Jeremiah Chapters 1-2:22; I Planted You With Noble Vine!

                                       

Rembrandt van Rijn's painting of the Prophet Jeremiah


 

             

We begin reading The Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah is born around 645 BCE. He is called to prophecy in 627 BCE, one year after King Josiah of Judah attempts to reform the Judeans from idolatrous practices. He is the son of a wealthy land owning Priest in the town of Anathoth, which is three miles north east of Jerusalem. His educational training would appear to have included the writings/preaching of the Northern Israelite prophet Hosea as well as Deuteronomic verse as is evidenced by the 200 citations found in the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah will never marry, knowing what awaits women and children in the coming exile.

Fragment of Septuagint Torah portion 3rd Century BCE

        

 There are two known versions of the Book of Jeremiah: the Septuagint translation (This is the Greek language version of the Jewish Bible that was begun in the late 3^rd Century BCE for the Greek speaking Alexandrian Jews. It is 1/8 the length of the Masoretic text) and the Masoretic translation (The authoritative Hebrew language version of the Jewish Bible).

         

Baruch Ben Neriah is Jeremiah’s devoted disciple-scribe who is described by Flavius Josephus (the Jewish Historian) as a Jewish aristocrat whose brother was the chamberlain to King Zedekiah of Judah. The Rabbis describe Baruch as a blood-relative of Jeremiah, both men of the Kohanim.

Chapter 1 begins with Jeremiah’s description of his call to prophecy.

Rabbi:  Chapter 1:1-10 Jeremiah is describing how he was summoned to divine prophecy.

Ceil: Chapter 1:6-7 “ I don’t know how to speak,/ For I am still a boy,…”

 Like other prophets before him, he is hesitant to take on this job.

  Weeping Jeremiah by Marc Chagall

                                                               1956

 

Julie: There is no backing out of this position – he was chosen before he was in the womb.

Ellen: Chapter 1:17 “So you, gird up your loins/Arise and speak to them/All that I command of you./ Do not break down before them,/Lest I break you before them.”

So God is threatening to harm him?

Julie: I think God is giving him very serious direction. He wants his full attention. This is not about him.

Referring to 1:11 “The word of the Lord came to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? I replied: I see a branch of an almond tree.”

 What is the significance of the Almond tree?

Ceil: I believe that almond trees are the first to bloom in spring.

Julie: Oh, that’s beautiful!

Rabbi: Chapter 2:1-3 “I accounted to you favor/ The devotion of your youth,/ Your love as a bride…”

This sounds like a very idealized memory of their time in the wilderness.

Joel:  Chapter 2: 3 “Israel was holy to the Lord,/ The first fruits of His harvest.”

 Israel was first among the nations – the favored child.

Julie: God seems very personally hurt by the people’s rejection of him.

Joel: It appears like the people are being asked to make a choice but it isn’t much of a choice. Follow my ways or…

Rabbi: yes, this is a black and white choice but the choice is theirs.

Joel: Chapter 2:3 referring to all who ate of the first fruits of the harvest were held guilty and disaster befell them. So the best was taken off the top for sacrifice? Is that meant to burn or to be given to the priests?

Rabbi: The best of the harvest is given to God.

Julie: Chapter: 2:8 “And the prophets prophesized by Baal/And followed what can do no good.”

I believe child sacrifice was made to Baal.

Ceil: no, I think he was a fertility god.

Julie: Yes, they made human sacrifice to ensure the growth of new crops.

Rabbi: Do you remember the story of Elijah when he challenges the Prophets of Baal?

Ceil: yes!

Ellen:  Chapter 2: 10  “Just across the isles of the Kittim and look,/ Send to Kedar and observe carefully;…”

What is Kittum and Kedar?

Rabbi: Kittum is an island in the Aegean and I’m not sure of Kedar. These references show their awareness of the larger world and how these other people’s values are being juxtaposed to our own.

Note: Kittum was the name for the west coast of Cyprus. The Jewish Bible also applies the name to all of the Aegean islands. Kedar was an Arab confederacy that controlled the Persian Gulf to the Sinai Peninsula in the 6^th Century BCE.

Joel: Chapter 2: 18 “What, then is the good of your going to Egypt/ To drink the waters of the Nile?/ And what is the good of your goings to Assyria…”

This sounds like a Greek debate; the world vs. Monotheism. He is arguing the case.

Julie: I think he is referring to the Northerners trying to make pacts with the Assyrians. We were punished for not trusting in God.

Ceil: No, I think this is just metaphorical – poetic.

Julie: possibly!

Rabbi: Chapter 2:21 ‘I planted you with noble vines,/ All with choicest seed;/ Alas I find you changed/ In to a base, an alien vine!”

This is such powerful poetry!

Ellen: I really get this. It feels like a very modern dilemma. God is saying that the people have everything that they need to thrive but they continue to try and better and one up God. We can’t see what’s in front of us and so we try Buddhism or this or that. God is just trying to get us to accept that our roots are deep and we have all we need to move forward.

Rabbi: Chapter 2:22 “Though you wash with natron/And use much lye,/ Your guilt is ingrained before Me.”

The people may look physically good and have used beautiful salts to clean–up but God sees what they have become.

 

These are a people who have lost their direction. They may beautify themselves with Nile salts but they pray to pagan gods so, they no longer bind together in covenant/community. Despite Josiahs’ best efforts to reform their ways, it will be to no avail. Similar to Isaiah, Jeremiah prophesizes the coming threat from the North.