What is the meaning of Jeremiah 18:21? Therefore, hand their children over to famine Jeremiah has just been told by the LORD that Judah has hardened its heart (Jeremiah 18:12). In response, the prophet pleads for covenant-level judgment. • Famine is a literal curse promised for persistent rebellion (Deuteronomy 28:53: “You will eat the fruit of your womb…”). • Babylon’s siege would make this prayer reality (2 Kings 25:3; Lamentations 4:4–10). • The request underscores how sin harms the most vulnerable—yet also shows God keeps His word, for blessing and for curse. pour out the power of the sword upon them Having no food, the besieged city would next face the sword. • Leviticus 26:25 links sword with covenant breach: “I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant.” • Jeremiah is asking that the military might of Babylon finish what famine began (Jeremiah 14:15; Ezekiel 5:17). • The phrase “power of the sword” accents God’s sovereignty: earthly weapons become instruments of divine justice. Let their wives become childless and widowed The family structure unravels when the men fall and the children perish. • Psalm 109:9 voices a similar imprecation: “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” • Isaiah 47:9 foretells widowhood and loss of children “in a single day” for Babylon; here Judah faces the same fate. • The prayer reverses the blessing of a fruitful home (Psalm 128) and vividly pictures the social cost of national sin. let their husbands be slain by disease Not every death would be by sword; plague would stalk the survivors. • Deuteronomy 28:21: “The LORD will plague you with diseases…” • Jeremiah 24:10 lists “pestilence” alongside sword and famine, matching this verse. • Siege conditions—overcrowding, poor sanitation—made disease an unavoidable tool of judgment. their young men struck down by the sword in battle The nation’s future—its young warriors—would fall on the field. • Jeremiah 11:22: “Their young men will die by the sword.” • 2 Chronicles 36:17 records the later fulfillment as Babylon “slaughtered their young men with the sword.” • Losing the strongest generation left Judah defenseless and underscored the totality of divine judgment. summary Jeremiah 18:21 is an imprecatory cry that the full range of covenant curses—famine, sword, widowhood, disease, and battlefield death—would fall on a persistently rebellious people. Each clause mirrors earlier warnings, proving God’s Word both accurate and literal. The verse reminds readers that divine patience has limits, and that rejection of God’s gracious call ultimately invites the very judgments He long foretold. |
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