Jeremiah 17:19

A SABBATH PROCLAMATION

"Thus saith Jehovah unto me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; and say unto them, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that come in these gates: Thus saith Jehovah, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem: neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work: but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction."

Despite the prominence of the sabbath regulation here, one gets the impression that the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue stands here as a synecdoche for the whole Mosaic Law.

There has been a great deal of quibbling about which gate was meant by "the gate of the children of the people"; but the passage clearly shows that no particular gate is meant. Jeremiah was to stand and preach wherever the people were.

"Gate of the children of the people ... in all the gates of Jerusalem ... these gates ... in the gates of Jerusalem ..." (Jeremiah 17:19,20,21). No gate was to be exempt from Jeremiah's preaching, not even the gate used by the kings of Judah.

Some commentators deny this passage to Jeremiah on their false assumption that sabbath observance was a feature of the post-exilic times; but for those interested in such groundless denials, Green has provided some answers. He also noted that the appearance of the Sabbath Day in this context "is a sign of the Mosaic Covenant."[26]

Throughout Jeremiah the conditional nature of prophecies of doom is continually stressed, a fact that will receive special attention in the next chapter, where all prophecies, whether of blessing or condemnation, are revealed as absolutely conditional. Thompson's comment here is, "Jeremiah made it clear that the people of Judah held their destiny in their own hands."[27]

The particular violation of the sabbath regulations which might have precipitated this choice of that commandment to stand by metonymy for the whole Law of Moses was suggested by Feinberg as follows:

"The people who lived in the fields surrounding Jerusalem and worked the fields during the week selected the Sabbath as the day to bring their produce into the city, and the people of the city brought stores of goods and materials out of their houses to exchange for the produce, contrary to the express commandment of God through Moses.[28]