Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 11:1

"The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying," — Jeremiah 11:1 (ASV)

The prophecy contained in Jeremiah 11–12 seems to belong to an early period of Jeremiah’s life. The covenant (Jeremiah 11:2) was that renewed by Josiah in his 18th year, after the discovery of the Book of the Law in the temple (2 Kings 23:3); while Jeremiah 11:13 apparently refers to the public establishment of idolatry by Manasseh (Jeremiah 21:3).

The people took no hearty part in Josiah’s reformation, and the prophet therefore sets before them the consequences that will inevitably follow upon their disloyalty to their covenant-God. The prophecy was probably called forth by the conspiracy of the men of Judah and of his own relatives of Anathoth to murder Jeremiah (Jeremiah 11:18–23; Jeremiah 12:1–6), for such deeds, which all too well represented the nation’s whole course, punishment must come, if they did not repent.