Jeremiah 6 is the sixth

chapter Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

of the

Book of Jeremiah The Book of Jeremiah () is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1#Superscription, Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the book as "th ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

of the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. This book contains prophecies attributed to the

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

, and is one of the

Books of the Prophets The (; ) is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the () and (). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets ( ) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings ...

. Chapters 2 to 6 contain the earliest preaching of Jeremiah on the apostasy of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. This chapter relates Jeremiah's warning of "impending destruction from the North".

Text

The original text of this chapter, as with the rest of the

, was written in

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

. Since the division of the Bible into chapters and verses in the late medieval period, this chapter is divided into 30 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

tradition, which includes the

Codex Cairensis The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Hebrew Bible's Nevi'im (Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated He ...

(895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916),

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex () is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. ...

(10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008). Some fragments possibly containing parts of this chapter were found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

, i.e., 4QJer^a (4Q70; 225-175 BCE), with the extant verse 30. There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

known as the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the

version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonica ...

(S; BHK:

\mathfrak

^S; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and

Codex Marchalianus Codex Marchalianus, designated by siglum Q, is a 6th-century Greek language, Greek manuscript copy of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament) known as the Septuagint. It is now in the Vatican Library. The text was writte ...

(Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

Parashot

The ''

parashah The term ''parashah'', ''parasha'' or ''parashat'' ( ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian , Sephardi Hebrew, Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book ...

'' sections listed here are based on the

. Jeremiah 6 is a part of the ''Third prophecy ( Jeremiah 3:6-6:30)'' in the section of ''Prophecies of Destruction (

Jeremiah 1 Jeremiah 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book, one of the Nevi'im or Books of the Prophets, contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. This ch ...

- 25)''. : open ''parashah''; : closed ''parashah''. : 5:30-316:1-5 6:6-8 6:9-15 6:16-21 6:22-30

The wages of sin (6:1–15)

Whereas the whole chapter 6 functions as a massive announcement of Judah's 'final outcome' for the reasons of destruction identified in

chapter 5 Chapter Five refers to a fifth chapter in a book. Chapter Five, Chapter 5, or Chapter V may also refer to: Albums * '' Chapter 5: Letter'', a 2002 album by g.o.d. * '' Chapter V: Underrated'', a Syleena Johnson album, 2011 * ''Chapter V'' (Staind ...

, this section and the last section of the chapter (6:22–30) are closely matched to form 'literary amalgamations' bracketing the single complex unit in the middle (6:16–21).

Verse 1

: ''O ye children of Benjamin,'' :: ''gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem,'' : ''and blow the trumpet in Tekoa,'' :: ''and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem:'' : ''for evil appeareth out of the north,'' :: ''and great destruction.'' Tekoa (

Tuqu' Teqoa (, also spelled Tuquʿ) is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate, located southeast of Bethlehem in the land Samaria And Judah West Bank. The town is built adjacent to the biblical site of Tekoa (; also called Thecoe), now Khirbe ...

) was about south of

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

in the hill country of Judah. The location of Bethhaccerem is debated.

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

was in the territory allocated to the

tribe of Benjamin According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin () was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The tribe was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch Jacob (later given the name Israel) and his wife Rachel. In the ...

Verse 7

:''As a fountain casts out her waters,'' ::''so she casts out her wickedness.'' :''Violence and devastation are heard in her;'' ::''before Me continually are grief and wounds.'' The first sentence in Hebrew can be rendered as "''As a well makes cool/fresh its water, she makes cool/fresh her wickedness,''" with the word "well" written ( ''kethib'') in an unusual form (, ''bor'', "cistern", a masculine noun), but the reading proposed by the Masoretes ( ''qere'') is , ''bayir'', for , ''beʾer'', "well", a feminine noun, which agrees in gender with the pronoun ('it also forms a more appropriate comparison since cisterns do not hold fresh water'). A marginal note in the

tradition indicates that the middle letter of the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

Verse 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.'' Despite 'rich liturgical offerings' that simply show their duplicity, the people 'bring the verdict upon themselves'. Although the frankincense from the Sabeans in South Arabia is a prescribed ingredient for incense () and the sweet cane ("aromatic grasses") an ingredient for the anointing oil (), it is later explained in that the use of those for worship can only work when 'meshed with a more broadly based journey through life' (cf. ).

Consequences of failing the test (6:22–31)

Following a pattern in first section (6:1–5) this section describes the eventual disaster because the people failed the test of purity, metaphorically described as the analytical testing of metallic purity.

Verse 23

: ''They shall lay hold on bow and spear;'' :: ''they are cruel, and have no mercy;'' : ''their voice roareth like the sea;'' :: ''and they ride upon horses,'' : ''set in array as men for war against thee,'' :: ''O daughter of Zion.'' KJV Here, the voice of YHWH warns about the approaching foe, a 'merciless military force crossing the earth', with a sound like 'the roaring sea' (v. 23b), and their target is 'you, O daughter Zion!' (verse 23c).

References

Sources

* * * Ofer, Yosef (1992). "The Aleppo Codex and the Bible of R. Shalom Shachna Yellin" in ''Rabbi

Mordechai Breuer Mordechai Breuer (; May 14, 1921 – February 24, 2007) was a German-born Israeli Orthodox rabbi. He was one of the world's leading experts on Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and especially of the text of the Aleppo Codex. His first cousin was the histo ...

Festschrift: Collected Papers in Jewish Studies'', ed. M. Bar-Asher, 1:295-353. Jerusalem (in Hebrew)
Online text (PDF)
* * *

External links

Jewish

Christian

Jeremiah 6 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
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