NOTES for Jer 21:1-14

Even before the king, who wished to question Jeremiah, the prophet has no intention of being false to his conscience and says what has been revealed to him: military defeat lies ahead, and it will not be accidental or episodic; the Lord, who many times fought on the side of the Israelites, is now fighting against them. But He is not the one who betrayed the people He Himself chose; that was done by those who for a long time and stubbornly turned away from their Creator. As the saying goes, do not spit into the well; now it is time to pay for unfaithfulness. Yet even while fighting against the people, the Lord continues to call them to come to their senses: even now He is ready at any moment to receive His prodigal sons.

This is where Jeremiah's tragic path begins. His bitter prophecies are perceived by his countrymen not as a call to rethink their deeds, but as preaching treason. Since then, a similar situation has repeated itself many times in history: bitter times came, and the people took the most clear-minded people, who dared to speak uncomfortable truth, for traitors. Only time showed that behind the harsh denunciations of such people there stood genuine love for their people far more often than behind the speeches of lying optimists and pseudo-patriots. But many, many people have had, and evidently will more than once still have, to repeat, or even multiply, the severe trials that fell to Jeremiah...