Jeremiah supports Josiah’s reform
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:
2 Say to the people of Jerusalem:
3 Cursed be anyone who does not heed the terms of this cove nant
4 which I ordained for your ancestors the day I freed them from that cleansing furnace that Egypt is. I said to them: ‘If you obey my voice and do all that I command you, you will be my people and I will be your God.
5 Then I will fulfill the promise I swore to your ancestors, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey,’ (as it is today).”
I replied, “Amen, Yahweh.”
6 Yahweh said to me, “Publish what I say in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, ‘Hear the terms of this covenant and keep them.
7 When I brought your forebearers out of Egypt, I solemnly warned them and have continued to tell them: ‘Obey me.’
8 But they did not listen to me or heed what I said; each one followed his own stubborn heart. So I fulfilled against them all the words of this covenant that I had commanded them, but which they did not follow.”
9 Yahweh said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10 They have returned to the sins of their forebearers who refused to obey me; they have followed and served foreign gods. The nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.”
11 That is why Yahweh says to you, “I will bring upon them a disaster from which there will be no escape. When they cry to me I will not listen.
12 Then the cities of Judah and the people of Jeru salem will go crying to the gods they worship, but these will not help them in the time of misfortune.
13 For you, Ju dah, have as many gods as there are cities; as numerous as the streets in Jerusalem are the altars you have raised to Baal.”
14 For your part, do not intercede for this people, nor offer a plea or petition because I will not listen when they cry to me in the time of their distress.
15 What is my beloved doing in my House?
She is plotting evil deeds.
Will your vows and the meat of your
victims cleanse you from your wickedness and allow you to rejoice?
Yahweh had called you
16 ‘Beautiful Green Olive Tree —
fair and fruitful!’
But with the roar of a storm,
its foliage took fire
and its branches were broken.
17 And Yahweh, God of host, who planted you, has condemned you to shame. Indeed the nation of Israel and the nation of Jacob harmed themselves when they worshiped Baal and aroused my anger.
Plot against Jeremiah
18 Yahweh made it known to me and so I know! And you let me see their scheming: (12 6 ) “Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you and behind your back they freely criticize you. Do not trust them when they ap proach you in a friendly way.”
19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, “Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again.”
20 Yahweh, God of hosts, you who judge with justice and know everyone’s heart and intentions, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.
21 This is what Yahweh has to say against the people of Anathoth who threatened me with death and said, “Do not prophesy any more in the name of Yahweh and we will spare your life.”
22 Yahweh says to them, “This is how I will punish you: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die of hunger.
23 No one will survive when I bring disaster on the people of Ana thoth in the year of their punishment.”
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Comments Jeremiah, Chapter 11
• 11.1 This chapter is one of the few offering us the preaching of Jeremiah in the years following the “discovery of the Law” and Josiah’s reform (see 2 K 22). For a while, wishing to do his best to serve Yahweh, King Josiah aroused a new fervor. Yet, when we read what Jeremiah says here, we see that the conversion of the people was not, nor could be, in depth.
Jeremiah knew that in order to be faithful to God, one must be moved and transformed by him.