Jeremiah 11:14

"Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble. What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest. Jehovah called thy name, A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. For Jehovah of hosts, who planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have wrought for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense unto Baal."

"Pray not for this people ..." (Jeremiah 11:14). "There is a climax of guilt which admits of no further intercessory prayer. Our minds should be at one with God in all that he is doing, even in the rejection of the reprobate."[17] That this is really true appears in God's command to Moses (Exodus 32:10), also in God's forbidding Samuel to grieve any longer for Saul (1 Samuel 16:1). This is now the second time that God has forbidden Jeremiah to pray any more for the apostate nation (Jeremiah 7:16); and this admonition is still applicable to God's people as in 1 John 5:16.

"A goodly olive-tree, fair and goodly fruit ..." (Jeremiah 11:15). This figure of Israel as the olive-tree was adopted by the apostle Paul in Romans 11:17-24.

"What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many? and the holy flesh is passed from thee ..." (Jeremiah 11:15) This refers "to the hypocrisy of cloaking their apostasy by offering sacrifices in the temple and passing themselves off as worshippers of God."[18]

"The holy flesh is passed from thee ..." (Jeremiah 11:15). This is not a reference to the sacrifices and their lack of efficacy, because the sacrifices of hypocrites has no efficacy, or holiness. What is meant is that the lewd and immoral practices of the people have robbed them (the people) of that "holiness, without which no man shall see God."

"The evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah ..." (Jeremiah 11:10,17). The reason for the double reference repeatedly to both Israel and Judah is to show that the whole Chosen People are meant. In context, Israel means the northern kingdom; and Judah means the southern kingdom, the whole nation. The licentious worship of the Baalim had finally destroyed the whole nation of the Chosen People, morally, nationally, politically, and religiously, the "righteous remnant" alone being excepted.

JEREMIAH'S PERSONAL LAMENT (JER. 11:18-12:6)

Ash identified the six passages in this prophecy which are classified as personal laments of Jeremiah thus: (1) Jeremiah 11:18-12:6; (2) Jeremiah 15:12-21; (3) Jeremiah 17:14-18; (4) Jeremiah 18:18-23; (5) Jeremiah 20:7-13; and (6) Jeremiah 20:14-18. He added that, "This is a form of writing unique to Jeremiah in the prophetic books."[19]