Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 11

The word that came to Jeremiah. —The words indicate that we are entering on a distinct message or discourse, which probably goes on to the end of Jeremiah 12. No date is given, and we are driven to infer it from the internal evidence of the message itself. This points to an early period of Jeremiah’s work, probably in the reign of Josiah. The invasion of the Chaldeans is not as near as in the preceding chapter. Jeremiah is still residing at Anathoth (Jeremiah 11:21). By some critics, however, it is referred to the reign of Jehoiachin.

The words of this covenant. —The phrase had obviously acquired a definite and special sense in consequence of the discovery of the lost book of the Law under Josiah, and the covenant into which the people had then entered (Compare to 2 Kings 23:3). The “curse” under which the people had fallen was practically identical with that in Deuteronomy 27:26, the word “obeyeth” being substituted for “confirmeth.”

Cursed be the man ... —The verse is, as it were, a mosaic, so to speak, of phrases, with slight verbal changes, from the recently discovered book of Deuteronomy—the iron furnace from Deuteronomy 4:20 and 1 Kings 8:51, Hear my voice and do them from Deuteronomy 28:1, and You shall be my people from Deuteronomy 29:13. The iron furnace was, of course, Egypt, the furnace of affliction, as in Isaiah 48:10, in which the people had endured sufferings of which that was the only adequate symbol. The word used denoted the “furnace” of the smelter, but the actual form of bondage through which the Israelites had passed, working in the brick-kiln furnaces (Exodus 1:14), had probably given a special force to the phrase.

A land flowing with milk and honey. This description appears for the first time in Exodus 3:8; Exodus 3:17. It rapidly became proverbial and is prominent in Deuteronomy 6:3 and Joshua 5:6. It points primarily, it should be noted, to the plenty of a pastoral rather than an agricultural people (see Note on Isaiah 7:22), and thus to the earlier rather than the later stages of the life of Israel.

So be it, O Lord. This is the Amen of the liturgies and litanies of Israel, probably brought into fresh prominence by Deuteronomy 27:15-26, and uttered by princes and people in the solemn ceremonial of 2 Kings 23:3.

In the cities of Judah ... —It is, at least, probable that the words are to be taken literally, and that the prophet went from city to city, doing his work as a preacher of repentance, and taking the new-found book of Deuteronomy as his text. The narrative of 2 Kings 23:13–20 indicates an iconoclastic journey throughout the kingdom as made by Josiah; and the prophetic discourse now before us, enforcing the observance of the covenant just made, would have been a fit accompaniment for such a mission.