The Weeping Prophet

This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .

above: Jeremiah as portrayed by Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel

The oracles of Jeremiah are oftentimes quite difficult to read. There were no prophets whose terrible burden weighed on their shoulders and took as much a toll as his did, for he was forced to endure what had been the greatest fear of all of his predecessors; The horrors of the early 6th century, culminating in the fall of the once-glorious Temple in 586; Judean blood flowing through the streets, and the survivors being dragged into Babylonian exile.

For the years leading up to this, Jeremiah begged his listeners to heed his warning and change their behavior. But this message was an unpopular one. Worse, he was despised for it. No one wanted to be told that were they to engage in a real, deep and self-critical reckoning, they would recognize that a radical change of behavior is necessitated, and Jeremiah was ill-fated to carry this message. And for this, he was persecuted, he was conspired against, he was locked up and beaten.

And he was heartbroken; for he dedicated every single breath of his towards the salvation of his brothers and sisters of Judea around him, and they hated him for it.

Consider this most sorrowful, tear-dripping of passages:

Jeremiah, appropriately referred to at times as "The Weeping Prophet." This one passage says it all.

This week's Haftorah comes from Jeremiah's second chapter. The chapter begins with God looking back nostalgically, to what seemed to be a bright, promising beginning to what was supposed to be a beautiful relationship between God and Israel:

But the nostalgia is short-lived. In fact, it was only recalled in order to set up the tragic disappointment. God reminds the Judeans of the kindnesses He had done for them, bringing them out of slavery, guiding them through the desert, and settling them in a land of abundance. And how was this kindness repaid? By disloyalty, and the thoughtless defiling of the land.

Note the contrast Jeremiah sets up between the arid wasteland on one hand, and the bounty that had awaited the exodus-generation in Canaan on the other:

This is only the beginning, and like a tidal-wave gathering momentum, God cannot stop, even stating as much:

I find the next few lines to be particularly harrowing. As you read them, ask yourself - does it remind you of anything?

Does anything sound familiar?

For me, upon reading this my mind was immediately brought to what is actually one of my favorite passages in Deuteronomy. Read through this, then take another look at Jeremiah's words above:

Do you see the parallels? Both passages begin with God asking His people to make an inquiry, so as to see that something unprecedented is occurring. In Deuteronomy, the words are placed in the mouth of Moses, who is trying to impress upon the Israelites that YHWH had taken it upon Himself to do for Israel that which no gods anywhere, ever, have done for another people.

While in Jeremiah, it is God impressing upon the Judeans that no people has ever acted with as much infidelity to their gods as Israel is now doing to hers.

The greatest kindnesses are being repaid with the greatest betrayals.

And to make matters worse; the gods with which the Judeans are replacing the Lord Almighty are no-gods to begin with!

The very heavens, which in Deuteronomy 32 were called upon to bear witness to the covenant between God and Israel, are now utterly appalled at the extent of Israel's nerve, in spurning that which has been the source of all of her glory.

Then from verse 14-19, Jeremiah's criticisms shift focus:

These verse beg a bit of explanation; Who and why are people going to Egypt and Assyria for water?

First of all, it is important to keep in mind that during Jeremiah's time, the dominant world-power, overtaking even that of the Assyrians, was the Neo-Babylonian Empire, beginning with Emperor Nebopolassar in the 620s. As the Babylonians became increasingly more imposing under his rule, nations and kingdoms were forced to adjust and realign.

About two generations earlier, when Assyria was primed to take over the entirety of the ancient near east, King Hezekiah was accused by the Assyrian emperor, Sennacharib, of aligning himself with Egypt in a fateful confrontation outside the walls of Jerusalem:

What's amazing is the consistency between how the book of Kings expresses Sennacharib's accusations, and what Emperor Sennacharib himself had recorded on his annals in ancient cuneiform, dating back to the 8th century! Here is some of the relevant passage:

(and) he (Hezekiah) held him in prison, unlawfully, as if he (Padi) be an enemy--had become afraid and had called (for help) upon the kings of Egypt (Mus(u)ri) the bowmen, the chariot(-corps) and the cavalry of the king of Ethiopia (Meluhha), an army beyond counting--and they (actually) had come to their assistance. In the plain of Eltekeh (Al-ta-qu-ú), their battle lines were drawn up against me and they sharpened their weapons.

below: Sennacharib's Annals. Written in Cuneiform. 38cm by 14 cm. Written between 691 and 689 BCE. There are three known complete versions (and fragments of others), all containing nearly the same text. Found in Ninveh, the ancient Assyrian capital, 1830.

And once again, a couple of generations before this, Judea under King Ahaz was threatened by a united coalition headed by Northern Israel and Aram. The book of Kings records what King Ahaz did to get himself out of the situation:

Are you picking up on the pattern?

When Judea's immediate neighbors were the threat in the 730s, King Ahaz turned to Emperor Tiglath-Pilesar of Assyria for help. Later, King Hezekiah was forced to turn to Egypt in order to help against Assyria when Emperor Sennacharib's might seemed unstoppable. And now, during Jeremiah's time in the 7th century, the only way to stand up to the Babylonians is with the backing of the combined might of Egypt and Assyria.

How ironic. As the commentary in the Jewish Study Bible points out (page 1032):

[The people are admonished] for asking political assistance from the imperial forces of Egypt and Assyria. The two are the typological enemies of Judah, from the southwest and the northeast.

below: Note the Nile in the bottom left, the Euphrates in the middle, as well as Nineveh, the capital of Assyria until 612.

So if we return to Jeremiah's statement above, when Judah is criticized for drinking the waters of the Nile of Egypt and of the Euphrates of Assyria, what Jeremiah seems to be saying is the Judeans have demonstrated their lack of trust in God's ability to protect them, by running off to seek protection from foreign powers.

Jeremiah is not unique as a prophet to make this point. When King Ahaz was first faced with the threat of Northern Israel and Aram from 2 Kings above, before he requested help from Assyria, the prophet Isaiah assured him that all would be well. Isaiah then told Ahaz he could request a miraculous sign, which would demonstrate that Isaiah speaks truly; that God is watching over Judea and won't let Northern Israel and Aram hurt her, even though she seems in-over-her-head and outnumbered.

King Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, and Isaiah is furious:

below: very cool, a passage of Isaiah from the Dead Sea scrolls. Can you make any of it out? Here are some landmarks that help; note לא אשאל on the top left, and וקרא שמו עמנואל on the bottom left. This is in Isaiah 7.

While it is not so clear from the text what is so wrong with Ahaz's actions (and as a matter of fact, Deuteronomy 6:16 tells us it is forbidden to test God), Shmuel Vargon, reading between the lines, connects King Ahaz's actions in 2 Kings with this passage from Isaiah and states the following:

The kings of Aram and Israel intended to march upon Jerusalem to rule over it, to remove King Ahaz from his throne and to appoint in his place another. Isaiah was commanded by God to declare the word of God to Ahaz, that this scheme of the two kings would not work, and that it is incumbent upon Ahaz to hold himself back from turning to Assyria for help. For if he would turn to Assyria, he would therefore demonstrate his lack of trust and faith in God, and his kingdom would then fall. Since Ahaz was not convinced, Isaiah said he would perform a sign for Ahaz that his prophecy was valid, but Ahaz refused even to see a sign.

from Prophecy of Rebuke or Consolation, in Beit Mikra: Journal for the Study of the Bible and Its World, 46:4 page 290:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23508816.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fbasic_SYC-5187%252Ftest&refreqid=excelsior%3A468694f65ff490264c383c2dd9ef1340

God has already demonstrated, as Jeremiah reminds the Judeans in our Haftorah, that God is both willing and able to fight for and to defend Judea from foes bigger and seemingly stronger than her. If God can take on the pantheon of Egyptian deities, and defeat every single one of them in what wasn't even a fair fight, then what is Assyria, or Babylon, to Him?

And yet, the Judeans turn not to God for help, but to "no-gods" as well as to their own recent enemies.

I want to make just one (or two) more observation and comment. Note the recurring motif of water in our Haftorah. God describes Himself as "Living Waters," and blasts the Judeans for exchanging Him for "broken cisterns," incapable of holding water. Then Judea is criticized for running to the rivers of Egypt and Assyria for help against Babylon.

It seems to me that Jeremiah is making a rhetorical point here, in which he wants us to draw a connection between turning to idolatry on one hand, and relying on humans for salvation on the other; ultimately, they are one and the same. Even if one is not "worshipping" a false god, placing one's ultimate hopes in flesh and blood at the expense of God is similarly a symptom of having rejected, or at least forgotten, the Almighty.

One other major topic worth discussing in our Haftorah, which I only want to draw your attention to and which I'm sure there will be an opportunity to discuss in the future, is that of a genre called idol satire, at which Jeremiah excels!

See this in the closing verses to our Haftorah:

I don't want to end this only with negativity, and so in order to show that Jeremiah is not all and only bleak, here is a beautiful passage at which we would eventually arrive, if we stuck with Jeremiah long enough. Here we see that despite our repeated and ever-frustrating short-comings, the Almighty's love for and commitment to Israel knows no bounds: