Jehoiakim was 605/604 BC.  So we have gone back.  First year of Nebuchadnezzar was 605 BC also.
Ahh...but read a little further...Jeremiah says he's been preaching to them God's warning for 23 years now, starting in 605 BC...or ending in 605 BC as the date of Chapter 25...and they  have ignored God's warnings.  Ok, honestly, even with MSB notes I am uncertain about when Chapter 25 was written.  It should be easy, I'm just confused today.  The message of 23 years is summarized here:
5 saying, 'Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.' [Jer 25:5-6 ESV]
Three things:  
    1.  Turn from evil.
    2.  Dwell in the land He's given them.
    3. Don't serve other gods, made with your own hands.
(???  Is this rightly divided?  Message may be more complex than three or four points.)

There is a long prophesy in vss 8-14, covering a long span of future history.  It says some very specific things that should be verifiable in history.  It says Nebuchadnezzar will conquer them.  Not "someone" from kind of north of here, but a specific King.  Those captured will serve Babylon 70 years.  Not 69 or 71.  After the 70 years, God will punish the king of Babylon AND that nation.  This sentence, equating Babylon and Chaldea:
12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. [Jer 25:12 ESV]
When did this 70 years start, 587 or 597 BC?  What happened in Babylon at the end of that time?  Did the Medes conquer them?  What was the result?
It is interesting that this "everlasting waste" would still be in effect today.  Babylon was in modern day Iraq, south of Baghdad, on the river.  Surely that place today is nothing but desert.  But the reading gives the idea that in its day, this area was lush and green.  That it got rain to grow crops and so on.  God used to send rain there, but does so no longer.  Wouldn't it be interesting to study passages like this in light of "Climate Change through the Ages", and see that in fact, it is God, and not man's CO2 emissions, that determines climate.  Same would be true of the abundance Israel used to have, before God's chastening.  There used to be much different wildlife here than there is now also.

vs 15 starts with "Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me..."  But this is a continuation of message 11, not a new message.  Why?

These two verses are worth pasting entirely:
15 Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them." [Jer 25:15-16 ESV]
The wine of the wrath of God.  I believe we see this phrase also in Revelation.  In two places it turns out:
10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. [Rev 14:10 ESV]  This verse continues a quote from the third angel as he tells what will happen to those who receive the mark of the beast.
19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. [Rev 16:19 ESV]
This verse follows the pouring out of the 7th Bowl judgement, the one after which a voice from the Temple of heaven says "It is done".  This is the end.  The "great city" is divided into three parts.  Babylon is mentioned.  
It is more than a little possible that one or both of these verses are being prophesied by Jeremiah.  Jeremiah takes that cup and does as God said.  A long list of kings in various places - kings and countries mentioned by name.  Looking at all these places, they are generally desert.  They have very restricted agricultural resources.  They are importers (net, in my opinion, I haven't looked it up) of food and goods, because they are all desolate in that part of the world, and cannot support themselves.  Is this correct???  Amazing if it is...

And then the summary verse is here:
26 all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Babylon shall drink. [Jer 25:26 ESV]
Hard to see how this is about anything but Rev. 16:19, and the ultimate judgement of the earth.
Then, as seems to be a bit of a pattern in this book, once the narrative is done, the same prophecy appears in prose/poetry.  I may be wrong about this, and you'd need to see it written in the original language to really know, but it seems Jeremiah often records prophecy in two formats.  Actually...it might be more accurate to say that the prophecy is first given in scope and practice, generalized, interpreted even, and then following that are the actual words - word for word - that God told Jeremiah to say.  Need to go back and look at this and see if it is so...

2022 - I think perhaps the key verse to all this is here:
29 For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts.' [Jer 25:29 ESV].  Could we interpret this to mean that since God is at the end of His great patience with Israel, and is going to pour out his wrath on them, those who do not even know him are also overdue for wrath?  This seems to be saying that "the whole known world" of Jeremiah's time is about to receive a divine reckoning for what they have become.  This is not Noah's flood, and this is not Revelation, it is less encompassing than these events, but it is an end of the "road of progression" that humanity has been on until this time.  God decides that there is no reason to preserve any part of the 'cultural direction" of these nations.  Note that even Media - which will conquer Babylon - is to receive this wrath.  And that seems to be the last of it.  Once wrath is poured out on the Medes - and I think by extension the Persians - then this "cup of the wine of wrath" will be emptied, and things begin moving toward a new dispensation - the age of the Gentiles.  And the marker of the very end of this cup is the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.  From 70 AD the whole world is part of God's plan.  As we see, man once again deteriorates and becomes more and more sinful, less and less concerned with his Maker, nations rise and fall - as they always do, and we are moving headlong toward the the seventh bowl judgment and the end of the history of man.
2022 - Where it switches from narrative to "poetry" in vs 30 seems to be the break between the prophesied events of the next 70 years plus and the events of final judgment of the whole earth as in Revelation.  The break is really pretty clear.

2023 - This verse:
30 "You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: "'The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice; he will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. [Jer 25:30 ESV].  Is this where "trampling out the vintage" came from?  What is this shouting about?  Found this in Bible Hub, Cambridge Bible for schools and colleges:  "a shout] lit. a vintage shout, the cry with which the treaders of the grapes used to cheer their toil. So Jehovah will trample down the nations. Cp. Jeremiah 48:33, where see note; Isaiah 16:10. Here, however, it is the battle shout. Cp. Jeremiah 51:14.  So it seems that those mashing the grapes shouted at some point, or continuously, as they went about their less than invigorating task.  I can't tell from this if they shouted the whole time, only at the beginning or only at the end.  We get this same metaphor in Revelation.  This is from Bible Hub, and the Keil and Delitsch Commentary on the OT:  the loud cry with which those that tread grapes keep time in the alternate raising and thrusting of the feet. Ew. is accordingly correct, though far from happy, in rendering the word "tramping-song;" see on Isaiah 16:9. As to the figure of the treader of grapes, cf. Isaiah 63:3.
I think the idea we are to come away with is that God will set about this task of pouring out his wrath as the wine treaders tackle theirs.  It is a long, laboring, monotonous but necessary task that cannot be accomplished in five minutes.  It is laborious and long.  Like those who tramp the grapes into wine for hours or days at a time, God will vent his wrath on his flock for an extended period of time, shouting to keep himself going, though the task is not enjoyable for Him.  I think  this last one confirms the "trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored" reference.  Who knew that phrase in the song came from Jeremiah 25?  And what does it say about the study habits of the person who wrote the song!?  Here are the verses in Revelation:
19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia. [Rev 14:19-20 ESV]
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. [Rev 19:15 ESV]

At any rate, we shortly find this phrase, which I think again confirms the link between this prophecy and the 7th bowl:
31 ...the LORD has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, declares the LORD.' [Jer 25:31b ESV]
2020-There is more than a coincidence here.  The prophecy in 8-14 includes the desolation of Babylon in perpetuity.  So...do we say that this is Jeremiah recounting events in the Great Tribulation...is it near far?  Can't really be...because as far as I can tell. Babylon is still experiencing "desolation forever".  So...Is Revelation looking back to Jeremiah?  Recounting an historical event instead of a "Great Tribulation Event"?  That doesn't seem right either.  So we are almost forced to say that the Babylon of Revelation is about a world system, and not about a specific place.  But...I was thinking the description of that great city made it almost certain that it is a real place.  So perhaps Revelation is saying that the destruction of that future city - the future Babylon, whatever its future name might be - will be destroyed in similar fashion to the destruction of Ancient Babylon, as Jeremiah prophesies here.  Revelation is speaking of a Great Trib event as "visualized" through a historic event.  Also, that phrase "judgment of all flesh" in vs 31 would be looking to Trib and Great Trib also.
2023 - I think "judgment of all flesh" locks us into a yet unfulfilled prophecy as the best interpretation of this.  This is a prophecy against the whole world.  Jeremiah was not a world traveler.  This was about something far in the future, something AFTER the fall of ancient Babylon.  Perhaps down through vs 29 Jeremiah prophecies about the future of Babylon, and then beginning in 30, he swings around to the other side of the Age of the Gentiles and prophesies about the 70th week.  It makes sense.  The grape treaders go on and on...how many references to the end times speak of birth pains - labor pains - that increase in both frequency and duration.  What we are seeing here is that the end times will be a constant inexorable escalation of negative events - from wars, to natural disasters, to rampant disease, to wild animal populations exploding on the carrion available.

Vss 34-38, the last of the chapter, is again in the prose/poetry format.  It is sort of call to lament, and the tone of it is set in this verse:
34 "Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel. [Jer 25:34 ESV]
vs 38 also needs to be observed closely.  In vs 36b we see that this verse is about the Lord, and the action that He will ultimately take against the evil of mankind:
38 Like a lion he has left his lair, for their land has become a waste because of the sword of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger." [Jer 25:38 ESV]

Seems to me that this is really the first (2021 - second) detailed glimpse of the end that we have seen in Jeremiah.  To this point, he has been more concerned with the near devastation of Judah and Jerusalem at the hands of an earthly king, but in these verses, we are much further into the future.  (MSB confirms that this is about Rev. 6-19.)  2020 - Could we say that the story of Israel's rebellion against God under the law, and the rebellion of the whole earth during the church age, are the same story, but with different actors and on different scales?  I have lately seen much in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the minor prophets that reminds me of the US today.  Similar sins, similar rebellion, similar tactics.  But perhaps there is an even bigger picture, one of the state of the whole world, and if one could get a handle on that biggest picture, we might have a better perception of how close we are to the end.  Is there so much trouble on the planet that it feels like the whole globe is about to blow apart?  Is evil totally rampant across the planet, or are there still nations that obey God's laws and rules - whether Christian or not.  Does it even count if a nation is still playing fair and honest, taking care of its downtrodden and oppressed, and dispensing justice without regard to economic status?  Does it matter if we have nations obeying the general revelation of God's will though they don't worship in churches as "we" think they should?  How does the planet's status compare to the situation in Jerusalem during Jeremiah's time?  This would be hugely complex, far beyond me, but it sure seems like there should be some discernible parallels here.

Chapter 26
This chapter starts message 12, with these words:
1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD: [Jer 26:1 ESV]  Not sure what voice this is in.  We also get a fixed point in time, early in Jehoiakim's reign.  Vs 2 though is specific.  Jeremiah is again to stand in the gate of the Lord's house.  So this word was to be delivered in a specific place.  The third such message in this book so far.  God adds that Jeremiah "...do not hold back a word."  

2023 - This verse:
3 It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds. [Jer 26:3 ESV]
I get the idea that God would go to almost any lengths to avoid sending the desolation that is due upon Judah.  In his justice he knows they have earned it, deserve it, and have avoided it for too long.  And yet here we are, deep into Jeremiah's ministry, and God is telling them to turn back, and that if they will He will still relent, that it is not yet too late.  For all those who start their speeches with "How can a loving God allow...", here is a good, relevant, still valid answer.  Sometimes what happens to individuals is not about those individuals but about whole nations.  Sometimes God sends sword, famine, and pestilence to try and turn a whole people back to himself.  The swords don't have to be armies.  Anyone can pick up a sword and swing it at guilty and innocent alike.  Sickness does not play favorites.   Good people can get sick as easily as bad people.  In this chapter of Jeremiah, God has given Judah more chances than we would ever give anyone, more chances than even the most loving parent would give their own child.  Even so, despite constant rejection of his pleas, God gives them yet another chance.  Those who judge God as unloving ALWAYS base that on the most inexplicable (to us) evil in the world.  They NEVER look for a larger, more important purpose served even by these horrors.  God is judged as unloving only by those whose vision is fixed on their own limited and self-serving interests.  They claim to reject a God they judge unloving when the real consideration is that they reject any god but their own egos.  They refuse to accept obligation to - or even the existence of - a greater being than themselves.  Those who ask this question make themselves gods in their own minds, and worship only themselves.
Possible FB post...needs to be shortened.

The message is simple and direct:  The time is late.  Listen now, and repent, or reap severe consequences.
The priests and prophets and people that hear this message, spoken in the Temple, seize Jeremiah shouting "You shall die".  Could I deliver such a message knowing that was going to be the reaction?  He told them that Jerusalem would be like Shiloh.  Apparently they really got upset about that comparison.

Officials come up from the king's house to adjudicate the matter.  The mob says Jeremiah should die because he prophesied against the city.  That's their reason.  The truth of what he said is not weighed nor considered.  Jeremiah's turn to speak comes.  He does not back down.  He says God told me to say that, and if you will turn from your ways, God will relent, and the disaster will not come.  However, if you kill me, it is on you.

Surprisingly, the officials back Jeremiah.  And some elders remind the people that Micah (the same one) said about the same thing in Hezekiah's time, and those people, under Hezekiah's leadership, mended their ways, and Micah's prophesied devastation did not come...or at least not in Hezekiah's time.  MSB says that in the official's minds, not killing Micah is what saved them, so they don't want to kill Jeremiah.  They don't realize that both Micah and Jeremiah are about to be correct.  Interesting that Micah prophesied in Hezekiah's time, the first King of Judah to begin his reign after Samaria had fallen.  

Remember that God waited for the horrors of Manasseh to renew his intention to devastate, and it is still coming.  So Hezekiah listened.
Now they contrast Micah with a prophet named Uriah.  He prophesied of destruction in Jehoiakim's reign.  This King wanted Uriah killed, and Uriah ran for his life to Egypt.  But Jehoiakim sent men after him, brought him back, and killed him with the sword.  (I don't remember this being recorded elsewhere.)  Remember too that vs 1 of this chapter says it takes place when Jehoiakim is at the beginning of his reign.
Even so, Jeremiah was not handed over for death.  Unlike Jesus when He was tried.  If God delivered Jeremiah here, he most certainly could have delivered Jesus in the same city.  He was helped by the intervention of one Ahikam, also mentioned in 2Ki 22:12, 14, during Josiah's reign.  This is the father of Gedaliah, who ends up serving as governor over Judah under the Babylonians after 586 BC - the final fall of Jerusalem.

Chapter 27
This chapter starts message 13 with these words:  
1 In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD. [Jer 27:1 ESV]  We also get another fix on chronology.  Some time is passed.  Zedekiah is now king.  (2021 - Zedekiah and Jehoiakim are the same person.)
This message is unlike any that went before.  There are envoys from many kings in Jerusalem for discussions with Zedekiah.  Apparently, the topic is whether or not to submit to Babylon or to oppose them.  As a visual, Jeremiah puts "straps and yoke bars" on his own neck, and then delivers his message to these envoys.  
The message is that God made everything, so He owns everything, and He gives it to whomever seems right to Him.  This message is sent to Kings, used to being the "owners" of their kingdoms.  Then God says He has given all this land to Nebuchadnezzar, his son, and his grandson.  Those who accept this from God, and surrender to Neb, will live, will stay in their own land.  Those who oppose God's will in this will die of sword, famine, and pestilence.  This is the first time the message was specifically intended for those outside Judah.  God is telling foreign Kings to submit to His will that they submit to Nebuchadnezzar.  These are Gentile Kings, foreign kings, pagan kings.  Yet God gives them a look at the future and a chance to parallel the will of the creator God.  He offers salvation to these foreign kingdoms.  A type for the church?  For the age of the Gentiles?  We saw earlier that great desolation was prophesied for this entire region, including Egypt, and north into Babylon itself  Here, the message is put to these other kings also, not just prophesied in Jerusalem.  This verse:
6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. [Jer 27:6 ESV]
Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God.  I think this is the second time he's been called that.  And what does it mean that the beasts of the field will serve Nebuchadnezzar?  MSB is silent on this one.  The prophecy goes on to say that Neb, his son and grandson will rule, and then the time will come for them also, and many kings will come and make Babylon their slave.

2023 - Another verse about sword, famine and pestilence...but NOT beasts:
8 "'"But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, declares the LORD, until I have consumed it by his hand. [Jer 27:8 ESV].  Same phrase spoken to Zedekiah in vs 13.

2021 - This is really a continuation of what was already an unprecedented prophecy.  There is no place prior to this where God wanted Israel to go peacefully into captivity to a foreign nation.  I don't even remember a time when a King of Israel or Judah was told to let a "piece" of the promised land go to a foreign King.  And now, God through Jeremiah is not only giving this very order to Judah, but to the surrounding pagan kingdoms as well.  It is no wonder Jeremiah wasn't believed.  His prophecy was unprecedented.

The message next warns these foreign kings that their prophets are telling them lies when they say to oppose Babylon.  God has not sent them, and listening to the false prophets will end in their destruction.  How do we know when prophets are telling the truth?  We can't even tell when the media is telling the truth.  There needs to be a good long study of this.  NT says know them by their works I think.  Should that have worked in ancient Jerusalem?   We don't have prophets today - not like they did in Jeremiah's time.  We have God's word, and we have the Holy Spirit within us.  The Spirit testifies with our spirit as to what is God's word and what is not.  I don't think we are being given specifics like the Kings around Judah were given in this chapter.  We have Revelation, and we know what leads up to that time from other books - even from Isaiah and Jeremiah.  Those are the "prophecies" we should be judging others by.  Any prediction that contradicts what we already have is false.  And the confirmation of that is the fruit that the prophets of today bear.  They will be witnesses against themselves.

These false prophets are saying the Temple vessels Neb took away with him when he sacked Jerusalem before - and when he took Jeconiah and the nobles of Jerusalem as captives to Babylon - will be returned.  Jeremiah challenges that if they knew anything at all, they'd be interceding to keep the rest of the Temple items from being taken next time.  God says Neb is returning, and he will basically empty the temple when he comes.

2023 - This would have been a terrible time.  The best and brightest of Jerusalem had already been taken into Babylonian captivity.  Likely the most grounded priests and prophets also.  So you have a sort of rabble without leadership left in the land, the secondary guys who find themselves in charge.  Of course they want things to stay as they are.  They don't have the foresight and ambition of those already taken and so they have no idea of defending themselves from Babylon, so they do nothing - pro OR con. But the secondary priests and prophets, realizing that their livelihood depends on how well the please their hearers, spout the lies that will keep them in position.  So rather than be proactive in any way, they all just stick their heads in the sand and say "nothing bad is gonna happen because we are God's chosen and this is his city", and they keep doing whatever they please.  All except Jeremiah.  He truly stood alone, telling the King to surrender and calling the priests and the prophets liars.  How would that look today?  One true preacher in the whole area let's say, and 500 false preachers...No....that's not it.  This was about false prophecy, and we don't have that these days anyway.  But in that day, when they did look to the prophets for guidance (so long as it was what they wanted to do anyway) this would have been a confusing time.

Chapter 28
Continues message 13.
Time fix - that same year, referring back to 27:1.  More specifically it is the 5th month of the 4th year of the reign of Zedekiah, King of Judah.  MSB says this is about 593 BC.
Hananiah, a priest of Gibeon, is in the Temple, and says that Neb's yoke has been broken and the vessels will be brought back, within two years.  Further, he says Jeconiah and the captives previously taken will be brought back.
Jeremiah says "Amen, may your words be true."  However....
Jeremiah tells us how to identify false prophets...as if we'd asked that question just last chapter.  He says this is how you tell:
8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet." [Jer 28:8-9 ESV]
Seems to be saying that any old prophet can prophesy disaster.  But if a prophet predicts peace, and it comes, THEN you know the prophet is true.  Does this really say that up to this time, God had only sent prophets to warn of sword, pestilence and famine, but never to prophesy of peace?  It is a fair point.  Why would God need a prophet to tells us good things are coming?  That would mean we are doing ok already.  God only sends prophets to correct us, to warn us, to shoo us back into line.  To tell us we're going the wrong way and so on.  We don't need prophets to predict good things in good times.  Now there is an interesting "rule" for true prophets, and in inciteful observation from Jeremiah.

Hananiah takes the yoke bars off Jeremiah and breaks them and says that the yoke of Neb of Babylon, in like manner, will be broken within two years. He accepts the challenge of Jeremiah.  And Jeremiah went his way.

God gives Jeremiah a message for Hananiah.  A very profound message, to a single person, who claimed to be a prophet, but God didn't give him the message directly, he sent it through Jeremiah.  Here is the message:
8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet." ... 13 "Go, tell Hananiah, 'Thus says the LORD: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. [Jer 28:8-9, 13 ESV]

Hananiah had sealed the ongoing servitude of Judah.

God says he's given Nebuchadnezzar even the beasts of the field.  Neb has complete power and control  Interesting that Neb later becomes a beast of the field himself...

Then Jeremiah tells Hananiah that because he is not really a prophet, and because he has led the people astray, that he is going to die.  And in less than two months, Hananiah is dead and gone.
2023 - This is how you would know which prophet was truly from God.  If what they say comes to pass.

Chapter 29
This chapter begins the 14th and final message:
1 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. [Jer 29:1 ESV]
Another unique message, in how it was delivered, and to whom it was sent.  

Looks like this may be stepping back in time from the last chapter.  MSB says this letter was sent in 597 BC.  He does not say how he knows this.  It says the message was sent after Jeconiah and company were taken away into exile.  So we may know from Kings or Chronicles exactly when this was.  He would have taken Daniel at that first blush I believe also.
The message tells the exiles to treat the place God has sent them as their home.  He tells them to live life to the full.  Not to be on hold, or to wait for the return to Judah.  They are to prosper and increase, not mark time and decrease.  God says to treat their new cities well, because as those cities prosper, the people will prosper.  A good lesson for us when we find ourselves in unplanned, unloved, seemingly disastrous circumstances.  God is there too!  Good for FB if it can be shortened enough.

Then vs 10 tells them they'll be there for 70 years.  So I guess the count starts at the first taking away into exile.  
I never knew the context of this verse.  This was in Jeremiah's message from God to the exiles.  God's words to them:
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. [Jer 29:11-13 ESV].
2023 - Vs 11 has a very specific application - to the Jews in exile, as addressed in a letter from Jeremiah sent directly to them.  It was a promise to those exiles.  Yet we appropriate it, we take it for our own and we act as if God owes fulfilment of this prophecy from Jeremiah to ANYONE who will call upon him and pray to him.  This is not so.  This is specific, not general.  It is misrepresented over and over.  What to commands we ought to do, but to think of it as a promise to us is, in my opinion, a misinterpretation.
2023 - Not only that, but beginning in vs 13 I believe it is the Millennial, and the return of Israel from all over the world that is in view, NOT just the return from Babylon.  In 70 years they do return, but these other things did not happen after that.  Their fortunes were not restored to what they were in the days of David and Solomon.  Not anywhere near it.  They come home in 70 years only to be driven away again in 70 AD, and banished from the land entirely in 136 AD.  And while Israel was restored in 1948, they are a secular nation, and Jews remain scattered all over the planet.  In the 70th week, which the end of this prophecy envisions, THEN thy will come home, and know the LORD and understand that the Messiah came long before.

2021 - Another oft-quoted verse, and always completely out of context.  This verse is not a general principle.  This verse is specific to the exiles in Babylon in 6th century BC.  It was those people for whom God's plans were good.  It doesn't say good things will  happen IF you pray, it says good things will happen and THEN you will pray.  This one, and 2Chr7:14 have to be the most out of context verses we ever hear.  All you have to do is read it to realize that it is specific to that time, and those people.

2021 - 17 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, behold, I am sending on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. [Jer 29:17 ESV].  This phrase - "sword, famine, and pestilence", has appeared many times already in Jeremiah.  This is the pronouncement, every time, on those who do not submit to the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar.  Though sword is always mentioned first, when we actually have details, we see that famine and pestilence always do their devastating work before the soldiers even show up.  God weakens the "defenders", who should have surrendered, and then makes them easy for the invaders to conquer.  I wonder if this is only the case when the invader is favored by God, and the defenders are in defiance of His will or if this is also what happens in Godly discipline against a nation?  Did Samaria experience these three things also before Assyria finally crushed them? They were never advised to submit to Assyria in exchange for their lives as Israel was.  We do know that God tried to correct them, though.  Did He use the same means?  Would be a good study.
2023 - Nothing here about the beasts attacking also.  I really need to do that search.

vs 14 says God will bring them back.  Likely a near and far prophecy.  70 years near.  The Millennial far.  MSB confirms.

God continues that those who were not taken into exile have harshness, disease, famine, sword and death in their future.  They are to be made an example for the nations.  God is saying that the exiles are far far better off than those not taken.  God has protected the best in fact.  What a message.  What a twist on how the exiles would have been thinking of their situation.

God specifically names two false prophets whom Neb will capture, and kill before the eyes of the exiles.  They won't just be killed...this is their specific fate:
22 Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: "The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire," [Jer 29:22 ESV]
These two so-called prophets were adulterers.  Again, we'll know them by their works.
2021 - What a curse to pronounce on a false teacher:  May God have someone roast you in the fire.  That's a pretty awful curse.  I think that's OT stuff.  In the NT, we turn them over to Satan.

Starting in 24, there is a story about Shemaiah, who seems to claim that God has made him priest instead of Jehoiada.  Would need to review, and see who is who in this scenario.  This Shemaiah had apparently assumed authority, or presumed it, and had ordered the "madmen" who were prophesying in God's name to be put in stocks and so on.  Shemaiah receives a letter from the exiles (?) asking why he has not put Jeremiah in stocks.  Shemaiah reads this letter to Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is given a response to it from God.  Jeremiah says write them back, and say that Shemaiah AND his descendants will not have anyone living, when deliverance comes.  They're all going to end.   

Chapter 30
Looking back, Jacob's trouble is only used here in the Bible, in Jer. 30:7.  ESV calls it a time of distress for Jacob.  NIV says a time of trouble for Jacob.  NASB the time of Jacob's distress.  The whole verse:
7 Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it. [Jer 30:7 ESV]  One commentary said if it is so great there is none like it, then it hasn't happened yet, and will happen only once.  That one concluded this is equivalent to some time in the  Great Tribulation.  
But then this verse from Daniel, who was in captivity in Babylon during much of Jeremiah's time:
12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. [Dan 9:12 ESV]
Daniel is speaking of the worst day ever in the past tense.
21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. [Mat 24:21 ESV]
These words spoken by Jesus.
There are many many additional cross references, some seem connected, some I just don't see.  MSB says the time just before Christ's second advent - so the last seven years before the Millennial.  Given the superlatives used, I think this must refer to Trib and Great Trib.  The whole earth will be shaken in those days, from peoples to mountains to oceans.   The earth will be unrecognizable in those days.  Nothing up to now, and nothing "expected", nothing "natural" can ever meet the standard of "so great there is none like it".

For now, Chapter 30 starts a whole new section of the Book of Jeremiah.  No more messages, though in the outline this is still part of Jeremiah's proclamations to Judah.  This section runs on through Chapter 33.  Per the MSB outline, 30 and 31 - today's total reading - forecast the restoration of Judah.

Verse 1, interestingly, starts with "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord..."
God tells Jeremiah to write all He's told him in a book, because someday, He will bring Israel back.
Format switches to prose/poetry, and we are in a time when men clutch their stomachs in panic and terror as a woman does when in labor.  And we get the verse discussed above - verse 7, about the "greatest" day ever.  Sure seems like the wrong term for it.  Wouldn't it be the worst day ever?

2021 - This verse:
3 For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it." [Jer 30:3 ESV]
If there was any doubt about the "10 Lost Tribes" being permanently lost, this ought to be the end of that.  It is inclusive here, both Israel and Judah to be restored.  Israel has never yet, not to this day, been restored.  So this tells us these prophecies are still future - t/gt, Millennial, or new heaven and earth.  I believe He will bring them back during t/gt, and will assume that's where we are until I see otherwise.

2021 - This one:
7 Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it. [Jer 30:7 ESV].  When would this be?  I think these next verses from Revelation are a good candidate:
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. [Rev 6:12-14 ESV]
The sun has NEVER been black, the moon never red like blood, and the stars have not fallen like winter figs.  Every island and mountain moved?  That's a world-wide cataclysm.  We have never had one of those - at least not since Noah.  I believe this is also when the rapture will take place.  Another unique occurrence.  And surely Israel will repent, recognize their Messiah at last, and return to Jerusalem to worship and serve him.

Then these verses, in regular format:
8 "And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him. 9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. [Jer 30:8-9 ESV]
A prophesy of the Millennial, with Jesus as King.  

2023 - Verse 10:
10 "Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid. [Jer 30:10 ESV]
The last phrase of this book tells us beyond a doubt that this prophecy is yet future.  When Israel came back from Babylon, they lived in fear.  They rebuilt the wall with one hand working and one on their swords.  They feared AEIV, they feared the Romans, they were run completely out of the land by the Romans, and they were kept out for 2000 years.  Today, all day every day, they live in fear, and they are today still scattered all over the world, and anti-Semitism is prevalent, maybe even the rule instead of the exception these days.  This prophecy has not come true, and we have no reason to expect that associated prophecies in this part of Jeremiah have come true either.  This is a Millennial prophecy.  Then vs 11, quoted below, tells us why it is not yet time to fulfil this.  Just measure...still in progress.

vss 10, 11 are very long verses, shown in poetry/prose format.  Verse 11:
11 For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished. [Jer 30:11 ESV]
A full end of all the nations where the Jews are located.  The end of nations.  MSB focuses on the salvation of Israel and not the meaning of the full end.  This must refer to the return of the Jews leading up to the Millennial though, as far as the return.  The destruction - the full end - of all the nations comes at the end of the Millennial, when the New Heaven and New Earth come about.  All that was here before will be destroyed by fire, and we will occupy the new versions.  
2021 - Or, this is a reference to end of the Age of the Gentiles.  End of Gentile domination of the earth.  If the rapture is here, as I believe, the end of the Church Age and the Gentile Age are coincident here.

Vs 11 ends with "I will by no means leave you unpunished".  Vss 12-17 expand on that, telling us that God's wrath on Israel in Jeremiah's time - the scattering to many nations - is a mortal blow.  Enough to destroy any other nation forever.  Even in this, God shows us his power because He will keep them pure, keep them "Jews", through all the history from that time to this.  He will still know where they are, and who they are, and will still at some future time bring them home.  
vss 12-17 contain the next section, in p/p format.  God tells Israel that what He's done to them is as the blow of an enemy and from which they cannot recover.  This has happened because:
14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. [Jer 30:14 ESV]
That is, the punishment  - the anger of God - is the just result of their sin.  God says only He can heal this kind of wound. This would be the end of any people - scattered and in captivity - unless God intervenes to restore them.  And that is exactly what God says He will do.  Further, He says that all who have participated - Judah's captors, those who plundered her, - will receive for themselves what they did to Judah.  I think we can make a distinction here between sins that we all succumb to in our daily lives, and the kind of sins the nation of Israel had committed.  They knew they were committing sins, and they not only didn't condemn them but embraced them.  These were flagrant.  These were like kissing another woman in front of your wife.  There was just no overlooking what they were doing with their idols, their ubiquitous evil, their cheating and lying to take advantage of either other.  They thought only evil.  Surely we are not yet to a point like this is the US in 2020.  We have problems, but we are not to this point yet, surely?  I hope we are not...

Vss 18-22 are the next section.  We saw the promise of punishment in 10, 11, the reasons for it in 12-17, and now we will see the restoration in 18-22:
The city (Jerusalem) will be rebuilt in the same place, and the palace will stand where it used to be.  Full restoration.  Concludes with this verse:
22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your God." [Jer 30:22 ESV]
Wasn't this the promise made in the desert?  Referring back to the very first conditional covenant that God made with them?  Yes...x-refs in BLB found this one:
7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. [Exo 6:7 ESV]  There are several more verses where this was repeated, but this verse in Exodus seems to be the first place.  God says this after Pharoah has the people make brick without straw, and Moses questions God.  Says the people's plight has gotten worse not better since Moses went to free them.  The verse above is included in God's answer to Moses.
I read somewhere that God shifted His "methods" with Israel.  Man was too evil to save them all.  That's why the flood happened.  God had no favorites then, there was only God and mankind.  But after the flood, we got Abraham, and a covenant with one man, his descendants, and one people - Israel.  God preserved and kept that people - has, continues to do so, and will forever do so - showing them that He is God, and maintaining a remnant through history that also stays faithful to Him.  A permanent relationship with a sub-group of humanity.  Israel is special.  Eventually they will behave like it.  I believe these verses reference the Millennial.
2022 - Looking more closely at vs. 18:
18 "Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. [Jer 30:18 ESV].  Here's the thing.  The city and the palace will be rebuilt, but the temple is not mentioned.  It notably does NOT say that the temple will be rebuilt on it's former foundations.  Why is that?  Could it be that the future temple will be in a different place, more along the lines of Ezekiel's description?

2021 - This verse:
18 "Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. [Jer 30:18 ESV].  Hmm.  Jerusalem was rebuilt after Nebuchadnezzar.  It was rebuilt after 70 AD also.  But I cannot help but wonder if this refers to another time, still future?  What palace is this about?  David's?  Solomon's - more likely I think.  And if the palace, why isn't the Temple mentioned?  Perhaps because it is to be built in another place - as n Ezekiel?

The early chapters of Jeremiah had very few Trib or Millennial prophesies.  But as we've gone on, they've started to show up.  Here, in 30, they become prevalent.  Will this continue?  Have we left Jeremiah's present behind, and now need to interpret all that he says in future terms?

2021 - This very interesting verse:
21 Their prince shall be one of themselves; their ruler shall come out from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself to approach me? declares the LORD. [Jer 30:21 ESV]
I think I have seen references to this prince before, again maybe in Ezekiel, as the one who will rule Jerusalem on earth during the Millennial.  Christ will be King but there is also a prince, a human "from out of their midst" that will see to the day to day.  Is this right or am I confused here.  I am sure I've seen references to this prince before, but was it in this verse, or elsewhere.  I've never head a preacher talk about this guy.  Just like they don't preach on Ezekiel's temple.  But I do think he is there, and I'm starting a tag for the "Prince of Future Jerusalem", the PFJ.

vss 23, 24, Last of the chapter, still in p/p format:
These start with "Behold the storm of the Lord!  Wrath has gone forth..."  This seems pretty clearly to refer to the Bowl Judgements, the final wrath of God poured out on the world.  Then a word to the doubters to close vs 24 and the chapter:
"...In the latter days you will understand this."  Eventually, all will recognize that it is God alone orchestrating those end time events, and that it has been God all along, not themselves, that were in control.
Second time we've seen this phrase also.  A day of understanding, still future.
2022 - The latter days start with the birth of Jesus. So we have a lot more understanding of these passages now than was possible in Jeremiah's day, and we have the NT to help.  Even so, I believe that understanding will continue to increase, until we truly have a good grasp on end times - t/gt - events.

Chapter 31
2021 - This chapter ought to be called "The Return"
2023 - It is also VERY long!

Vs 1 is worth seeing:
1 "At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people." [Jer 31:1 ESV]  This was a future time to Jeremiah, and is a future time still.
Then we switch to the poetry format again in vss 2-6.  

2021- This seems familiar:
2 Thus says the LORD: "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, [Jer 31:2 ESV]  Sounds a little like this:
13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. [Rev 12:13-14 ESV]
These sure seem to match up well...

This verse:
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. [Jer 31:4 ESV]  
This is something that I've noticed several times lately (2020).  Israel as a nation referred to as female.  As a virgin in this case.  We also have references to the bride of Christ - the church - in the New Testament.  There is 31:22 still coming...a woman encircling a man...that MSB doesn't understand.  Go backwards to 30:6 where it asks if a man can bear a child, where men are walking around "like" a woman in labor.  There is 30:14 where "all your lovers have forgotten you", portraying  Israel as an unchaste woman.   Israel starts over, in the Millennial - a virgin again, with a chance to get it right in that time.  All overlooked, all in the past, all forgotten, as NT salvation makes our sins invisible to God, covered by the opaque blood of Christ.  
I like vs 5:
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. [Jer 31:5 ESV]
This may have also had a near term fulfillment, but I think it means that in the Millennial reign, people won't just sit around.  They'll have jobs to do.  They'll plant and harvest and consume their own food.  Remember that many in this time will still have their unchanged bodies.  They will live longer, because God will control diseases and such, but they will still have to work, live, and eat.  I think even in heaven we'll have work to do - just as Adam had work to do in Eden.

Next section is vss 7-9...I think. Can't tell if it's a section break or a page break after 9.
Vss 8 talks about how God will bring them back.  The blind and lame will be included, as will pregnant women.  A great company shall return.  At the end of vs 9 God says this, in the OT, for all to see:
9 ...for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. [Jer 31:9b ESV]
God tells us His relationship with Israel.  Islam maintains that God has no children and was not born.  They also believe the OT is God's own word.  Yet here God contradicts the Quran itself, and says He is father to Israel.  The firstborn, as spoken of  in the Bible, is pretty much universally male.  So after the references to Israel above as female, now we see this very male portrayal.

Vs 7 started with "Sing...", vs 10 with "Hear..."  I think 10 starts a new section running through vs 14.
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. [Jer 31:11 ESV]
A little short verse, but look what all it might be saying.  God sent Christ to redeem man from the power of sin, which man of himself could never ever have overcome.

vss 15-20, in poetry format are the next section.
"A voice is heard in Ramah..."  MSB says this is about the children killed when Babylon conquered Judah.  Says the NT used it as a fitting allegory for what Herod did to try and kill Jesus.  BUT, it is not a prophecy of that time.
This section is a prayer from Israel to God, repenting, acknowledging the justice of God's punishment, and being ashamed of it and repenting.  An OT picture of NT salvation, yet again.  God answers with this verse:
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD. [Jer 31:20 ESV]
Clearly Ephraim, the firstborn of God, is a son.  Male.  Then immediately after....

Vss 21, 22 formatted poetry.  Tells them to set up guideposts and return to Israel.  Then this phrase:
21 "...Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. [Jer 31:21b ESV], and right after it:
22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man." [Jer 31:22 ESV]
Even MSB says this is one of the "most puzzling statements in Jeremiah".
Perhaps this last phrase is Jeremiah recognizing also that Israel has been referred to repeatedly as male, and repeatedly as female.  The central reference in all these has been the nation of Israel, God's people, those who will accept Him ultimately as their God.  So I think the human, physical, gender reference is a characteristic of created man that is being applied to a nation.  A woman encircles a man when that man is in her womb...I think only then....This would be the human reference.  So a woman pregnant with a male child is female, but carries male within her.  Israel as a nation is referred to as female - still the convention today, except maybe for Germany with their Fatherland - but from Israel comes the Messiah, the redeemer of all.  Best I can do, and I am sure that is not original.  
2022 - This, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, makes much of the word used for "woman":
A woman
[n@qebah ( hbqn )] literally 'A female ('one who is only a woman, not a wife, namely a virgin,' says Cocceius) shall encompass a man,' or a male child: comp. Job 3:3. Which, together with the addition of a new creation, may well be understood to denote the miraculous conception. Hence the Jews have applied it determinately to the Messiah. In Berashith Rabba, (Parash 89) it is said, that as God punished Israel in a virgin, so would he also heal; and in Midrash Tillim, on Psalm 2, R. Huna, in the name of R. Idi, speaking of the sufferings of the Messiah, says, that when his hour is come, God shall say, 'I must create him with a new creation; and so he saith, This day I have begotten thee.' Gen 3:15; Isa 7:14; Mat 1:21; Luk 1:34,35; Gal 4:4.

And here are the notes from Barnes on verse 22:
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Israel instead of setting itself to return hesitates, and goes here and there in a restless mood. To encourage it God gives the sign following.
A  woman shall compass a man - i. e., the female shall protect the strong  man; the weaker nature that needs help will surround the stronger with  loving and fostering care. This expresses a new relation of Israel to  the Lord, a new covenant, which the Lord will make with His people (Jeremiah 31:31 following). The fathers saw in these words a prophecy of the miraculous conception of our Lord by the Virgin.


From 23-34 we are in regular format.  I must hurry.  IT is Friday and babysitting looms...(2019).  It is Saturday in 2020.
Look at vs 26!  How did I miss this before:
26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me. [Jer 31:26 ESV]
So from 30:1 until this verse has been a vision that Jeremiah had one night???  Or has only  part of it been a dream?  I saw no "marker" to tell us where it went from waking prophecy to night vision???
Are 27-30 Jeremiah's waking interpretation of the dream he just had?  A summary of that dream?
Vs 27- "sow the house..."  with the seed of man and beast?  So house does not refer here to a family.  Does it refer to geography?  To national boundaries?  This verse:
29 In those days they shall no longer say: "'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' [Jer 31:29 ESV]
This is quoted elsewhere I believe....MSB says it was possibly a proverb used by the children of those in exile to say that their circumstances were the result of their father's sins, and not their own, yet they were the ones suffering for it.  It is quoted again in Eze 18:2.  Hmm...I thought it was in the NT, but perhaps not.  As it goes on, the point seems to be that in the future - the Millennial I believe - we are only going to be punished for what we ourselves do.  There won't be this "national punishment" that applies to the evil and the good because of the majority evil.  This is a restoration of cause and effect, lost at the fall.  In the Millennial, no one will have to suffer for the sins of another, either of those close by or those of our ancestors.  Israel today still suffers in exile all over the world for the sins that led to Babylonian conquest and the 1st century rejection of Christ.  They are still paying the double punishment of these sins.  In the Millennial, it won't work that way anymore.

Vs 31 is labeled "The New Covenant".  
31 "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, [Jer 31:31 ESV]
Specifically says this covenant will be with Israel and Judah.  Does not say Gentiles.  Is the church under a different covenant?  Seems it should be.
"...I will put my law within them..."
Note that vs 32 says this covenant won't be like the Mosaic.  This verse contrasts God's covenant with his people Israel in the future with the covenant in place in Jeremiah's time, which had been severely broken, to the extent that it was not longer fixable.  It was over.  And the NT covenant is with Gentiles, not with Israel.  But the Millennial Covenant will again be with Israel, and apply to them and NOT to Gentiles.  God "focuses" on these large people groups with covenants.  They cross over, but are offered primarily to one group or the other.  I don't believe this is about the Holy Spirit indwelling, as I have so often heard, but about something not yet seen in the world, that will come in the Millennial.  MSB says that the indwelling Holy Spirit we have now is sort of a "beginning" of this kind of covenant that will come to full fruition in the Millennial when the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenants find their confluence in the Millennial when Christ rules over all.

2023 - Agree with the MSB position just above.  What we have now is perhaps a beginning, a taste, of this covenant, but we as Gentiles are receiving the full dose.  Note this phrase, from vs 34:  34 ...for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD..." [Jer 31:34 ESV].  There is no possible way that, right now, ALL know him and have no need to be taught.  This is about Israel in the Millennial, when ALL Israel will come home, and will be His people and He will be their God.  We may be getting a taste of this, as the spiritual gifts of the early church gave us a preview of the gifts that will, I think, return in even greater strength before the rapture.  These verses promise more than what we Gentiles are receiving now, though we have far more communion directly with God than old Israel ever had.  

Poetry format for 35-37.
36 "If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever." [Jer 31:36 ESV]
So only if the fixed laws - the physical laws governing the movements of the sun, stars, moon, and waters cease, only then will God give up Israel.  Who could overturn these laws?  No one!
Then vs 37 is added:
37 Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD." [Jer 31:37 ESV]
Makes you understand why they can't figure out if the universe is expanding or contracting.  Why they have to add dimensions and curve space to explain it.  It CANNOT BE MEASURED!
2021 - And now this big IR telescope going to L2, so it can see still further into the past and discover the origin of the universe.  I bet it doesn't work.  Surely they will see more, and they will say they see further, but the won't see the end, they just cannot.  
2023 - Wow!  Look at the prediction I made in 2021 about what the James Webb would see!  I had it right.  It sees further back than we've ever seen and what is it telling us?  That it cannot be as we have believed for decades.  The galaxies that far back cannot exist according to our rules, and yet they are there.  It means our theories about galaxy formation are completely wrong, and if they are wrong, what else is wrong???  What an awesome example of God's promise here!
This really ought to go on FB.  

In vss 38-40, some dimensions are given of the restored Jerusalem, seemingly superimposed on the Jerusalem of Jeremiah's day.  Dimensions that will never be overthrown again.  Would be interesting to see those outlined, noting that they seem to include the Valley of Slaughter, and see if Ezekiel's Temple could be centered there?  Or perhaps his temple will be...I don't know...2020 - I don't think this is where Ezekiel's temple will be...2021 - But it's not like I know for sure.  It might be.  These dimensions are pretty specific. 

Chapter 32
Per MSB outline, this chapter is still talking about the New Covenant that will come, and is the second part of that.  This chapter is called "The faith in restoration" in that outline.
Another good time stamp about when this prophecy came.  10th year of Zedekiah, 18 year of Neb.  It tells us what was going on at the time:   Nebs army was outside, besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah was shut up in the King's Court.  He was not free to roam around saying whatever he would.  Particularly, Jeremiah was saying Babylon would win this one, that Jerusalem was about to fall, and that Zedekiah would be captured and brought before Nebuchadnezzar.  Kind of thing that irritates Kings.  MSB says the siege lasted 30 months from 588 BC until 586 BC.  This was about a year before Babylon's "final takeover", which was the prophesied loss of the promised land.  This is where it has all been going.

2021 - 586 BC was the final fall of Jerusalem itself.  This is when the city was burned, the walls torn down.  This is when the head of Neb's army was sent to insure that Jerusalem never was ever again the seat of rebellion against Babylon.

Once again, Chaldeans equated with Babylon.  Somehow, I thought they were different.  (2021 - They were different peoples at one time, but there has been a sort of merger. Or perhaps it is better to say that Babylonians live in the actual city of Babylon, in the Chaldean nation.  Maybe that's the best way to think of it.)  Maybe because Habakkuk uses Chaldeans exclusively, so I thought he was speaking of a different time.
Vs 6 seems to be an odd change of storyline.  God tells Jeremiah that his cousin will offer to sell him some land at Anathoth - where Jeremiah is from.  Jeremiah is to do so as the kinsman redeemer I believe.  The cousin indeed shows up, and says the words God predicted.  The last few words of vs 8 are "...Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord."  So Jeremiah himself is still "testing" everything that he is given, to make sure it is from God and not some pretender/usurper/demon/Satan trying to stir up trouble.  If Jeremiah was testing the prophecy he was getting after this long in his ministry, how much should we test what we believe God is saying to us? Good thought for FB.
Selling land in this way apparently required some elaborate steps to be valid.  Witnesses were required for the signing, a "keeper" of the deeds, identified by still more witnesses was required.  Jeremiah did all this, and instructs the keeper to put the deeds in an earthenware vessel, so they can be preserved a long time.  BECAUSE, some day, buying and selling land will again be allowed in Judah.

2021 - Vss 11-15 have some interesting details.  Two copies of the deed were required.  An open copy, for all to see, as proof of ownership no doubt.  There was also a sealed copy of the deed, which could be opened and compared if there was suspicion that the open copy had been altered.  It may also be that certain "private agreements" could be included in the sealed deed that were no on else's business.  In this case, both deeds were to be sealed in a clay jar.  This is how the documents in Qumran were stored.  Scrolls inside clay jars, limiting the oxygen available to oxidize and so "age" t hem.  This was a very old practice indeed.

Jeremiah does not understand why God has done this.  He prays for an explanation.  He prays through the history of Israel from leaving Egypt right up the siege mounds being raised outside the city, and with knowledge that the city is to fall.  So why, God, did we do this thing with that land at Anathoth?
And God answers Jeremiah.  He starts by reaffirming that the city is about to fall.  He goes on with the reasons for the current situation.  There are several reasons, but vs 30 is a good summation:
30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the LORD. [Jer 32:30 ESV]

2023 - This verse:
31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight [Jer 32:31 ESV].  I think this "remove it from my sight" phrase is important.  Jerusalem was still there after the Babylonian victory.  They burnt it down, they broke down the walls, but they left it there.  People were living there when Nehemiah came back in the time of Cyrus.  I think, therefore, that this prophecy was not fulfilled until at least 70 AD, and perhaps it was in 136 AD that everything was razed to the ground.  To corroborate this, Jesus said that not one stone would be left upon another.  This seems to be in line with Jeremiah's prophecy here.  So...has it yet come true?  The Temple foundation is still there.  It is stacked many stones high.  It just makes me wonder if there is yet one more conquest in Jerusalem's future, one last time that the enemy comes and conquers the city and bulldozes it until there is nothing left, and THEN, only THEN, should we begin to look for the last days.  Or perhaps that will happen only during the seventieth week, and Ezekiel's Temple will be the first step in rebuilding it so that Jesus may reign from there in the Millennial.  

Then God says this:
37 Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. [Jer 32:37 ESV]
Most definitely this was fulfilled after the 70 years had elapsed.  (2023 - No.  They have never dwelt in safety since the time of Isaiah.)  It will be fulfilled even more fully and completely during the Millennial.  We have seen that in Isaiah many times, and now we are seeing it over and over in Jeremiah.  The fact that something beyond the return from Babylon is in view here is in this verse:
40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. [Jer 32:40 ESV]
I don't think this verse has yet been 100% true.  Note that God Himself says this future covenant - the one He will make but has not yet made - will be everlasting.  When this one is done, it will never end, they will never again turn away from Him.  He will do them good and good only from that point on.  And he will "change" their thinking forever, so that they will fear him from then on, and not rebel ever again. This change in their thinking takes place in the Millennial I think...but might not be until the new heaven and earth.  Because at the end of the Millennial will be one final battle, and those who fight must be coming from somewhere.  But depending on where this covenant starts, those who fight against Christ at that time may not have any Jews among them at all.  I don't know.
2021 - Also vs 39:
39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. [Jer 32:39 ESV]  Surely this indicates that children born in the Millennial kingdom to saved Jews will also be saved.  I think this disproves the idea that the enemy army in the post-Millennial battle will include unsaved people born to saved people during the 1000 year reign.  Vs 40 confirms this still further.  "...they may not turn from me."  What else cold that mean?  Those who fight in that battle are going to be the goats from the sheep and goat judgement, for they have not yet experienced physical death, and it is appointed unto men ONCE to die!  The only exception to this is those who are raptured alive, and Paul makes it clear that this is a very unusual and special exception to the ONCE rule.  CotM.  

2023 - It also says something about election doesn't it?  God makes it clear that Jews and the children of those Jews gathered back to him will BE SAVED, and then their children after them will continue that way.  God will make his people loyal to him, and he will "uphold them with his hand".  We know this has not happened yet.

2023 - Then this:
41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. [Jer 32:41 ESV].  God, in COMPLETELY dedicating himself to do good to the Jews, promises all his heart and soul.  He only promises these two.  There is no tripartite God here in the sense of how he is put together.  Some may argue that Father, Son, Holy Ghost makes him three parts but it does not, because those three are one.  And AS ONE, they promise with heart and soul.  So either God is holding something back in this promise to them or heart and soul is all their is, with Him as with us.  What a good verse.

I would also add that I don't really think this prophecy beginning in vs 37 is about the return from Babylon at all.  This is about the return during t/gt, because they will return from ALL the nations, not just from Babylon, at that time.
 
Chapter 33
A second prophecy, at about the same time, introduced by the phrase "The word...came...a second time..."  Vs 3 is one of my favorites:
3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. [Jer 33:3 ESV]
I believe God still does this with those who pray and ask.  May not reveal things no one has ever known, but surely He does reveal things that I have never known.

2021 - You could make the case that God is only saying this to Jeremiah.  It goes on with a message for the inhabitants of the city.  It is not a good message.  So why would the prophecy first say "Call on me, and I'll tell you", and then say "You're all going to die"?  It seems to me that the first part of the message if for Jeremiah alone, a promise that God will inform him of whatever he asks about.

2021 - This verse about CotM:
11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: "'Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!' For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD. [Jer 33:11 ESV]
People will have weddings during the Millennial.  Weddings ultimately mean children will be born during the Millennial.  And offerings will resume in the Temple of that time.  

The chapter, though a second prophecy, continues in much the same vein as the previous chapter.  God is being specific about what he will do for Jerusalem in the future.  He will restore it, and the whole world will see that God is blessing it, and the world will tremble with that knowledge.
This goes on through vs 13.  It is interesting that true prophets preach doom when things are going well, and preach prosperity when all seems lost.  It is almost axiomatic.

This verse:
13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD. [Jer 33:13 ESV]
The Shephelah is an area south of Jerusalem running right along the mountain range there.  The Negeb is quite a ways further south, and is today a very desolate, dry place almost entirely without vegetation and pretty much impossible to live in.  Yet these places are to be inhabited in the Millennial.

Vs 14 starts again with "Behold...", and so indicates a shift in scene.  This seems to be looking far ahead, rather than to the return from Babylon.  A righteous Branch will spring up.  Jerusalem will then be called "The Lord is our righteousness."  Isn't this in Revelation?  BLB does not find it in Rev.  MSB does not mention it in Revelation.  So I must have it wrong.  Still, MSB says we are talking about the Millennial here.

16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.' [Jer 33:16 ESV].  This is the second time we have seen this phrase about "The LORD is our righteousness".  Both times in Jeremiah.  
2022 -  Hebrew is pronounced "Jehovah sedeq".  You don't hear that one  very often, nor see it on the banners.  But it ought to be.

18 causes me problems:
18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever." [Jer 33:18 ESV]
If we are talking about the Millennial in the previous verse, then surely we are here also.  Why in the world will there be any need for, or requirement of, burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices forever?  Why are they still there????  MSB implies, without actually saying it, that these things were included in the original Davidic and priestly covenants - that is, both a descendant of David on the throne and a Levitical priesthood to make sacrifices.  The Davidic in 2Sa7, the priestly in Nu 25:10-13.  Need to come back and study this, because this keeps popping up!  (((11/21/19  I think I understand about the sacrifices now.  They are required to "complete" the picture.  To fulfill prophecy.  So that all that came before can be neatly tied up with no loose ends.  God would never leave ends loose.)))  If there will be burnt offerings and grain offerings forever, then there will be livestock and harvest forever.  In that new heaven and new earth, we will have jobs.  We will work.  We will be able to say "I did that today".  This is apparently how God created man.  We would not be content without work to do.

2023 - It seems to me today that in Jesus, both King and Priest are combined.  This prophecy will be fulfilled in one man. The sacrifices in that time will look backward to commemorate God doing what he said he would do, whereas in Jeremiah's time they looked forward to the sacrifice that would someday come.  In the future, there will not be sacrifices of atonement or sin because Jesus has already taken care of all that.  But there will still be sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise and harvest and so on.  These will be forever.
 
These verses:
20 "Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, 21 then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken... [Jer 33:20-21 ESV]
This is the second time God has referred to the sign of "undoing the order of the sky" as what it would take to undo His covenant.  Seems like this would be a challenge to Satan.  Seems there'd be attempts by Satan to demolish the order of the heavens.  But I am unaware of any.  Maybe this is why God uses it as His sign.  Maybe Satan is utterly unable to affect order on so grand a scale.  God has reserved this from Satan, showing His power over Satan, and His position as the Master Creator of all that is.  Hmm.  That is quite interesting.  It continues like this to the end of the chapter.  Reinforces that the covenant will not be broken.
(11/13/19 - Go back and find that first one that is stated this way.  Then find a few verses showing that in the end times, the heavens will be affected.  See if this will establish, 1) that only God controls the heavens.  The prince of the power of the air only controls to the top of the atmosphere.  God has reserved the rest to Himself for all time, and 2) Heavenly portents are always associated with end time events.  Hmmm...there was the star that foretold Jesus' birth...)
Too much for a FB post, unless it could be done in parts.
Look at this last verse of 33:
25 Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, 26 then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them." [Jer 33:25-26 ESV]
There seems to be a LOT in this verse.  First the offspring of Jacob and David are equated, and then they are separated as to who will rule over whom.  Or maybe I am just reading too much into it.  

Chapter 34
This chapter, and on through 45.5 are called "Calamity on Judah" in the MSB outline.  The first subpoint, 34.1-38.28, is called "Before Judah's fall".
Starts with a timestamp, though this one is a little bit blurry.  Seems to still be during the time Jerusalem was under siege.  
God sends Jeremiah to Zedekiah, tells him that he will be captured, that he and Neb will be eye to eye at some point, Zedekiah will be taken to Babylon and die there in peace, not by the sword.  So perhaps though this is God's wrath against Manasseh and all the evil he did, God is protecting Zedekiah through it.  The wrath is not really directed at Zedekiah.  Maybe...
Then we turn to a section on slavery.  Zedekiah makes a proclamation that all in the city, in all that remained of Judah, should set free any Hebrew slaves they still had.  As I read it in 2020, Zedekiah did this on his own.  Previously, I thought Jeremiah had told Zedekiah to do it.  Judah was not observing the year of jubilee and setting slaves free every six years.  So they all agreed to do so, as was right in God's eyes.  But then they went back on their covenant.  They took their slaves back.  This verse:
17 "Therefore, thus says the LORD: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the LORD. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. [Jer 34:17 ESV]
They just made things worse for themselves yet again.  You cannot turn from sin, and then go back to that same sin, and expect no consequences.  Five minutes of being good does not give you a credit for being bad again tomorrow!  Perhaps keeping this one last "request" to obey God would have spared them some of what is coming.  But by breaking it, they all, those alive, who are not Manasseh but his descendants, become willing, deserving, knowing participants in Manasseh's sin, and showing God's justice in this national punishment on them.  A maybe for FB.  Would be pretty long though...Oh my...God does NOT approve slavery, but makes this "re-enslavement of Israel by its own people against its people the last straw in the destruction of Jerusalem.  They "profaned" His name when they took back their slaves, who were required to be freed.
Passing between the two parts of the calf...one ritual, much symbolism.  Shows just what kind of "breach of covenant" the slave things was.

2023 - Also, we see here that God did not sanction forever slavery.  It was six years and then freedom.  This was diffrent for conquered peoples taken as slaves.  They were conquered and so always slaves.
2023 - Also, note that we again have sword, famine and pestilence, but NOT wild animals.

The remainder of the chapter, vs 18-22, reinforce that they have now earned for themselves what is coming, and are not the innocent victims of God's wrath toward Manasseh.  This is a good thing to see.  I have not done a big study, but I bet if we look for it, we will see that against nations, this is how God always works.  Just as in Adam's sin, all are condemned, yet each of us also sins of himself and individually earns his own sentence of death. This is amazing.  I must put this either for FB or on the website.  This needs to be "published".  

2022 - I also see here a Biblical objection to the kind of slavery we had in this country prior to the civil war.  What they were doing was taking on indentured servants, and then refusing to free them.  They were making them slaves for life rather than temporarily and voluntarily and the Bible is saying that this is wrong.  You cannot treat your fellow man in this way.  This is never ok with God.   Tag slavery.

The last few verses, 21, 22, seem to imply that Babylon had actually withdrawn from the siege of Jerusalem, perhaps to "mop up" the cities of Lachish and Azekah mentioned in vs 7 of this chapter, which were the last two fortified cities that Judah had.  Perhaps, even at this late stage, some kind of leniency was to be shown by God.  But when they went back on the freeing of the slaves of their own people, God says Babylon is coming back.  Here are the verses:
21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you. 22 Behold, I will command, declares the LORD, and will bring them back to this city. And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant." [Jer 34:21-22 ESV]

Chapter 35
Still reading about the time before Judah's fall.
Starts by letting us know this word is from the Lord to Jeremiah.  Then a time stamp that it was in Jehoiakim's time.  So we've moved backward in time about 10 years.  Maybe less, 10 at most.
Rechabites brought to the Temple.  These were, per MSB, descended from Moses father-in-law.  Kenites?  There is more information in the note there, including a guess that we went back in time for "thematic" purposes.  Perhaps to contrast the slavery behavior in the last chapter with this.
Jeremiah offers them wine, as God had said, but they refuse to drink, citing the rules of Jonadab, the son of Rechab.  They were not to sow, not to build houses, and so on.  They were strangers in Israel, and were to live in tents forever - of their own choosing.  They had moved into Jerusalem when Neb laid siege to Jerusalem the first time - the time he carried off captives, but didn't burn the place down.  So instead of being nomadic, they were in Jerusalem.  

Here is a little side note from vs 11:
11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, 'Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians.' So we are living in Jerusalem." [Jer 35:11 ESV]  It seems that Syria had some kind of alliance with Babylon at this time.  I don't remember seeing that before.

God speaks again beginning in vs 12.  Jeremiah is to hold up the Rechabites as examples of those who follow the commands of their father, in this case by not drinking any wine at all.  I think the point was that these people and their customs go well back in time, almost as far back as the Sinai covenant.  And they have kept it because their "father" told them to keep it.  Israel was commanded by God, and they have not kept His commands.  Perhaps Israel was saying that it was impossible to keep God's commandments, or perhaps they were saying that times had changed, and it was no longer necessary to keep God's commands because they were no longer a nomadic nation wandering in a wilderness, but a might nation, established, and with their own government and their own man made commandments.  God was not longer really necessary to them.  here are the verses:
8 We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9 and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, 10 but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. [Jer 35:8-10 ESV]
And here is the application:
13 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the LORD. 14 The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. [Jer 35:13-14 ESV]
But Judah and Jerusalem will not listen to the commandments of God.  Because they have not listened, disaster is coming upon them.  Here is the verse, the very long, Jeremiah verse:
17 Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered." [Jer 35:17 ESV]
God is pointing out His patience, His longsuffering, His willingness to forgive, even after repeated insults and rebellion.  He forbears and puts off the punishment of nations in time...because time is all nations have.  People have eternity, nations only have time.  But here is yet one more justification from God for what is about to happen to Jerusalem.  It is NOT impossible to follow God according to His standards.  It is impossible to achieve perfection, but God only wants hearts, not perfection.

For their faithfulness to Jonadab's rules, God promises that the Rechabites will always have a man to stand before God.  I believe that means their will always be male descendants of this clan.
Possible FB post from 10/12/20.

Chapter 36
A new prophecy, addressed to the mountains of Israel.  To the land itself.  Because the land of Israel has become a reproach, because Edom and others came in a possessed it, and made the land of Canaan their possession while knowing God had given it to Israel, and many other nations also took advantage, therefore all these nations around Israel "...shall themselves suffer reproach."  And what a mess they are today.  Constantly at war, constantly filled with internal upheaval, over run by nations still further away.  No one safe from men, soldiers, or war.  They are a mess.  This verse, though, to the mountains:
11 And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. [Eze 36:11 ESV]  Israel is an amazing place today, prospering in the middle of the mess that characterizes the region, but I think the true, whole fulfillment of this passage is yet future.  This is the thousand year reign in view.  This is about the restoration of the land, polluted by the offering of children to idols and the shedding of innocent blood in the name of greed and corruption.  It is not just the people who had to be purged, the land itself must be cleansed and this is yet to come.  We see this as the chapter continues...

Starting in 16, a new prophecy.  God notes that He judged Israel for their deeds.  For the blood spilled in their own land and for the idols that they set up.  So God scattered them.  But when they went into exile, still they didn't turn back to him.  They still profaned the name of God, and though the exiles were recognized as God's own people, the nations noticed that they didn't worship God.  This concerned God because their neglect tarnished His name among the nations.  God says for the sake of His name, and most definitely not because they deserve anything good, that He will Himself act to vindicate His own name.  For the sake of His Holy Name, He will bring them back to the land He gave them.  These verses:
22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. [Eze 36:22-23 ESV]

2023 - As in Jer 31, this is about the Millennial reign.  While the Jews returning to Israel today may be foundational, they are far away apostate Jews, secular Jews, with no thought or loyalty to the Bible or to God.  They are unbelievers, still laboring under the blindness that God has put on them.  They don't come home with a new heart, with a new dedication, with recognition of the work of Christ, their Messiah, UNTIL during and after tgt.  This is NOT about the return from Babylon.  The New Covenant is still far, far in the future.  And while the NC is available to the Jews, I believe only a tiny remnant is elect.  Just a necessary few.  
2023 - And then 32 repeats for emphasis that this is not for Israel's sake, but so God may honor his own name.  They are his, and he promised them, and THAT ALONE is why they will be blessed.

The prophecy in Jer 31:31-34 is pretty much repeated word for word.  God will make a new covenant with Israel.  He will sprinkle water on them and they will be clean.  They will in essence be "reborn" as a nation, and they will have a special relationship with God because inside them they will have a new heart - a faithful heart - and they will have God's own Spirit within them, so that they know His will and do it.  This is not about baptism, but certainly this is the symbolism of baptism.  Once restored, we are washed, as a newborn into a new life, and we come up from the water as one resurrected from the dead.  Baptism is symbol, a very powerful symbol, and unmistakable identification with the the resurrected Jesus and a newly born infant in His kingdom.  These are a good core study for baptism.  It isn't about the water, but about something much larger.

Once restored to Israel, the land will support them.  They will never again suffer the "disgrace of famine".  What does this say about current famines - like the terrible ones in Ethiopia, or North Korea.  Are these famines also about disgrace because of God's enmity?  Are we to interpret famine this way always?  The last few verses of this chapter, 37 and 38, seem to me to imply a veritable explosion of population in Israel.  They will increase as a flock of sheep increases, as the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts.  Many will the Jews be.

So.  When God restores Israel, they will indeed worship Him as they were intended to worship.  Perhaps this explains the restoration of the sacrificial system.  While it will no long look forward to the coming Lamb of God, they will understand that it looks backward now to Jesus as the Son of David, the promised King, who is their shepherd, and who was sacrificed and died to save them.  The new heart, the indwelling Spirit of God, will "explain" all this to them, and they will understand, and truly worship in their hearts.

God will do this.  They are just to rebellious a house to ever change on their own.  Like we are.  We are so corrupt by our blood and by our intentions, that we can never come to God.  Perhaps the times of Noah, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and 70 AD, and the future judgement of the universe and remaking of all that is, shows that man is not capable of being his own god.  We cannot build ourselves up - we cannot evolve into something better than we are - but because God made us, He will perfect us.  He will perfect Israel with a new heart and spirit, He will also perfect His church, cleansing it with the blood of Christ, efficacious to the perfection of both Jew and Gentile.  He does it.  We do not.
To those who say God created an imperfect being, and then punished him for his imperfection, this is a further answer.  Man - flesh and blood - is not capable of divinity.  We are less than God, and all the pain, suffering and injustice in the world shows that we cannot create perfection.  Only God can.  And in the end, that is exactly what He will do.  He will perfect us despite our failure, despite our sin, despite our helplessness to become Holy as He is Holy, God will perfect us in the end.  Adam was made perfect.  Satan tempted Adam.  Adam failed.  So all mankind was shown incapable of perfection afterward.  Adam could have, but with a true free will given to him by God, he still chose poorly.  Because man is not God.  Man is not Holy.  Only God is Holy, and therefore only He can perfect us and make us Holy.

Chapter 37
Starts with this verse.  Catches us up on events since the end of 36:
1 Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. [Jer 37:1 ESV]
Per MSB Zedekiah was Jeconiah's Uncle.  Jeconiah was, I believe, the son of Jehoiakim - thus fulfilling God's prophecy that no son of Jehoiakim would  sit on the thrown.  Nebuchadnezzar has made Zedekiah a vassal King in contempt of Jehoiakim.  (I am not sure how Jehoiachin fits in here.  He is shown in the line between Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.  Was Coniah the one who's name Neb changed from Jehoiachin to Jeconiah?  Or the other way around?  Jehoiachin was on the throne less than a year.  Perhaps replaced by Neb out of contempt for Jehoiakim - who had revolted?  So as to stop his kingly line.)  Zedekiah is King from the first taking away until the fall of Jerusalem to Neb 11 years later.  He was pretty useless to the people I imagine.  The history is very complex through this time.  Jumping around in time isn't helping much.  Would be good to construct a timeline.
The point of the first chapter is that through all this, the people still do not turn to God.
Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to pray for them.  This was before Jeremiah was imprisoned.  I guess this means before he was kept in the court of the palace.  
More events:  Pharoah had left Egypt, and the siege against Jerusalem by the Chaldeans is broken off.  We saw this "break" a few chapters ago.  I thought they had gone to finish up with Lachish but perhaps it was more about this threat from the south.

God has Jeremiah tell Zedekiah not to take this withdrawal as a good sign.  In fact, Egypt is going to go back home, and the Chaldeans will return to the siege.  And they will burn Jerusalem to the ground.  Even if the only remaining Chaldeans are wounded in their tents, they are going to rise up and overtake Jerusalem.  Point being that it is God making this happen, and no earthly circumstance is going to prevent it.

During the lull, Jeremiah starts home to Benjamin to "receive his portion", that is, to claim that piece of land he'd bought.  At the Benjamin gate, the guard accuses Jeremiah of deserting to the Chaldeans.  Jeremiah says it's a lie, but this man turns the officials against Jeremiah, resulting in Jeremiah being thrown into prison in the house of Jonathan the secretary.  This would have been in Jerusalem.  
Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah after Jeremiah has been many days in that dungeon.  Zedekiah asks Jeremiah in secret if he has any word from the Lord.  Jeremiah says "Yes, you are going to be captured by the king of Babylon."  So standing in front of the one man who could free him from prison, all Jeremiah had to do was give him some good news.  Good news that would have been a lie.  But Jeremiah does not do that.  He is true to the word he has been given.  He displays a complete lack of tact and subtlety here!  Sometimes, the truth of God can be very blunt.  But then Jeremiah goes on, and pleads with the King not to put him back in that dungeon, lest he die.  Jeremiah points out that the prophets who told Zedekiah that Babylon would not invade - which turned out to be false prophecy and lies - are all still free and running around, but the one man that told the truth is shut up in prison.  Jeremiah is getting up in years by this time and the dungeon cells at the house of Jonathan must be very dire indeed for Jeremiah to plead this way.  Zedekiah "commutes" the prison sentence of the dungeon to captivity in the court of the guard.  Jeremiah was given a loaf of bread every day until there was no more bread in Jerusalem. 

Chapter 38
This chapter appears to be an historical account of events during/around the time of the siege of Jerusalem.  There are no prophecies here.  Continuing w/ events before Judah's fall.  Jeremiah continues to tell the people that if they surrender to the siege, they will live.  (((FB possibly, though needs more work.  We build walls to insulate us from the will of God, because we prefer our own will.  We rebel against any sort of submission.  But like Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day, submitting to the will of God was the only way to survive.)))  Some of the kings officials, and his son, petition the king to have Jeremiah killed.  You can see why.  Jeremiah was undermining the authority of the King, he was circumventing the King's authority to tell people whether or not to resist the enemy, whether to hold out or not.  Those who were defending the city - those on the walls if you will - were hearing Jeremiah say to abandon their posts and surrender without a fight.  Surely this was a difficult situation, for Jeremiah, for the King, and for the people.  Who to believe?  What to do?  How would we deal with such a situation?  We have a political party that seems to be the worst enemy there is...and yet the Bible says submit to the King.  If the Dems win, what will we do?  

2023 - Here it is yet again:
2 "Thus says the LORD: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. [Jer 38:2 ESV]

In Jeremiah's case, the King gives those seeking Jeremiah's life leave to do as they will, so Jeremiah is lowered into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son.  There was no water in it, only mud.  The miry clay...
An Ethiopian, Ebed-Melech, petitions the King that this is an evil thing they've done.  So the king sends Ebed-Melech w/ 30 men to pull Jeremiah out.  They do, yet Jeremiah stays in the court of the guard.
The King sends for Jeremiah and asks for truth, promising not to kill Jeremiah no matter what the truth is.  Jeremiah tells Zedekiah to surrender, and then he will live, his family will live, and the city will not be burned.  It does not say that the invaders will go away.  It does not say that Zedekiah will continue as ruler in Jerusalem.  What sticks out to me is that Jeremiah keeps repeating the phrase "and your house".  It should have been clear to Zedekiah that his family was going to be directly subject to his decisions.  Zedekiah is afraid of what powerful people in the city will do to him in captivity if he complies with this.  He is a coward, fearing man more than God.  He puts his own wives and children up for grabs - even after Jeremiah tells him the vision he saw of his family going out to the Babylonians.

Zedekiah keeps his promise.  Zedekiah and Jeremiah keep their secret.  Jeremiah stays in the court of the guard until Jerusalem falls.  

Chapter 39
This chapter starts a section called "During Judah's Fall" in the outline.  This chapter is also a recounting of events - a historical account - of the time around the fall.  
Ninth year of Zedekiah, 10th month, is the time stamp.  This is when Neb's siege started.  Year 11, month 4, day 9, "...a breach was made in the city."  Per the MSB note, this siege lasted 30 m months, with Jerusalem surrounded, not people or supplies allowed in or out.  The idea was to weaken the city with hunger, thirst, and disease so that it could be easily conquered - or least so that loss of life would be minimal.  The invaders had to have supplies themselves, however, so they were likely looting and pillaging and laying waste anything and everything in Judah, Jerusalem, and who knows where else.  Could have been upwards of 100,000 men in that army, plus all the "hangers on".  It is not clear to me if we are strictly chronological here, such that Jeremiah was captive in the court of the guard for this entire time.  It would seem that the city was already surrounded when chapter 38 takes place...but perhaps the invaders were marching on Jerusalem, but not yet surrounding it completely.  Hard to say exactly, and I am not sure it makes just a while lot of difference anyway.

The officials of Nebuchadnezzar come and sit in "the middle gate".  The city was fallen.  So Z and his guys sneaked out, and make a run for it but they were caught.  Once again, Zedekiah leaves his family at the mercy of the invaders, and tries to save himself.  Z was brought before Nebuchadnezzar, eye to eye, as prophesied.  This is in vs 5, and occurs at Riblah.  So some time passes here between the time of the breach and the audience with Nebuchadnezzar.  Hours, days, or weeks I don't think we can tell from these verses.  But surely Jerusalem was being destroyed, people were being brutally killed in that city, women were being raped...just pure absolute horror was taking place in the city, while Zedekiah ran for his life.  Nebuchadnezzar passes sentence on Zedekiah.  All his sons, very likely his wives, and all the nobles of Jerusalem - all people that he likely knew personally - are killed before his eyes.  No details, but they didn't have firing squads.  They  had swords.  This would have been appalling to watch.  And then they blind Zedekiah, such that the last thing he ever sees on earth are the deaths of everyone he loves, and everyone he knows.  And we think we know what horror is.  Then Nebuchadnezzar puts Zedekiah in chains to take him to Babylon.  Zedekiah lives, but is blind.  And he lives with the memory of what his cowardice cost his family and friends.  

All who remained in Jerusalem were taken captive to Babylon, with those who had surrendered.  Some very poor people were left, and given vineyards and fields by the captain of the guard as they withdrew.

This same captain, Nebuzarradan, is ordered to treat Jeremiah well, perhaps because Neb learns that Jeremiah was preaching surrender for the entire time and considers him an ally.  Jeremiah goes home and lives among his people.  God sends word to the Ethiopian through Jeremiah that the city's end will be seen by him, but he will be spared.  (I left out that the Chaldean's burned the city and broke down the walls.  This message to Ebed-Melech seems to be a "flashback" to before those things occurred.

Chapter 40
This chapter through 45:5 are titled "After the Fall".
As they are leaving Jerusalem, the Captain of the Guard gives Jeremiah any option he chooses.  He will be treated well if he goes to Babylon, he can go to the new "governor" of Judah - Gedeliah - or he can go home.  Jeremiah goes to Gedeliah.
All those remaining in Judah, and the refugees in Moab and Ammon, return to Judah under Gedeliah.  He urges them to carry on as normal, and serve Babylon, and they will be treated well.  Bands of men who had been outside the city when it was besieged, men who had survived the destruction of towns and villages outside Jerusalem, and indeed roaming bands who had survived all over Israel, along with refugees to Moab and Ammon, all come back to Judah at Mizpah when they hear that Gedeliah is now governor.  These are the core of defense that is left in the country, and it would not have been much.  But the nation did survive.  There was a core capable of making some defense against Baalis and those who would destroy even this tiny remnant of what once was.  I hope we can do the same.
The returning refugees tell Gedeliah that Baalis, King of Ammon, is planning to have Gedeliah killed.  G won't believe it.  The one plotting against G is Ishmael, son of Baalis.  Despite two warnings, Gedeliah still won't believe.

Chapter 41
Ishmael murders Gedeliah.  The way it is written, Ishmael is also from Judah.  There was an earlier reference to him I believe in an MSB note saying he was of royal blood, and might have killed Gedeliah so that he himself could be king.  That was in 2 Kings I think.  Gedeliah had refused to believe these rumors about Ishmael.  In this chapter, Ishmael has been invited in, and is having a meal with Gedeliah in Mizpah.  Gedeliah, it seems, is very foolish.  It is hard to feel sorry for him.  Ishmael murders many others also.  Though he only has 10 men with him, he kills all the men of Judah that are with Gedeliah in Mizpah, and he kills the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.  With only 10 men he does this.  80 men show up with their beards shaved and their clothes torn.  MSB says they had likely been mourning the fall of Jerusalem "and so were led to slaughter".   Not sure I really see how this follows...

Ishmael goes out all teary-eyed to meet them, and invites them in to meet with Gedeliah.  Once inside the gates, Ishmael starts killing them and throws the bodies in a cistern.  Mass murder.  10 of the 80 save themselves by claiming to have food and such stored away in the fields where it can't be found.  So Ishmael lets these live.  He takes the rest of the city captive (surely more men allied with him had arrived, or he had recruited some locals to his side in order to pull all this off.  If 10 did all this, it is like Jeff Cooper says.  These people were so unused to confronting violence that they practically assisted with their own murders...In any case, Ishmael sets out with these captives in tow, headed to Ammon to "cross over to the Ammonites".  He apparently intends to abandon Judah and offer these captives as slaves?  So he seems to have given up the idea of becoming King in Gedeliah's place...if that was ever his plan.  We really don't know.

Johanan and his men catch up with Ishmael, and recover the captives but Ishmael escapes to Ammon.  Actually it says the captives "turned back" when they saw Johanan.  So maybe 10 were not enough men to hold them, and they just walked away from Ishmael.  Which again makes it hard to believe so many of the others had just allowed themselves to be killed.  It says that Ishmael and 8 men escaped and went on to Ammon.  So perhaps the captives got brave, killed two guards and escaped.  I think Jeff Cooper is right about this situation.  At any rate, Ishmael's captives get free of him.  

Then Johanan and the former captives plan to flee to Egypt, fearing what Neb will do when he learns his appointed one has been murdered.  Even though they didn't actually do it.  They were very much afraid of Nebuchadnezzar by this point.  This is understandable seeing what Nebuchadnezzar did to the captured officials of Jerusalem, to King Zedekiah, and throughout the land.  The Chaldeans were not a merciful people at all, and had struck fear in the survivors of Judah.

Chapter 42
People ask Jeremiah to inquire what they should do and promise to do it no matter what it is.  They make a great show of saying how they will do as God says no matter what.  The ALL promise to follow what Jeremiah tells them.  Takes 10 days for the answer.  God tells them to stay home, and not fear Babylon further.  God tells them He has relented of the disaster He sent, and that He will build them up, not tear them down, and He will protect them from the King of Babylon.  He tells them if they go to Egypt, all that they fear will happen to them there. There will be famine there, there will be war there, there will be pestilence there.  All the things they fear in Judah will happen to them in Egypt if they go there.  They will die in Egypt and never see home again if they go there.  God, through Jeremiah, is entirely clear on the choices these people have.

Chapter 43
Johanan and others accuse Jeremiah of lying about what God says and they determine to go to Egypt anyway.  They go so far as to say Baruch - the one that wrote those two scrolls as Jeremiah dictated them - has set Jeremiah against them, because Baruch wants them all to be taken captive to Babylon.  Doesn't say why they think this.  Seems pretty far fetched to me.  They not only decide to go to Egypt despite what Jeremiah has said, they decide to take Jeremiah with them.  Bad enough to deny what God says.  Bad enough to accuse this prophet - who has just been vindicated since all that he has predicted for decades has come about exactly as he said it would - but now they decide to take Jeremiah with them!  They do exactly what He says not to do, after they promised to do whatever He said, no matter what it was.  This is mind-boggling.  Why even ask if you don't have any idea of complying unless He says to do what you were going to do anyway?  Pure arrogance now.

2022 - 6 the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they arrived at Tahpanhes. [Jer 43:6-7 ESV]
Did they take Jeremiah to hedge their bets, thinking that even if he was telling the truth, God wouldn't wipe them out as promised if Jeremiah was with them?  Or was it more malicious than that?  As in they thought he really might be telling the truth - but not the one they wanted to hear, not the one he should have told them, but something more like the ear-tickling other prophets always told them - and if he was, then he ought to get the same "justice" they were going to get.  Maybe they even though that if Jeremiah was with them, he'd pray them out of the consequences.  How arrogant do you have to be to think you can "blackmail" the God of heaven and earth by threatening His servants???
A FB post?

The whole bunch of them - the surviving royal family and the people that were left with Gedeliah at Mizpah, the commanders of men who had somehow survived the invasion, and the few "leaders" left in Judah that Neb had not identified and killed, all together decide to go to Egypt, and they arrive in Tahpanhes.
God tells Jeremiah Neb is coming to Egypt and will clean it out as a shepherd clears vermin from his cloak.  He will burn Egypt's gods and temples.  He will kill and take captives.

2022 - What a remarkable thing.  They defied God's command to stay in Israel, because they were afraid the Chaldeans would come and kill them there.  So God sends his servant Nebuchadnezzar to Egypt, and has them killed by the very one from whom they fled!  And while Neb is there, let's just have him take out all these idols that the Egyptians worship too, and maybe they will turn to God as a result.

2022 - I noted before that the first chapters of Jeremiah - at least through 40 - are prophecies of events that will occur very soon - in Jeremiah's lifetime in fact - for the most part.  But once the prophecies are complete, the book turns into a history book almost exclusively.  At least that is what it is through 43.

Chapter 44
This verse from God through Jeremiah to those of Judah now living in various cities in Egypt:
7 And now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? [Jer 44:7 ESV]  God says the "family lines" of all these that have gone to Egypt are going to be cut off.  This is the end of them.  The destruction of Judah and Jerusalem was because the people made offering to other gods.  And now those who were lucky enough to survive the Babylonian invasion are offering sacrifices to Egyptian gods.  The gods of the very people God had destroyed in order to free them from captivity so many years before.  The stupidity is beyond belief.  They still do not fear the One, the only real God.  They insist on looking elsewhere.

God speaks in 44:11 and reminds them Judah was destroyed because of idol worship and the evil that goes with that.  Those He left in Judah are now in Egypt, worshiping Egyptian gods, doing Egyptian evil.  Are they just not capable of learning?  God says ALL who fled to Egypt will die there...except some fugitives.  (Why is this here?  Added later to make the passage true, because not everyone died?  That would be my claim as an atheist!  2020-not so.  Fugitives is better translated refugees.  Some of those from Judah, perhaps seeing their error, or not liking Egyptian life very much, go back home to Judah before Neb arrives in Egypt, and so a few, a very few, escape death in Egypt.)  

2023 - This verse:
13 I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, [Jer 44:13 ESV]

Still, they refuse to listen at all.  They believe their hardships are not because of God, but because they stopped worshiping their idols from home.  2020-wait wait wait....look at this.  In vs 15 we find this phrase "all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods".  Is this saying that the rebellion against God in Egypt, that the turning back to the false gods they had made offerings to in Judah, was led by the women?  Was it the men letting their wives take the lead that was the real problem?  It is the men talking first and "regurgitating" what their wives have told them to say, but then look at vs 19:
19 And the women said, "When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?" [Jer 44:19 ESV]  So the women are worshiping the "Queen of heaven".  The women are exercising their rights, they have usurped God's male place as head of all things, and they have elevated this Queen - since women deserve to be in charge, according to the curse in Genesis 3 - as the one that should be worshiped and they blame their present troubles not on their disobedience to God, but on their neglect of the queen of heaven.  Oh my!!!
2022 - Yes.  It is the women that lead this "return" to idolatry in the land of Egypt, and their spineless husbands do nothing to stop it.  The men did such a bad job in Jerusalem that the women take over in Egypt.  Wow.

2022 - This verse:
19 And the women said, "When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?" [Jer 44:19 ESV]
I checked MSB on this phrase to see what Egyptian goddess they were worshiping.  They were not.  Back in Israel, they had been worshiping Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess also called Ashtoreth and Astarte, the wife of Baal, or Molech.  "Because these deities symbolized generative power, their worship involved prostitution."  This note is found at Jer 7:18.  The note on 44:19 points out that the title "queen of heaven" is "a title Roman Catholicism erroneously attributes to Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a blending of Christianity with paganism.  The Jews' twisted thinking credits the idol with the prosperity of pre-captivity Judah, further mocking the greatness of God."  So they saw their ill-fortunes in Israel not as God's punishment for their idol worship, but as the idols punishing them for NOT continuing to worship them!

2023 - It reads as if, at least in Pathros, pretty much everyone who had sought asylum from Nebuchadnezzar and fled to Egypt from Jerusalem, were worshiping "the queen of heaven".  With their husband's consents, these women had decided that the problem was that they STOPPED worshiping this pagan idol while still in Jerusalem - perhaps because their husbands had listened to Jeremiah's warnings and put a stop to it.  But now they're in Egypt, and as refugees, they probably really were worse off than at home - after all, God told them NOT to go to Egypt, so they shouldn't have expected things to be better there.  And instead of recognizing this, and heading back home, they instead decide to re-start their queen worshiping, and their weak-minded husbands let it go rather than heap trouble with the wife on top of trouble with God.  So messed up.  

So Jeremiah points out that they have it all upside down and backwards:
23 It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day." [Jer 44:23 ESV]   Jeremiah leaves them no excuse.  The attribute their plight to their neglect of the false gods they left in Judah.  Jeremiah says worshiping those gods is what caused Judah to fall.  They are precisely deceived.  I think it is significant that as he speaks, in vs 20, it is to "men and women", and in vs 24 he speaks to "all the people, AND all the women".  Surely the women were leading this rebellion.

So blind.  Jeremiah tells them they have it backwards.  This verse:
26 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, 'As the Lord GOD lives.' [Jer 44:26 ESV]  I believe God is telling them that He will not hear one word from these Jews in Egypt, no matter what.  He is done with them.  And the sign that what is befalling them is because of the will of God, and has nothing to do with any idols at home or in Egypt, He foretells that Pharoah Hophra, whom they look to for protection, will be given into the hands of his enemies, just as Zedekiah was given into the hands of his.  Per MSB note, Hophra was strangled by Amasis in 570 BC, which opened the door to the invasion of Egypt by Babylon.

2023 - Kind of a side note for later study - I note that in 44:12, 27, it is ONLY sword and famine that God says he will use against the unfaithful.  But in 44:13, 18, pestilence is added to them.  It is just an interesting contrast with all the other places these are named.  So what I have seen is that sometimes God says he will send all four - sword, pestilence, famine, and wild beasts.  Other times, only the first three are mentioned.  And at still other times, only sword and famine are mentioned.  Why would it be that God does not always send them all?  My working theory is that He sends all four when the place is to be wiped out completely.  I haven't verified, but I think it was all four when Israel fell to Assyria, and it will be all four in Revelation after the rapture.  When Judah and Jerusalem fall, God knows already that he will be bringing them back, so not as "complete" in throwing everything in, so only three of the four.  I have no theory, as yet, as to why it would be different here in Jer 44 for those who fled to Egypt...or maybe I do.  Here, God is only punishing the people, not the whole land.  Egypt is not the promised land anyway, so making Egypt a desolation in order to punish these Jews is really not necessary, and in the long run is not a part of his plan for them.  These are to die where they are because of their disobedience.  Sword and famine will affect mostly these refugees, because in a famine, Egypt will feed her own people before she feeds refugees.  And the sword...well that is always present, used by the organized government, and can be "bound" or "loosed" as needed.

Chapter 45
Seems to jump backward in time to the 4th year of Jehoiakim.  MSB confirms.  Words dictated to Baruch.  These words in 45 are TO Baruch himself.  God promises to preserve Baruch, and give him his life as a prize of war, where ever he may go.  Short chapter.  2022 - There is a note in MSB, where those who travel to Egypt are listed, that the Baruch named there is the very same Baruch whom God promised 20 years earlier to preserve through the disaster in Jerusalem.  He is still alive.  This promise to a "servant" seems to be a big enough deal to sort of repeat that promise in this chapter.

Chapter 46
This chapter begins the 3rd main outline point, called Proclamation of Judgement against the nations.  Several are specifically named.
I recall many of these also in Isaiah.  I think a comparative study would be interesting.
This chapter has the judgement of Egypt.  Note that chapter 45 had kind of gone back to the fourth year of Jehoiakim.  Jehoiakim had burned the words of the scroll Baruch had recorded from Jeremiah.  Now, in 46, we are talking about Neco's army being defeated by Nebuchadnezzar also in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.  It seems to be saying that the time of defeat is specifically during Jehoiakim's reign.  So Neb would have had to take his army through Judah on the way to Egypt to do that.  Is this correct?  Well it just about has to be with this wording:
2 About Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: [Jer 46:2 ESV]

But we also know that in chapters 43 and 44 Jerusalem has fallen for the last time, Gedeliah was made governor and then murdered by Ishmael, and the remainder of the "good people" now had followed Gedeliah have decided to flee to Egypt where they'll be safe, and they have taken Jeremiah with them.    So chronologically, Jerusalem is already down, but for some reason Jeremiah 45, 46, and perhaps more have gone back somewhere around 18 years to the 4th year of Jehoiakim.  There is an MSB note that says it is likely the specific prophecies about each nation were given at different times, but in the organization of this book of Jeremiah, they have been collected together by nation instead of by the time of their revelation.  (This still does not explain why they stuck in 45 about Baruch...unless it is Baruch organizing the book...or maybe it is just that the prophecy about Baruch came at the same time as Neco is defeated by Neb so they just seemed to go together as a good place to start the prophecies about the nations.  It could just be that.  So need to keep in mind that as we see the prophecies about the nations over the next few chapters, we could be/will be seeing things that were prophesied and have already happened connected with things prophesied at a different time perhaps, that have not happened.  Expect to be confused.  It is worth noting that so much is "compressed" into a short time here as the last days of Judah play out.  Is it always that way with nations that go bad?  They rise, they last for years, they get worse and worse until God's wrath finally MUST be spent on them, and as the day of that wrath gets closer, events accelerate in terms of government, international events, and the level of internal corruption and just plain evil that comes out of the woodwork of the doomed nation?  What a thought...you could write a book about such things in the fall of Samaria, the fall of Judah, perhaps just as much so the fall of Pharoah Neco, of  Assyria, and of Babylon.  Did internal upheaval accelerate as their ends drew near also?  As I think back on what little I've read of them - and it isn't very much - it sure seems to hold true.  As an example, think of Judah.  There was Josiah, who's reign ended in 608 BC.  However, in that same year, Jehoahaz reigns for 3 months and then Jehoiakim reign.  We know that Jehoahaz was only King for three months and was then taken captive by Pharoah Neco and taken to Egypt.  Sort of a hostage, as Jehoahaz was Jehoiakim's brother.  So Neco was out conquering at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign.  

2023 - In reference to the paragraph above, note that Jer 46:1 pretty much tells us that what follows is organized by nation and not by chronology of revelation.  Many previous prophecies began with a "time stamp", such as the 8th year of King somebody or other.  This one is very different.  These will be about nations, without regard to when the prophecies were made.  Vs 2 continues it.  It gives us a little bit of a summary about Neco, then in vs 3 begins to recount the prophecies that God gave Jeremiah about him.  Almost like "See, here's where he ended, and here are all the things Jeremiah had prophesied about him before Carchemish.

Ahhh, now I see!  Look at the place this happens!  In Carchemish by the Euphrates!  That is NOT in Egypt, so Neb DID NOT march through Judah to attack Neco.  It is the opposite!  Neco marched north, and attacked Nebuchadnezzar on Babylon's home ground!  Could have been a four year campaign with Neco capturing and sending Jehoahaz back, and then continuing on to Babylon, or some kind of sequence like that.  But it makes so much more sense that Neco came north, while Nebuchadnezzar was still establishing Babylon, and gets defeated by the Chaldeans.  This would have been a huge, earth-rattling victory for Babylon, cementing Nebuchadnezzar's hold on the throne, and beginning yet another long decline for Egypt.  After this, Egypt has never in history risen to glory again.  The timelines of various kingdoms is shown early in the MSB.  It shows that Neco II came to power in about 615 BC, and Neb in about 610 BC.  After Neco II was gone, there were only four more Pharaohs, none of whom I've ever heard of.  So yes, the defeat of Neco started the decline of Egypt that would see the last Pharoah before 525 BC.  Less than 100 years after this defeat, Egypt was gone as a world power, and has never recovered.

Through verse 12 speaks of defeat, fear, and flight of the Egyptian army before Nebuchadnezzar.  Must remember these verses were likely written before this battle took place.  Jeremiah lived through all this.  Then Egypt is described (metaphor) like the Nile, overflowing to conquer the world.  This may speak to Neco II's ambitions, and his subsequent invasion of the north.  MSB says these verses are a call to Egypt to prepare for defeat.  MSB also says vss 2-26 are history, describing Egypt's loss of territory west of the Euphrates.  

vs 13 begins a section on "the coming of Nebuchadnezzar".  Can't tell if this one is prophecy or history.  (2020 - it is history at the time it was recorded, but was likely prophecy received long before chapter 46 was inserted in Jeremiah.)  Note that vs 14 talks about Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes.  These are all cities in Egypt, so we know these verses are about a different "battleground" than the one in vss 3-12.  Wow.  All this is making so much more sense in 2020 than it did even last year when I read it.  
Here is an interesting contrast between translations:
17 Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, 'Noisy one who lets the hour go by.' [Jer 46:11, 17 ESV].  This makes it look like "Noisy one...' is the translation of a name given to Pharoah to mock him for losing this battle to Neb.  Like "Pharoah Loser".  But in NASB:
17 "They cried there, 'Pharaoh king of Egypt [is but] a big noise; He has let the appointed time pass by!' [Jer 46:17 NASB]
The idea is the same in both, but unless you read both, you don't really get the full implication of what is being said.  I love the Bible!
2023 - The name is pronounced "shaw-own'".  A big noise.  "aw-bar'" "mo-ade'" is the rest.

18 "As I live, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come. 19 Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, O inhabitants of Egypt! For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant. [Jer 46:18-19 ESV]  These verses speak of the still future defeat of Egypt on its own home ground by the invading Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.  It is true that Jeremiah lived until this defeat was in the past.  I'm sure some would make the claim that the prophecy was also made after the fact.  If you don't believe in God, you have to find a way to explain the accuracy of every single prophecy that Jeremiah made, many many of which are in the past from our viewpoint.  An important consideration is that pretty much all the prophets - major and minor - also include Millennial prophecies and a large number of them include Messianic prophecies.  The Messianic prophecies were 100's of years in the future for all these prophets, yet Jesus showed up, and the prophecies are obviously about him.  The Millennial prophecies are still future.  So to those who say Jeremiah prophesied retroactively, I say look at the Messianic and the Millennial prophecies that he and so many other Biblical prophets made, and explain to me how men who could be so unerringly accurate about Jesus life 100's of years in advance would feel it necessary to "lie" about all these other prophecies that came true in their lifetimes?  History knows that prophets were everywhere in Israel and other places.  How is it that none of the prophets who aren't included in the Bible didn't also prophesy in reverse so their books could be in the Bible?  Why is it that only the ones that are without error are the ones in the Bible?  Maybe because they are the only ones who truly were prophets of God?
(2020 - I am very bogged down thinking about this amazing stuff.  Need to push on through the rest of the reading....)

Vs 21 speaks in past tense, as if this has all happened.  Vs 24 however, is future tense:
24 The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north." [Jer 46:24 ESV]  MSB says Babylon invaded Egypt 15 or 16 years before Jerusalem's fall.  This is another indication that these prophecies were organized by place, not chronology, and all put together here at a later time.  Does any other historical account do things like this?  In some places the prophecy is embedded in the rest of the book indicating the time it was received by the prophet, yet other places, the prophecy is gathered together by place?  And when I get this all together, it will be interesting to see how many different prophets in different places were saying the same thing at the same time.  Vs 26 ends saying "afterward" Egypt "will be inhabited as in the days of old."  Does this refer back to the time before the Pharoah's arose in Egypt?  To the time before she was a world power.  She will be inhabited as in those days after Nebuchadnezzar conquers them?  Or does afterward refer to the Millennial?   That in that future time, Egypt will again be a world power?

Last two vss, 27 and 28, are addressed to Jacob.  God promises to preserve Jacob, though He will make "...a full end of ALL the nations."  This surely is end times - maybe post-Millennial even.  Or.  the time of Antichrist when all the world will be under him as one world-nation.

2023 - So I didn't remember ever hearing that Neb went all the way down to Egypt and conquered it, as Jeremiah says he is going to do.  We have all heard of the Battle of Carchemish, but that is way north of Israel, not in Egypt.  So I Googled it and found several claims that it never happened.  Then I found this one:
Question:
According to Jer 43 Egypt would be conquered by Babylon, but secular historians attribute this conquest to the Persians.  Do you have any info on this?
Answer:
Your information is correct.  The Persians/Medes did conquer Egypt under Cambysses, the son of Cyrus in 525 BC.  However, the Persians were not the first to conquer Egypt.  The Hyskos “The Peoples of the Sea” conquered Egypt about 1750 BC.  After that, Egypt was conquered by the Assyrians.  The Assyrian armies destroyed Thebes, the capital of Egypt in 663 BC.  Eventually, an Egyptian dynasty was reestablished.  Later, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon became the dominant power in the Near East.  He attacked an Egyptian army at the famous battle of Carcemish in 607 BC, nearly destroying Egyptian power.  According to his own annals, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt, conquering parts of the Nile valley in 567 BC and “dealt a severe blow to its supremacy and power.”
To summarize, it is true that the Persians conquered Egypt under Cambysses.  But Jeremiah’s prophecy that Egypt would be conquered by Babylon was also fulfilled.  To be honest, this is not one of the more amazing prophecies in the Bible because at the time Jeremiah made this statement, Nebuchadnezzar was a rising power in the Near East.  It was not a great shock that he was able to defeat Egypt.  Nevertheless, God’s prophecy through Jeremiah was fulfilled, exactly as predicted by the prophet.

So the annals of Nebuchadnezzar, his own internal documents, say that he did indeed go to Egypt and conquer it there, in their own land.  I am sure that those who want to "prove the Bible wrong" make a big deal of there being no other record of this conquest, and so Neb must be a liar, patting himself on the back for things he never did.  I wonder how many historical events become "unprovable" if the "winner's version of events" is never believed without corroboration from the losers?  I bet we'd have to do a lot of revision!

Chapter 47
Now we turn to Philistia, "before Pharoah struck down Gaza."  Note that Pharoah is not named, so we don't really know which one.  And besides, we are talking about the time BEFORE Pharoah conquered Gaza.  Can't tell if the prophecy is before Pharoah or if the state of Philistia before Pharoah invaded is intended.  It seems then the prophesy that the invader is coming from the north.  Most definitely says Philistia is being destroyed by the Lord, contrasted to Egypt returning to former state.
2020-So this is about Philistia being conquered from the north, BEFORE Egypt conquers it from the south.  I think.  And this was written in Jeremiah’s time.  So when Jeremiah wrote it down, it had not happened yet, but Jeremiah was over 30 and a prophet when it happened.  And it was before (probably) Neco II came north and got defeated by Neb.  So an army from the north conquered Gaza before Neco II.  Perhaps Neb on an early raid?  Almost has to be pushed back to Josiah’s time.  Jeremiah did prophesy during that time…But MSB says this was likely a conquest of Philistia by Babylon at the same time as their invasion to conquer Jerusalem in 587/86 BC.  But did Egypt come north again after that?  Guess they could have, and that may have been what provoked Neb to go all the way to Egypt to defeat them.

Chapter 48

2024 - Still seems to be organized by the object of the prophecy, rather than by chronology.

Judgement of Moab.  "...the renown of Moab is no more."  
Does this mean no such place, or just that it becomes a sort of “wasted place”?
Also this verse:
4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have made a cry. [Jer 48:4 ESV]
They will be like a juniper in the desert.  Could mean isolated, single, alone?  She (9b) "...shall become a desolation, with no inhabitant..."  Moab had apparently never been over-run, taken captive, as seen in this verse:
11 "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile; so his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. [Jer 48:11 ESV]
This country is complacent, has never been over run, and has worshiped Chemosh for all this time.  Moab to this point has never paid for her sins.

2022 - It says Chemosh will go into exile.   This is the god of the Moabites   God is destroying what they pray to Chemosh to uphold.  This prophecy is as much against their idolatry as anything else.
vs 16 says Moab's calamity is near.

These two verses:
26 "Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the LORD, so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. 27 Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head? [Jer 48:26-27 ESV]
These are the reasons that Moab will be destroyed.  Good reasons all.

vs 28, "leave the cities and dwell in the rock."  Petra?  Or just wasteland?  In 2020 I think just wasteland.  Petra is in Jordan I think.  And Edom, where it also talks about rocks a lot, is to the south.

vs 35 "and I will bring an end in Moab..."  (They worshiped Chemosh.  Sacrificed children to him.)

Vs 40 is the only indication I've seen as to who exactly is going to wipe out Moab:
40 For thus says the LORD: "Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Moab; [Jer 48:40 ESV]

vs 42 really sums it up:
42 Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people, because he magnified himself against the LORD. [Jer 48:42 ESV]

BUT, this verse follows:
47 Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the LORD." Thus far is the judgment on Moab. [Jer 48:47 ESV]
The harsh judgements recorded are "thus far..."  But not the end.  Maybe because Moab is Lot's descendants?
So Egypt and Moab to remain, or be...Egypt remains, Philistia forever destroyed, Moab disappears but will ultimately return.  So much to study!!!

Chapter 49
These two chapters will have more proclamations.  probably called that instead of prophecies, because the past is part of so many of them.  2020 - Keep in mind that these are gathered and organized by geology, not by chronology.

2022 - As Chemosh, the god of Moab will go into captivity, so will Milcom, god of the Ammorites.

Yesterday we finished with Moab, and today, we start with Ammon, another son of Lot, chided for living in land granted to the tribes E of the Jordan (MSB).  (Relevant references from MSB include Eze 25:1-7, Am 1:13-15; Zep 2:8-11.)  Thing was, Ammon had "moved in" to the lands given to Gad, Reuben, and half Manasseh after the Assyrians took the northern kingdom away.  They took advantage of the situation.  They will be driven out, their cities laid waste.  In vs 2, it is Israel that will dispossess those who dispossessed him.  This would seem to be pointing toward the Millennial, not toward the immediate future to Jeremiah.  Ezekiel's division of the land doesn't fit inside the present borders of Israel.  Perhaps this is where some of that "extra" will come from, as Israel regains all she was promised.  Ammon will be pushed back out, but eventually, their fortunes will be restored.  This one little short verse:
6 "But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD." [Jer 49:6 ESV]
Here is that word "afterward" again.  We saw it in  46:26 concerning Egypt, and here were the questions it brought up:  Does this refer back to the time before the Pharoah's arose in Egypt?  To the time before she was a world power.  She will be inhabited as in those days after Nebuchadnezzar conquers them?  Or does afterward refer to the Millennial?   That in that future time, Egypt will again be a world power?  As to the Ammonites, their fortunes will be restored to what level?  Surely not restored to a place where they own Israeli land.  So not to their current location, but their current "fortunes"?  Really, the only thing we know for sure about Egypt or Ammon is that these prophecies will come before the restorations of these two countries.  The MSB note on this verse says it is "a promise from God that captives would have an opportunity to return.  This was partially fulfilled under Cyrus, but will be more fully in the coming kingdom of Messiah."  So MSB makes this verse about Israel, about the 10 tribes being restored, NOT about the kingdom of Ammon.  If that is the case, why does it refer to the "restored ones" as the "sons of Ammon"?  The 10 tribes are most certainly NOT the sons of Ammon.

Edom.  (Relevant references from MSB include Isa 21:11, 12; Eze 25:12-14; Am 1:11, 12; Ob 1)Bozrah will be a perpetual waste.  These seem to be key verses:
10 But I have stripped Esau bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he is not able to conceal himself. His children are destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more. 11 Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in me." 12 For thus says the LORD: "If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you must drink. 13 For I have sworn by myself, declares the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a horror, a taunt, a waste, and a curse, and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes." ... 15 For behold, I will make you small among the nations, despised among mankind. ... 18 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the LORD, no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her. ... 21 At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; the sound of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea. 22 Behold, one shall mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Bozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains." [Jer 49:10-13, 15, 18, 21-22 ESV]
Edom was south and southeast of Israel.  It sort of "touched" the very southern tip of the Red Sea and went off to the SE.  Bozrah, according to a historical map I found, is over that way. All of old Edom seems to be in Jordan today.  The area has had many names in the past, including Transjordan, and so on.  It was not really a country.  The prophecy says that Edom will no longer be a country.  It will be a wasteland with no one living there.  Mostly wandering people.  Amman, Jordan, is in the far north of the country, more in the area whee Ammon would have been.  Ammon/Amman?  You tell me...Vs 21 seems to imply that Moab was going to fall suddenly, be overrun almost without a struggle, and yet destroyed completely.  And there is that swift eagle again.  Second time we have see that eagle as the agent of destruction.  Very possibly it referred to Babylon.  In Dan 7, the beast with eagles wings is thought to be Babylon.  MSB gives these xrefs:  Descriptions of Babylon include (lion 4:7; flooding of the Jordan, 12:5.  Also "swoop like and eagle" v 22 is used of Babylon (Hab 1:8).  These are all arguments to support Babylon as conqueror of Edom.  These descriptions also might be of something like this, which is extant from ancient Babylon:



2024 - We can see that All the kingdoms surrounding Judah are to be conquered.  Either by Assyria, or later by Babylon.  Beginning in Jer 46 we have the collected prophecies about Egypt, far to the SE, then Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, well out into the Arabian peninsula and mostly nomadic, The Kingdoms of Hazor which I cannot pin down but possibly north of Galilee, Elam, and finally Babylon - which goes on for numerous chapters.  All of these but Babylon fell before Judah fell.  That's how many chances God gave to Jerusalem before Neb came and finished things.  I note also that Egypt, Philisita, Moan, Ammon, Edom, Elam, Kedar perhaps, are all countries.  I think Hazor is a city, and Babylon, finally, is both.

Vs 16-you who live in the cleft of the rock.  No man shall dwell there.  Bedouins pass through, no permanent residents.  (Until maybe recently.  Missionary says those govt's are now insisting that the Bedouins settle in towns. )  No restoration.

2020 - Need to speed up.  These chapters are very long...
Damascus.  Not as specific.  Doesn't say "no more", nor does it say "restored".  Says strongholds devoured.  Surely there is little for Syria to brag about today, though it is still there, and its King lives in Damascus.
Seems to me that the city will survive, according to this, unlike Edom and Bozrah.  But it will become far less important.  And you could make a case from 26 that she will never be much of a military force.  In any case, the city is going to fall.  Conquered by Neb in 605 BC per the MSB note.

Kedar.  An Ishmaelite tribe in the deserts east of Judah, per MSB.  Also, Hazor.  Most, if not all these cities, were conquered by Babylon under Neb.  This one is very specific about Neb.  Many of the others are less certain - though Neb seems to have been the actor in most cases.  Vs 33, an everlasting waste, no man shall dwell, no man sojourn.  This is out in the deserts of far NW Arabia.  Saudi of today.
28 Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck down. Thus says the LORD: "Rise up, advance against Kedar! Destroy the people of the east! ... 31 "Rise up, advance against a nation at ease, that dwells securely, declares the LORD, that has no gates or bars, that dwells alone. 32 Their camels shall become plunder, their herds of livestock a spoil. I will scatter to every wind those who cut the corners of their hair, and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, declares the LORD. 33 Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, an everlasting waste; no man shall dwell there; no man shall sojourn in her." [Jer 49:28, 31-33 ESV]

Elam.  
34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. ... 36 And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will scatter them to all those winds, and there shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not come. 37 I will terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, declares the LORD. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them, 38 and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the LORD. 39 "But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the LORD." [Jer 49:34, 36-39 ESV]
2024 - Notice that we are given a timestamp for this prophecy, breaking with what we have seen previously.  

MSB says 200 mi E of Babylon.  You wouldn't expect Jeremiah to have much direct knowledge of it.  Also, you would expect it was conquered in a diff thrust than the one covered to here.  Perhaps that is why this section has a timestamp, so we'll know it is being treated differently.  Elam was later the home of Darius.  Time of this word is stamped "in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah."  So backward from previous chapters.  This verse could be a basis for arguing that these prophecies were made completely before the events they describe, and fulfilled in the next few decades.  Elam's people are to be scattered.  But it says in 38:
38 and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the LORD. [Jer 49:38 ESV]  Is this about the coming of Darius?  Perhaps about Daniel's prophecy of the coming Medo-Persian empire when he describes the progression of history?  Never seen this before.  It says Elam's fortunes will be restored in the latter days.  This time, the MSB note reads this way:  "As with certain other peoples in this section of nations, God would allow Elamites to return to their homeland.  In Ac 2:9, Elamites were among the group present at the Pentecost event.  This has eschatological implications as well.".  So in this case, the "restoration" is not about restoring the 10 tribes to land they previously occupied but about the actual original inhabitants of the land.  Must remember though that Elam was never in the promised land, indeed not even very nearby.  However, I think this kind of restoration is what Jeremiah was talking about with Ammon, also, and with Egypt.  The descendants of the original inhabitants will return.  How is that going to look?  How could these descendants have stayed genetically true for thousands of years?  And if they haven't, does just one gene from Elam make you eligible to return there in the Millennial?  Sure hard to say.

2024 - This year, the "big deal" in vs 38 seems to me to be that God will set his throne in Elam?  The reading makes it pretty certain that this is the LORD God setting up this throne.  This is near Babylon, as things went in those days, only 200 miles away.  Elam has a coastline on the Persian Gulf, in modern day Iran, across from Qatar and Kuwait.  What throne would God set up there?  Doesn't make sense that it is Ezekiel's temple really.  MSB does not touch this verse, not even a notation.  Found one commentary that put it this way:  "The throne of Jehovah is, it is clear, the throne of the king who is, for the time, His chosen instrument and servant, in this case therefore the throne of Nebuchadnezzar."  That is certainly a way to read it, but do we see it stated that way anywhere else?  We know Neb was chosen to rule even over the animals and give a lot of power.  But to say he sat upon God's throne gives me a big problem.  


Chapter 50
2024 - I note that these prophecies have no timestamp.  We seem to be back to "the collected prophecies" of Jeremiah re Babylon.  I also note that I am NOT rushed this time through.

2020 - I am out of time.  Today is Sunday.  Going to have to go through this one too fast, though this one is of great interest to me.  I suspect I could really get bogged down here if I had the time.  So, I got a nosebleed at church (2020) and had to come home.  I am spending the time on today's reading in Jeremiah.  Got a lot more notes on 49...so I am once again short on time for 50.  Will use what I have though!
MSB says both 50 and 51 are going to be about Babylon.
MSB relevant references:  Is 13:1-14:23; Hab 2:6-17.
MSB further says that this judgement focuses on Media Persia's conquest of Babylon in 539 BC.  Quoting this part: "The prediction of elements of violent overthrow, which was not the case when Cyrus conquered since there was not even a battle, points to greater fulfillment near the coming of Messiah, in glory when events more fully satisfy the description (Rev 17, 18)."
Here is a short description of how the city was actually conquered by Cyrus:
In a military engagement known as the Battle of Opis, Cyrus knew that they could never break the walls. So he waited until the Babylonians had a national feast where they would be unsuspecting of an attack. There was one entrance in through the Euphrates River, where someone would have to hold their breath and swim until the other side, virtually impossible. Cyrus had his men divert the water until the water was only at hip depth. Cyrus took control of the city with virtually no fight. Babylon then came under the control of the Persian Empire.
So a bit like the Trojan horse.  The invaders were inside the walls, likely in the dark, with everyone asleep and/or drunk from the feast, and they probably opened the front gates and let the whole army in before anyone could even react.  

Babylon!  vs 2b:
2 "Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, conceal it not, and say: 'Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.' [Jer 50:2 ESV]
2022 - Note once again that it is the gods of Babylon that are put to shame.  They cannot stand before the living God.

2024 - Babylon is "taken" is what Jeremiah says.  As in captured by a conquering army.  That is not what Revelation says.  These verses:
9 And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground." [Isa 21:9 ESV]
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality." [Rev 14:8 ESV]
2 And he called out with a mighty voice, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. [Rev 18:2 ESV]
It seems unlikely, in this day and age, that a Babylon would have "images of her gods".  Idol worship is pretty much gone in all the world these days.  In the Middle East, where Islam rules, idols are detested.  This is why Isis destroyed what Saddam had rebuilt of Babylon.  They see it as blasphemy.  Based on this, I would suggest that Isaiah, when using the term fallen, is talking about Cyrus.  The Medo-Persians, even in a bloodless conquest, would evict the gods of Babylon and install their own.  Let's make that a sort of "rule of interpretation".  If Idols are involved, it is about Cyrus.  Second rule, if Babylon is "taken" it is about Cyrus.  If Babylon is "fallen", and her gods are not mentioned, it is about the 70th week.  I have also noticed in Jeremiah that when we get what I have come to call "wrap-around" prophecies, that reference something that began in the OT, and is only completed in the 70th week, that we have been able to identify pretty clearly the end of part one and the beginning of part two. We do not jump back and forth in alternating verses.  So we will also try and use that principle of interpretation here.  And I wonder if we can also make use of the contrast between "Babylon" and "Babylon the Great"?
2024 - So.  Based on our new rules, I see that Isaiah gave idolatry as the reason for Babylon's fall, while in Revelation, sexual immorality is the "crime mentioned".  Further, in Isa 21, there is another verse that tells Elam and Media to attack.  
2024 - Here is a good map, found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes#/media/File:Median_Empire.png:

Susa was like the "residence" of the King of Babylon.  Susa is mentioned multiple times in Esther, which would have been before the return.  Ahasuerus was in the Citadel, at Susa.  Here is a note about him from Wikipedia:  
"Ahasuerus is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official in the Book of Tobit. It is a transliteration of either Xerxes I or Artaxerxes; both are names of multiple Achaemenid dynasty Persian kings."  So we are right that the Susa in Esther is about the time before Babylon under the Medes fell fell to Cyrus, King of Persia.
2024 - And this begs the question about Jer 49 beginning in vs 34 about Elam.  Perhaps when Cyrus marched from Persia on Babylon, he captured Elam on the way.  So God put Cyrus -  his man - on the throne in Elam first.  Then Cyrus and the Elamite archers crossed into Babylonia to the north of Babylon coming down through Opis - with a diversionary force coming at them direct from Susa on the main road, and stopped the water coming down the Euphrates - which would have to have been done at a spot north of Babylon - and the captured the city without a battle.  

2024 - This verse:  3 "For out of the north a nation has come up against her, which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both man and beast shall flee away. [Jer 50:3 ESV].  Rev 18.2 says that Babylon will be inhabited by unclean birds and beasts.  Jer 50.3 says nothing will live there.  So...Revelation is talking about Babylon as a world government falling, and Jeremiah is talking about a geographic Babylon?  

Conquered from the north.  This should be provable.  Babylon did fall, and Babylon will fall.  There is that whole thing about whether the Babylon of Revelation is a city or is a system.  She will become desolate.  This is Iraq now, out in the desert.  Isis tore down what little was left of her.

2024 - Verse four seems to "separate" itself from 1-3, in that it starts with "In those days and in that time..."  So perhaps this is the division.  1-3 are about the fall of Babylon to Cyrus, and now beginning in four, we are in the 70th week?  This pretty much has to be the case because we see both Israel and Judah coming together.  That's the northern and the southern 2, and as I write this, the 10 are still gone forever.  So this has to be about a time still future to us.  Vs 6 certainly seems to describe the northern 10.  Vs 7 is about rampant anti-Semitism.  It is ok to stomp on the Jews because they have forgotten their God, and he has left them helpless.  It is sort of "God's will" that bad things are done to them by all nations.  Now think of that in terms of today!  Is God, through this Gaza thing and the unleashing of worldwide calls for genocide of Israel just another of the ongoing "corrections" by which God is trying to bring them back to him?  

vs 4 starts a prophecy of the Millennial, when Judah shall seek the Lord with weeping.  This verse:
7 All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, 'We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their habitation of righteousness, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.' [Jer 50:7 ESV]
Here is the history of Israel in one verse.  At least this is true since 586 BC, and even more so after 70 AD.
In vs 8 the people are urged to flee from Babylon.  This might be about the return under Nehemiah.  Maybe they were urged to go home rather than remain in Babylon, which was going to fall.
2024 - The interpretation that the Jews were urged to flee before Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians doesn't really fly.  They were all slaves at the time.  Cyrus frees them.  So the prophecy that tells them to flee must be about a different time, a different conquest, and very possibly a different city - only called Babylon because of political/financial/"power" similarity.  But it is certain that the Jews in Babylon 70 years after 586 BC could not have just up and left.  So.  Somehow, in the future Babylon of Revelation, the city will have Jews, not a few, living there.  They are urged to leave not just the city but the whole land of the Chaldeans.  (I have no idea how male goats before the flock behave.  Are they also to lead out the weak, the young and old, and the oppressed at that time?  Is that what male goats do?)  If we are in the future, Babylon will again be attacked from the north by many great nations.  It is just difficult to see this description as being about the fall of a world economic system.  It seems much better to interpret this as a prophecy of the fall of a large, inhabited city.  Perhaps it is the capitol city of the world government, but it seems obviously to be a place and not a concept.  And if we say this is the same place as in Revelation, which I think we must because of the switch in vs 4, the Revelation is about the fall of a place also.  

Just reading from here in 2020.  No time for more notes.

vs 12b:
12 ...Behold, she shall be the last of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. [Jer 50:12 ESV].
2024 - That sounds like the 70th week doesn't it?  Perhaps she will be the last to fall to the iron rod of the King of Zion?  Vs 13 seems to bear that out also:
13 Because of the wrath of the LORD she shall not be inhabited but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled, and hiss because of all her wounds. [Jer 50:13 ESV].  This is just not what happened in the days of Cyrus.  Babylon was occupied for a long time after that.  I found these in Wikipedia:  
Under Alexander, Babylon again flourished as a center of learning and commerce. However, following Alexander's death in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, his empire was divided amongst his generals, the Diadochi, and decades of fighting soon began. The constant turmoil virtually emptied the city of Babylon. A tablet dated 275 BC states that the inhabitants of Babylon were transported to Seleucia, where a palace and a temple (Esagila) were built. With this deportation, Babylon became insignificant as a city, although more than a century later, sacrifices were still performed in its old sanctuary.[57].  I did not know that Alexander died in Babylon.  And notice the description - turmoil virtually emptied the city.  And compare that description to this verse:  16 ...because of the sword of the oppressor, every one shall turn to his own people, and every one shall flee to his own land. [Jer 50:16b ESV].  that certainly fits...and this is all before the Age of the Gentiles, and so could well be included in Jeremiah's prophecies about times before the 70th week.  Sure is hard to pin it down.  I just go back and forth.  
Ibn Hawqal (10th century) and the Arab scholar, al-Qazwini (13th century), describe Babylon (Babil) as a small village.  So by the 1100's, the place was tiny, not a speck of what it once was.  So it seems the place declined gradually...but always was in decline.

These verses:
17 "Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones. ... 19 I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. 20 In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant. [Jer 50:17, 19-20 ESV]
2024 - In today's reading, the same day that I read Jer 50, I also read Heb 8, and noticed this connecting verse:  12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." [Heb 8:12 ESV].  Whomever wrote Hebrews seems to be quoting Jeremiah at least in part.  They are both talking about the same point in time, both talking about the New Covenant.  As Gentiles, we are benefactors from Israel's rejection of this covenant, but these promises were made to Jews!  I believe we of the church age are still only partially "enlightened" and that complete fulfillment of this prophecy is reserved for the Jews in the Millennial.  That's just what I think.

Interesting that this prophesies about the near fall of Babylon, and then the Millennial return of Israel to the land.  Or will there be a second Babylon that is the one in Revelation?
2024 - Or maybe not...I do note, for the first time, that beginning in vs 17, we are talking about Israel.  About the 10 tribes taken by Assyria.  We know this is "real" because we saw back in vs 4 that BOTH were discussed, and reunited.  Vss 17-18 seem to be saying that Babylon is being punished for the same reason Assyria was - because of what they had done to Israel, as the northern 10.  Vs 20 confirms again that Israel and Judah are both in mind, and both the subject of similar prophecies.  

2024 - We have this phrase again here:
20 In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant. [Jer 50:20 ESV].  So...what if the first time we saw this, we were skipping ahead from Jeremiah's time to the fall of Babylon to Cyrus, and NOW, in vs 20, we are skipping ahead again to the 70th week?  I don't know that I've ever seen that kind of thing happen before - with two skips, but I also have never looked for it.  Just not seeing a way to interpret all these so that they are consistent.  Surely there has never been a time when there was "no iniquity" in Judah???  And we saw a pretty firm indicator that the previous prophecy, discussed above, was also still future.  I'm going to stick with those.  Make them firmly in the future.  

2024 - Reading on through from here.  There is just so much to unravel in this very long chapter!

Revelation, Babylon is fallen.  The last...wrath mentioned.  This has to be about end times.  A real city.  How could it e anywhere but current Babylon?  It must also rise again.  But then this:
34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon. [Jer 50:34 ESV]  Sure sounds like end times.

The reason for her fall:
38 A drought against her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols. [Jer 50:38 ESV]
Oh my...Looking at the description above of how Cyrus got in gives this verse a very profound meaning.  Was Jeremiah still alive in 539 BC?  Found a note that says Jeremiah died in 570 BC, 30 years before Babylon fell.  AND, he died in Egypt remember, because that is where the surviving Judeans took him, against his will!  
2024 - And here, it is all happening because of Babylonian idolatry, and we decided above that this steers us to the conquest by Cyrus and not the 70th week.  So.  We know the little "system" I worked above does not work.  

vs 39 says she will never again have people.  Not for all generations.  That either means after the destruction in Revelation, or that I am wrong about the rebuilding.  Uninhabited for all generations sounds like no rebuilding.  In which case...the Babylon of Revelation may be more about system than city after all.  See exactly what did occur when historic Babylon met her end...

There is an MSB note on vs 40:  "As when God overthrew Sodom.  Cf 50:1.  What befell Sodom (cf. Ge 19) was sudden and total destruction, not like the Media Persia takeover, but like an example for the future devastation that will overtake the final Babylon (cf Rev 17, 18)."  I believe the overthrow by Cyrus was sudden.  It happened probably overnight and "without a shot being fired" essentially.  But the city was not destroyed, perhaps barely damaged.  So it will fall again, suddenly, completely, and be gone forever.  BUT, it is pretty much completely gone today.  There is nothing much at all where Babylon once stood.  Saddam Hussein was trying to rebuild it, and those ruins are all that remain.  For example, here is a photo of the ruins of Babylon from 1932:



This photo, and the prophecy of desolation, lead me to believe that the Babylon of Revelation is a different place geographically.  It is not ancient Babylon rebuilt on the same real estate.  It will be a place like Babylon, a long-enduring world power, the fear of all nations, the source of world power.  Could be it is the capitol city of the Antichrist, the dragon, the beast, and the image.  It could be in Iran.  The Antichrist could rule from there for the first 3 1/2 years and then take up residence in the new Temple - either in Jerusalem if I am wrong or in Ezekiel's Temple to the north of Jerusalem.  He could be the "prince" who owns the land in the center of the returned 12 tribes.  But...this is a temple, not a great city.  From the Temple you can see a great city, far away.  Jerusalem I think, far to the South.  So maybe the seat of power is somewhere in Iran, but the residence is in Israel.  Maybe that is how it will go.

Then at the end of the chapter the phrase "Who will summon me" is repeated.  vs 46 surely looks like the Fall of Babylon in Revelation...
46 At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations." [Jer 50:46 ESV]
And yet, Jeremiah used this same phrase to describe the fall of Edom.  The very same phrase.  Hard to see how they could be equated.
Lots of MSB notes on this chapter.  Go back and read them also!

Another MSB note says the "lion" in 50:41-46 is Cyrus.

Archers are repeatedly mentioned as the means of the destruction of Babylon.  Was this true historically?  Does Revelation mention it?  There is an MSB note on 49:35 saying "Elamites were famous archers".  The note on vss 34-39 says Elam was subjugated by Babylon in 596 BC.  Later, Cyrus of Persia conquered Elam and incorporated Elamites into the Persian forces that conquered Babylon in 539 BC.  So maybe these are the archers so repeatedly referred to, and the source of these archers.  (Except there was no real battle in 539 BC, so little need for archers.)

Chapter 51
2024 - I notice in vs. 2 that the destroyer that comes against Babylon will come from "every side".  Remember that previous prophecy said the attack would be from the north, so perhaps this is now the demarcation of the prophecy of the fall of Judah switching over to the future Babylon.  In 3 it says the archers shouldn't shoot where previously it was adamant that they should.  And 5 says BOTH Israel and Judah are not forgotten.  In the time of Cyrus, it was only Judah that returned, Israel was long gone.
2024 - I don't think I have noticed  before that there are all these prophecies that Israel, divorced Israel, is not forgotten and will also be avenged. This says Babylon will fall partly as vengeance for what they did to Israel.

Continues with the fall of Babylon.  This verse:
5 ...the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. [Jer 51:5 ESV]

And this one:
6 "Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her. [Jer 51:6 ESV]
There was a verse like this previously, saying to get out of Babylon before she  is destroyed.  That one, like this, would seem to be addressed to those taken captive from Judah, and still there when Cyrus comes.  But it may also have a far fulfillment in the end times.  When Babylon is destroyed at that time, won't there be a few good people in it?  A remnant perhaps of some of these other countries that have been named here?
2023 - I don't think the Babylon in Revelation is ever warned to flee what was coming.  That seems a pretty strong indicator that this Babylon in Jeremiah is  literal Babylon.
2024 - And this year, I don't think it is reasonable for Jeremiah to be telling the captives from Judah now enslaved in Babylon to flee.  Slaves are not being told to leave their masters here.  This is about a future Babylon.

And also this:
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad. [Jer 51:7 ESV]
Really want to compare this language to Revelation.  
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality." [Rev 14:8 ESV]  This is right after the sealing of the 144,000 when the three angels make their proclamations.
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk." [Rev 17:2 ESV]
3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living." [Rev 18:3 ESV]
Is this the wine that flows freely from Babylon?   Is this the characteristic that identifies her?  Makes me think of all the "Utopia" books I've read.  So many of them include throwing out the "old morality" and everyone  having a go with everyone else.   The 60's in this country were headed that way.  Perhaps Babylon will be a world system that has dispensed with morality where sex is concerned.  Also makes me think of Epstein's island.  Will Babylon be a place like that, where any perversion is indulged?  And was this island the first stab at it?  You have to assume that this same characteristic was there back then, perhaps it overflowed with temple prostitutes for all its pagan gods.  But I've never really  heard much about that.  And the next few verses say "old" Babylon was destroyed for what Neb did to the Temple in Jerusalem.  God, though He used them to carry out His wrath, could not let the destruction of His own Temple pass unavenged.

2023 - In relating the "fall of Babylon" here in Jeremiah, to the one in Revelation, I think it is important to note that there is NOTHING currently located.  So today, it seems clear that the Babylon of Revelation is symbolic, at least to that extent.  It may still be a literal city, it may be just a world economic system, it may be a corrupt world government, but it is not a place between the Tigris and Euphrates.  I don't think we are close enough to the time of Babylon's fall in Revelation to unravel what those verses mean.  But I think it will clear up with time.  This may also mean that these prophecies in Jeremiah were about the fall of Babylon back then.  Because these verses in Jeremiah have some geographical references that seem to make it pretty certain WHERE the prophecies would be fulfilled.
2023 Later - Saw a YouTube video of the "new" Babylon.  It is a tourist attraction.  I don't think it has residents, but there is a lot more there than nothing.

2022 - It may well be that Chapters 50,51 are near/far.  They surely were about the coming demise of Babylon back in that day, but they may be even more profoundly about some future Babylon as the correlative verses above seem to indicate.  Where is that future Babylon?  What is it?  I just don't think it is certain.  I don't think Dad was certain either.  Even John MacArthur feels obliged to justify his position.

Also, this verse:
11 "Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple. [Jer 51:11 ESV]
The Medes named as the coming conquerors of Babylon, so most definitely a near fulfillment of these prophecies about Babylon.  And why does Babylon fall?  Because the desecrated the Temple of God.  They robbed it of it's treasures, it's vessels, it's gold and brass.  And then they burned it.  This cannot stand.  Though God raised them up to do His will and lay waste to Judah, yet they must pay for their own deeds.  vs thirteen mentions "...You who dwell by many waters..."  Didn't think that was true of ancient Babylon, but then it was between the Tigris and the Euphrates, wasn't it?  Yes...very near the Euphrates, and there is a fork in the Euphrates there.  Well...A modern map shows the fork quite a ways north of Babylon.  Further, the western fork is called the Euphrates.  I'm not finding a name for the fork where Babylon was located.  Satellite shows a dam where the fork is today.  Not sure it is at the same place.
2022 - This, mixed right in, must certainly refer to the ancient fall of ancient Babylon.  2024 - Yes!  This is already done.  I am not finding any "formula" that separates the predictions.  Perhaps the key is that when these prophecies about Babylon began in Chapter 50, it read as if this is a collection about place, not necessarily in chronological order.  I think they should still be separable, and that would be an interesting exercise, but perhaps trying to apply a restriction that make THIS organization first show the near prophecies and then gathers the far all together is not going to every apply to geographical organization.  Jeremiah could have received these prophecies over an entire lifetime, first about near, then about far, then near again.  It would be a big job, but I think a worthwhile job, to snip them apart and see if a more "comprehendable" picture would emerge.

2023 - This verse:
13 O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut. [Jer 51:13 ESV]. "by many waters" is a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates.  These verses are about a physical geographical location.

Vss 15, 16, creation:
15 "It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. 16 When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. [Jer 51:15-16 ESV]

2024 - What in the world is going on in this verse:
19 Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name. [Jer 51:19 ESV].  The only way I can see to read this is to understand Israel as the combined nation, "Jacob", as it was before the kingdom split.  We have seen Jeremiah name both Israel and Judah in some places, but I don't see how in this verse that Israel alone, excluding Judah, could be what he means.  Surely Jacob includes them both.
Ok, I get it now...God is described in vss 15-16.  Then those who live in Babylon are shown to be stupid, and the goldsmiths who live there hammer out idols that do not breath.  False gods.  Then in 19, it says God is not like those man made gods.  He is instead the God of Jacob, the God of Israel.  hen in vs 20, we hear more about the historic purpose of Babylon in God's hands, as below.  Babylon is the hammer.

In vss 20-23, God tells Babylon "You are my hammer..."  Babylon was just a tool God used to carry out judgement on the many nations that had done evil - not just against Israel, but in worshiping idols, in not recognizing Israel's God as the true God.  Great as Babylon was, she was just God's judgement.  

2024 - Beginning in 2024 we see Babylon promised the same demise as was Assyria.  Though these two nations were used of God to carry out his plans, they are heathen and horrible and merciless, and for "enjoying" their occupation of conquest, especially the "crimes" against Israel and Judah, they must fall.

2024 - Uh oh....this is perhaps the longest chapter I've seen so far!  Sunday morning, so I need to get moving.

2023 - Another geographical reference:
32 the fords have been seized, the marshes are burned with fire, and the soldiers are in panic. [Jer 51:32 ESV].  You wouldn't say this about a world government falling.

2022 - This last part of this verse is mentioned below, but look at the beginning of it:
26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, declares the LORD. [Jer 51:26 ESV]
The idea seems to be that even though God chose Babylon, among the nations, to carry out His will and purpose, He has not made them His covenant people.  They are not a replacement for Israel as His nation, but a tool to correct His true chosen.  No Messiah is going to come out of Babylon.  The Messiah must needs arise only from the descendants of David.

vs 26 - you shall be a perpetual waste.
The Medes and their many allies to overthrow Babylon.
vs 29 - Babylon to be desolate, without inhabitant.  So it will be razed, not just conquered.

2022 - It seems like Jeremiah is talking in first person starting at vs 34.

vs 37 - a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing without inhabitant.  Surely it is like this today.  This has not changed.  So where is the Babylon of Revelations.
A very long chapter, repeating the coming destruction, and the consequences many times.


2022 - Compare these verses:
6 "Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her. [Jer 51:6 ESV]
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; [Rev 18:4 ESV]
45 "Go out of the midst of her, my people! Let every one save his life from the fierce anger of the LORD! [Jer 51:45 ESV]

39 While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk, that they may become merry, then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the LORD. [Jer 51:39 ESV]
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk." [Rev 17:2 ESV]

41 "How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! [Jer 51:41 ESV]
10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, "Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come." [Rev 18:10 ESV]
How can we read this as anything but Jeremiah's vision of events during t/gt?  The words are too similar, the images interchangeable.  Jeremiah is giving us a more detailed view of what John is going to summarize later.  If we would read Jeremiah with a view to these prophecies of Babylon being in great measure about still future events, might we learn more about what the Babylon of Revelation truly is?  Look at this stuff in vs 46:
46 Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful at the report heard in the land, when a report comes in one year and afterward a report in another year, and violence is in the land, and ruler is against ruler. [Jer 51:46 ESV]
Surely this signifies that the fall of Babylon will be recognizable as imminent to those who know what to look for?  A report, and then another report, and then widespread war as the "powerful" nation is assaulted by her neighbors?  This surely seems like a real place, a real city/state that will be prominent during t/gt.  Note this verse from Revelation:
16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, [Rev 17:16 ESV]
Even the beast will hate Babylon.  She will be no part of him, but he too will war against her.  This Babylon will be a place/thing apart from all else that is going on during t/gt.  I will make a note in my Rev 17 notes about this.  It is also interesting that Jeremiah devotes two chapters to the fall, as does Rev.  I realize that chapters are "man-made", but it is still interesting to me.  

2024 - The verse comparisons above are a great place to start unraveling Jeremiah's near and far prophecies...and possibly even using Revelation to confirm that we have it right!

2022 - Vs 44:
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer flow to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen. [Jer 51:44 ESV]
Another instance of the god of a pagan nation being the object of God's wrath.

Vs 45 - 45 "Go out of the midst of her, my people! Let every one save his life from the fierce anger of the LORD! [Jer 51:45 ESV]  So God's people in Babylon at the time of her fall.  Easy to see this when the Medes invade.  What about Revelation?  Does it apply to that time?
Vs 54 sounds a lot like Revelation -
54 "A voice! A cry from Babylon! The noise of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! [Jer 51:54 ESV]  In Rev 18 there are several "cries" about the fall of Babylon.  In vss 10, 14, 16, 18, 19.  
This verse seems to be the last one about Babylon, and speaks to the futility of man's efforts:
58 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire." [Jer 51:58 ESV]

In vs 59, a complete change.  Words now from God through Jeremiah given to Seraiah for Zedekiah when Z went to Babylon.  This would be after the second (?) fall of Jerusalem to Babylon?  The words were that Babylon their captor was destined also to fall, and very soon.  Some comfort, I suppose, for Z and those with him.  Perhaps this is a tie to when Jeremiah actually received this particular prophecy about Babylon.  Look at what Seraiah was to do after he had read this prophecy in Babylon itself:
63 When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, 64 and say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. [Jer 51:63-64 ESV]
2023 - Since this prophesy was to be taken to Babylon itself, to the great city, and it's coming destruction proclaimed, these prophecies in Jeremiah MUST have been about that old Babylon.  It makes very little sense to read it otherwise.  So then, what is Revelation about.  Look at the verse below from Revelation!

And look at what happens in Revelation:
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more; [Rev 18:21 ESV]
2023 - So what is it that the Babylon of old and the Babylon of the future have so much in common that the prophecy in Revelation superimposes itself so well with the ones of Jeremiah?  What is the same?  Old Babylon was about idols.  New Babylon...the same?  The abomination of desolation that the world is forced to worship?  The home city of that idol and all its priesthood are what get destroyed in Revelation, a false religion with an idol at its head?  That makes a kind of sense.  I surely don't know what else it would be.  Won't that idol be in Ezekiel's temple, which will be someplace besides Jerusalem?  Starts to get complicated again really quickly.

There is a "continuation" of Jeremiah's prophecy about Babylon, but since the Babylon of Jeremiah's time still lies in ruins, I do not see what Revelation is talking about.  I don't see how it can be the same place.

Chapter 52
A re-telling (?) of the fall of Jerusalem.  Per MSB, this chapter is almost exactly like 2K24:18-25:30.  A "historical supplement" to show how accurate Jeremiah's prophecies were.
Zedekiah rebelled.  (Says first that he was an evil King, and God had cast Judah and Jerusalem from His presence).  2 year siege by Babylon.  Jerusalem was a truly strong city to withstand them so long!  It tells again of the capture of Zedekiah and the sentence Neb pronounced on him and all the officials of Jerusalem .  It says that upon capture, Zedekiah's army was scattered from him.  These must make up a lot of the people who came to Gedeliah after the Babylonian army had gone home.  The chapter goes on to talk about Nebuzaradan burning the Temple and the city.  The captives are counted- those taken by Nebuzaradan.  Jehoiachin freed and given a high place by Evil-Merodach.
The end of Jerusalem then, is the end of Jeremiah's book.