Is Anything Too Hard for Me
26 Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, 27 “Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore Yahweh says: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. 29 The Chaldeans, who fight against this city, will come and set this city on fire, and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 30 “For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh. 31 For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day, so that I should remove it from before my face, 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. 34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, which I didn’t command them. It didn’t even come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” 36 Now therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says concerning this city, about which you say, “It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:” 37 “Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to dwell safely. 38 Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me. 41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” 42 For Yahweh says: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. 43 Fields will be bought in this land, about which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44 Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captivity to be reversed,” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah's own words are handed back to him as a question, and the answer runs through the burning of the city to a covenant that includes the keeping of it.
The reply opens by quoting the prayer. Jeremiah had said There is nothing too hard for you. The answer asks Is there anything too hard for me? The confession is turned into an examination, and what follows tests it in the hardest possible direction. The first thing said after it is that the city will be given to the Chaldeans and burned, along with the houses whose roofs had been used for offering incense. The affirmation is not being used to avert the disaster. It is being stretched to cover what lies on the far side of it.
The indictment is the book's fullest and its scope is startling: this city has provoked God from the day that they built it even to this day. Not since Manasseh, not since the schism — since the foundation. And the list of the guilty is the standing one: kings, princes, priests, prophets and people. The specific charges are setting abominations in the house called by God's name, and burning children in the valley of Hinnom. It ends, once more, with the denial that this had ever entered his mind.
Then the turn, and the promises are all first person. He will gather them from every country he drove them to; they will be his people; and he will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever. After a book about a divided, deceitful heart, the gift named is singleness. Then comes the clause that distinguishes this covenant from the one Israel broke: I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me. The old arrangement required faithfulness and got none. The new one supplies the faithfulness it requires. That is why it can be called everlasting without being naive.
The warmth of the language is worth registering because it is unusual. I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. And the symmetry that follows is the pledge behind it. Just as he brought all this great evil on the people, so he will bring all the good he has promised. The same reliability that made the judgment certain is what makes the restoration certain, and the reader has watched the first half being fulfilled.
The chapter then ends where it began, in a conveyancer's office. Fields will be bought for money, deeds signed and sealed, witnesses called. It is the vocabulary of Jeremiah's own purchase, repeated word for word and extended across the whole map from Benjamin to the hill country, the lowland and the South. The sign is interpreted by describing thousands of people one day doing what one prisoner did that afternoon.
settled What this mark means