Jeremiah 11:1

The prophecy contained in Jer. 11–12 seems to belong to an early period of Jeremiah’s life. The covenant Jeremiah 11:2 was that renewed by Josiah in his 18th year, after the discovery of the Book of the Law in the temple 2 Kings 23:3; while Jeremiah 11:13 apparently refers to the public establishment of idolatry by Manasseh Jeremiah 21:3. The people took no hearty part in Josiah’s reformation, and the prophet therefore sets before them the consequences that will inevitably fellow upon their disloyalty to their covenant-God. The prophecy was probably called forth by the conspiracy of the men of Judah and of his own relatives of Anathoth to murder Jeremiah Jeremiah 11:18; Jeremiah 12:1, for such deeds, which but too well represented the nation’s whole course, punishment must come, if unrepented of.