◄ Jeremiah 5:10 ►
Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.
Study Bible
Go up through her vineyards
This phrase calls to mind the imagery of a vineyard, which is often used in Scripture to symbolize Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7). The vineyard represents God's chosen people, whom He has cultivated and cared for. The command to "go up" suggests an invasion or inspection, indicating that God is sending His agents to examine the spiritual state of His people. The Hebrew root for "go up" is "עָלָה" (alah), which can mean to ascend or to rise, often used in the context of going up to a place of significance, such as Jerusalem. This ascent is not for blessing but for judgment, highlighting the seriousness of Israel's spiritual decline.

and destroy
The Hebrew word for "destroy" is "שָׁחַת" (shachat), which implies ruin or corruption. However, the context here is not of total annihilation but of a purging or cleansing. This destruction is a divine act of judgment meant to remove the corrupt elements within Israel, much like a gardener prunes a vineyard to promote healthy growth. It reflects God's justice and His desire for His people to return to righteousness.

but do not finish them off
This phrase reveals God's mercy even in judgment. The Hebrew root "כָּלָה" (kalah) means to complete or finish. God’s intention is not to utterly destroy His people but to discipline them, allowing for the possibility of repentance and restoration. This reflects the consistent biblical theme of God's patience and long-suffering, as He desires that none should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Prune away her branches
The act of pruning involves cutting away dead or overgrown branches to encourage healthy growth. The Hebrew word "נָסַר" (nasar) suggests a careful and deliberate action. This metaphor indicates that God is removing the unfaithful and sinful elements from among His people. It is a painful but necessary process to restore Israel to spiritual health. This pruning is an act of divine love, as God disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

for they do not belong to the LORD
This phrase identifies the reason for the pruning: the branches that are being removed are those that have turned away from God. The Hebrew word "לֹא" (lo) means "not," emphasizing the separation between these branches and the covenant relationship with God. This separation is due to their idolatry and unfaithfulness. The phrase underscores the importance of belonging to the LORD, which involves faithfulness and obedience to His covenant. It serves as a warning to remain steadfast in faith, as only those who are truly His will be preserved.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
A prophet called by God to deliver messages of warning and hope to the people of Judah. His ministry spanned the reigns of several kings and was marked by themes of judgment and restoration.

2. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, which had turned away from God, leading to warnings of impending judgment through prophets like Jeremiah.

3. Vineyards
Symbolic of the nation of Israel, often used in the Bible to represent God's people and their spiritual state. Here, it signifies the areas of life and society that are to be examined and corrected.

4. Branches
Represent the people or leaders of Judah who have strayed from God's ways. The command to strip them off indicates a need for purification and judgment.

5. The LORD
The covenant God of Israel, who is both just and merciful. He calls for judgment but also leaves room for repentance and restoration.
Teaching Points
Judgment and Mercy
God's judgment is never without purpose. While He allows for the stripping away of what is unfaithful, He does not completely destroy, leaving room for repentance and renewal.

Spiritual Examination
Just as the vineyards are examined, believers are called to examine their own lives. Are there areas that need pruning or correction to align with God's will?

Belonging to the LORD
The branches that do not belong to the LORD are removed. This calls for self-reflection on whether our lives truly reflect our identity as God's people.

Hope in Restoration
Even in judgment, there is hope. God's ultimate desire is for His people to return to Him and bear fruit that glorifies His name.

Community Accountability
The call to "go up through her vineyards" suggests a communal responsibility to address sin and encourage faithfulness within the body of believers.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does the metaphor of the vineyard reveal about God's relationship with His people, and how can this understanding impact our daily walk with Him?

2. How can we identify and "strip off" the branches in our lives that do not belong to the LORD, and what practical steps can we take to remain in Him?

3. In what ways does the concept of judgment and mercy in Jeremiah 5:10 challenge or encourage you in your current spiritual journey?

4. How can the imagery of the vineyard and branches be applied to the church community today, and what role do you play in fostering spiritual growth and accountability?

5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's pruning in your life. How did it lead to greater fruitfulness, and how can you use that experience to encourage others?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Isaiah 5:1-7
This passage also uses the vineyard metaphor to describe Israel's unfaithfulness and the resulting judgment.

John 15:1-6
Jesus speaks of Himself as the true vine and His followers as branches, emphasizing the need to remain in Him to bear fruit.

Romans 11:17-24
Paul discusses the grafting of Gentiles into the olive tree, symbolizing the inclusion of all who believe in Christ, and the potential for Israel's restoration.
Sermons
Battlements not the Lord'sS. Conway Jeremiah 5:10
False RefugesJ. J. S. Bird, B. A.Jeremiah 5:10
Man's Battlements or God's BattlementsJ. Batsman, M. A.Jeremiah 5:10
Storming the BattlementsJeremiah 5:10
Storming the BattlementsCharles Haddon Spurgeon Jeremiah 5:10
The Danger of False ConfidencesDean Farrar.Jeremiah 5:10
The Removal of False Trusts and DefencesJeremiah 5:10
The Vineyard Spoiled Because of the Degenerate BranchesD. Young Jeremiah 5:10
People
Jacob, Jeremiah
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Aside, Battlements, Belong, Branches, Complete, Completely, Completion, Destroy, Destruction, Execute, Full, Lord's, Ravage, Rows, Shoots, Strip, Turn, Vine, Vine-rows, Vines, Walls, Waste
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 5:10

     4416   branch

Jeremiah 5:9-12

     8710   atheism

Library
A Question for the Beginning
'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are here to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the close we have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that evening have gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked their lives because they would not face and answer this question! Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Storming the Battlements
Jerusalem had sinned against God; she had rebelled against the most High, had set up for herself false gods, and bowed before them; and when God threatened her with chastisement, she built around herself strong battlements and bastions. She said "I am safe and secure. What though Jehovah hath gone away, I will trust in the gods of nations. Though the Temple is cast down, yet we will rely upon these bulwarks and strong fortifications that we have erected." "Ah!" says God, "Jerusalem, I will punish …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

God's Barriers against Man's Sin
I am slowly rallying. My great struggle now is with weakness. I feel as if my frail bark had weathered a heavy storm which has made every timber creak. Do not attribute this illness to my having laboured too hard for my Master. For his dear sake, I would that I may yet be able to labour more. Such toils as might be hardly noticed in the ramp for the service of one's country, would excite astonishment in the church for the service of our God. And now, I entreat you for love's sake to continue in prayer …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Tithing
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:10). Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been …
Arthur W. Pink—Tithing

How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 14.) Differently to be admonished are those who fear scourges, and on that account live innocently, and those who have grown so hard in wickedness as not to be corrected even by scourges. For those who fear scourges are to be told by no means to desire temporal goods as being of great account, seeing that bad men also have them, and by no means to shun present evils as intolerable, seeing they are not ignorant how for the most part good men also are touched by them. They are to be admonished …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

"And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Acceptable Sacrifice;
OR, THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT. BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George Cokayn, will inform the reader of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions.
2 COR. v. 17. 2 COR. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. THE knowledge of our true state in religion, is at once a matter of so great importance, and so great difficulty that, in order to obtain it, it is necessary we should have line upon line and precept upon precept. The plain discourse, which you before heard, was intended to lead you into it; and I question not but I then said enough to convince many, that they were …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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