Jeremiah 17:19-23

VI. PROPHETIC PROCLAMATION Jeremiah 17:19-27

Chapter 17 ends with a prose discourse urging the keeping of the Sabbath. Like Amos (Amos 8:4-6) and Isaiah (Isaiah 56, 58) before him, Jeremiah regarded violation of the Sabbath as a serious offense. Jeremiah in this sermon addressed to the royal house makes Sabbath observance the condition for national survival. The sermon moves through three phases: (1) exhortation (Jeremiah 17:19-23); (2) promise (Jeremiah 17:24-26); and (3) threat (Jeremiah 17:27).

A. Exhortation Jeremiah 17:19-23

TRANSLATION

(19) Thus said the LORD unto me: Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; (20)and say unto them, Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who are coming in these gates. (21) Thus says the LORD: Watch out for your souls! Do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring them into the gates of Jerusalem. (22) Do not bring out a burden from your houses on the Sabbath day and cease all work. Sanctify the Sabbath day as I commanded your fathers. (23) But they did not hearken nor did they incline their ears but made their neck stiff neither to hear nor receive correction.

COMMENTS

Jeremiah is commissioned to preach this sermon in the gates of the city of Jerusalem. He is to start at that gate which was most frequently used by the kings. This gate, called the gate of the children of the people, cannot be identified (Jeremiah 17:19). He addresses his message to the kings of Judah, the population of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 17:20). The question has been raised as to why Jeremiah uses the plural kings. Perhaps the message was to be applied to successive kings of Judah. But more likely Jeremiah is addressing the entire royal house under this title. There is evidence in this period that the members of the royal family exercised considerable authority. Zedekiah, for example, seems to have been completely dominated by this group. Thus here the word kings is used loosely to refer to all the princes of the realm.

Jeremiah's object in this message is to get the people to hallow the Sabbath day. Apparently the Sabbath law was, disregarded. Goods from far and near were being transported into the city and business was being conducted as usual on the seventh day. For this reason Jeremiah calls upon the merchants to cease bringing goods into the city on the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21) and calls upon the people to cease bringing articles from their houses with which to barter for the produce of the merchants. He exhorts the inhabitants of Jerusalem to sanctify the Sabbath in the way in which God commanded their fathers to do (Jeremiah 17:22). The fathers had rejected the commandment of God and as a result had suffered divine correction. But even this divine correction had not induced repentance on the part of the previous generation (Jeremiah 17:23). The nation had continued on the path of disobedience until now Judah was faced with the inevitable national destruction.