Jeremiah 11-20: Laments

One of the primary themes of the Hebrew Bible is persecution and suffering, a theme that was given extensive treatment from Job onwards, through Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiates, and especially through the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah. During the time of the divided monarchy, the Israelites suffer perpetual persecution. In this time, people turn to prophets, who offer an alternative (though politically well-informed) worldview. The Israelites, say the prophets, are persecuted by God for their apostasy. How is this situation rectified? Laments give us a view into this process. This traditional form of writing - like a dirge or a sonnet, is comprised of a few different elements that express suffering and call on God to intervene. Elements include:

• Invocation (call to God)
• Complaint
• Plea for help
• Condemnation of enemies
• Affirmation of confidence in the Lord
• Confession of sin
• Acknowledgement of divine response
• Praise for God

The enemies are generally an outside force, such as the Babylonians, but the doubly-oppressed Jeremiah sees persecution at the hands of others as well. These people say to one another:

Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living
so that his name will no longer be remembered!
(Jeremiah 11.19)

Jeremiah's enemies seek to destroy the prophet (tree) along with his children (fruit). To eliminate the offspring would essentially wipe Jeremiah from history by removing all traces of him form the collective memory. This is significant because memory - either passed down through stories or expressed physically through offspring - was the only sort of afterlife an Israelite could hope to enjoy. Hence the promise of land and progeny to the patriarchs.

Jeremiah begs the Lord to intercede from these oppressors:

But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
(Jeremiah 11.20)

Who are these mysterious oppressors who wish to kill Jeremiah? His own family! "The people of Anathoth were friends and relatives of Jeremiah in his home town (Jeremiah 11.21, 12.1). Not only does Israel stand on the brink of destruction, but Jeremiah's own family want to suppress his message.

Yet the righteous Jeremiah continues to prophesy, and his persecutors in fact will face a penalty for the evil they plot against the man. The very evil they wished upon him will be inflicted on them:

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; and not even a remnant shall be left of them.
(Jeremiah 11.22-23)

"Why does the way of the guilty prosper?" Jeremiah asks God.

You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and bring forth fruit;
you are near in their mouths
yet far from their hearts.
(Jeremiah 12.1-2)

Jeremiah here uses the language of his oppressors against them As they seek to destroy good and righteous trees along with their fruit, Jeremiah asks the fundamental question of why these people are allowed to exert their malicious wills. The Lord acknowledges the problem, and commiserates with Jeremiah, revealing a striking parallel between Jeremiah's situation and his own. The Lord's own "family" of Israel  has turned against him and forced him to make some difficult decisions:

I have forsaken my house,
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my heart
into the hands of her enemies
(Jeremiah 12.7)

God has come to this decision because idol worship has wrought such havoc on the faithful:

Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,
they have trampled down my portion,
they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
(Jeremiah 12.10-11)

Thus we transition into the larger problem of Israel's inevitable exile at the hands of their oppressors. God's people will face dispersion for their apostasy, and the righteous Jeremiah will be show oppressed in two ways, first as a prophet and secondly as an Israelite. He is righteous in both capacities, and therefore is something of an anomaly. His parallel stories, however, help illustrate Israel as it collapses simultaneously from outside and internal pressures. Both of these are expressed though the same prism of God's wrath. The Lord's people must be punished for their sins.

Retribution comes first in the form of a drought, which is relayed by the people of the land in the form of a lament in Jeremiah 14.1-10.

Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name's sake;
our apostasies are indeed many,
and we have sinned against you.
(Jeremiah 14.7)

The lament continues in Jeremiah 14.19-22:

Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace, but find no good;
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for it is you who do all this.
(Jeremiah 14.19-22)

We see the elements of lament here: complaint, confession of sins, and a plea for help. In this way the lament moves from accusation to confession to supplication. This parallels part of the cycle of dialectical tensions following a severe blow to the Israelite people, the subsequent recognition that this harm was in fact the result of apostasy.

The Lord offers a harsh response to the Israelites through Jeremiah, suggesting that not even the great leaders of Moses and Samuel would be able to turn God's heart toward his people. Sin has reached a tipping point, and now punishment is inevitable. Jeremiah will survive, but the people will hate him for his true words against them. The prophet's agony is so great that in one lament he wishes he had never been born. Yet he plays an integral role in the history of Jerusalem, and as we will see, forecasts the future of God's people.

Along the way, though, Jeremiah continues his laments, as he balances the persecution of himself and his family with that of the people of Israel.