YHWH Calls On His Champion, Whose Great Might He Makes Clear, In Order That His Forces Might Denude Judah Because Of Their Treachery Towards Him (Jeremiah 5:10-19).
The instrument of YHWH's judgment is called on to scale the wall of YHWH's vineyard and destroy the vine by de-branching it, but not to make a full end. The stump must be left (compare Isaiah 6:13) so that it may eventually grow again. This is because they have dealt very treacherously with Him, and have even denied Him, crowing that no evil would come on them. YHWH will, therefore, respond by making their prophets windbags rather than men of the Spirit, so that they will not have YHWH's words. In contrast His words in Jeremiah will be a fire, and the people will be wood, so that they will be devoured. For He is bringing from afar a mighty and ancient nation of foreign tongue, whose quivers are an open sepulchre (especially deadly and easy to fall into) and who are all mighty men. They will devour everything and bring down their cities. And yet even in those days YHWH will still not make a full end.
‘Go you up on her walls, and destroy, but do not make a full end. Take away her branches (or ‘tendrils'), for they are not YHWH's.'
Once again YHWH's people are likened to a failing vine (compare Jeremiah 2:21; Jeremiah 6:9; Isaiah 5:1-7) and YHWH calls on His chosen champion (presumably Nebuchadnezzar) to climb the walls or vine terraces of His Vineyard in order to denude the vine of branches, because the branches are not YHWH's. They are failing to produce the required fruit (compare Jeremiah 2:21 where Israel/Judah were pictured as a degenerate vine, and Jeremiah 6:9 where they are to be gleaned as a vine). But he is not to make a full end, because YHWH has future plans for His people.
The word translated ‘walls' means something firm and strong and may here signify ‘vine terraces'.
“For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” the word of YHWH.'
The reason for His call is that both Israel and Judah have dealt very treacherously against Him. Note how YHWH still has both in mind. He has not forgotten Israel. And this verdict is revealed as certain because it is ‘the word of YHWH (neum YHWH).'
“They have denied YHWH, and said, ‘It is “not he”, nor will evil come upon us, nor will we see sword nor famine.' ”
Their treachery lies in the fact that they have denied Him and said, ‘Lo hu‘.' (‘Not He'), thereby denying His overlordship, and His power to harm them. They no longer see Him as their ‘I am'. Thus they boast that no evil will come on them, and that they will see neither sword nor famine, because YHWH is powerless to bring it about.
‘And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus will it be done to them.'
Consequently in return YHWH promises that their prophets will become mere purveyors of wind (ruach = ‘wind, spirit, breath'), without receiving His word, rather than true men of the Spirit. For this is what YHWH will do to them.
‘For which reason YHWH, the God of hosts, says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.”
In contrast, because of this, YHWH God of Hosts (YHWH Elohe Tsebaoth, a powerful description first found in Jeremiah 2:19, with Hosts signifying all the hosts both of heaven and earth, including sun, moon and stars) will make the words of Jeremiah, who does speak His word, like a fire, and He will make the people wood, so that they may be devoured by the results of his fiery word as the judgments that he prophesies come about.
“Lo, I will bring a nation on you from far, O house of Israel,” says YHWH, “it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor understand what they say.”
For the result of Jeremiah's words will be the coming of a mighty and ancient nation from afar, speaking a strange language, in accordance with the words of Moses (compare Deuteronomy 28:49), because they have broken the covenant. Babylon was both a mighty nation and an ancient nation, and by Judah's standards did come ‘from far' (compare Isaiah 39:3). Note that Judah is here referred to as ‘the house of Israel', for Judah now included many refugees from Israel. To the prophets both were one. And a similar judgment had already come on Israel, as a prototype of what would happen to Judah. Both would suffer in the same way under the name of ‘the house of Israel', because both were guilty in the same way. (Of course by this time Judah was a mixture of the twelve tribes due both to refugees from Israel, and to those from Israel who had chosen to settle there because it housed the Temple and the Ark).
“Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.”
The quivers of the bowmen of YHWH's champion (Nebuchadnezzar, His servant - Jeremiah 27:6), which have mouths wide open at the top, are likened to an open sepulchre into which a man can easily fall, never to rise again. They are an invitation to death because of the deadly arrows that they contain. Furthermore all His champion's men are equally champions (mighty men), they are powerful warriors who will put Judah to shame.
“And it will eat up your harvest and your bread, they will eat up your sons and your daughters, it will eat up your flocks and your herds, it will eat up your vines and your fig-trees, they will beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.”
And those mighty warriors (‘it' signifying the whole mighty nation, they signifying the mighty warriors) would eat up their harvest and their bread, and their sons and their daughters (compare Jeremiah 3:24), and their flocks and herds (compare Jeremiah 3:24), and their vines and fig trees. All that they had laboured for would be swallowed up by strangers (Jeremiah 3:24). And with the sword these mighty warriors would beat down their fortified cities in which they trusted for refuge. For from such forces there could be no refuge.
To ‘eat up' people was to slaughter them, partaking in their death, a similar usage being found in Psalms 14:4; Psalms 53:4; Isaiah 49:26; Micah 3:3. It was the Jewish symbolism utilised by Jesus in John 6:51-58 and in the Lord's Supper where it indicated partaking in His death.
“But even in those days,” says YHWH, “I will not make a full end with you.”
And yet even in those days YHWH would not make a full end. Devastating though the invasion and exile would be, it would not be final. For YHWH remembered His promises to their forefathers (e.g. Genesis 12:3), and His assurances given through Moses (Leviticus 26:45; Deuteronomy 30:1-10). One day Israel would rise again.
‘And it will come about that when you shall say, “Why has YHWH our God done all these things unto us?” Then you will say to them, “In the same way as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
And when the people ask themselves the question, “Why has YHWH our God done all these things unto us?” The answer will be that it is because they have forsaken YHWH and have served other gods in their land, and as a consequence will now have to serve strangers (foreigners) in a land which is not theirs (which clearly indicates that here at least the Babylonians are in mind). Notice the parallel in that because in their own land they served ‘strange' gods, in a land that is not theirs they will serve ‘strangers' (although the comparison is in the sense, for the Hebrew root is different). If they love ‘strangers' so much they can have them in abundance.