5:10 Speaking to the invading soldiers that He would use to judge Judah, the Lord instructed them to prune His vine (cf. Isa. 5:1-7). However, they were to leave a remnant (cf. v. 18). They were to take many branches away because they were not His, namely, not faithful to Him (cf. John 15:1-6; Rom. 11:17-24).
5:11-12 Both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms had behaved treacherously toward the Lord. They had lied about Him saying that He would not judge them by sending misfortune, war, or famine to touch them. They denied God and His warnings about judgment (cf. Gen. 3:4). They were blind due to complacency.
5:13 There were many prophets in both kingdoms whose alleged prophecies were nothing more than hot air (wind, Heb. ruah, also translated "spirit"). They did not utter the Lord's words. God indeed would bring judgment on His people.
"The essence of true prophecy was the spiritof God, but such was their blindness, or willful ignorance, that they could not discern between windand the true spiritof prophecy."141
5:14 Yahweh, the ultimate power and authority in the universe, promised to make the messages that He had put in Jeremiah's mouth for the people like fire, not like hot air. His words would consume them in the sense that they would result in the people's destruction if repentance did not follow.
5:15 The Lord promised His people, called Israel here, that He would bring destruction against them by consuming them with Jeremiah's fiery words. The destroyer would come from a distant nation whose language they did not understand; it would not come from some nearby nation (cf. Deut. 28:49).
"Though Judah might appeal for mercy, the language barrier would prevent her cries from being heeded because they would not be understood."142
This nation was old and enduring. Babylon traced its origins back to Babel (Gen. 10:10; 11:1-9, 31).
5:16 The enemy soldiers' yawning quivers would be like open graves in that their arrows would slay the Judahites and send them to other large openings--in the ground (cf. Ps. 5:9). All the enemy soldiers would be mighty warriors, not just citizens recruited for military duty.
5:17 These soldiers would devour and demolish everything that the Judahites owned and trusted in for security.
5:18 In spite of such a thorough destruction, the Lord promised not to wipe out His people completely (cf. v. 10). He would be faithful to His covenant promises even though His people were unfaithful to their covenant responsibilities (cf. 2 Tim. 2:13).
5:19 When the people asked Jeremiah for an explanation of their circumstances, he was to tell them that since they had forsaken serving Him and worshipped idols in His land, the Lord was sending them to serve strangers in the land of those idols. This was only fair (recompense in kind, the lex talionis, cf. Deut. 28:47-48).
