Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 15:5-9

"For who will have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan thee? or who will turn aside to ask of thy welfare? Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary with repenting. And I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people; they returned not from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been put to shame and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith Jehovah." — Jeremiah 15:5-9 (ASV)

Here, the prophet gives the reason for their rejection.

1. First, a question of wonder is presented, which excludes three things:

   • The judge's mercy: Who will have mercy on you?
   • Comfort from a compassionate person: or who will grieve for you?
   • The prayer of a mediator: or who will go to seek your peace?

   God has withheld these because you continue in so many sins. Call his name ‘Without Mercy,’ because I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them (Hosea 1:6).

2. Second, he gives the reason for their rejection, which stems from their ingratitude and their stubbornness.

   First, from their ingratitude, he speaks of their guilt: You have left me. They have abandoned the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward (Isaiah 1:4). And the punishment: and I will stretch out my hand against you. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still (Isaiah 9:12).

   Second, from their stubbornness. This is shown in two ways.

   First, they have not been turned back by his pleas. He speaks of their guilt: I am weary of pleading with you. It is as if he were saying, “I have implored you so often to turn back,” or, “I would have labored, if it had been possible.” You have made me to serve in your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities (Isaiah 43:23). And the punishment: and I will scatter them with a winnowing fork—by the army of the Chaldeans, like straw from the threshing floor—in the gates of the land, that is, to the ends of the earth, for a gate is the outermost part of a house or city. Whose winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will cleanse his threshing floor, and gather his wheat and his barley into his barn, but the straw he will burn with unquenchable flame (Luke 3:17).

   Second, they are not corrected by punishments. He first speaks of their hardness and their punishment in general: I have slain, and I have destroyed, by leading them captive. In vain I have struck your children; they received no correction (Jeremiah 2:30).

   He then speaks of this in particular. With regard to the women, who are more miserable and sorrowful at the loss of their husbands: their widows are multiplied to me more than the sand of the sea. This is hyperbole—it is as if he were saying, “They were innumerable.” He will not have mercy on her orphans and her widows (Isaiah 9:17). And at the loss of an only son: I have brought upon them a spoiler, a slayer of the son, at midday. This shows the power of the enemies, who do not fight from ambushes but openly. He brought the spoiler suddenly, which shows their powerlessness to resist, because they had not been on guard. Her destruction will come suddenly, when it is not expected (Isaiah 30:13).

   He also speaks of the death of many sons at the same time, describing the mother: she is made weak, deprived of her sons, who are the strength of a mother. Until the barren mother bears many sons, and she who has many is made weak (1 Samuel 2:5). And the sadness of the mother: her soul fails because of the shock. The sun of joy has set for her because of the grief of her sorrow, which darkens the heart. She is put to shame inwardly; she has blushed outwardly, lacking that in which she once gloried. The sun will set at midday, and I will make the land dark in a day of light (Amos 8:9).

   Finally, he threatens punishment for those who remain after the punishments mentioned above. The Lord will make you fall before your enemies; you will go out one way against them and flee seven ways from them, and you will be scattered through all the kingdoms of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:25).