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Chapter 24: Jeremiah
Jer:1:4: Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer:1:5: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
This indicates that the god of the Bible decides a person's fate prior to their birth. If this is so, it would seem futile for any of us to try and improve our characters (by doing good works, etc.) This leads to fatalism.
Jer:1:9: Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Jer:1:10: See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
According to this, Jeremiah's words were the Lord's words, so his book should hold special interest for us.
Do historians know of any nations that were pulled down and destroyed by a prophet in Israel named Jeremiah? Or does the Bible claim that he ever did so? Apparently not. So, it seems god's purpose for Jeremiah failed.
Jer:1:14: Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer:1:15: For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Jer:1:16: And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
Jer:1:17: Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Jer:1:18: For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
Jer:1:19: And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
According to this, god would purposely bring forth "evil" in the form of nations from the North to war against Judah. This was to punish the inhabitants of Judah for having worshipped other gods. But, at the same time, this same god would defend Judah and deliver the city from the oppressors which he himself had called down upon them!
So, it would appear that the god of the Bible was once again amusing himself by staging a dramatic war epic in which he would pull all of the strings. So much for free will on our part, and love and compassion on his part.
Jer:4:10: Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
Once again, one of the Bible's "major prophets" attributed a characteristic of the devil to God. Elsewhere in the Bible, deception is associated with the devil, and truth with God:
Jn:8:44: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Jn:1:14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Jn:15:26: But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Yet Jeremiah accused this god of deception, and the accusation went unchallenged.
Jer:5:2: And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
I would have to agree with that statement: those who swear that the god of the Bible lives are "swearing falsely".
Jer:5:31: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
If the prophets prophesied falsely, that would make them false prophets. So why should we turn to their words in the Bible for inspiration?
Jer:6:10: To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Jer:6:11: Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
So god was going to take his anger out on children! And why was he angry? Because those who could not hear would not hear! This is not a god of justice.
Jer:7:20: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Here, god threatened to punish the beasts, the trees, and the ground because some men had burned incense to "other gods". Can you imagine a civilized court of law passing a death sentence on a man, and including his wife, children, and pets in the death sentence? Can you then imagine them going out and setting fire to his land? Why do we accept so much less from the "God of justice"?
Jer:7:21: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
Jer:7:22: For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
If the above statement is true, we can throw out the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; they all relate in great detail how the "god of Israel" commanded them to offer burnt sacrifices when they came out of Egypt.
If the above statement is not true, then we can throw out the book of Jeremiah.
Either way, we cannot keep all of these books together as the "Bible" and call the Bible true.
Jer:7:31: And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
The idea of setting children on fire had come into god's heart according to Isaiah:
Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows… Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. (Is. 9:17-19)
In addition, the book of Isaiah tells us that this "god" purposely had men come and dash children to pieces in front of their parents (Is. 13:16-18)! If this is the same "god" Jeremiah was claiming to speak for, then the kindest thing I can think of to say about this "god" is that he was a hypocrite. Why did he bother to feign indignation at people burning their children when he himself had promised to burn children and "dash them to pieces"?
Jer:9:2: Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
If God is everywhere, why would he speak this way? The book of Jeremiah claims that God wanted to join a band of wayfarers and live in the wilderness, so as to get away from the Israelites. But God was already in the wilderness, and everywhere else according to other books of the Bible:
Ps:139:7: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Ps:139:8: If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Ps:139:9: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Ps:139:10: Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Jer:9:3: And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
Jer:9:4: Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
Jer:9:5: And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Jer:9:6: Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
It's strange that Jeremiah would find no common ground between liars and his god; back in chapter 4, verse 10, Jeremiah had accused this same god of deceit.
If the blanket statements of Jeremiah were true, then every brother and every neighbor was deceitful and not to be trusted. This is pretty hard to believe. But, if we're going to take the Bible as the literal "Word of God", then we'll have to believe that Jeremiah (who was certainly someone's neighbor) was deceitful and not worthy of our trust.
This, of course, leads to a paradox: if Jeremiah was deceitful and not to be trusted, then why should we believe him when he states that everyone was deceitful and not to be trusted? If we don't believe this statement, then maybe Jeremiah wasn't a liar, in which case what he said was true -- but that makes him a liar!
These verses alone are sufficient proof that the Bible cannot be taken as the inerrant "Word of God".
Jer:9:8: Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.
Jer:9:9: Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Once again Jeremiah's god got angry with his people for following his example. For, according to Jeremiah, this god had deceived them with words of peace while planning to visit war upon them:
Jer:4:10: Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
Jer:9:11: And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
It appears that Jeremiah also believed in dragons.
Jer:10:3: For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer:10:4: They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer:10:5: They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
These are verses one is not likely to find beneath a church's "Christmas tree"
Jer:10:18: For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
Jer:10:19: Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
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How could the Ultimate Being ever be wounded? Whatever wounded him would be more powerful than him, which would mean he was not the Ultimate Being!
Jer:10:23: O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Jer:10:24: O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
Jer:10:25: Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
The above verses reek of problems.
First of all, Jeremiah stated that men cannot direct their own steps. In other words, some higher power ("God") is pulling the strings. If this is true, then we are not responsible for our own actions (since they're not our "own" actions: they are the actions of God -- according to Jeremiah).
Secondly, Jeremiah told God to correct him, but not in anger. Why would Jeremiah need to make this request when -- according to what he just said -- God was manipulating his actions to begin with? If it was not in Jeremiah's power to direct his own steps, then the steps he took were not a result of his own volition, and "correcting" Jeremiah would be pointless.
Third, where does Jeremiah get off telling the Ultimate Being what to do and how to act?
Fourth, if the "heathen" do not know the god of the Israelites, it hardly seems fair for this god to "pour out his fury" upon them! This would be similar to the United States waging war against some isolated African village just because its inhabitants couldn't name the current U.S. president.
Fifth: if the "heathen" cannot direct their own steps (as Jeremiah just stated) then why be angry at them for carrying out the actions God directed?
Sixth: The "heathen" who "devoured and consumed Jacob" were specifically made to do so (according to Jeremiah) by Jeremiah's god (Jer. 1:14-15). So, why would this same god be angry at them for doing what he himself made them do?
Jer:11:21: Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:
Jer:11:22: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:
Jer:11:23: And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
The men of Anathoth had asked Jeremiah to shut up! Knowing that such requests are ineffective where "prophets" are concerned, they accompanied the request with a threat. For this, Jeremiah prayed to his god for vengeance. His god answered his prayer with the above promise to kill the children of Anathoth by the cruelest death imaginable: starvation!
Once again, the god of the Bible violated his own rule about never punishing children for their parents' sins:
Ezek:18:20: The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Jer:12:16: And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
Here, the god of the Bible promised rewards to those who learned to swear by his name. Elsewhere in the Bible, however, we are instructed to never swear by this god's name:
Mt:5:34: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
Mt:5:35: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Mt:5:36: Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Mt:5:37: But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
So, according to the Bible, God wants us to swear by his name and he doesn't want us to swear by his name. So: what to do? It's just one of the many quandaries we find ourselves in when we attempt to use the Bible as our guide for living.
Jer:13:14: And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
This is supposed to be the same god who is elsewhere described in the Bible as follows:
Ex:34:6: And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Deut:4:31: (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
Neh:9:17: …thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.
Words are cheap. It's easy to say: "I am good, kind, and merciful. I am slow to anger and will never destroy you." But if you then do something I don't like, and I go into a rage and shout: "I will kill you and your children! I will show no pity nor mercy, but will destroy you!" How truthful were the words I spoke at first? Could you really continue to describe me as "merciful, gracious, and abundant in goodness and truth"?
Jer:13:23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Jer:13:24: Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
Since a leopard can't change its spots, and an Ethiopian can't change his or her skin, it follows that the "evil" Israelites could not possibly do good, even if they wanted to. They were evil by nature, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Where did their natures come from? We cannot say they turned to evil out of free-will. If they were capable of choosing an evil nature, then they could just as easily choose a good nature. That leaves God as the one who gave them an evil nature.
How can it be justice for God to give people an unchangeably evil nature and then punish them for being evil?
Jer:13:26: Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.
Here we are informed that the Ultimate Being and Creator of the vast universe engaged in the childish prank of lifting people's skirts up over their faces! One of this god's favorite punishments was to expose people's genitals in public. Why did the creator of genitalia assume that everyone was ashamed of his creation? Was he ashamed of his creation? Then why couldn't he have come up with something he wouldn't be ashamed of?
Jer:15:4: And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Here god promised to punish the Israelites for the sin of one man!
Jer:17:21: Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer:17:22: Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
It Is odd that god would tell the Israelites to observe the Sabbath again, when about a hundred years ago he had told spoken through Isaiah as follows:
Isa:1:13: Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Isa:1:14: Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
Did this god (who 'cannot change' according to James 1:17) keep changing his mind on the Sabbath issue?
Jer:18:11: Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
The above demonstrates a double standard. Jeremiah's god plotted evil against those he told to turn from evil. "Do as I say: not as I do!"
Jer:18:21: Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
It is somewhat revealing that Jeremiah was much like the god he wrote about: Jeremiah prayed that the children of his enemies would die cruel deaths.
Could it be that the god Jeremiah wrote about was really just a projection of Jeremiah's own thoughts and feelings? Or do you really believe that the "God of justice" kills children for the sins of their parents?
Jer:19:9: And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
In all of the cruel atrocities committed by men during the Holocaust, there were no minds quite deranged or perverted enough to come up with the abomination listed above. According to the Bible, the "God of love" spoke the words above, promising to make his "chosen people" eat their own children!
Jer:22:11: For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
Jer:22:12: But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
According to the above, Josiah -- king of Judah -- was succeeded by his son Shallum. The "LORD" prophesied that this Shallum would go off into captivity to Babylon. However, the record in 2 Kings contradicts this:
2Kgs:23:30: And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
2Kgs:23:31: Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
So, was Jehoahaz the son who succeeded Josiah or was it Shallum? Shall we believe 2 Kings or Jeremiah (or neither)?
Could we harmonize this contradiction by assuming that Shallum and Jehoahaz were co-rulers? Well, that still leaves us with a problem: according to 2 Kings, Jehoahaz was succeeded by 2 other kings prior to the Babylonian captivity:
2Kgs:23:36: Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
2Kgs:24:6: So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
2Kgs:24:18: Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
So the reign of succession, according to 2 Kings went like this:
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Josiah |
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Jehoahaz |
(son of Josiah) |
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Jehoiakim |
(another son of Josiah's -- appointed by Pharaoh-necoh) |
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Jehoaichin |
(son of Jehoiakim -- went captive to Babylon) |
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Zedekiah |
(another son of Josiah's -- appointed by the king of Babylon) |
But, according to Jeremiah, it would have had to have gone like this:
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Josiah |
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Shallum |
(son of Josiah -- went captive to Babylon) |
So, to harmonize the accounts we would have to assume that Shallum co-ruled with at least three of these kings (even though no mention is made of him ever ruling at all, or of these kings sharing their rule).
Finally, 2 Kings relates that it was not Shallum, but Jehoiachin who was the king at the time of the Babylonian captivity, and he was the king who was taken captive into Babylon:
2Kgs:24:12: And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
2Kgs:24:13: And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
2Kgs:24:14: And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.
2Kgs:24:15: And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Jer:22:18: Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer:22:19: He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
But in recording the death of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings simply states:
2Kgs:24:6: So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
In order to harmonize this with Jeremiah's words, we would have to assume that Jehoiakim's fathers were asses.
Jer:23:16: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
Jeremiah was a prophet. Jeremiah wrote that the LORD said not to hearken unto the words of the prophets. So if we really hearken unto the words of Jeremiah, then we shouldn't hearken unto the words of Jeremiah. It's another paradox.
Jer:23:22: But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
How could this be, when earlier this same god had emphatically stated that the wicked were incapable of turning from their wickedness?
Jer:13:23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Jer:23:24: Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
In contradiction to the above verse, there are many instances in the Bible which indicate that this god is not omnipresent:
- god "walking about in the garden" (Gen. 3:8)
- god asking where Adam was (Gen. 3:9)
- Cain and Abel bringing their offerings to god (Gen. 4:3-4)
- god "going down to see" what men were doing (Gen. 11:5)
- god asking Satan where he came from (Job 1:7)
Jer:23:31: Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.
In the above sentence, Jeremiah declared that his god was against prophets who used the phrase "saith the Lord". And what was Jeremiah's supposed source for this statement? "Thus saith the Lord"! So, according to this verse, god must've been against Jeremiah.
Jer:25:9: Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Jer:25:10: Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
Jer:25:11: And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jer:25:12: And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
Jer:25:13: And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
Jeremiah's god stated that the king of Babylon was his "servant". God's servant would do his bidding by taking the Israelites captive to Babylon. Then god would punish his servant and his servant's people!
So, which would have been better: to be one of "God's chosen people" and be punished, or to be "God's servant" and be punished?
Since he punished even those who did him a favor, maybe the best thing would have been to have no dealings at all with this god!
Jer:25:15: For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Jer:25:16: And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer:25:17: Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Jer:25:18: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
Jer:25:19: Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
Elsewhere in the Bible we are told that no man has seen God at any time (John 1:18). So, how did Jeremiah see God's hand handing him this cup?
Jeremiah took this cup and had every single person in Egypt drink from it. Let us take a conservative estimate of the population of Egypt circa 600 BCE of about 4,500,000. How long do you think it would take you to give this many people a drink from the same cup? Let's say it takes 1 minute for you to persuade a total stranger to drink from your cup, hand him or her the cup, have them drink, pass it back to you, and then refill the cup from a jug. Let's say it takes you, on average, 1 minute to get to the next individual's house, and 5 minutes to replenish the jug every 30 drinks. Let's say it takes an average of half a day to travel between cities, and that there were 200 cities.
If Jeremiah worked on this project 16 hours a day, it would have taken him over 28 years. During that time there would have been new babies born, and he would have to track these down and have them drink from the cup as well (since God's order was "Pharaoh… and all his people.")
How would Jeremiah keep track of who had drunk from the cup and who hadn't? Doubtless, where free wine was being offered, some unscrupulous people would attempt to have a second, or third drink. Some would get back in line for more free drinks until they passed out. Dealing with this quantity of people, it would have been difficult for Jeremiah to remember each and every face. It might also have been difficult for him to refuse violent half-drunk repeat customers.
On the other hand, there would be many who would refuse to drink (such as mothers refusing to let Jeremiah pour wine down their baby's throat). In those cases Jeremiah would have to recite the little speech his god had given to him for such contingencies (shown in the following verses) and this would've lengthened the time it took to complete the project.
But Jeremiah's god was not done giving him huge tasks. After spending 28 years making all of Egypt drink from his cup, his god told him to go global:
Jer:25:26: And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
Jer:25:27: Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
Jer:25:28: And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
Jer:25:29: For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.
Jer:25:30: Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
Jeremiah had to take his cup to all of the kingdoms of the world, and get each nation's ruler to drink from it! This was simply because this god was punishing a city "called by his name". He reasoned that if "his" city were punished, then all cities should be punished. Is that fair?
In a classroom, if a teacher has a favorite student who does something which displeases her, would it be fair to punish the entire class simply because she is punishing her favorite? No, that is not fair, yet that is the type of "justice" we are expected to believe that the "God of justice" metes out!
After traveling to every Mid-East, Asian, and European country, Jeremiah would have had to go overseas to other lands wholly unknown to Europeans at that time.
He had to journey to the Americas (not yet called by that name, of course) and visit each Native American nation. Being unable to communicate with them, he somehow had to request an audience with each of their chiefs, and somehow persuade them to drink from his cup.
He had to journey to Borneo and find the chief of the head-hunters, and get him to drink from his cup (in lieu of shrinking Jeremiah's head).
He had to go to China, Australia, Greenland, Madagascar, Hawaii, every Philippine island, etc.
This would have taken many years. If we take a conservative estimate of 15 years, it would bring Jeremiah's "journeys with the cup" to 43 years.
Jeremiah began this in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer. 25:1). Seven years later, his successor Jehoiachin was taken captive to Babylon along with most of the Israelites (according to the Bible). Nine or ten years after that, his successor Zedekiah shared the same fate. Yet, Jeremiah would still have been making the rounds with his cup for at least another 26 years after that! Yet, elsewhere in his book we are told that he was imprisoned during Zedekiah's reign (Jer. 32:1-2). How could he have been traveling the world with his cup while locked inside a prison cell?
Had Jeremiah actually accomplished this task, there would be stories about him on every continent. But, outside of the Bible there are no references to him. So, how likely do you think this story is?
Jeremiah purportedly foretold to all the kings of the earth that his god was about to shout at them, and every inhabitant of the world would hear the shout. Isn't it odd that everyone in the world heard God shouting at them from heaven and no one bothered to record this astonishing worldwide incident?
Jer:25:31: A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.
Jer:25:32: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
Jer:25:33: And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
If a great worldwide whirlwind occurred back in the 7th century BCE, and it killed people
all over the earth and no one buried them, don't you think this incident would've made a lasting impression on the survivors? Evidently it didn't make enough of an impression for even one of them to have written it down or even to have passed it down orally! Is this likely? Or is it more likely that this was another of those lies that prophets were prone to (according to Jeremiah himself)?
Jer:26:13: Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
The Ultimate Being commits "evil"? The Ultimate Being "repents"? Other Bible writers had a loftier view:
Num:23:19: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Jer:27:1: In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer:27:2: Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Jer:27:3: And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
Jer:27:4: And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
Jer:27:5: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
The order from god to pass the cup around came in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign (Jer. 25:1). But the order to wear a yoke (and send them to various kings) came at the beginning of his reign. So, was Jeremiah wearing a yoke while passing the cup around all over the world, or had he taken off the yoke by then? In a few verses we will see where Jeremiah mentioned the yoke to king Zedekiah (verse 12). Zedekiah didn't start ruling until 11 years after the start of Jehoiakim's reign (see appendix A). And, later we see Jeremiah wearing the yoke during Zedekiah's reign:
Jer:28:1: And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah…
Jer:28:10: Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.
So, the implication is that Jeremiah was wearing a yoke while traveling all over the world passing the cup around (at least for the first 7 years until Hananiah removed it)! This would've made his appearance in foreign countries all the more remarkable and memorable (and even more likely to have been recorded).
Jer:27:6: And now have I given all these lands unto the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
Jer:27:7: And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
Jer:27:8: And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
There is no record of a worldwide Babylonian empire. The verses above state that Jeremiah's god would make all nations serve Babylon, or perish in war with Babylon. But, search the records of the North and South American continents, and you will find nothing about any of their nations ever having heard of Babylon at that time, much less of serving or suffering defeat in war with Babylon.
This is yet another of Jeremiah's "prophecies" which proved false.
Jer:27:12: I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jer:27:13: Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer:27:14: Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
This is odd, since the Babylonian captivity had already occurred prior to Zedekiah's reign. In fact, Zedekiah was appointed (and renamed) by Nebuchadnezzar as a puppet king:
2Kgs:24:15: And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2Kgs:24:16: And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
2Kgs:24:17: And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
So they were already serving the king of Babylon when Jeremiah prophesied that they would serve the king of Babylon. Such "prophesying" must've been pretty easy: even I could make such prophecies!
Jer:30:5: For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Jer:30:6: Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
Jer:30:7: Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
Jer:30:8: For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:
Jer:30:9: But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.
No man has ever been pregnant, and King David was never raised from the dead to rule over Israel. Two more failed prophecies of Jeremiah.
Jer:30:18: Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.
The "palace" did not remain. A Mosque now stands upon the site in Jerusalem where the temple is claimed to once have stood.
Jer:31:15: Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Jer:31:16: Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
Jer:31:17: And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
The first of the verses above was misused as a prophecy in Matthew:
Mt:2:16: Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
Mt:2:17: Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
Mt:2:18: In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
Jeremiah's "prophecy" had nothing to do with Herod's slaughter of the children of Bethlehem. Jeremiah's "prophecy" concerned the "children" who had been led away into captivity to Babylon. The phrase "they were not" did not mean that they were dead: it meant that they had been taken from their homeland. Jeremiah was speaking figuratively. The writer of Matthew either didn't read the context of Jeremiah or deliberately misused the verse to suit his own ends.
Jer:31:22: How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
In the above verse Jeremiah stated that the LORD had created something new on earth. But according to the "inspired word" of Solomon (the "wisest man who ever lived"), it is impossible for anything new to be created under the sun:
Eccl:1:9: The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Eccl:1:10: Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
Jer:32:40: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
This sounds as if God was intending to interfere with their freewill. If God could put "fear in their hearts" so that they would not depart from him, then why didn't he do so right from the start, instead of letting them be taken captive to Babylon first?
If God could change people in this way (and was willing at least on this occasion to do so), then why didn't he do so to Adam and Eve and stop "original sin" from occurring in the first place?
Passages such as this cause one to doubt that "freewill" is a valid excuse for evil in a world created by an all-good God.
Jer:33:7: And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Jer:33:8: And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.
Jer:33:9: And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.
Israel has been a war-torn country which has seldom experienced peace, much less "prosperity". No nation on earth has ever trembled in fear before it. This is another false prophecy of Jeremiah's.
Jer:33:17: For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Jer:33:18: Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
The above verse claims that sacrificial burnt offerings would be offered continuously once the Israelites returned from their seventy-year captivity in Babylon. But other verses in the Bible maintain that burnt offerings would cease. Some even claim that God never wanted sacrifices in the first place:
Isa:1:11: To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Isa:1:12: When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Isa:1:13: Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Isa:1:14: Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
Jer:6:20: To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
Jer:7:22: For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
Dan:12:11: And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Mt:9:13: But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Heb:10:1: For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb:10:2: For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Heb:10:3: But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Heb:10:4: For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Heb:10:5: Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb:10:6: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb:10:11: And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
Jer:36:4: Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jer:36:5: And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:
Jer:36:6: Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
Jer:36:7: It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.
Jer:36:8: And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD's house.
Jer:36:9: And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.
Jer:36:10: Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house, in the ears of all the people.
There is a chronological problem here. Earlier we were told that Jeremiah was imprisoned by King Zedekiah in the tenth year of that monarch's reign:
Jer:32:1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
Jer:32:2: For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.
Here in chapter 36, Jeremiah is still in prison, and he dictates his book to Baruch who then reads it to the people "in the fifth year of Jehoiakim" -- 16 years ago! Either this is another overlooked "miracle of the Bible" or there is an error in the "inerrant Word of God".
Jer:42:5: Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.
Jer:42:6: Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
These people were prepared to do evil if Jeremiah were to tell them that was what his god wanted them to do. They would be obedient no matter what. It didn't matter if it was evil. If Jeremiah proclaimed that God wanted them to murder babies, they would do it. They wouldn't have to judge for themselves if their actions were immoral; they would "just be following orders" -- just like the Nazis in World War II.
This is why "prophets" and priests and popes and Governing Bodies and televangelists -- and anyone else who purports to have the "inside scoop" on what God wants of us -- are dangerous.
No human being on the face of this earth knows more about the unknowable than anyone else. So, why do people continue to listen to these "prophets" et al.? Do we just want someone to take over the "burden" of moral choice for us? Do we just want to be able to give up moral responsibility, shrug our shoulders, and justify our actions by saying that we were "just following orders"? Well, then shame on us! Moral choice is what makes us human. The quest to understand right from wrong is one of the hallmarks of a well-lived life. To make personal moral choices based on reason and empathy is to experience connectedness with the world around us: it is to fully experience life itself! If we surrender this to someone else, then we are never fully alive: never fully human. And, oh what atrocities we then commit!
Jer:48:10: Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
For anyone with an ounce of moral sense, the above verse needs no comment.