Jeremiah 15:5-9
Persistent refusal to repent eventually exhausts divine patience and leads to unavoidable judgment.
5 For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn you? Who will come to ask of your welfare?
6 You have rejected me,” says Yahweh. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of showing compassion.
7 I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn’t return from their ways.
8 Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
9 She who has borne seven languishes. She has given up the spirit. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded. I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says Yahweh.
Persistent refusal to repent eventually exhausts divine patience and leads to unavoidable judgment.
To declare the inevitability of Judah’s destruction because the people persistently refused to return to the LORD despite repeated opportunities for repentance.
Following the declaration that even the intercession of Moses and Samuel could not avert judgment (15:1–4), this section elaborates on the coming devastation that will overtake Judah.
Jeremiah delivered these warnings during the final decades before the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, when Judah’s rebellion had reached a critical point.
Even Moses and Samuel Could Not Turn This Judgment Away
Judah's judgment has become unavertable, yet the LORD preserves his prophet by calling him to repent, speak precious words, refuse accommodation, and stand as a fortified wall amid opposition.