Increasing Obduracy (6:9-21). 

        It is likely there is a minor textual corruption in ver. 9, that in fact it is Jeremiah who is commanded to glean the remnant of Judah as a vine, to go over the people once again to see whether there is any who will accept the will of God.

        Vers. 10-1 la is Jeremiah’s protest. Note how he identifies himself with God, so that the message of God’s fury has be­come a burden within him longing to be poured out. Ver. lib berins God’s answer — not “I will pour it out” (A.V.), but “pour it out”(R.V.).

        Note that already Jeremiah is striking the note we are to hear so frequently later, and is condemning the false prophets, cf. 4:10 (referring to the false message of assurance from the false prophets); 5:31; 6:13.

        For 6:20 see below The Vanity of Outward Religion.

        The prophecies under Josiah end with a word of encourage­ment; in spite of apparent failure he had been doing the task allotted him. The people are compared with base metal (6:28-30).

        Chs. 1-6 of Jeremiah underline the need of reading the prophetic books along with the histories of the kings in Kings and Chronicles. Without them we are bound to get a one­-sided view. In Kings and Chronicles Josiah’s reformation seems to be a complete success, and it is difficult to understand the collapse after his death. From Jeremiah we see that it was but the last effort to shore up the doomed and collapsing house of Judah, and there was never any hope of success. It only, by delaying the final catastrophe, made it the greater when it came.