His response to his role as grape-gatherer
in Jeremiah 6:9 leads Jeremiah to ask the Lord the question, To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear?
Jeremiah knows who his audience is, but he also knows what kind of audience they are. He does not believe that he will find anyone in Judah willing to listen to his warning. He has already preached to these people with great urgency and zeal and knows how they will respond. Behold, their ears are uncircumcised; they cannot listen.
Actual circumcision was the outward sign that Israel was the Lord’s covenant people. However, when another part of the body (such as lips, heart, or here, ears) is said to be circumcised, it is a metaphorical way of saying that something has caused that organ to lose its function, or become closed.1 Through their stubborn unfaithfulness and disobedience, the people of Judah had lost the ability to hear the Lord’s word, especially when that word was warning them of judgment. They may have outwardly received the mark of membership of the covenant community, but they are strangers to the corresponding inward grace of spiritual sensitivity to the word of the Lord.
2
10 A qui m'adresser, et qui prendre à témoin pour qu'on écoute? Voici, leur oreille est incirconcise, Et ils sont incapables d'être attentifs; Voici, la parole de l'Eternel est pour eux un opprobre, Ils n'y trouvent aucun plaisir.