Back to Jeremiah 18

Jeremiah 18:13-15

Therefore Yahweh says: “Ask now among the nations, ‘Who has heard such things?’ The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

For my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to false gods. They have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Therefore Yahweh says: “Ask now among the nations, ‘Who has heard such things?’ The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

    Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

    For my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to false gods. They have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up,

  • KJV King James Version

    Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

    Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

    Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    Therefore thus saith the LORD: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

    Doth the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or are the strange cold flowing waters plucked up?

    For My people hath forgotten Me, they offer unto vanity; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up;

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Cross-references (35)

  • Jeremiah 6:16 (v15) Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for…
  • Jeremiah 2:32 (v15) “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.
  • Isaiah 57:14 (v15) He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”
  • Hosea 11:2 (v15) They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.
  • Jeremiah 2:13 (v15) “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken…
Show all 35 cross-references
  • Jeremiah 5:30 (v13) “An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.
  • Malachi 2:8 (v15) But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Yahweh…
  • Isaiah 41:29 (v15) Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
  • Isaiah 66:8 (v13) Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as…
  • Jeremiah 2:10-13 (v13) For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. Has a…
  • Jeremiah 10:15 (v15) They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
  • Jeremiah 17:13 (v15) Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they…
  • Jeremiah 23:14 (v13) In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of…
  • Hosea 6:10 (v13) In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.
  • Jeremiah 3:21 (v15) A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they…
  • Jeremiah 13:25 (v15) This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,” says Yahweh, “because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.”
  • Jeremiah 14:17 (v13) “You shall say this word to them: “ ‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my…
  • Jeremiah 16:19 (v15) Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,…
  • Jeremiah 31:4 (v13) I will build you again, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel. You will again be adorned with your tambourines, and will go out in the…
  • Hosea 2:13 (v15) I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went…
  • Matthew 15:6 (v15) he shall not honor his father or mother.’ You have made the commandment of God void because of your tradition.
  • John 6:68 (v14) Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
  • 1 Samuel 4:7 (v13) The Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp.” They said, “Woe to us! For there has not been such a thing before.
  • Isaiah 3:12 (v15) As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the…
  • Isaiah 9:16 (v15) For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed.
  • Isaiah 36:22 (v13) Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to…
  • Isaiah 62:10 (v15) Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner…
  • Jeremiah 19:5 (v15) and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I didn’t command, nor speak,…
  • Jeremiah 44:15-19 (v15) Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the…
  • Jeremiah 44:25 (v15) Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it,…
  • Lamentations 1:15 (v13) “The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has…
  • Romans 14:21 (v15) It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
  • 1 Corinthians 5:1 (v13) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that…
  • Isaiah 65:7 (v15) your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says Yahweh, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed…
  • Jeremiah 2:19 (v15) “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,…

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (18 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv13–15 God shews here that the Jews were become wholly…

God shews here that the Jews were become wholly irreclaimable, for they arrived at the highest pitch of impiety, when they were so daring as to reject the salvation offered to them; for what had the Prophet in view but, to extricate them from ruin? God himself by his Prophet wished to secure their safety. How great then was their ingratitude to reject God’s paternal care, and not to give ear to the Prophet who was to be a minister of salvation to them? Now as they were extremely deaf and stupid: God turns to the Gentiles.

Enquire, or ask, he says, among the Gentiles, Has any one heard such a thing? as though he had said, “I will no more contend with those brute animals, for there is no reason in them; but the Gentiles, destitute of the light of knowledge, can be made witnesses of so gross an impiety.” And he says the same thing in Jeremiah 2:10,

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“Go, pass through the isles and survey the whole world, has any nation forsaken its own gods, and yet they are no gods?”

As though he had said, “Religion so much prevails among wretched idolaters, that they continue steadfast in their superstitions; as they consider it a dreadful thing to change their god, they therefore shun it as a monstrous thing. Hence it is, that they are devoted to their superstitions, for the god whom they have once received, they think it the highest impiety to forsake, while yet they are no gods; but my people have forsaken me, who am the fountain of living water.” Jeremiah repeats now the same thing in other words, that such an example could not be found among heathens.

He then adds, A base thing has the virgin of Israel done. Some indeed render שעררת, shorret, “a monstrous thing,” and it may be thus taken metaphorically, for the verb שער shor, means to count, to think; and this meaning may be adopted here; but as in many places it signifies baseness, I will not depart from that common meaning. He says then, that it was an extremely base thing for the people to forsake him. He does not call the people the virgin of Israel by way of honor, but to augment their reproach. For God, as we have before seen, had espoused the people to himself; and so it was their duty to observe conjugal fidelity, as a virgin espoused by a husband, who ought not to regard any other, for she is not to look for any other after she has pledged her faith. But the people of Israel, who ought to have been as it were the bride of God, sinned most basely, yea, most disgracefully and infamously, when they prostituted themselves to wicked counsels as well as to superstitions. He now adds comparisons, by whichlte more fully exposes their wickedness, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv14–15 As no man that hath thirst refuseth fresh conduit…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Jer 18:13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–15 God was moved at this desperate obstinacy and hardness…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Because my people hath forgotten me,.... Or, "that they…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14–15 Of Lebanon - Lebanon had rocks, and also fruitful…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–14 Verse 13. The virgin of Israel] Instead of ישראל…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv13, 15 Jer 18:13-14. Ask ye now among the heathen —…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–15 The contrast between the chaste retirement of a virgin…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Virgin. The disorders of Israel are thus enhanced. (Calmet)
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–15 (Jer 2:10-11). Even among the heathen it was a…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Heathen — Literally, nations. The word is steadily…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Ask ye now among the nations] Cp. ch.…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–15 (13) Ask ye now among the heathen.—The appeal of…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Will a man leave the anew of Lebanon, etc.?…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13, 15 Ask the nations, who has ever heard of such…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13–14 18:13-17 The Lord answered that he would scatter his…
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