Jeremiah (1-31) 1:15 Commentary and Bible Study

There will be the destruction of Judah, and the people will be taken into captivity for the reasons given in verse 16. Who will invade? Who will decide to invade Judah and sack Jerusalem? Why, says verse 15, it won't be the Babylonians who decide. They will do it, but they are only instruments. It will be the Lord who decides. ‘For, lo,’ says God, ‘I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne [his domination] at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.’ God will turn against his own people and even bring their enemies against them. He had promised to protect his people against the militarily superior nations that surrounded them, if they walked in his ways, but their disobedience and idolatry has caused him to abandon them, and even to fight against them, with the very enemies that he was pledged to protect them from. ‘And I will utter my judgments’ – through those people, those assailants – ‘against them touching all their wickedness [this is Judah’s wickedness], who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods [idolatry, the biggest problem] and worshipped the works of their own hands.’