EXPOSITION
The superscription in Jeremiah 11:1 evidently belongs to the three chapters 11-13, though Jeremiah 11:1-23 and Jeremiah 12:1-17 are more closely connected with each other than with Jeremiah 13:1-27. To which period the group of prophecies belongs—whether to the reign of Josiah, or of Jehoiakim, or of Jehoiachin, or to various periods, is a matter of dispute. It contains at any rate one passage (Jeremiah 12:7-17) which was almost certainly put in by a later editor. It is doubtless Jeremiah's work, but seems out of place here (see below, on this passage). Naegelsbach's analysis of Jeremiah 11:1-23; Jeremiah 12:1-17, is striking. The fundamental idea of the entire discourse he assumes to be the antithesis of covenant and conspiracy, and proceeds thus:
1. A reminder of the renewal of the covenant between Jehovah and the people lately made under Josiah (Jeremiah 11:1-8).
2. First stage of the conspiracy; all Israel, instead of keeping the covenant with Jehovah, conspires against him (Jeremiah 11:9-13).
3. The punishment of the conspiracy is an irreversible, severe judgment (Jeremiah 11:14 17).
4. Second stage of the conspiracy; the plot of the men of Anathoth (Jeremiah 11:18-23).
5. Third stage; the plot in the prophet's own family (Jeremiah 11:1-6). Naegelsbaeh, however, with violence to exegesis, continues thus (assuming the homogeneousness of Jeremiah 12:1-6 and Jeremiah 12:7-17):
6. Israel's conspiracy punished by a conspiracy of the neighboring peoples against Israel (Jeremiah 12:7-13).
7. Removal of all antitheses by the final union of all in the Lord (Jeremiah 12:14-17).
The opening verses of this chapter give us (as we have seen already in the general Introduction) a most vivid idea of the activity of Jeremiah in propagating a knowledge of the Deuteronomic Torah (i.e. the Divine "directions" with regard to the regulation of life). It may even be inferred from verse 6 that he made a missionary circuit in Judah, with the view of influencing the masses. It was, in fact, only the "elders" of the different towns who had taken part in the solemn ceremony described in 2 Kings 23:1-37. "The words of this covenant" had been ratified by the national representatives; but it required a prophetic enthusiasm to carry them home to the hearts of the people. Hence it was that "the word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah," etc.