Whose wealth and treasure will the Lord give as spoil without price and who will serve their enemies in a land they do not know?

As the Lord continues his response to Jeremiah’s complaint, he reminds his prophet to focus on the judgment that is coming and the reason for its inevitability. The enemy will come and take Judah’s wealth and treasures, blessings they had received from the Lord. The Hebrew word hata is translated as territory and it refers to the land as a geographical and administrative entity. Wherever you went in the land of Judah the same offences were being committed.¹ The Lord says to Judah, I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever. The Lord’s judgment has reached a point where defeat and exile are inevitable for Judah. The covenant curses are now unavoidable. This judgment will affirm the message Jeremiah has been preaching and it will vindicate Jeremiah against his enemies. Jeremiah was surely ambivalent about the message of these verses. He could have rightly rejoiced that his enemies would be punished. At the same time, he must have mourned that his people would suffer so and he with them.²