The Prophetic Poet: Jeremiah 17

STRUCTURAL DIAGRAM AND OUTLINE FOR TEACH

Thus says Adonai:

“Cursed is

the one who trusts in man,

and depends on flesh as his arm,

and whose heart turns from Adonai.

For he will be like a bush in the desert.

He cannot see goodness when it comes,

but will dwell in parched places

in the wilderness—

a salt land where no one lives.

Blessed is the one who trusts in Adonai,

whose confidence is in Adonai.

For he will be like a tree

Planted by the waters,

spreading out its roots by a stream.

It has no fear when heat comes,

but its leaves will be green.

It does not worry in a year of drought,

nor depart from yielding fruit.

“The heart is deceitful above all things,

and incurable—who can know it?

I Adonai

search the heart,

I try the mind,

to give every man according to his ways,

according to the fruit of his deeds.

Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,

so is he who gets riches but not by justice;

in the midst of his days they will leave him,

and at his end he will be a fool.

A glorious throne

set on high from the beginning

is the place of our sanctuary.

O Lord,

the hope of Israel,

all who forsake you

shall be put to shame;

those who turn away from you

shall be written in the earth,

for they have forsaken the Lord,

the fountain of living water.

OUTLINE

1. The past: Eco of the garden
Answers the question: Why is the world the way it is? How did we get here?

a. Curses

i. Trust in man [a]

1. Like a bush in the desert [b]

b. Blessings

i. Trust in Adonai [a]

1. Like a tree in waters [b]

2. The present: The heart of God vs heart of Man
Answers the question: Why does faith in man produce a curse?

a. Heart of man [a]

i. Deceitful

ii. Only God can search the heart of man

b. Heart of God [a]

i. Fair, Just,

ii. Gives according to what they deserve

3. The future: Fruit of men vs fruit of God.
Answers the question: Where does the road end

a. Weirdly placed proverb

i. The man tried to get riches by the Tree of Knowledge [b]

1. A brood that they did not hatch

2. Good at first, but lonely at last

ii. God has set a place [b]

1. A throne since the beginning

a. Echoes the past, calling for faith in the present

2. As a place of our sanctuary

a. Points to. The future calling for rest in the present

4. The way: The real mikveh
Answers the question: How do we get there?

a. The hope of Israel [a]

i. Play of words with the cleaning mechanism, Mikveh

1. Only by placing our hope, honor, loyalty, and faith in Israel

b. Contrast by: [a]

i. Those who forsake vs those who honor

ii. Those who turn away vs those who turn back

c. The fountain of living water [a]

i. Ends with the same play of words: Mikveh

1. Not only the living water

a. The fountain of living water.

Introduction

Was he really the weeping prophet or just an incredible poet? According to the author of this paper, Jeremiah has been wrongly deemed the weeping prophet, at least within the Mexican church. Jeremiah is the author of the deepest poems, drawing from the depths of the wells of The Word to give Israel and the body of believers a drink of revelation. Jeremiah links proven theological truths with their origins, bringing them to his present time and projecting them to the future hope. He paints a beautiful canvas for everyone’s mind and heart that gets deeply entangled with our souls. It is impossible for the avid reader not to pounder on the glorious wisdom, sanctity, justness, and goodness of God once they finish any poem, writing, or oracle from Jeremiah’s book

By exegeting Jeremiah 17:5-13¹, this paper will show how, through poetic, prophetic literature, Jeremiah weaves God's story together and presents it by contrasting trust in God, the heart of God, and fruit of God vis a vis trust in man, the heart of man and the fruit of Man. Specifically, this paper will show how (1) Jeremiah poetically plays with words (Adam, Curse – Blessings, arm – seed, bush – tree, wilderness – waters) to echo the events in the garden, explaining humanity's condition. Then, (2) he uses it as a mechanism to contrast the heart of men vis a vis the heart of God so (3) the reader can analyze the fruit given by both, calling them back to the garden, the place prepared for them since the beginning. Finally, (4) Jeremiah uses a play on words on the term Mikveh to show that the only way back (and forward) is through God, The Only Hope, The Cleanser, and The Spring of Living Water.

Historical Context

More than a book, the commonly called Book of Jeremiah is an anthology of poems, oracles, proverbs, and narratives written by Jeremiah. He was called before adulthood, somewhere between infancy and adolescence.² Called “to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10), to be a prophet to the nations, beginning with Isreal and Judah and expounding to other nations later. ³ He began prophesying in a transitional moment when the fall of King Ashurbanipal signaled the disintegration of the Assyrian empire, breaking the yoke of nearly a century. ⁴ He continues through Josiah’s kingship with the hope of the new reforms.⁵ Instead, he watched how the apparent reform and renewed national power did not penetrate the hearts of Judah and died with King Josiah.⁶ Eventually foreseeing and seeing the advance of Babylonia in the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar who would take Juday captive and exile for 70 years. ⁷

His message highly intertwines his personality with history and profound wisdom about God's character, will, and works. Jeremiah abounds in using poetic literature to recall profound truths found in the Pentateuch, especially the book of Deuteronomy, whose influence is notable in its content.⁸ Jeremiah is a true poet who expresses, according to this author, the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 29, forth telling the curses that will come because Israel abandoned God in exile. Still, he also grabs from Deuteronomy 30, forth telling the blessings of returning so that God can circumcise their hearts. According to Steven Smith, “Jeremiah is about hope provided by judgment.” ⁹ A paradoxical statement that enlightens the personality of Jeremiah and his literary style. This tragic figure finds hope in despair, determination in angst, and triumph in defeat. This makes him a true prophet, finding only in God his strength and refuge; in his decrease, God increases.¹⁰

Literary Context

The exegeted text in this paper is found within the first 20 chapters of the Book, which contain the main collection of prophesies and poems from Jeremiah, followed by a historical narrative intertwined with other poems and oracles.¹¹ These poems and oracles are a subsection of the first section identified by Mark Dever as “Justice for God’s People (Chapters 1–45; 52)”¹² This justice, as noted above, is part of the hope provided by judgment, a judgment that comes from the breaking of the Covenant made on Mt Sinai and renewed before entering Cannan according to Deuteronomy. ¹³ As such, the consequences of the broken covenant become the major theme of Jeremiah’s book, alternating between the just-coming judgment and its renewed promise of a circumcised heart.

Understanding the heavy influence of the Deuteronomic covenant renewal is crucial to understanding how Jeremiah weaves God's story together with his writings, poems, and oracles. The proclamation of the broken covenant, the call to return, and the eventual exile are not new information but a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy for Judah and Israel in Jeremiah´s days. Jeremiah links the covenants of God, points to the judgment because of the broken Sinaitic covenant, and recalls the promise of the circumcision of the heart in what we first learn to be, by the oracle of Jeremiah, the new covenant. According to James Stuart Bell

The best-known passage in Jeremiah is the new covenant text in 31:31–34. Not only is it the largest OT text quoted in the NT (Heb 8:8–12; 10:16–17), but arguably better than any other passage, it links God’s ancient promises to Eve (Gn 3:15), Abraham (Gn 12:1–3), and David (2Sm 7:16–19) with NT assurances that God in Christ grants believers new hearts, salvation, and fellowship with him.¹⁴

This paper intends to show how Jeremiah uses poetic language and wisdom parallelisms to merge the message of God and present it to his contemporary audience, intended to produce repentance and the return to God by following His will, whatever it may be. The literary proposition of this paper is that Jeremiah 17:5-13 parallels Genesis 3 while bringing forth Deuteronomy 29 and 30, weaving in Psalms and Proverbs, and using a cultural understanding of Leviticus cleansing rituals (mikveh) to make a call to repentance and return to faith in God and his future promises.

Explanation of the Text (6 pages)

For the explanation of the text, the author proposes an outline derived by the personal learnings of the teaching of Dr. Brent Thomasson and the authors William W Kleon, Graig L. Bloomerg, and Robert L Hubbard through their book Introduction to Biblical Interpretation.¹⁵ Said outline is described through the description of four sections in Jer. 17:5-13 and later shown in the process of exegeting text verse by verse.

Jer. 17:5-13 can be broken into four sections. The first three (Jer 17:5-12) are a series of antithetical parallelisms that work together as a Synthetic parallelism, each one adding to the contrast between men and God. The first section (Jer 17:5-8) poetically transports the reader into the past, into the garden, as a foundation to remind its readers why the world is the way it is and how they are now in a place of judgment. To do so, Jeremiah uses antithetical parallelism to contrast trust in man vis a vis trust in God by comparing them to a bush in a wilderness and a tree planted by the waters.

A technical Hebrew analysis, highlighting the parallel words and structures, is needed to demonstrate this poetic structure. The author of this paper performed this technical analysis using Logos Bible Software and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.

Jer 17:5 opens with the words: “Thus says Adonai,” a common phrase used by the prophets when proclaiming an oracle. Even though it may be just another use of a normal phrase in prophetic literature, combined with the whole text, it echoes the garden when Adonai first says the word Cursed (אָרַר) ʾârar in Gen. 3:14. ^Day16 This sets the poetic assonance in motion, recalling to the reader’s mind the time in the garden when the serpent was cursed. The Hebrew word curse has the same sounds as the word describing the serpent, shrewd, (עָרוּם) ʿārûm. In turn, the word curse has the same root as the word for naked עָרוֹם (ʿārôm) ¹⁷ in Gen. 2:25, which becomes linked directly to the shame felt by Adam and his wife when they first saw.¹⁸

Jer. 17:5 opens by transporting the minds of its readers to the garden, reminding them of the first time humanity fell and the pronounced curse. This curse resulted from men taking the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The wording intentionally echoes the garden and compares the curse placed on the serpent to the curse placed on “the one that trusts in man (אָדָם ʾâdâm´).¹⁹

Jeremiah continues the verse with two synthetic statements describing this type of person. (1) The one that trusts in (אָדָם ʾâdâm´) depends on flesh as his arm-seed (זְרוֹעַ) z^erôwaʿ ²⁰ A word clearly selected by Jeremiah to remember the seed (זְרֹע) z^erôaʿ of Genesis 3:15 that would crush the head of the serpent. Jeremiah builds it further and describes (2) how trusting in the seed (z^erôwaʿ ) of men equals turning their hearts from Adonai.²¹ Thus, it could be concluded that Jeremiah grabs from Gen. 3:14-15 and makes a poetic commentary. The one who trusts in man is like the one who abandoned faith in the seed promised by God to trust their own flesh; they will receive the same fate as the serpent did, a curse of nakedness and shame.

In Jer. 17:6, within the first section of the outline presented, Jeremiah builds and deepens this echo using a simile to compare the one who trusts in man to a bush in the desert. The word bush (עַרעָר) ʿarʿâr is derived from עָרוֹם (ʿārôm); naked.²² and sounds just like the word cursed (אָרַר) ʾârar. The use of this very specific word links, once again, the one who trusts in men to the curse, shrewdness, and nakedness, all fruits of sin produced by the seed of man, or in the case of Gen. 3:15, the serpent. According to Robert Jamieson, other commentators further explain the use of the word bush in the desert as a juniper tree found in the Arabah, a plant “excluded from religious uses, because it has neither fruit nor seed and is neither sown nor planted.”²³

What Adam and his wife intended to happen was for them to see good and evil and become like God, but instead, they received a bare plant, a naked shame, a tree with no seed or fruit. Jeremiah comments on this idea by explaining what this bush in the desert means: He cannot see goodness when it comes. Adam trusted in the serpent, and the serpent planted a seed that gave the fruit of nakedness and shame. They took from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but they cannot see it when goodness comes. Even when their “eyes are opened,” their hearts are corrupted, and they cannot see it. Just like Adam and his wife, Cain, and Seth’s descendants, the man was sent to the wilderness, a salty land where no one lives.

As an antithetical parallelism, Jer 17:7 presents the one who trusts in Adonai as blessed בָרַךְ bârak.²⁴ The words curses and blessings, coupled together, are a core theme of the Torah and the center of prophetic commentary. Jeremiah is now relating these words to the decision made in the garden. Man either chooses to trust in Adonai or chooses to trust in the flesh. At the same time, most commentaries agree with Steven Smith in that the passage immediately brings to mind Psalm 1. The blessed man is like a tree that is “planted beside flowing streams.”²⁵ Jeremiah intends to bring all Ps. 1 into the mind of his audience, showing again two paths to follow: “For Adonai knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin” (Ps. 1:6). Why would Jeremiah do this? For one, to show his audience the right direction, but secondly, knowing that the exile was coming, to fill those who trust Adonai with hope. The drought (exile) is coming, but those who trust in Adonai do not worry but yield fruit in every season (Jer 17:8), its leaves never drop (Ps.1:4), and it has no fear when heat comes (Jer 17:8).

The second section (Jer 17:9-10) is a synthetical parallelism of the first one; it repeats the same idea but adds more information. It is meant to answer the question: why does faith in man produce a curse, and why trust in God is better? It is important to highlight that the first section speaks of someone who trusts in man, while the second section speaks about every man’s heart condition, making it personal. This brings the principles laid in the first section into the reader’s present condition with another antithetical parallelism contrasting the heart of man vis a vis the heart of God.

Jer. 17:9 is a direct statement to pierce readers' hearts. There is no escape; every man's heart is deceitful, and this deceit has no cure. Why is it that one should not trust his own heart? We cannot even know our own hearts. ²⁶ It is deceitful and incurable, impossible to be known even by the enlightened gurus. No pursuit of wisdom will ever understand the heart of man. So, what, is a man then condemned to be cursed because of an incurable heart? Jer 17:10 is the most beautiful antithetical statement ever made: “I Adonai search the heart.” Adonai and Him alone is just and fair because he knows the heart of man. He searches the depths of the heart and only He can truly give according to what they deserve. The heart of God is pure, deliberate, just, noble and honest. Christopher Wright explains the beauty of this expression:

The opening word, I, is emphatic. It seems to be a deliberate riposte to the despairing question, Who can understand it? ‘I can,’ says God, ‘I the Lord, the searcher of the heart, the examiner of the inner being.’ We may be a mystery to ourselves, but we are no mystery to the One who sees into the deepest recesses of human motives and thoughts.²⁷

The third section (Jer 17:11-12) closes the synthetical parallelism of both previous sections. While the first drives the reader to the past and the second drives the reader to the present, the third drives the reader to the future, answering the question: where would the road end if one follows each path? This is achieved by an antithetical parallelism contrasting the fruit that each would give if followed, the fruit of man vis a vis the fruit of God. The poetic mechanism to do so is an interesting metaphor in the form of a proverb: partridge that hatches eggs that are not hers. The fruit of those who trust in man is just like the juniper tree; it fields no fruit and has no seed. Like a Patridge that has no seed and hatches another bird’s eggs, whatever hatches will eventually fly away and once more leave the partridge deserted. ²⁸ The fruit of man is temporal satisfaction followed by long-lasting solitude. Christopher Wright asserts that this prover is a condensed form of the theology of Psalm 73. ²⁹ If so, this would answer the question: What should a man do? Trust in Adonai and be confident in His heart and His ways. Even when it seems the wicked are bearing fruit, its seed bears no fruit; enter the sanctuary of God and perceive the end (Ps. 73:17).

In short, be patient and aim for eternal destiny: “A throne of glory, set up on high from the beginning, is the place of our Sanctuary (Ps. 17:12).” As Steven Smith says: Our trust is in God and his Word because our hearts are fixed on the coming reality of seeing the throne of the God who judges all.³⁰ A coming reality that was set up since the beginning, the sanctuary, the consecrated place where God will tabernacle with man. From the beginning, the garden was set up to be this place, but the trust in flesh corrupted it. All three sections taken together work as a synonymous parallelism of Genesis 3 when Adam and his wife had to choose between two trees, two wills, and two fruits. This is the real choice being communicated by Jeremiah, on one hand following the path of Adam (man) and on the other following God’s plan. As Christopher Wright would say,

“This is someone who has known the living God but who is now governing the essential core of their life (heart) without reference to God. On the other hand (7) is the person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. The contrast is then presented in matching pictures of a stunted bush in the wastelands (6) and a tree planted by the water (8).³¹

The fruit of man is corruption and leads to the wilderness, to the desert, to the salty place where no one lives, out of the presence of God and His sanctuary. The fruit of God was, is, and will always be a throne of glory set up high. But how does a wicked deceitful heart get there?

The fourth and final section (Jer 17:13) answers this question. It is a call to choose the right path back to God by using an indirect analogy to the commonly known practice of ritual cleansing in a Mikveh. A mikveh is a ritual immersion pool that serves the purpose of cleansing someone for any ritual activity.³² This idea is first found in Lev. 15:13, which defines living water (rivers, springs, lakes, seas, or any naturally running body of water) as the type of water needed for ritual purity.³³ Later, rabbinical tradition ranked the types of waters that could be used for ritual purity from the least preferable to the best: (1) Water in ponds, (2) water of dripping rain collected in cisterns, (3) a pool of water with forty seah³⁴s, (4) a spring of standing water, (5) a spring of running water, and finally, the best one (6) living water. ³⁵

Interestingly, the word מִקְוֶה mikveh does not only mean collection of water. It is a complex word used in several meanings. It has the same root as sanctuary מִקְּדָשׁ miqq^edâsh and can mean: (1) hope, something waited for with confidence. (2) A collection of water, caravan, drove, a congregation. (3) Abiding, gathering together, weaving of a linen yarn. Understanding these complex words compels the reader to look into the original languages and find an inclusio within Lev. 17:13. Adonai, the mikveh of Israel … the mikveh of living water. Adonai himself is the mikveh of living water and those who have forsaken Adonai will be cursed with shame, written in the sand to be forgotten. Why? Because they traded off the mikveh of living water for a mikveh of broken cisterns (Jer. 2:13). In the same way Christopher Wrigth concludes:

“The verbal echoes build the links clearly. Those who turn away from you (13) will become like the one whose heart turns away from the Lord (5), and will face the same dry and dusty fate. By implication, those who do not forsake the Lord will have the abundant water supply not only of a tree planted by the water (8), but of the spring of living water that is the Lord himself (13; cf. 2:13).” ³⁶

THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS (1 page)

Jer. 17:5-13 as shown in the text's explanation, is a deep dip into theological concepts. The main one is faith, which will bring us back to the Sanctuary of God, to His eternal presence. Jeremiah shows how Adam placed his faith in the flesh and looked for a way to follow his own will. This drove them to be like a bush in the desert instead of a tree by the streams (garden). But God has always provided a way to be cleansed and trust in the promised seed. This is the seed of grace, the seed of the gospel, the seed of thought that is eventually recovered when the actual seed of the woman comes. Salvation comes by faith in the Son (Seed) of God, who came through the woman and died so that sin would be covered. The fruit of grace is a life full of faith and hope with no shame or fear. God is sovereign, God is good, and God has only one plan since the beginning.

Deuteronomy 29 and 30 could be seen as a commentary on this main event of the garden, projecting it to the future, a future that Jeremiah is actually living. The way of death is to trust in man, and the way of life is to trust in God. The sacrifices were never meant to be for salvation, but a means to show the faith in He who was to come and die a gustatory death, just like Issac was saved, every sacrifice was intended to remind Israel of that day and pointed forward to the day of redemption. When Israel stopped trusting in God, they were exiled, but God promised to circumcise their hearts upon their return. How? Through the washing of sins and pouring of living water. Through the only hope, the only mikveh, Adonai. Jeremiah, according to Thomson, “recognized that Josiah’s reforms were in reality a retrograde movement because they threatened to undo the work of the prophets. Reformation in worship without reformation of heart was useless” ³⁷

What is the path man can take to return to God’s rule? There is only one way, truth, and life: Jesus Christ, the seed that crushed the serpent on the cross and rose from death. He is the real Mikveh, the only hope and the only cleanser. The only one worthy enough to change our deceitful heart into His heart by putting the law in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The search for the seed is over and it is now time for the resolution. The Son of God stood on the cross so everyone could look at Him and recognize the coming seed. Whoever trusts in Him will have eternal life. Whoever trusts in man will be cursed as the serpent was. For those who trust, a Sanctuary set up high, a throne of glory is waiting.

APPLICATION (1 page)

In ministry and life: Choosing the right path. It is not always easy to choose the right path. Even when someone knows their heart is deceitful, they can be deceived by it. The only real application is that all who trust in the Lord actually run to the Lord. That, in a sense, every living being can be washed by the spring of living water. There is an interesting event in the life of Jesus that can illustrate how this can be applied practically.

When Jesus was about to go to the cross, he washed His disciples' feet. Peter tries to stop Him, but Jesus insists that He must wash his feet. Peter, being Peter, then asked to be washed fully instead. Jesus responds: “He who has bathed has no need to wash, except the feet; he is completely clean. And you all are clean (Jn. 13:10)” Even the ones who have been bathed have to wash their feet because they are still walking in a corrupted world. Reading and letting the Word examine our hearts and souls is like letting Jesus wash our feet with living water. He has already cleansed us, but we must wash our feet daily. Trusting in the Lord is like letting Jesus wash our feet daily through the reading and applying of His word.

Taking some principles out of Jer. 17:5-13 can show us how to do it. First, echo the past. There is a need to understand what went wrong or what went right. There is a need to dig up the foundational truths so that the big picture is revealed. Secondly, be confronted by reality by transporting the past to the present. What would that mean for the contemporary reader? Finally, remember there is a destiny and make decisions according to the destiny shown by the Word. What is the fruit of the actions the reader is taking and how would that action better reflect the character of God?

CONCLUSION (1/2 page)

It can be concluded that Jeremiah was an extraordinary poet. Yes, he was a tragic figure who wrestled with the message he had to proclaim. Yes, a poet who felt deeply in his soul and lamented over Israel. But is it not every poet a weeping poet? Is it not that same characteristic that makes them so great? Take, for example, Romeo and Juliet. They were tragic figures who ended in tragic destinies but are remembered as the greatest of romantics.

Jeremiah is the greatest of the poetic prophets. He intertwines the theological truths revealed from the beginning of time like no one before him. He emotionally displays those truths to engrave them in the minds of his readers. He pushes them to their final destinies, offering hope for those who trust in God and despair for those who do not. He offers the only great solution be cleansed through the true Mikveh.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jeremiah 17 (2)

Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. 2016. In The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Beitzel, Barry J., and Kristopher A. Lyle, eds. 2016. Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels. Lexham Geographic Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Bell, James Stuart, ed. 2019. Ancient Faith Study Bible. Nashville, TN: Holman Bibles.

Blum, Edwin A., and Trevin Wax, eds. 2017. CSB Study Bible: Notes. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Bromiley, Geoffrey W., ed. 1979–1988. In The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. Wm. B. Eerdmans.

Evans, Craig A. 2003. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew–Luke. Edited by Craig A. Evans and Craig A. Bubeck. First Edition. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.

Klein, William W., Craig L. Blomberg, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr. 2017. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Third Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Mangum, Douglas, ed. 2020. Lexham Context Commentary: Old Testament. Lexham Context Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society. 2015. Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Neusner, Jacob. 1988. The Mishnah : A New Translation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Notley, R. Steven. 2015. Jerusalem: City of the Great King. Vol. 2. Jerusalem: Carta Jerusalem.

Smith, Steven. 2019. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Strong, James. 2009. In A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Wood, D. R. W., and I. Howard Marshall. 1996. In New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Wood, Fred, and Ross McLaten. 2006. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Edited by Max Anders. Vol. 16. Holman Old Testament Commentary. Nashville, TN.: Holman Reference.

Wright, Christopher J. H. 2014. The Message of Jeremiah: Grace in the End. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

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¹ All scriptures quotations, unless otherwise noted are taken from Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version, Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015).

² J. G. S. S Thomson, and J. G. Mc Conville, “Jeremiah.” In New Bible Dictionary, Ed. D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, and D. J. Wiseman, 3rd ed, (550. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 550.

³ S. K. Soderlund Jeremiah, Book of.” In The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised, ed. Geoffrey W Bromiley, (2:985. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979-1988), 987

⁴ Ibid., 985

⁵ Steven Smith, Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations, (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 5.

⁶ Soderlund, 985

⁷ Ibid., 986

⁸ Soderlund, 987

⁹ Smith, 6

¹⁰ Thomson, 552

¹¹ Soderlund, S. K…….

¹² Steven Smith…..

¹³ Soderlund, 987

¹⁴ James Stuart Bell, Ancient Faith Study Bible, (Nashville, TN: Holman Bibles, 2019)

¹⁵ William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Third Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017)

¹⁶ Harrison, 833

¹⁷ Strong, 88.

¹⁸ Day, 417

¹⁹ Strong, 8

²⁰ Strong, 35

²¹ Wright, 199

²² Strong, 93

²³ Jamieson, 524

²⁴ Strong,

²⁵ Smith, 117

²⁶ Smith, 115

²⁷ Wright, 201

²⁸ Smith, 118

²⁹ Wright, 202

³⁰ Smith, 119

³¹ Wright, 199

³² Craig A. Evans, The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew–Luke. Ed by Craig A. Evans and Craig A. Bubeck. First Edition. (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook. 2003)

³³ Benjamin J. Snyder, “Mikvah.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, Ed by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016)

seahs One-third of an ephah.

³⁵ Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah : A New Translation. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988),

³⁶ Wright, 203

³⁷ Thomson, 554