Jeremiah 6 is the sixth chapter of the

Book of Jeremiah The Book of Jeremiah ( he, ספר יִרְמְיָהוּ) 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 1:1–3 identifies the boo ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

or the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated 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 writings by the Israelites. The ...

of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

. 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 divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...

, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 2 to 6 contain the earliest preaching of Jeremiah on the apostasy of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. 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 (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. 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 (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

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 ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') 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 ...

(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 the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

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

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, 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), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

(S; BHK:

\mathfrak

^S; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and

Codex Marchalianus Codex Marchalianus designated by siglum Q is a 6th-century Greek manuscript copy of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament) known as the Septuagint. The text was written on vellum in uncial letters. Palaeographically it ...

(Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

Parashot

The ''

parashah The term ''parashah'' ( he, פָּרָשָׁה ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Heb ...

'' 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- 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, but the term may also refer to: Albums * Chapter 5: Letter, a 2002 album by g.o.d. * Chapter 5: Underrated, a Syleena Johnson album, 2011 * ''Chapter V'' (Staind album), 2005 * ''Chapter V'' (Trey Songz albu ...

, 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' :''Khirbet ad-Deir, part of Teqoa, should not be confused with Khirbet ad-Deir in Hebron Governorate.'' Teqoa ( ar, تقوع, also spelled Tuquʿ) is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate, located southeast of Bethlehem in the West Ba ...

) was about south of

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

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

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

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 patriarch Jacob (later given the name Israel) and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentateuc ...

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 ( he, מָרְדְּכַי בְּרוֹיֶאר; 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 A ...

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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