The Sacrifice, and the Search with Lamps
7 Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yahweh, for the day of Yahweh is at hand. For Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated his guests. 8 It will happen in the day of Yahweh’s sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king’s sons, and all those who are clothed with foreign clothing. 9 In that day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit. 10 In that day, says Yahweh, there will be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. 11 Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off. 12 It will happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in their heart, “Yahweh will not do good, neither will he do evil.” 13 Their wealth will become a plunder, and their houses a desolation. Yes, they will build houses, but won’t inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, but won’t drink their wine.
God prepares a sacrifice at which his own people are the offering, then searches the city street by street for men who think he does nothing.
Be silent before the Lord Yahweh. The command is the courtroom's, and what follows inverts a familiar picture: Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. Judah is not bringing the offering. Judah is the offering.
The punishment is aimed by class and habit — princes, the king's sons, men in foreign clothing, those who leap over the threshold and fill their master's house with violence. Verses 10 and 11 name real districts, so the reader hears the cry moving through named streets from the fish gate to the second quarter.
Verse 12 supplies the sharpest image in the book. God searches Jerusalem with lamps for men settled on their dregs — wine left so long on its sediment that it thickens, the picture Jeremiah uses of a nation never disturbed Jeremiah 48:11. Their creed is quoted: Yahweh will do neither good nor evil. Not denial of God, but denial that he acts, which verse 13 answers by taking the houses they built and the vineyards they planted.
settled What this mark means