Jeremiah 5:20 Study Bible: "Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

◄ Jeremiah 5:20 ►

Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah:

Declare this
The Hebrew word for "declare" is "נָגַד" (nagad), which means to make known or announce. In the context of Jeremiah, God is instructing the prophet to boldly proclaim His message to the people. This is a call to action for believers to be vocal about God's truth, emphasizing the importance of sharing divine revelations with others. Historically, prophets were often tasked with delivering difficult messages, and this highlights the courage and obedience required to fulfill God's commands.

in the house of Jacob
The "house of Jacob" refers to the descendants of Jacob, also known as Israel. This phrase underscores the covenant relationship between God and the Israelites. It serves as a reminder of their identity as God's chosen people, who are expected to live according to His laws. The historical context here is significant, as it points to the collective responsibility of the nation to heed God's warnings and return to Him.

and proclaim it in Judah
"Proclaim" is similar to "declare," reinforcing the urgency and importance of the message. "Judah" was the southern kingdom of Israel, which included Jerusalem. This specific mention indicates that the message is directed to the leaders and inhabitants of Judah, who were often seen as the spiritual and political center of the nation. The historical context is crucial, as Judah was facing imminent judgment due to their persistent disobedience and idolatry.

saying
The use of "saying" introduces the direct message from God. It signifies the transition from the command to declare to the content of the declaration. This word sets the stage for the divine message that follows, emphasizing that what is about to be spoken is not of human origin but from God Himself.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Jeremiah
A major prophet in the Old Testament, 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 repentance and judgment.

2. House of Jacob
Refers to the descendants of Jacob, also known as Israel. This term is often used to address the entire nation of Israel, emphasizing their covenant relationship with God.

3. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. During Jeremiah's time, Judah was facing impending judgment due to its persistent idolatry and disobedience to God.

4. Prophetic Declaration
The act of proclaiming God's message to His people. In this context, it involves a call to repentance and a warning of the consequences of continued disobedience.

5. Covenant Relationship
The special relationship between God and the people of Israel, established through covenants with the patriarchs and reaffirmed through the Law given to Moses.

Teaching Points

The Importance of Prophetic Warning
God uses prophets to call His people back to righteousness. We must heed warnings in Scripture and examine our lives for areas of disobedience.

Covenant Faithfulness
The relationship between God and His people is based on covenant faithfulness. We are called to live in obedience to God's commands, reflecting our commitment to Him.

National and Personal Accountability
Just as Judah was held accountable for its actions, nations and individuals today are responsible for their moral and spiritual choices.

The Role of Repentance
Repentance is a central theme in the prophetic message. Turning back to God is essential for restoration and blessing.

The Relevance of Old Testament Prophecy
The messages of the prophets remain relevant today, offering insights into God's character and His expectations for His people.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the message to the "house of Jacob" and "Judah" in Jeremiah 5:20 apply to the church today?

2. In what ways can we identify modern-day "idols" that might lead us away from our covenant relationship with God?

3. How do the blessings and curses outlined in Deuteronomy 28 relate to the warnings given by Jeremiah?

4. What steps can we take to ensure we are living in obedience to God's commands, both individually and as a community?

5. How can we discern and respond to prophetic warnings in our own lives, whether through Scripture or other means?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Deuteronomy 28
This chapter outlines the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, providing a backdrop for understanding the consequences that Jeremiah warns about.

Isaiah 1
Similar to Jeremiah, Isaiah calls out the sins of Judah and urges repentance, highlighting the consistent message of the prophets.

Hosea 4
Hosea speaks to the spiritual adultery of Israel, paralleling Jeremiah's message of a broken covenant relationship due to idolatry.

Amos 3
Amos emphasizes the responsibility of the chosen people to live according to God's standards, echoing the call to the house of Jacob and Judah.

Sermons

Nature's Witness Against Blind Eyes and Rebellious Hearts	J. Waite	Jeremiah 5:20-24
Adoration of God in Nature	J. Garbett, M. A.	Jeremiah 5:20-25
God the Ruler of the Waves	John Newton.	Jeremiah 5:20-25
God's Barriers Against Man's Sin		Jeremiah 5:20-25
God's Government of the Sea and Man's Revolting Tendencies	Homilist	Jeremiah 5:20-25
God's Judgment of Self-Will	J. Parker, D. D.	Jeremiah 5:20-25
Indifference	J. Burns, D. D.	Jeremiah 5:20-25
Persuasives to the Fear of God		Jeremiah 5:20-25
Sea and Soil; Divine Providence	C. Clarkson, B. A.	Jeremiah 5:20-25
Solemn Reasons for Fearing the Lord	Bp. Heber.	Jeremiah 5:20-25
The Sand Barrier	Homiletic Magazine	Jeremiah 5:20-25

People

Jacob, Jeremiah

Places

Jerusalem

Topics

Announce, Declare, Jacob, Judah, Openly, Proclaim, Publish, Saying

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Jeremiah 5:20

5096 Jacob, patriarch

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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