Jeremiah 21:9

"“You shall say to this people, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death."

Key Reflection

Jeremiah 21:9 speaks directly to the people of Judah, declaring that God is presenting them with a clear choice between life and death. This verse encapsulates the weighty responsibility of their actions and the consequences they face. In first-century Jewish culture, such a proclamation would have underscored the severity of divine judgment, emphasizing that the path one chooses will determine their ultimate fate, much like the dichotomy of life and death itself.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

He that ... falleth to the Chaldeans -This was to counsel desertion, and would have been treason in an ordinary man: but the prophets Spoke with an authority above that even of the king, and constantly interfered in political matters with summary decisiveness. CompareMatthew 24:16-18. A prey -Something not a man’s own, upon which he seizes in the midst of danger, and hurries away with it. So must the Jews hurry away with their lives as something more than they had a right to, and place them in the Chaldaean camp as in a place of safety.

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