Behold, I bring a nation upon you from afar, house of Israel, saith Jehovah it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest thou what they say.
Jeremiah 5 has just searched Jerusalem's streets for one righteous person and found none. Now God names the sentence: an army marching in from far away. Who is this nation? Why would God use it against His own people? And why does He point out that Judah cannot even understand their speech?
One writer follows that failed search through every layer of the nation.
From the king down to the man in the street not one could be found to meet the situation. We are told, "There was no man"! There were plenty of strong men and hard men, but they did not know the way of the Lord (Jer. 5:3-4)… God claimed recognition and honour in every circle. But in government they were corrupt, in society they had sunk low (Jer. 5:7-9), and in religion they had given themselves up to idolatry.
One writer names the new power, traces its ancient line, and explains what God meant it to do.
A new power would arise, the Chaldeans. They would invade and take over homes that were not theirs. That is, they would set out on a wide conquest and take away Judah's home. They were to be the instrument in God's hand to deal out judgment to the Jews and humble them, along with other nations. The Chaldeans, called Hakhadsim in Hebrew, were of Semitic origin, coming from Kesed, the son of Nahor and brother of Abraham (Gen. 22:22).
Can God use an evil nation as His tool? One writer answers plainly.
Later God used the Chaldeans in this way, and this is what troubled the prophet Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans God was going to use to discipline them were worse. We see here what we also see in Habakkuk: God may use an evil nation to discipline His unfaithful people, but only under His strict supervision and control.
One writer shows how the punishment fits the sin.
It would not only be ruin and death in the land. The people would also serve strangers in a foreign land, just as they had forsaken the Lord and served foreign gods in their own land. Their hearts had already turned away and left Him.
Why does God mention the language at all? One commentator finds the purpose behind it.
Verse 21 quotes Isaiah 28:11-12. It points to Israel being humbled as foreign nations ruled over them, because of their proud rebellion against God. God would use foreign languages to humble them, not to lift them up. By this means He sought to wake them from their unbelief, yet they would not hear.
The wording is not new. One writer lines up Jeremiah's words with Moses' earlier warnings.
Jeremiah's quotations and citations from the Book of the Covenant are too many to mention… Compare Jer. 2:6 and Deut. 32:10; Jer. 5:15 and Deut. 28:49.
One commentator spells out what Moses' warning meant and when it came true.
The Lord would send a foreign nation against them that would show no respect for old age and no compassion toward children (vs. 49-50). This likely refers to the attack of the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:5-6), which destroyed the ten northern tribes. It then refers to the later attack of the Babylonians, when Babylon brought Judah into bondage (2 Kings 24:1-3).
The people had not believed the warnings. Even so, God set a limit on the blow.
The people had not believed the judgment messages (verse 12). Verses 15-18 describe what the invader from the north will do to Israel. Again the promise comes, "I will not make a full end with you." The Lord keeps a remnant among His people.
- Cause — God searched for one person doing right, from the king down to the man in the street, and found none.
- Instrument — the far-off nation is the Chaldeans. God uses them as a tool, but only under His strict supervision and control.
- Fit — they served foreign gods at home, so they would serve foreign masters abroad. The punishment matches the sin.
- Voice — a language they cannot understand is God humbling a proud people. He was trying to wake them from unbelief, and still they would not hear.
- Limit — the same God who sends the invader refuses to make a full end, keeping a remnant in the middle of His people.
Their quiver is as an open sepulchre; they are all mighty men.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they shall eat up thy harvest and thy bread, they shall eat up thy sons and thy daughters, they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds, they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall destroy with the sword thy strong cities, wherein thou trustedst.
A far-off, ancient nation is marching on Judah, and this verse lists what that army will swallow — down to the walled cities the people trusted for safety. Two questions follow: why would God hand His own people over, and is anything left when the sword has finished?
The army described here is not a random disaster of history. Commentators name the rising power and place it in God's hand.
A new power would arise, the Chaldeans. They would invade, and take over homes that were not their own — that is, they would set out to conquer far and wide, and take away Judah's home. They were to be the instrument in the hand of God to bring judgment on the Jews and humble them, as well as other nations.
The wording of this verse was not new to Judah. One writer traces the prophet's words back to the covenant and the law given long before.
In the days of Jeremiah, before the book of the law was found, the whole history of the covenant is already taken for granted. Without the first five books of the Bible it would make no sense… Jeremiah 5:15, "Look, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says the Lord God… a nation whose language you do not know, nor understand what they say," is a quotation from Deuteronomy 28:49. And Jeremiah 5:17, "they shall eat up your harvest," and so on, comes from Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:31.
Another writer spells out that earlier warning in Leviticus:
They would sow their seed, but their enemies would eat the crop. Their enemies would defeat them in battle and rule over them with hateful oppression.
The loss in this verse reaches every part of life. Commentators point to a failure in Judah that was just as complete.
From the king down to the man in the street not one could be found to meet the situation. We are told, "There was no man"! There were plenty of strong men and hard men, but they did not know the way of the Lord (Jer. 5:3-4)… God claimed recognition and honour in every circle. But in politics they were corrupt, in society they were degraded (Jer. 5:7-9), and in religion they had given themselves up to idolatry (v. 19), while prophets, priests and people joined together in lies (vv. 30-31).
The loss of the harvest is itself a harvest. One writer traces the harvest back to the seed, and carries the principle into our own day.
Their sowing was bringing a harvest. They asked, "Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?" He answers that they had sown their evil seed by forsaking the Lord and serving strange gods. The harvest would be serving strangers in a strange land… The seed now being sown is Bible rejection. Rejecting the gospel of Christ is the seed of falling away, and it will bring a harvest of judgment, as it did with Israel.
The verse ends by naming what the cities were for: trust. One commentator finds the same misplaced trust in the temple — and then in Christendom.
Man boasts loudest of his own security when he pays least attention to God's sovereign grace and to his own duty to bear true witness to Him. The Jew flattered himself that the temple must stand by God's power, whatever the people might be. So Christendom, fallen and still falling, set up claims that it can never fail and can never be wrong — claims that match its decline, and that belong to God alone.
The list of losses stops short of total ruin. The very next verse sets a limit.
Verses 15-18 describe what the invader from the north will do to Israel. Again God gives the promise, "I will not make a full end with you." The Lord keeps a remnant in the middle of His people.
- Sown. They planted evil seed by forsaking the Lord for other gods. The invader eating their crops is the harvest of what they sowed.
- Spoken. Nothing here is a surprise sentence. The words come from Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 — warnings God attached to His covenant long before Judah broke it.
- Sent. The Chaldeans are not an accident of politics. They are the instrument in God's hand to humble His people.
- Stripped. Harvest, children, herds, vines, and last of all the walled cities. That last item is the point: self-security speaks loudest where people heed God least.
- Spared. The sword stops short of a full end. God still keeps a remnant among His people.
Nevertheless in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.
Jeremiah has just described a far-away invader who will eat up harvest, flocks, sons and daughters — and then God sets a limit to His own judgment. So what is God holding back, and why stop short when the city's sin has just been exposed as total?
The promise does not soften the verdict. It comes while the sentence is still being read out, after a survey in which no part of the nation came out clean.
Jeremiah 5 shows the sin and iniquity to be universal: rich and poor, all are alike. And "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD." Yet He will not destroy them completely.
Everything turns on the phrase "a full end." It stands for a single word, and its uses elsewhere set its weight.
The word translated consumption, or consummation, elsewhere describes God's judgments carried out to the full… In Jeremiah the same word appears as "full end" in several passages (Jer. 4:27; Jer. 5:10, 18; Jer. 30:11; Jer. 46:28).
Jeremiah repeats this promise later in his book. There he spells out the gap between what God does to Israel and what He does to the nations that carry her away.
The chapter ends with comfort for the chosen people. After such folly and self-will they might well have feared complete extinction. "I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven 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." The Lord is full of pity and tender mercy.
Judah had not earned the limit. God keeps something of His own inside the disaster.
The people had not believed the judgment messages (verse 12). Verses 15-18 describe what the invader from the north will do to Israel. Again comes the promise, "I will not make a full end of you." The Lord keeps a remnant in the midst of His people.
Through these chapters Jeremiah is not only announcing what will happen; he is working on his hearers. One writer ties the sparing of the nation directly to the few whose hearts genuinely turned.
Unless we have been reached in the heart, and in the spirit, in the very centre of our being, we are alienated from the living God. We may call ourselves "the people of God," as these Jews did, and have priests and a form of religion… But, as at all times, God reserves a remnant. Such turn in reality to the Lord Himself, and they are true in heart to Him (Jer. 4:27 and 5:18); therefore, He will not make a full end of the nation.
Being spared is not being let off. The punishment is shaped to fit the sin.
There would not only be desolation and death in the land. The people would serve foreigners in a foreign land, just as they had forsaken the LORD and served foreign gods in their own land.
It helps to see that God is running two lines with the same people, and they must not be confused.
At a point like this we must note the difference between God's ways in government with His people, and His ways in grace. Under the righteous government of God the Jews have been, and still are, under His chastening hand because of their sins and refusal to repent. But the grace and love of His heart towards them never change.
- Cause. The sin ran through rich and poor alike. The invasion was just, and the reprieve changes none of that.
- Limit. "Full end" is the word for judgment carried through to its finish. God fixes the limit of His own blow before He strikes.
- Measure. Later Jeremiah fills the gap: a full end of the nations, but measured discipline for Israel — spared, yet not let off.
- Remnant. The nation survives because of the few God keeps inside it, true to Him in heart while everything around them falls.
- Two lines. God's government chastened them; His grace never changed toward them. Keep those apart and the verse stops sounding like a contradiction.