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Jeremiah 11

ירמיהו פרק י״א

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Jeremiah | Chapter: 11 of 52 | Day: 224 of 742

Date: September 23, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 11 opens with a formula that sounds almost bureaucratic and turns out to be the most loaded word in Sefer Yirmiyahu: shimu et divrei habrit hazot, hear the words of this covenant. Radak, in the chapter’s opening comment, immediately identifies what habrit hazot means - not some new arrangement being announced now, but the covenant already written in the Torah of Moshe, the brachot and klalot of Devarim, the ceremony in the plains of Moav that came in addition to the covenant made at Chorev, the sprinkled blood and the people’s answer of naaseh v’nishma. Metzudat David locates it in the tochachah at the end of Devarim, eleh divrei habrit. What Yirmiyahu is commanded to do, in other words, is not to prophesy anything novel but to read out a contract that both parties signed centuries ago and that one party has been quietly ignoring ever since. This is the prophetic method in its purest form. The prophet is not an innovator; he is a witness holding up a document. And so the oracle proceeds in the exact grammar of a covenant lawsuit: the stipulation (verse 3), the historical prologue (verse 4), the promised consideration (verse 5), the record of persistent warning (verse 7), the record of breach (verses 8 and 10), and the penalty clause (verse 11). Every element of the ancient treaty form is present, which is what gives the chapter its cold, procedural inevitability. Nothing here is arbitrary. Everything is enforcement.

The historical prologue in verse 4 carries the chapter’s first great image: I commanded your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Mitzrayim, mikur habarzel, from the iron furnace. Both Metzudat David and Radak read the kur as a refiner’s crucible - you were refined there in the smelting of afflictions the way gold and silver are refined in a furnace - which means that the exodus is being remembered not merely as a rescue but as a process that produced something. Mitzrayim was the forge in which a people was made, and the covenant is what came out of the fire. Then the terms themselves, in their most compact form: shimu b’koli va’asitem otam, obey My voice and do them, vihyitem li l’am v’anochi ehyeh lachem l’Elokim - and you shall be My people and I will be your God. Metzudat David hears in that clause a specific promise, that I will not exchange you for another nation. And the purpose clause in verse 5 grounds the whole arrangement in something older still: l’maan hakim et hashevuah asher nishbati la’avoteichem, in order to establish the oath I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey - kayom hazeh, as at this day, which Metzudat David glosses simply as the fact that you are standing in that very land right now. The oath to the Avot has already been kept. The land is under their feet as the indictment is being read. That is precisely what makes what follows unbearable. Then comes the strangest and most intimate line of the section: va’a’an va’omar amen Hashem, and I answered and said, Amen, Lord. Rashi’s gloss is three words in Hebrew and devastating - amen, that he be cursed. Metzudat David and Radak agree: the prophet is affirming the curse, not the blessing. Yirmiyahu is made to say Amen to the arur of his own people, standing in the place the nation stood at Har Gerizim and Har Eival when they answered amen to the curses. The prosecution’s witness has been conscripted as a signatory to the sentence, and the reader who feels the wrongness of that has understood the chapter, because by verse 18 the sentence will begin to fall on him too.

The breach is described with a phrase Yirmiyahu will use again and again: hashkem v’haed, rising early and warning. Radak takes it literally as the sending of prophets to warn every morning, every day, continually, in every generation from the exodus to this one. Against that unbroken stream of warning stands the unbroken refusal, vayelchu ish bishrirut libam hara, each man walking in the stubbornness of his evil heart, and then in verse 9 the chilling diagnosis: nimtza kesher b’ish Yehudah - a conspiracy has been found among the men of Yehudah. Metzudat David reads kesher as an organized band of rebellion, and Radak, dating this prophecy to the days of Yehoyakim, sees exactly what makes the word so bitter: they had repented under Yoshiyahu, and this is the relapse, the reversion after reform. It is one thing never to have kept the covenant; it is another to have kept it for a season and then organized to abandon it. That reading also explains the phrase shavu al avonot avotam harishonim, they have returned to the iniquities of their earliest fathers - Radak names the generations of Achaz, Menasheh and Amon. Yoshiyahu’s reformation, from this vantage, was a lid on a pot. And the arithmetic of verse 13 is the proof: ki mispar arecha hayu elohecha Yehudah, for according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Yehudah, and according to the number of the streets of Yerushalayim you have set up altars labboshet, to the shameful thing. Metzudat David spells out the equation - as many towns as there are, that many idols; as many marketplaces in Yerushalayim, that many altars - and explains the epithet boshet with a bitter precision: it is called shame because those who serve it cry out to it and are not answered. Idolatry in this chapter is not exotic, not confined to some high place outside the city. It has been distributed evenly across the map, one god per town, one altar per street corner, until the sacred geography of Yehudah has become an inventory of betrayal. That is why the crying in verses 11 and 12 is so futile. They will cry to Me and I will not listen, and then they will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, and hoshea lo yoshiu lahem b’et ratam - they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. The multiplication of gods has bought them nothing; every street had an altar and not one of them answers.

And then, for the second time in the book, comes the sentence no prophet should ever have to hear. V’atah al titpallel b’ad ha’am hazeh v’al tisa ba’adam rinah utfilah, and you, do not pray for this people, do not lift up on their behalf cry or prayer, ki eineni shomea b’et karam elai b’ad raatam. Chapter 7 had already forbidden intercession; here the prohibition is repeated and sharpened. Metzudat David draws out the logic with brutal clarity: even if they themselves were to call out and pray to Me about the evil coming upon them, without teshuvah and without regret over their sins I would not listen to them - and all the more so, since they are not even praying. If their own prayer is void, how could yours be heard? Prayer is not magic; it is the covenant’s own mechanism, and a party who has repudiated the covenant cannot invoke its remedies. Against that stands the extraordinary pair of images in verses 15 and 16. Meh lididi b’veiti - what has My beloved to do in My house, doing her many vile designs? Rashi hears it as a question about the right of entry: what has My treasured people still to do coming into My house, and adds that even the milah, the flesh through which they were sanctified to Me, they have annulled from their bodies. Metzudat David reads b’sar kodesh as the sacrifices themselves - I do not desire them, let them pass away from you. Radak reports a haunting midrash in which the Ribbono shel Olam finds Avraham standing in the ruined Beit HaMikdash, and the entire verse becomes a dialogue: perhaps they sinned unwittingly - asotah hamzimatah; perhaps only a few - harabim; You should have remembered the blood of the circumcision - uvsar kodesh yaavru mealayich; perhaps had You waited they would have repented - ki raateichi az taalozi. And when Avraham finally asks whether there is no remedy at all, the answer he receives is the next verse: zayit raanan. Zayit raanan yefeh pri toar kara Hashem shmech, a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit, the Lord called your name. Radak explains why the olive of all trees - because it is raanan in every season, its leaves moist all year round, so that the name signified an unfailing, permanent flourishing. That is the name God gave her. And then, l’kol hamulah gedolah hitzit esh aleha v’rau daliyotav - to the sound of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it and its boughs are broken. Rashi identifies the hamulah as the roar of the great multitude coming against them; Radak’s father read aleha as its leaves, the oily olive leaves that catch fire most readily of all. There is no crueler physics in Nach: the very oil that made the tree precious is what makes it burn. And verse 17 seals it - vaHashem Tzevakot hanotea otach diber alayich raah. The one who planted you has decreed the evil. Metzudat David is emphatic that this is the point: He who built the house and caused His Presence to dwell in it is the one who decreed the destruction, and it did not come by the strength of the Kasdim’s arm.

Then, in verse 18, the chapter breaks. VaHashem hodiani vaeda’ah, az hir’itani maalleihem - the Lord let me know, and I knew; then You showed me their deeds. Something has been disclosed, and the disclosure is personal. Radak, citing his father, says plainly what it was: they were plotting to feed him poison, and he had never suspected, because it had simply never entered his heart that men could want to kill him when all his rebuke was for their own good. Hence verse 19, the most quoted line in the chapter and among the most quoted in all of Nach: va’ani k’cheves aluf yuval litvoach, and I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter, v’lo yadati ki alai chashvu machashavot. The commentators divide over aluf - Rashi reports Dunash and Yehudah ben Kurish reading it as a lamb and an ox, and Menachem as a large lamb, with the Targum’s k’imar bchir, a choice lamb, supporting the latter - but every reading converges on the same terrible innocence: the animal being led does not know where it is going. Radak draws it out with unbearable ordinariness - his relatives and acquaintances were taking him to eat with them, and he did not know they were leading him to his death. And their slogan, nashchitah etz b’lachmo, is rendered by Rashi and Radak alike after the Targum: nirmei sama d’mota b’michleih, let us put the poison of death into his food. Etz here is the poison-tree, and the plot is domestic, culinary, intimate. V’nichretenu me’eretz chayim ushmo lo yizacher od - and let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name be remembered no more. For a childless prophet whose only progeny would ever be his words, that last clause is aimed with precision. Yirmiyahu’s answer is not resistance but referral: vaHashem Tzevakot shofet tzedek bochen klayot valev, erhe nikmatcha mehem ki elecha giliti et rivi. Radak catches the loneliness in that last phrase - I have no brother and no kinsman to whom I can disclose my grievance, for they are the very ones who plotted my death, so to You I have disclosed my case. The man has no one left to complain to except the God who assigned him the mission. And then the closing oracle names them, and the naming is the wound: al anshei Anatot, the men of Anatot, Yirmiyahu’s own village, the kohanic town three miles from Yerushalayim named in the first verse of the book as his home. His neighbors. Radak states the aggravating circumstance exactly: they of all people should have strengthened Yirmiyahu’s hand, since they were his relatives and the people of his own city, and instead they said, do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die by our hand. Radak also raises the obvious difficulty - if they said it to his face, why did God have to reveal it? - and answers that Yirmiyahu had dismissed the open threat as bluster, since no one would dare kill him publicly; it was the secret poison, the slow kind that kills only after eight or ten days and leaves no trace, that he could not have foreseen. Rashi notes that verse 20 is Yirmiyahu cursing the men of Anatot, and the sentence is total: the bachurim by the sword, the sons and daughters by famine, ushe’erit lo tihyeh lahem. Yet even here Radak preserves the mercy that runs under everything in this book - Chazal taught that when the decree actually fell and the enemy took the town, the men of Anatot repented, and a remnant there was after all, for the returning exiles of Bavel numbered the men of Anatot at a hundred and twenty-eight. This is the first of Yirmiyahu’s great confessions, the beginning of the thread of personal lament that will run through chapters 12, 15, 17, 18 and 20 until it reaches its blackest point in arur hayom asher yuladeti bo. And its placement is the chapter’s final argument. The prophet who was made to say amen to the curse in verse 5 discovers in verse 19 that he is standing inside it. There is no vantage point outside the covenant from which to read it aloud. The man holding up the document is bound by it too, and the town that wants him dead is his own.

פרק י״א · Chapter 11

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

הַדָּבָר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הָיָ֣ה אֶֽל־יִרְמְיָ֔הוּ מֵאֵ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה לֵאמֹֽר׃

English:

The word that came to Jeremiah from GOD:

The chapter opens with the bare prophetic formula, the word that came to Yirmiyahu from Hashem, and Radak immediately identifies what that word will turn out to be - shimu et divrei habrit hazot, hear the words of this covenant. He stresses that habrit hazot is not a new arrangement but the covenant already written in the Torah of Moshe, the blessings and curses sworn in the plains of Moav in addition to the covenant at Chorev, sealed with the sprinkled blood and the people's answer of naaseh v'nishma. The prophet is therefore not announcing something novel; he is reading out a contract both parties signed centuries earlier.

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

שִׁמְע֕וּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵ֖י הַבְּרִ֣ית הַזֹּ֑את וְדִבַּרְתֶּם֙ אֶל־אִ֣ישׁ יְהוּדָ֔ה וְעַל־יֹשְׁבֵ֖י יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃

English:

“Hear the terms of this covenant, and recite them to the citizenry of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem!

Yirmiyahu is told to hear the terms of this covenant and speak them to the men of Yehudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. Metzudat David reads shimu as a charge to Yirmiyahu and the other true prophets - pay attention and understand these terms, meaning the well-known blessings and curses of the tochachah in Devarim - and Radak names Tzefanyah, who prophesied in Yoshiyahu's days, as one of those others. Radak also explains why the message is framed as a brit at all: a covenant is the instrument by which even ordinary people bind themselves to keep their terms, and all the more so must terms between God and man be kept.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵיהֶ֔ם כֹּֽה־אָמַ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אָר֣וּר הָאִ֔ישׁ אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמַ֔ע אֶת־דִּבְרֵ֖י הַבְּרִ֥ית הַזֹּֽאת׃

English:

And say to them, Thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who will not obey the terms of this covenant,

The message itself is a curse formula: arur ha'ish asher lo yishma et divrei habrit hazot, cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant. Metzudat David clarifies that lo yishma means one who does not want to hear, an act of will rather than a failure of information. Radak notes that Yirmiyahu is deliberately given the language of arur as it was pronounced at Sinai and in the plains of Moav, in the hope that the sheer force of the curse might frighten them into returning.

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּ֣יתִי אֶת־אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֡ם בְּי֣וֹם הוֹצִיאִֽי־אוֹתָ֣ם מֵאֶֽרֶץ־מִצְרַ֩יִם֩ מִכּ֨וּר הַבַּרְזֶ֜ל לֵאמֹ֗ר שִׁמְע֤וּ בְקוֹלִי֙ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֣ם אוֹתָ֔ם כְּכֹ֥ל אֲשֶׁר־אֲצַוֶּ֖ה אֶתְכֶ֑ם וִהְיִ֤יתֶם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם וְאָ֣נֹכִ֔י אֶהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִֽים׃

English:

which I enjoined upon your ancestors when I freed them from the land of Egypt, the iron crucible, saying, ‘Obey Me and observe them, just as I command you, that you may be My people and I may be your God’—

The covenant is anchored in history: this is what I commanded your fathers on the day I brought them out of Mitzrayim, mikur habarzel, from the iron furnace. Both Metzudat David and Radak read the kur as a refiner's crucible - you were refined there in the smelting of afflictions the way gold and silver are refined in a furnace - so that the exodus produced a people rather than merely rescuing one. The terms are then stated in their most compact form, shimu b'koli va'asitem otam and vihyitem li l'am, in which Metzudat David hears a specific pledge: I will not exchange you for another nation.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

לְמַ֩עַן֩ הָקִ֨ים אֶת־הַשְּׁבוּעָ֜ה אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּ֣עְתִּי לַאֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֗ם לָתֵ֤ת לָהֶם֙ אֶ֣רֶץ זָבַ֥ת חָלָ֛ב וּדְבַ֖שׁ כַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וָאַ֥עַן וָאֹמַ֖ר אָמֵ֥ן ׀ יְהֹוָֽה׃ {פ}

English:

in order to fulfill the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as is now the case.” And I responded, “Amen, ETERNAL One.”

The purpose clause grounds everything in an older oath - to establish the oath I swore to your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, kayom hazeh, which Metzudat David glosses as the plain fact that you are standing in that very land right now. Then comes the chapter's most unsettling line, va'a'an va'omar amen Hashem. Rashi's gloss is three words and devastating: amen, that he be cursed - and Metzudat David and Radak agree that the prophet is affirming the arur, not the blessing. Yirmiyahu is made to stand where the nation stood between Gerizim and Eival and say amen to the curse of his own people.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
אמן ה'. שיהא ארור:
"Amen, O Lord" that he be cursed.

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֵלַ֔י קְרָ֨א אֶת־כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֤ים הָאֵ֙לֶּה֙ בְּעָרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה וּבְחֻצ֥וֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ֖͏ִם לֵאמֹ֑ר שִׁמְע֗וּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי֙ הַבְּרִ֣ית הַזֹּ֔את וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אוֹתָֽם׃

English:

And GOD said to me, “Proclaim all these things through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the terms of this covenant, and perform them.

Hashem instructs him to proclaim all these words in the towns of Yehudah and the streets of Yerushalayim. Radak draws out what the added instruction means practically: Yirmiyahu is not to wait for people to come up to Yerushalayim but to travel through the towns of Yehudah himself, and what he says to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim he must say bachutzot, in public, before the whole nation. The warning is to be delivered in the language of arur, in the open, on the chance that they will still return.

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

כִּי֩ הָעֵ֨ד הַעִדֹ֜תִי בַּאֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶ֗ם בְּיוֹם֩ הַעֲלוֹתִ֨י אוֹתָ֜ם מֵאֶ֤רֶץ מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ וְעַד־הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה הַשְׁכֵּ֥ם וְהָעֵ֖ד לֵאמֹ֑ר שִׁמְע֖וּ בְּקוֹלִֽי׃

English:

For I have repeatedly and persistently warned your ancestors from the time I brought them out of Egypt to this day, saying: Obey My commands.

The record of warning is established: I persistently testified against your fathers from the day I brought them up out of Mitzrayim until this day, hashkem v'haed. Rashi notes that ha'ed hai'doti is the language of legal warning, a formal hatra'ah rather than mere advice. Radak takes hashkem literally - I sent them prophets to warn every morning, every day, continually, in every generation - so that the unbroken stream of warning stands as the evidentiary record against them.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
העד העדותי. ל' התראה:
For I warned Heb. העידתי, an expression of warning.

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

וְלֹ֤א שָֽׁמְעוּ֙ וְלֹא־הִטּ֣וּ אֶת־אׇזְנָ֔ם וַיֵּ֣לְכ֔וּ אִ֕ישׁ בִּשְׁרִיר֖וּת לִבָּ֣ם הָרָ֑ע וָאָבִ֨יא עֲלֵיהֶ֜ם אֶֽת־כׇּל־דִּבְרֵ֧י הַבְּרִית־הַזֹּ֛את אֲשֶׁר־צִוִּ֥יתִי לַעֲשׂ֖וֹת וְלֹ֥א עָשֽׂוּ׃ {ס}         

English:

But they would not listen or give ear; they all followed the willfulness of their evil hearts. So I have brought upon them all the terms of this covenant, because they did not do what I commanded them to do.”

Against that unbroken warning stands the unbroken refusal: they did not listen or incline their ear, and each walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which Rashi and Metzudat David both identify as the curses stipulated in it - the penalty clause of a contract, not an arbitrary punishment. Radak adds that keeping the covenant embraces both the positive and the negative commandments, and that Scripture calls that keeping a doing, so that asher tziviti la'asot v'lo asu means simply: I told them to uphold My words and they did not uphold them.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ואביא עליהם את כל דברי הברית. האלות האמורות בברית על הדברים אשר צויתי לעשות ולא עשו:
And I brought upon them all the words of this covenant The curses stated in the covenant for the things that I commanded to do and they did not do.

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֵלָ֑י נִֽמְצָא־קֶ֙שֶׁר֙ בְּאִ֣ישׁ יְהוּדָ֔ה וּבְיֹשְׁבֵ֖י יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃

English:

GOD said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the citizenry of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

A new oracle begins with a startling word: nimtza kesher b'ish Yehudah, a conspiracy has been found among the men of Yehudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. Metzudat David reads kesher as an organized band of rebellion rather than scattered individual sin. Radak dates the prophecy to the days of Yehoyakim, and that dating is what gives the word its bitterness - they had already repented under Yoshiyahu, so this is a relapse, an organized reversion after reform.

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

שָׁ֩בוּ֩ עַל־עֲוֺנֹ֨ת אֲבוֹתָ֜ם הָרִאשֹׁנִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר מֵֽאֲנוּ֙ לִשְׁמ֣וֹעַ אֶת־דְּבָרַ֔י וְהֵ֣מָּה הָלְכ֗וּ אַחֲרֵ֛י אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים לְעׇבְדָ֑ם הֵפֵ֤רוּ בֵֽית־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וּבֵ֣ית יְהוּדָ֔ה אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֕י אֲשֶׁ֥ר כָּרַ֖תִּי אֶת־אֲבוֹתָֽם׃ {ס}         

English:

They have returned to the iniquities of their ancestors of old, who refused to heed My words. They, too, have followed other gods and served them. The House of Israel and the House of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors.”

The conspiracy is defined: they have returned to the iniquities of their earliest fathers who refused to hear My words, and both the House of Israel and the House of Yehudah have broken the covenant. Radak identifies those earliest fathers as the generations of Amon, Menasheh and Achaz, which makes Yoshiyahu's reformation look like a lid on a pot rather than a change of heart. Metzudat David sees an escalation - they took up their fathers' path and then went further, walking after other gods to serve them - so that Yehudah has now become indistinguishable from the northern kingdom that was already destroyed.

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

לָכֵ֗ן כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה הִנְנִ֨י מֵבִ֤יא אֲלֵיהֶם֙ רָעָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא־יוּכְל֖וּ לָצֵ֣את מִמֶּ֑נָּה וְזָעֲק֣וּ אֵלַ֔י וְלֹ֥א אֶשְׁמַ֖ע אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃

English:

Assuredly, thus said GOD: I am going to bring upon them disaster from which they will not be able to escape. Then they will cry out to me, but I will not listen to them.

The penalty clause is executed: I am bringing upon them an evil from which they cannot escape, and they will cry out to Me and I will not listen. Metzudat David reads asher lo yuchlu latzet as escape by force of arm - military strength will not extricate them - and glosses their cry as a plea to be saved. The refusal to hear is not divine caprice but the mirror image of verse 8: the party that would not listen when warned will find that its own cry now goes unheard.

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

וְֽהָלְכ֞וּ עָרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֗ה וְיֹֽשְׁבֵי֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם וְזָֽעֲקוּ֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֛ר הֵ֥ם מְקַטְּרִ֖ים לָהֶ֑ם וְהוֹשֵׁ֛עַ לֹא־יוֹשִׁ֥יעוּ לָהֶ֖ם בְּעֵ֥ת רָעָתָֽם׃

English:

And the townspeople of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they sacrifice; but they will not be able to rescue them in their time of disaster.

Turned away from Hashem, they will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense - and hoshea lo yoshiu lahem b'et ra'atam, they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. Rashi notes that arei Yehudah means the people of the towns of Yehudah, as does Metzudat David, who explains simply that those gods will have no power to help when the evil arrives. The verse exposes the whole economy of idolatry: at the one moment when a god would need to be real, every one of them is silent.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ערי יהודה. מערי יהודה:
And they shall go the cities of Judah From the cities of Judah.

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

כִּ֚י מִסְפַּ֣ר עָרֶ֔יךָ הָי֥וּ אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ יְהוּדָ֑ה וּמִסְפַּ֞ר חֻצ֣וֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ֗͏ִם שַׂמְתֶּ֤ם מִזְבְּחוֹת֙ לַבֹּ֔שֶׁת מִזְבְּח֖וֹת לְקַטֵּ֥ר לַבָּֽעַל׃ {ס}         

English:

For your gods have become as many as your towns, O Judah, and you have set up as many altars to Shame as there are streets in Jerusalem—altars for sacrifice to Baal.

This is the chapter's terrible arithmetic: ki mispar arecha hayu elohecha Yehudah - for as many as your cities were your gods, and as many as the streets of Yerushalayim were the altars you set up labboshet, to the shameful thing. Metzudat David spells out the equation exactly - as many towns, that many idols; as many marketplaces in Yerushalayim, that many altars - and gives a bitter etymology for boshet: it is called shame because those who serve it cry out to it and are not answered. Idolatry here is not exotic or marginal; it has been distributed evenly across the map until the sacred geography of Yehudah reads as an inventory of betrayal.

פסוק י״ד · Verse 14

Hebrew:

וְאַתָּ֗ה אַל־תִּתְפַּלֵּל֙ בְּעַד־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה וְאַל־תִּשָּׂ֥א בַעֲדָ֖ם רִנָּ֣ה וּתְפִלָּ֑ה כִּ֣י ׀ אֵינֶ֣נִּי שֹׁמֵ֗עַ בְּעֵ֛ת קׇרְאָ֥ם אֵלַ֖י בְּעַ֥ד רָעָתָֽם׃ {ס}         

English:

As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry of prayer on their behalf; for I will not listen when they call to Me on account of their disaster.

For the second time in the book, after chapter 7, the prophet is forbidden to intercede: do not pray for this people, do not lift up on their behalf cry or prayer. Metzudat David draws the logic out with brutal clarity - even if they themselves called out and prayed about the evil coming upon them, without teshuvah and regret over their sins I would not listen, and all the more so since they are not even praying, so how could I listen to your prayer on their behalf? Radak notes only that b'ad ra'atam means concerning their evil. Prayer is not magic; it is the covenant's own mechanism, and a party that has repudiated the covenant cannot invoke its remedies.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
רנה ותפלה. בבעו ובצלו:
cry nor prayer This follows the Targum.

פסוק ט״ו · Verse 15

Hebrew:

מֶ֣ה לִידִידִ֞י בְּבֵיתִ֗י עֲשׂוֹתָ֤הּ הַֽמְזִמָּ֙תָה֙ הָרַבִּ֔ים וּבְשַׂר־קֹ֖דֶשׁ יַעַבְר֣וּ מֵעָלָ֑יִךְ כִּ֥י רָעָתֵ֖כִי אָ֥ז תַּעֲלֹֽזִי׃

English:

Why should My beloved be in My House, Who executes so many vile designs? The sacral flesh will pass away from you, For you exult while performing your evil deeds.

Meh lididi b'veiti - what has My beloved to do in My house, performing so many vile designs? Rashi hears a question about the right of entry, what has My treasured people still to do coming into My house, and adds that they have even annulled the milah, the flesh through which they were sanctified to Me; Metzudat David reads b'sar kodesh as the sacrifices themselves, which will pass away because I do not desire them. Radak preserves a haunting midrash in which Hashem finds Avraham standing in the ruined Beit HaMikdash and the whole verse becomes a dialogue - perhaps they sinned unwittingly, perhaps only a few, You should have remembered the blood of the circumcision, perhaps had You waited they would have repented - each plea answered by the next phrase of the verse.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
מה לידידי בביתי. מה לעם סגולתי לבא עוד בביתי: עשותה המזמתה. לעשות היא מזמת עצת חטאים שלה: הרבים. שבהם: ובשר קודש יעברו מעליך. אף המילה בטלו מבשרם שעל ידה היו מקודשים לי: כי רעתכי אז תעלוזי. כשאתם עוברים עבירה אתם שמחים:
What has my beloved to do in My house What reason has My treasured people to come anymore into My house? [seeing that]...perform evil design That she does the evil design of her sinful plans. the many of them. and the holy flesh they remove from you Even the circumcision through which they were hallowed to Me, they have abolished from their flesh. for [with] your evil, then you rejoice When you commit a transgression, you rejoice.

פסוק ט״ז · Verse 16

Hebrew:

זַ֤יִת רַֽעֲנָן֙ יְפֵ֣ה פְרִי־תֹ֔אַר קָרָ֥א יְהֹוָ֖ה שְׁמֵ֑ךְ לְק֣וֹל ׀ הֲמוּלָּ֣ה גְדֹלָ֗ה הִצִּ֥ית אֵשׁ֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ וְרָע֖וּ דָּלִיּוֹתָֽיו׃

English:

GOD named you “Verdant olive tree, Fair, with choice fruit.” But with a great roaring sound [God] has set it on fire, And its boughs are broken.

Zayit raanan yefeh pri toar kara Hashem shmech - a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit, the Lord called your name. Radak explains why the olive of all trees: it is raanan in every season, its leaves moist all year round, so the name signified an unfailing, permanent flourishing that matched the goodness of her deeds. Then the reversal - to the sound of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it and its boughs are broken - which Rashi identifies as the roar of the great multitude coming against them, and which Radak's father read as aleha, its leaves, the oily olive leaves that catch fire most readily of all. The very oil that made the tree precious is what makes it burn.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
לקול המולה. ל' שאון עם רב שיבוא עליהם: ורעו דליותיו. ורצצו את ענפיו:
to the sound of a great tumult Heb. המולה, an expression of the tumult of a large multitude that will come upon them. And its branches were broken. Heb. ורעו דליותיו. And its branches were shattered.

פסוק י״ז · Verse 17

Hebrew:

וַיהֹוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ הַנּוֹטֵ֣עַ אוֹתָ֔ךְ דִּבֶּ֥ר עָלַ֖יִךְ רָעָ֑ה בִּ֠גְלַ֠ל רָעַ֨ת בֵּֽית־יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל וּבֵ֣ית יְהוּדָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָשׂ֥וּ לָהֶ֛ם לְהַכְעִסֵ֖נִי לְקַטֵּ֥ר לַבָּֽעַל׃ {פ}

English:

GOD of Hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because of the evil wrought by the House of Israel and the House of Judah, who angered Me by sacrificing to Baal.

The Lord of Hosts who planted you has spoken evil against you, because of the evil of the House of Israel and the House of Yehudah in provoking Me by burning incense to the Baal. Metzudat David is emphatic about what hanotea establishes: the One who built the House and caused His Presence to dwell in it is the One who decreed its destruction, and the ruin did not come by the strength of the Kasdim's arm. Radak notes that the language of planting is chosen to match the olive tree of the previous verse, and reads it as an argument from consistency - just as He settled you in a good land when your deeds were good, so now He has spoken this.

פסוק י״ח · Verse 18

Hebrew:

וַיהֹוָ֥ה הוֹדִיעַ֖נִי וָאֵדָ֑עָה אָ֖ז הִרְאִיתַ֥נִי מַעַלְלֵיהֶֽם׃

English:

GOD informed me, and I knew— Then You let me see their deeds.

The chapter breaks here and turns personal: vaHashem hodiani vaeda'ah, the Lord let me know and I knew, then You showed me their deeds. Radak, citing his father, says plainly what was disclosed - they were plotting to feed him poison - and explains why Yirmiyahu had not suspected it: it had never entered his heart, since he had done them no harm and his rebuke was for their own good. Rashi reads the disclosure as being about their punishment rather than their plot. Radak adds a kal vachomer that darkens everything: if they were willing to do this to me, all the more so to others.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
וה' הודיעני. כך אמר הנביא הקדוש ברוך הוא הודיעני את פורענותם:
And the Lord let me know So said the prophet, The Holy One, blessed be He, let me know their retribution.

פסוק י״ט · Verse 19

Hebrew:

וַאֲנִ֕י כְּכֶ֥בֶשׂ אַלּ֖וּף יוּבַ֣ל לִטְב֑וֹחַ וְלֹֽא־יָדַ֜עְתִּי כִּֽי־עָלַ֣י ׀ חָשְׁב֣וּ מַחֲשָׁב֗וֹת נַשְׁחִ֨יתָה עֵ֤ץ בְּלַחְמוֹ֙ וְנִכְרְתֶ֙נּוּ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ חַיִּ֔ים וּשְׁמ֖וֹ לֹא־יִזָּכֵ֥ר עֽוֹד׃

English:

For I was like a docile lamb Led to the slaughter; I did not realize That it was against me They fashioned their plots: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, Let us cut him off from the land of the living. That his name be remembered no more!”

Va'ani k'cheves aluf yuval litvoach - and I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had devised devices against me. Rashi reports the dispute over aluf, Dunash and Yehudah ben Kurish reading it as a lamb and an ox and Menachem as a large lamb, with the Targum's k'imar bchir, a choice lamb, supporting the latter. Radak makes the innocence unbearable in its ordinariness: his relatives and acquaintances were taking him to eat with them and he did not know they were leading him to his death. Rashi, Metzudat David and Radak all render nashchitah etz b'lachmo after the Targum - let us put the poison of death into his food - so that the plot is domestic and culinary, and its aim, that his name be remembered no more, is aimed with precision at a childless prophet whose only progeny would ever be his words.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ואני ככבש אלוף. אשר יובל לטבוח: יובל. לפי שאני מודיעם הרעה הם אומרים להרגני: ככבש. אלוף דונש ויהודה בן קוריש פתרוהו ככבש ופר אשר יובל לטבח ואלוף כמו שגר אלפיך (דברים כ״ח:ד׳) ואע"פ שלא נאמר אלוף יש לנו כיוצא בו שמש ירח עמד זבולה (חבקוק ג׳:י״א) כסוס עגור כן אצפצף (ישעיהו ל״ח:י״ד) ומנחם פתר ככבש אלוף כבש גדול (ע' בתהלים נ"ח בפרש"י) ויונתן מסייעו שתירגם כאימר בחיר: נשחיתה עץ בלחמו. נרמי סמא דמותא במכליה:
And I was like a lamb [and] a bull that will be brought to the slaughter. brought Since I let them know of the evil, they plan to kill me. like a lamb [and] a bull Heb. ככבש אלוף. Dunash and Judah son of Kudish (Karish) interpreted it as a lamb and a bull, brought to the slaughter. And אלוף is like (Deut. 28:4) "the offspring of your cattle (אלפיך)." Although it was not stated ואלוף, we find similar cases, e.g., (Habukkuk 3:11) "The sun [and] the moon (ירח) stood on high"; (Isaiah 38:14) "Like a crane [and] a swallow (עגור) so I chirp." And Menahem interpreted ככבש אלוף, a large lamb (see Psalms 58:9, Rashi ad loc.), and Jonathan supports him, since he renders like a choice lamb. Let us destroy his food with wood Let us put poison into his food.

פסוק כ׳ · Verse 20

Hebrew:

וַיהֹוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ שֹׁפֵ֣ט צֶ֔דֶק בֹּחֵ֥ן כְּלָי֖וֹת וָלֵ֑ב אֶרְאֶ֤ה נִקְמָֽתְךָ֙ מֵהֶ֔ם כִּ֥י אֵלֶ֖יךָ גִּלִּ֥יתִי אֶת־רִיבִֽי׃ {ס}         

English:

O GOD of Hosts, O just Judge, Who test the thoughts and the mind, Let me see Your retribution upon them, For I lay my case before You.

Yirmiyahu answers not with resistance but with referral: O Lord of Hosts, righteous Judge, who tests the kidneys and the heart, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have revealed my case. Metzudat David hears in bochen klayot valev the prophet's defense of his own motives - You know there is no gladness in my heart at prophesying evil against them. Radak catches the loneliness of the last clause: I have no brother or kinsman to whom I can disclose my grievance, since they are the very ones who plotted my death, so to You alone I have disclosed it. Rashi notes bluntly that this is Yirmiyahu cursing the men of Anatot.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
אראה נקמתך מהם. את אנשי ענתות היה מקלל:
Let me see Your vengeance against them He cursed the people of Anathoth.

פסוק כ״א · Verse 21

Hebrew:

לָכֵ֗ן כֹּֽה־אָמַ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ עַל־אַנְשֵׁ֣י עֲנָת֔וֹת הַֽמְבַקְשִׁ֥ים אֶֽת־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לֵאמֹ֑ר לֹ֤א תִנָּבֵא֙ בְּשֵׁ֣ם יְהֹוָ֔ה וְלֹ֥א תָמ֖וּת בְּיָדֵֽנוּ׃ {פ}

English:

Assuredly, thus said GOD of Hosts concerning the people of Anathoth who seek your life and say, “You must not prophesy anymore in the name of GOD, or you will die by our hand”—

Now they are named, and the naming is the wound: the men of Anatot, Yirmiyahu's own kohanic hometown, who seek his life and say do not prophesy in the name of the Lord and you will not die by our hand. Metzudat David reads their words as an ultimatum offering him his life at the price of his mission. Radak raises the obvious difficulty - if they threatened him openly, why did God need to reveal it to him? - and answers that Yirmiyahu dismissed the open threat as bluster, since no one would dare kill him publicly; it was the secret poison, the slow kind that kills only after eight or ten days and leaves no trace, that he could not have foreseen.

פסוק כ״ב · Verse 22

Hebrew:

לָכֵ֗ן כֹּ֤ה אָמַר֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת הִנְנִ֥י פֹקֵ֖ד עֲלֵיהֶ֑ם הַבַּחוּרִים֙ יָמֻ֣תוּ בַחֶ֔רֶב בְּנֵיהֶם֙ וּבְנ֣וֹתֵיהֶ֔ם יָמֻ֖תוּ בָּרָעָֽב׃

English:

Assuredly, thus said GOD of Hosts: “I am going to deal with them: the young men shall die by the sword, their boys and girls shall die by famine.

The sentence on Anatot is total: the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. Metzudat David identifies the bachurim as those who go out to war and the banim as the small children. Radak reads the division precisely - the young men who trust in their strength and go out to fight fall by the sword, while the children starve in the besieged town - and gives a brutal reason why the children rather than the fathers are named: the fathers will eat first, since their own lives take precedence, and in the extremity will even eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters.

פסוק כ״ג · Verse 23

Hebrew:

וּשְׁאֵרִ֕ית לֹ֥א תִהְיֶ֖ה לָהֶ֑ם כִּי־אָבִ֥יא רָעָ֛ה אֶל־אַנְשֵׁ֥י עֲנָת֖וֹת שְׁנַ֥ת פְּקֻדָּתָֽם׃ {ס}         

English:

No remnant shall be left of them, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth, the year of their doom.”

No remnant will be left them, for I will bring evil upon the men of Anatot, shnat pekudatam, the year of their reckoning. Metzudat David glosses it as the year in which I remember their sin to repay it; Rashi notes only that el anshei Anatot has the force of al. Radak explains why Anatot is struck harder than the rest of Israel - as Yirmiyahu's own relatives and townsmen they should have strengthened his hand, and instead they threatened his life - but then preserves the mercy that runs under the whole book: Chazal taught that when the decree actually fell they repented, and a remnant there was after all, for the returning exiles of Bavel numbered the men of Anatot at a hundred and twenty-eight.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
אל אנשי ענתות. כמו על אנשי ענתות:
upon the men of Anathoth Heb. אל-אנשי ענתות, like על-אנשי ענתות, upon the men of Anathoth.

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