The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[8] Jeremiah 15 is a part of the Sixth prophecy (Jeremiah 14-17) in the section of Prophecies of Destruction (Jeremiah 1-25). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
Verses 1–4, starting a passage that continues to Jeremiah 16:21, parallels Jeremiah 14:11—12 in the rejection of Jeremiah's intercession, as no mediation would work to prevent the impending disaster, not even by Moses or Samuel (verse 1). In chapters 2–10 the enemy comes from the north to Jerusalem, whereas in chapters 11–20 the enemy appears only in 13:20, but 'the modes of tragedy' become more detailed: 'pestilence and sword, famine and captivity' (15:2; 11:22; 14:15; 21:8), as well as 'unburied bodies' (14:16), that birds that scavenge (15:3). The former King Manasseh (2 Kings 21:10-15) is held responsible here, not the people.[9]
Verse 1
Then the Lord said to me: Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, yet My heart would not be with this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go![10]
"My heart would not be with": lit. in Hebrew: "my soul was not toward".[13]
"Cast": is from the same Hebrew verb (shalah) used in Exodus 5:1 (translated as "let my people go"), so it could be an 'intentional play' on the Exodus text but here with the 'ominous meaning'.[12]
Verse 2
And it shall be, if they say to you, 'Where should we go?'
then you shall tell them, 'Thus says 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."'[14]
Anticipating the people's question, the Lord prepares a harsh answer (in the sense of "I will not help you. I no longer care what happens to you") by leaving their predicament to death, sword, starvation and captivity, which usually accompany the 'horrors of warfare'.[12]
Verse 3
"I will appoint over them four forms of destruction", says the Lord:
"the sword to slay,
the dogs to drag,
the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.[15]
YHWH is lamenting because he is reluctant to destroy the city, using 'a poignant rhetorical question' to display 'divine anguish' and to portray Jerusalem's pitiful isolation (verse 5), but as the female Jerusalem rejected YHWH, so YHWH destroyed her, after YHWH alone puts effort into the relationship and is 'weary of relenting' (verse 6), so they cannot yet be reconciled (cf. Jeremiah 2:1–3:25). However, the poem also invites pity for her (verses 7–9).[9]
Jeremiah's Lament (15:10–21)
Jeremiah's second confession can be compared with YHWH's lament over Jerusalem in some points:
YHWH doomed the mothers to childlessness (15:9), whereas Jeremiah's mother doomed him to a life of suffering by giving him birth (15:10)
Divine weariness (15:6) has become prophetic anguish (15:18).
This confession is an act of protest in which Jeremiah embodies the questions of the exiles while he complains about his people (verse 15). His hope is that if he repents (verse 19), he will be delivered from 'the hand of the wicked' (verse 21).[9]
Verse 10
Woe is me, my mother,
That you have borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!
The King James Version refers to lending "on usury".[19] Lending money and charging interest to a fellow-Israelite would have been contrary to Deuteronomy 23:19–20. Biblical commentator A. W. Streane describes verses 10–21, Jeremiah's dejection and God's reply, as "one of the most eloquent and pathetic in the Book".[17]
Verse 11
Tell me, Lord, have I not served you for their good?
[20]
The Septuagint wording (Greek: γένοιτο, δέσποτα, genoito, despota,[21] "Know, Lord …") continues Jeremiah's expression of despair from the previous verse, which the Jerusalem Bible describes as "a spiritual crisis of the prophet halfway through his ministry".[22] Streane suggests that "the whole (of verses 10-18) is best taken as Jeremiah’s utterance",[17] although some Hebrew texts and many English translations based on the Hebrew begin this statement with "The Lord said …", thus:
A deceitful brook flows like a torrent in winter, but presents as a dried-up watercourse in the summer, which "belies the anticipations of the thirsty traveller".[17]