Jeremiah (1-31) 6:4 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Prepare ye war against her.’ At last the enemy says, ‘Let's have these jewels and this finery, and all these things. Let’s get rid of her.’ ‘Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. ⁵ Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.’ They miss the noon invasion, and the day goes on. They think maybe they have left it too late to do this. ‘Hew ye down trees.’ Here is a different line of reasoning; there are so many twists and turns in Jeremiah. There is a picture even in this; Jeremiah is full of these pictures. What are these trees? They are the trees around Jerusalem, the beautiful orchards and fruit trees that they were so proud of, that were planted there in such fine arrangement. These are going to be hewn down and used against her, turned into battering rams, used to heap up a mount or a kind of ramp. It is as if God is instructing the attacking Babylonians what to do. Certainly, this is what they customarily did. ‘Cast a mount against Jerusalem.’ We have seen the illustrations in the stonework in the British Museum, of how a great mound would be heaped up against a city wall, so that there was an incline, and up that incline they would manhandle the great battering rams to slam into the tops of the walls, and that is what is going on here. Using the wood, make a ramp, and then the battering engines will run up the ramps, and crashed against the walls of the city. The significance of these trees is that Jerusalem was surrounded by her prize, prize fruit trees, her orchards. These things were a delight to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, their prize trees. They had people who knew just how to grow them, just how to prune them, how to fashion them, and the fruit of Jerusalem was a wonder. People who were visitors to Jerusalem, either as pilgrims, or foreign dignitaries; they came through those fragrant orchards and there was nothing like it in the world: the pride and joy of the city. But the Babylonians are going to tear them down, and their prized possessions would be used against them. When the walls are attacked by battering engines, they will know they are using their own trees, their world-famous orchards. Yes, Jeremiah says, your best gifts will be used against you, when the judgment of God comes upon you. ‘This is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.’ That describes a social sin of extortion, but it also describes all the animosity against God and the stealing of his gifts and his time, and the lives we have been given.