BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 15

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 15 of 52•21 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Jeremiah 15 Overview

The LORD says even Moses and Samuel would not turn away Judah’s appointed judgment; Jeremiah laments his lonely prophetic life, is corrected for despairing speech, and is recommissioned to stand as a fortified wall.

JeremiahBook

15Chapter

21Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 15

Coming from

A severe drought exposes Judah’s helplessness; Jeremiah confesses national sin and pleads for mercy, but the LORD says judgment must proceed and condemns prophets who promise peace without divine commission.

In this chapter

Leads into

Jeremiah is forbidden to marry, attend mourning feasts, or join celebrations, making his life itself a sign of coming catastrophe; yet after exile the LORD promises a greater regathering that will cause the exodus to be remembered in a new way.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter intensifies the tension between Jeremiah’s intercession and God’s settled judgment. It also reveals the emotional cost of carrying a rejected message.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 15 is the chapter’s own movement: there are points when judgment is judicially settled. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

There are points when judgment is judicially settled

Appeal to even Israel’s great intercessors will not reverse the sentence.

God’s word can be both joy and burden to the messenger

Jeremiah eats the words with delight yet suffers isolation because of the message.

The prophet himself remains accountable

God corrects Jeremiah’s speech and calls him to return so he can continue serving.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Exodus 32:11-14

Moses famously interceded for Israel, making his mention here especially significant.

1 Samuel 7:5-9

Samuel also interceded effectively for Israel.

Ezekiel 14:14

Ezekiel similarly names exemplary righteous men to emphasize the inevitability of judgment.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not conclude that prayer is useless.

The point is that persistent rebellion can reach a stage where a particular announced national judgment will not be withdrawn.

Do not idealize Jeremiah as emotionally flawless.

The book honestly records God correcting His own prophet.

Read Jeremiah 15 watching for…

Moses and Samuel named

four forms of judgment

Jeremiah eating God’s words

the prophet’s complaint

God’s call for Jeremiah to return

Chapter outline3 sections

1-9Even Moses and Samuel would not turn away the announced judgment 10-14Jeremiah laments being a man of strife while the LORD promises a remnant and coming captivity 15-21Jeremiah asks for remembrance, and the LORD calls him to return and promises protection

Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?

Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.

And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.

Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.