In this part of the chapter, Yirmiyahu's words shift from the general rebuke concerning the breach of the covenant to sharp and personal matters: an astonished cry over what is taking place in the House of Hashem, the parable of the luxuriant olive tree that is burned, and finally the exposure of the conspiracy formed by the men of Anatot, the prophet's townsmen, to assassinate him. We will follow the order of the verses and present the explanations of Rashi, Radak, and Malbim, along with the well-known Midrash that Radak cites here.
מֶה לִידִידִי בְּבֵיתִי עֲשׂוֹתָהּ הַמְזִמָּתָה הָרַבִּים וּבְשַׂר קֹדֶשׁ יַעַבְרוּ מֵעָלָיִךְ כִּי רָעָתֵכִי אָז תַּעֲלֹזִי׃ - "What is My beloved doing in My House, when she executes her vile schemes with the multitude, and the sacred flesh passes away from you? When you do evil, then you rejoice!"
The verse is obscure, and several points require clarification: Who is "My beloved" in the House? What is "her vile scheme"? Who are "the multitude"? What is the "sacred flesh" that passes away from them? And what is the connection between the conclusion of the verse, "when you do evil, then you rejoice," and its beginning?
Rashi explains that the address is directed toward the people of Israel, who are called the beloved of Hashem, as it says, "The beloved of Hashem shall dwell in safety by Him." Thus the verse says: What reason does My cherished people have to come into My House? Are they coming to the Beit HaMikdash in order to execute their wicked plots and depravities? According to Rashi, "the multitude" refers to the prominent and numerous among them. "And sacred flesh passes away from you" - they even abolished the mitzvah of circumcision; the circumcision of the flesh, through which they were considered holy, they also cast away from themselves.
Radak explains that "my beloved" refers to the Holy One, Blessed be He. The prophet is saying, as it were: What does my Beloved have left to do in this House? Why should He continue to cause His Shechinah to dwell in the Beit HaMikdash? For just as Israel is called beloved to Hashem, so too Hashem is called a beloved to us. And after all the evil deeds that Israel has committed, why should the Holy One, Blessed be He, continue to rest His Shechinah in the Temple?
"When she executes her vile scheme with the multitude" - they committed this scheme, which is idolatry, with many idols. According to Rashi, "the multitude" refers to the prominent men, whereas according to Radak, it refers to numerous idols, as we saw earlier: "For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Yehudah." If so, what does Hashem have left, as it were, to seek in His Sanctuary?
"And the sacred flesh passes away from you" - here the prophet turns back to address the Congregation of Israel: Instead of offering sacred flesh in the Beit HaMikdash before Hashem, they offer sacrifices to the multitude, to their numerous idols. And the sacred flesh that you are obligated to bring passes away from you as if you bear no obligation at all - at least that is how they feel. If so, what is my Beloved doing in My House?
A further nuance: Radak notes that the prophet calls the Holy One, Blessed be He, "my beloved" and not "the beloved of Israel," because Israel had already chosen new gods for themselves and Hashem, as it were, no longer shares friendship with them. With whom does His friendship remain? With the prophet alone. Likewise, he says "in my house" - meaning that the Beit HaMikdash remains my own house, for you have long ceased to regard it as your house, frequenting instead the houses of idolatry that you serve. Thus: the Holy One, Blessed be He, remains my beloved, the House remains my house, and you have no connection to what takes place there.
The Radak brings another explanation for "holy flesh" (basar kodesh): it refers to holy people, for "flesh" can mean human beings, as in "all flesh shall come to bow down" (Yeshayahu 66:23). According to this: the pious and the holy people have passed away from you; they are no longer with you, and there are no longer pious men among the people. That is why you commit all these evils, for you have no righteous and pious individuals with you to guide you onto the straight path.
"When you do evil, then you rejoice" - in what do they rejoice? In the evils they commit. When they commit a sin, then they experience joy! One might have thought that at least they would feel a pang in their heart and pangs of conscience at the time of sinning, but the prophet says: the opposite is true. There is, as it were, no hope of repentance from them, because when they do evil they are even glad and pleased. If so, with whom is there to speak? What more is there to rebuke this nation about? And the form ra'atechi is like ne'uraychi or tachalu'aychi, with an extra letter yud.
The Radak cites the well-known Midrash here: When the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, found Avraham standing in the Beit HaMikdash. He said to him, "What is My beloved doing in My house?" - Avraham, what are you doing here? He replied, "I came on account of my children; I heard there is trouble with the children." He said to him, "Your children sinned and went into exile." He asked, "Perhaps they sinned unintentionally?" He replied, "She has performed her scheme (mezimatah)" - a scheme is something premeditated, not an inadvertent slip. He asked, "Perhaps only a minority sinned?" He replied, "The multitude (harabbim)." He said, "You should have remembered for them the covenant of circumcision, the covenant of the Fathers!" He replied, "And the holy flesh has passed from you - they have even removed circumcision from themselves." He asked, "Perhaps if You had waited for them, they would have repented?" He answered, "When you do evil, then you rejoice - when they do evil they rejoice, so is there any chance they will repent?" Avraham then asked, "Perhaps, Heaven forbid, they have no remedy, and if so, is the Jewish people finished?" To this the next verse answers, "A leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit, the Lord called your name," teaching that the Jewish people possesses an eternal and permanent existence.
The Malbim explains in a third way: it is Hashem Who says to Yirmiyahu, "What is My beloved doing in My house?" The preceding verse said, "And as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up cry or prayer for them," and suddenly the Holy One, blessed be He, sees the prophet in the Beit HaMikdash, as it were. He says to him: What is My beloved doing in My house? Why have you come to pray for them and offer sacrifices on their behalf (for Yirmiyahu was a Kohen who served in the Beit HaMikdash)? After all, the Congregation of Israel has carried out the most wicked schemes and abominations - "she has performed her scheme, the multitude" - so how can you pray for them?
Then He turns to the people themselves: "And holy flesh will pass from you" - do you really think that by bringing holy flesh, meaning sacrifices, all your wicked schemes and crimes will pass away from you? Does holy flesh possess the power to remove such severe transgressions from you? For you do not repent when you bring the offering! "When you do evil, then you rejoice" - you do not rejoice in the offering; your joy lies in the evil you commit, and immediately after the offering you return to your evil. If so, the sacrifice has availed nothing.
זַיִת רַעֲנָן יְפֵה פְרִי תֹאַר קָרָא יְהֹוָה שְׁמֵךְ לְקוֹל הֲמוּלָּה גְדֹלָה הִצִּית אֵשׁ עָלֶיהָ וְרָעוּ דָּלִיּוֹתָיו׃ - "A leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit, the Lord called your name; to the sound of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken."
The Radak explains that He compared them to an olive tree because olive leaves remain green throughout the entire year, and therefore it possesses perpetual freshness. "Fair with goodly fruit" (yefeih feri to'ar) means both fair of fruit and fair of form, where the word yafeh ("fair/goodly") applies to both parts, just as in the prayer, "Who has not made our portion like theirs, nor our lot like all their multitude," where the word "not" applies to both clauses.
Seemingly, this presents a difficulty: we are dealing here with a nation that commits severe sins, so how can He call it "a leafy olive tree"? Rather, it refers to the time when Hashem chose us and planted us. At that time we were like a leafy olive tree; success was continually with us, and we performed good deeds, resembling the fruit of the olive from which both God and man derive benefit.
"To the sound of a great tumult" (lekol hamulah gedolah) - hamulah denotes noise, as when an army approaches with a great roar, and when the enemy comes to strike them he comes with a tumult. The Malbim explains that hamulah is related to milah, word or speech, as in "there is not a word (milah) on my tongue" (Tehillim 139:4), and "a sound of tumult (hamulah) like the sound of an army camp" (Yechezkel 1:24) - a sound of voices and great clamor. And what caused it? Your iniquities, Congregation of Israel; they brought about the sound of tumult, and this kindled the fire upon it.
"And its boughs are broken" (vero'u daliotav) - the nations break the boughs of the olive tree, which are its tall, lofty branches; and ro'u is an expression of breaking and shattering, as in "You shall break them (tero'em) with a rod of iron." Do not wonder at the shift in grammatical address from second person to third person, for we have noted several times that this is the frequent style of the pesukim, to shift from direct address to third person, and we have brought proof for this.
Radak further cites in the name of his father: "He kindled fire upon it (aleha)" does not mean "upon it" from above, but rather refers to its leaves (aleha) - He kindled a fire in its foliage. Even though the leaves are fresh and moist and do not naturally catch fire, He nevertheless kindles a fire among them.
Radak also notes the shift between masculine and feminine: "A leafy olive tree, fair" (zayit ra'anan yafeh) is in the masculine, followed immediately by "kindled fire upon it" (aleha) in the feminine. We have already cited the Ibn Ezra's principle that anything without the breath of life can be treated as either masculine or feminine, and an olive tree does not possess the breath of life. Radak adds that since he is allegorizing Knesset Yisrael here, which is grammatically feminine, he spoke of the olive tree in the feminine, and then returned to the natural grammar of the word, saying "its boughs" (daliotav) in the masculine.
The Malbim explains that there are three virtues mentioned here that Hashem ascribed to our name when He planted us: an olive tree - whose foliage is always fresh and moist, in both summer and winter; fair in appearance; and of fair fruit. In the nimshal: the leafy olive tree, whose leaves protect the fruit, symbolizes wealth and success, which is always fresh and full of Hashem's blessing. "Fair in appearance" is an allegory for the nation's strength, being numerous and strong. "Of fair fruit" is an allegory for their good deeds and their Torah, which are the choice, desirable fruit produced by man's actions.
According to the Malbim, "the sound of a great tumult" does not refer to the enemy army coming to exact retribution from us, but to the loud proclamation of the heavenly decree, "by the decree of the watchers is the matter." That sound of tumult decreed above against that leafy olive tree is what caused Him to "kindle fire upon its leaves" - the foliage that symbolizes wealth and success, meaning that they were stripped of their wealth and treasures. "And its boughs are broken", the high branches corresponding to "fair in appearance" - they broke the nation and led them into exile. Thus, neither the nation's strength nor their deeds stood by them. Come and see: something that began in such splendor - a leafy olive tree, fair, with goodly fruit - in the end had all its high boughs broken, and they went into exile.
וַיהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת הַנּוֹטֵעַ אוֹתָךְ דִּבֶּר עָלַיִךְ רָעָה בִּגְלַל רָעַת בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וּבֵית יְהוּדָה אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לָהֶם לְהַכְעִסֵנִי לְקַטֵּר לַבָּעַל׃ - And Hashem of hosts, Who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves to provoke Me, by burning incense to the Baal.
The evil that He pronounced against it refers to that decree mentioned earlier, "to the sound of a great tumult" - the decree was issued through the heavenly ministers, the ministering angels, and Hashem pronounced evil against you to kindle fire within you.
The Malbim explains: this is not because the Holy One, blessed be He, changed His thought, as it were, from what it was when He planted us. With Hashem there is no change of plans and no change of mind. On the contrary, that He pronounced evil against you is precisely because He is "the One Who planted you": the purpose of the planting was to produce praiseworthy fruit (peri hillulim), that holy fruit would grow here and that Israel would be a light unto the nations. Since they did not fulfill their role, and instead of praiseworthy fruit there was fruit of death and bereavement, "He pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel." This is comparable to a person who planted a vineyard, "and he hoped it would yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes," and so he uprooted it. Did he change his plans? He changed nothing. The plan was for a vineyard that yields good fruit, and a vineyard that does not yield good fruit is something he never wanted in the first place.
The end of the verse, "which they have done to themselves to provoke Me, by burning incense to the Baal," teaches the stages of their deterioration: at first "they did to themselves" - one thought he would derive some personal benefit from it, telling himself that he did not truly believe in it. In the second stage, it becomes "to provoke Me" - he begins to identify with it and acts out of defiance. In the third stage, "by burning incense to the Baal" - he clings to it with complete, naive devotion and believes in it with all his heart.
וַיהֹוָה הוֹדִיעַנִי וָאֵדָעָה אָז הִרְאִיתַנִי מַעַלְלֵיהֶם׃ - And Hashem informed me and I knew; then You showed me their deeds.
Radak connects this verse to the following one, which describes the assassination attempt on the prophet's life. This is what he means: Hashem revealed and informed me that they were seeking to assassinate me, something I myself would never have known. "Then You showed me their deeds" - it never would have crossed my mind that they would want to do such a thing to me, at the very time I was seeking their good and rebuking them in order to save them from calamity. And if concerning me, who sought their well-being, they devised such things - how much more so what evil deeds they would do to others whom they truly sought to harm!
The Malbim explains: In the previous verse it was stated, "has spoken evil against you," and the prophet tells the people: Know that Hashem did not keep this matter to Himself; rather, He revealed to me the calamity He is about to bring upon you, just as He said concerning Avraham, "Shall I conceal from Avraham what I am doing?" - for the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals the future to the righteous. And on that same occasion, when He showed me the calamity destined to come upon you, He also told me that you are seeking to harm me as well.
וַאֲנִי כְּכֶבֶשׂ אַלּוּף יוּבַל לִטְבוֹחַ וְלֹא יָדַעְתִּי כִּי עָלַי חָשְׁבוּ מַחֲשָׁבוֹת נַשְׁחִיתָה עֵץ בְּלַחְמוֹ וְנִכְרְתֶנּוּ מֵאֶרֶץ חַיִּים וּשְׁמוֹ לֹא יִזָּכֵר עוֹד׃ - And I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had plotted schemes against me: "Let us destroy the tree with its bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered."
What is a keves aluf? Rashi cites in the name of Dunash and Yehudah ibn Kuraish, and Radak explains similarly, that the meaning is like a lamb and an ox led to slaughter, since aluf denotes an ox, as in "the offspring of your cattle (alpecha)" and "our oxen (alufenu) are well-laden." Menachem ben Saruk explained keves aluf as a large lamb, and this is also implied by Targum Yonatan, who translates it as "like a chosen lamb" - that is, select and choice.
The Malbim, however, explains aluf from the root of learning, as in "teach me (alfeni) understanding" - meaning a tame, trained lamb that follows its master everywhere out of complete trust in him. One day, the owner walks to the slaughterhouse, and the lamb, accustomed to following him, follows him there as well, completely unaware that it is being led to slaughter. So says the prophet: They led me to slaughter, "and I did not know that they had plotted schemes against me" - I did not know their plan to kill me, and in such a way that it would never even become known that they had killed me. A plot for the perfect murder, a crime impossible to solve.
And how? "Let us destroy the tree with its bread" - let us place a destructive, poisonous tree into his bread, that is, deadly poison in his food. And why? Says the Malbim: A prophet who is slain by the sword has his name remembered in every generation as one who was martyred for the sanctification of Hashem's Name, like the prophet Zechariah who was killed for rebuking the people. But here, no one would know, and everyone would be certain that he died of natural causes. Furthermore, there are poisons that do not take effect immediately, but only after several days; then people would say: He must have eaten something bad, food poisoning, a stroke, a heart attack. No one would ever suspect that someone had assassinated the prophet.
"And let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered" - and this is remarkable according to the Malbim's approach. For had they assassinated him openly, that is precisely when he would have been remembered for generations! Just as we see in our own day: a prime minister who was assassinated - suddenly a "legacy" is created for him and commemorated every year, whereas right before, he was on the verge of being ousted in the next election, leaving behind nothing but troubles. And why all this? Because he was assassinated. This is exactly what the men of Anatot said: If he is killed by the sword, he will be remembered for generations, like Zechariah whose blood bubbled for years; but we will kill him in such a way that no one will ever remember him - "and let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered," for everyone will say he died of some internal illness.
וַיהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת שֹׁפֵט צֶדֶק בֹּחֵן כְּלָיוֹת וָלֵב אֶרְאֶה נִקְמָתְךָ מֵהֶם כִּי אֵלֶיךָ גִּלִּיתִי אֶת רִיבִי׃ - And Hashem of Hosts, righteous Judge, Who tests the kidneys and heart, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for unto You have I revealed my cause.
The straightforward meaning of the passage: Master of the Universe, You are a righteous Judge - judge my case against them, evaluate me in comparison to them, and rescue me from the malicious plots they harbor against me. And You test the kidneys and the heart, and You have examined their hearts and their kidneys - therefore, let me know their thoughts and their future plans. "Let me see Your vengeance upon them" - that I should not depart from this world before I see how You exact retribution from them for their evil deeds. "For unto You have I revealed my cause" - I have no one to whom I can reveal my grievance against them except to You, for I have no helper or supporter, and all those whom I come to rebuke oppose me. If so, I have no recourse but to turn to the Holy One, blessed be He, that He may champion my cause against them, for my grievance is known and revealed only before You.
The Malbim notes precisely: "Righteous judge" - there is no concern that You would pervert justice or do anything that deviates from uprightness. Furthermore, there may be a human judge who has no desire to pervert justice, yet the facts are unclear to him and he judges according to what appears before him, for "a judge can only judge by what his eyes see"; but with You, it is impossible that You would not know the true reality of the matter, for You "examine the kidneys and the heart" and know what is within their innermost thoughts, even though outwardly they do not reveal it.
Therefore, "let me see Your vengeance upon them" - I am not seeking my own vengeance, but Your vengeance. "For to You I have revealed my cause" - do I have a personal dispute with them? Am I fighting over money or some personal quarrel between me and them? My entire quarrel with them is on Your behalf: that they observe Your mitzvos, that they repent, that they draw close to Your service. And if they seek to kill me because I prophesied in Your Name, who is rightfully to fight my battle? You, Master of the Universe, will fight my battle and save me from them.
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה עַל אַנְשֵׁי עֲנָתוֹת הַמְבַקְשִׁים אֶת נַפְשְׁךָ לֵאמֹר לֹא תִנָּבֵא בְּשֵׁם יְהֹוָה וְלֹא תָמוּת בְּיָדֵנוּ׃ - Therefore, thus said Hashem concerning the men of Anatot who seek your life, saying: "Do not prophesy in the Name of Hashem, so that you do not die by our hand."
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: The men of Anatot seek your life, not because of any personal dispute with you, but rather their entire grievance is, "Do not prophesy in the Name of Hashem." This is their dispute with you, and this is what troubles them - that you are an emissary of Divine Providence. And since this is so, they will be punished as will be explained in the coming verses.
The Radak addresses a difficulty here: Earlier it was said, "And Hashem informed me and I knew," and "I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know," which implies that only the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed the matter to him. Yet here it states explicitly that they themselves told him, "Do not prophesy in the Name of Hashem, so that you do not die by our hand" - meaning they openly threatened that if he continued to prophesy, they would murder him! If so, he knew full well that his life was in mortal danger at their hands!
Rather, the answer is just as happens in our own times: a person says to his fellow, "I will kill you," and the other assumes these are merely empty threats, words without backing. How many cases do we know where it ultimately turned out differently, where there were indeed threats and complaints were filed with the police - and what can the police really do? If they assigned an officer to every person who receives a threat, they would run out of officers. Therefore, Yirmiyahu never suspected there was real substance to their words, thinking they were merely using intimidation and bluster, threatening him with an empty gun. For killing him openly was out of the question: there was still a king and a government, and were it not for the fear of the kingdom, men would swallow each other alive; they did not have the audacity to murder him in plain sight. But killing him secretly with poison - that was entirely possible, and that never crossed his mind. Nor would it necessarily ever be discovered, since they could put a poison in his food that does not act immediately but only after ten days or a month, or a radioactive substance, and he would die later on with no one knowing what killed him. This he did not fear or even imagine, and concerning this he said, "Hashem informed me."
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת הִנְנִי פֹקֵד עֲלֵיהֶם הַבַּחוּרִים יָמֻתוּ בַחֶרֶב בְּנֵיהֶם וּבְנוֹתֵיהֶם יָמֻתוּ בָּרָעָב׃ - Therefore, thus said Hashem, Master of Legions: Behold, I am visiting punishment upon them; the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die of famine.
Why specifically will the young men die by the sword? Because the young men trust in their strength and go out to battle, and since they go out to war, their death is by the sword. "Their sons and their daughters shall die of famine" - inside the city.
The Radak notes: Why did the verse mention the children and not the fathers? Because if the fathers obtained any food, they would eat it themselves, for their own lives take precedence. Furthermore, they even "ate the flesh of their sons and daughters" due to the famine. Thus, when the choice arose whether the father would live or his child would live, he certainly chose his own life first, and therefore the children were the ones who died first.
The Malbim notes the exact phrase "Behold, I will punish them," connecting it to what was said earlier: Yirmiyahu had pleaded before the Holy One, Blessed be He - it is not my own battle I am fighting, but Yours. The Holy One, Blessed be He, responds to him: You are right, and therefore I take the matter upon Myself - "Behold, I will punish them." This is not directed against you, but against Me; I am the One Who will exact retribution from them, and the young men and the children will die by the sword and in the siege.
וּשְׁאֵרִית לֹא תִהְיֶה לָהֶם כִּי אָבִיא רָעָה אֶל אַנְשֵׁי עֲנָתוֹת שְׁנַת פְּקֻדָּתָם׃ - And no remnant shall be left to them, for I will bring disaster upon the men of Anatot, the year of their punishment.
The men of Anatot caused Yirmiyahu great distress. Yirmiyahu was "of the Kohanim who were in Anatot," their fellow townsman and relative, and instead of strengthening his hands - in his very own town they sought how to assassinate him. And he had already prayed concerning them that the Holy One, Blessed be He, should cause them to stumble through unworthy people and be punished, and here Hashem says to him: No remnant shall be left to them.
"The year of their punishment" - Radak explains: the year of the destruction, which was the nineteenth year of Nevuchadnetzar, when Hashem visited their iniquity and the Land was destroyed; in that year, the men of Anatot would also be punished, and no remnant would be left of them. But Radak raises a difficulty: After all, among those who returned from the Babylonian exile we find "the men of Anatot, one hundred and twenty-eight," which implies that they did have a remnant! He answers that every such decree is stated conditionally - if they do not repent; and although a harsh decree was issued against them, when the enemies captured the city they repented, and once they repented, the decree was altered and they had a remnant.
The Malbim resolves this differently: "And no remnant shall be left to them" was said regarding the elderly. At first, it stated, "the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine," and the question arises - where are the elderly? To this, it says that they too will have no remnant, for I will bring a unique disaster upon them at the time of the destruction. Thus, the verse is not speaking at all about future generations or those returning from exile, and the difficulty disappears entirely from the outset.
In this part of the chapter, the prophet presents the reckoning in all its severity: "What has My beloved to do in My house" - whether addressed to Israel, as an outcry of the prophet concerning the dwelling of the Shechinah, or as Hashem's words to Yirmiyahu not to pray on their behalf - the conclusion is one and the same: sacrifices without repentance do not remove iniquity, and a nation that rejoices in its wickedness has no remedy through the normal course. And of the flourishing olive tree, symbolizing wealth, strength, and good deeds, nothing remained but scorched leaves and broken branches - not because Hashem changed His mind, but because a planting that fails to produce praised fruit is uprooted by the very purpose of its planting. And at the end of the chapter, the depth of the prophet's loneliness is revealed: his fellow townsmen and relatives plot to kill him in secret, so that even his name will no longer be remembered, and he commits his grievance to the Righteous Judge Who searches the kidneys and heart - "for to You I have revealed my cause" - and the Holy One, Blessed be He, takes the battle upon Himself: "Behold, I will punish them."