Глава 15

“And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel stand before me to pray for this people, my soul will not go to this people” (Jer. 15:1). So that the prophet would not grieve that God does not answer his prayer, the Lord says to Jeremiah: “And the great prophets, Moses and Samuel, would not be heard now, although in their time their prayer for the same people was heard.” God heeded both the prayer of Moses in the desert, when the people worshiped the calf, and the prayer of Samuel, when the people asked for a king. Both of them delivered the people from anger with their prayers, while it is not written about any other prophet that they did the same with their prayers. “She who gave birth to seven laments,” that is, Leah, who bore Jacob seven sons. “The sun will set for her while it is still midday” (Jer. 15:9), because from the sons of Leah, the descendants of Reuben were first taken into captivity, and then Simeon and Issachar, and together with the Ephraimites, all the sons of Leah’s sons were resettled and taken to the land of Assyria. In another sense, she who gave birth the prophet names seven the tribe of Ephraim, which founded the kingdom of Samaria and which was superior in power and wealth to all the sons of Israel. Or the prophet names the whole host of the sons of Israel who gave birth to seven, who made the calf in the wilderness, the two calves made by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and set up in Dan and Bethel, and also the four-faced idol. I will give” (Jer. 15:9), that is, the tribe of Judah and their brethren, the sons of Levi and the sons of Benjamin, who were not destroyed at the fall of Samaria, I will deliver to the Babylonians to death and resettlement. “Woe to me, my mother, who gave birth to me, a stranger and a scolder throughout the land,” that is, in the land of Israel and the pagans, because I predict disasters for them. “I have not slain, anyone has slain me: I am all cursed with me” (Jer. 15:10); I have not harmed anyone, and no one has harmed me, but everyone does not stop slandering me, and the reason for their complaints is that I told them about the approaching time of punishment. Likewise, the prophet Avaakum says: “What you have shown me... wickedness... and malice, see theft and is wickedness against me? (Hab.1:3). “I will not forsake you for good,” says the Lord (Jer. 15:11). This is what God says to the prophet Jeremiah and promises him help after the Lord justifies his predictions by his very deed and shames his persecutors for their slander and insolence. This was done by the hand of the enemies of his people, the Chaldeans, but not before the words of his prophecy were fulfilled. “I did not sit down in the company of them who play,” that is, the false prophets who mocked me when I predicted threatening disasters, and who deceived the people with the vain hope of peace and tranquility. “But they were afraid of Thy hand; they sat down alone, for they were filled with sorrow” (Jer. 15:17). I did not imitate the customs and deeds of the false prophets and the people, because I was filled with sorrow and thought about those great disasters that Your almighty hand had prepared for this people, and did not hide them from me. “You were like lying water to me, not having fidelity” (Jer. 15:18). You were for me the same as “water of reproof” or “sacrifice of jealousy” (Num. 5:18), which, according to the establishment of God, should distinguish the guilty from the innocent, but because of the iniquity of the priests, it turns out to be false and not having fidelity. And the prophet says: “I beg You, do not be like this water for me, which does not distinguish those who have sinned from those who have not sinned.” “For this reason the Lord says: If you turn, I will raise you up.” If your soul gets used to patiently enduring everything that happens to people, then I will accept you as a lover and friend. “And if you bring forth what is honorable from what is unworthy, it will become My mouth.” If you teach My people repentance and righteousness, teach them to shun sin, then you will be like My mouth, that is, you will be close and pleasing to Me. “And they will turn to you, and you will not turn to them” (Jer. 15:19), that is, they will imitate you, and not you them. This was said about Baruch, Habakkuk and other prophets who studied with Jeremiah. You might be interested in: