Bible Strands
Jeremiah 15:1
Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks to Jeremiah, immediately following his command in 14:11 not to pray for the people. This is God preempting the intercession Jeremiah would naturally attempt.
The words — לְפָנַי (lefanai, "before me") is the idiom of standing in divine presence, the language of intercession; אִם ('im, "if") frames the entire clause as a hypothetical God is closing off.
The thread — Ezekiel 14:14 and 14:20 deploy the same logic with Noah, Daniel, and Job: even the most righteous deliver only themselves. Jeremiah 14:11 is the immediate precursor, where God already forbids prayer for the people.
Why it lands — It removes the reader from the position of thinking human merit or advocacy can override divine judgment. The verse forecloses bargaining.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 14:14 then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.
- Ezekiel 14:20 then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.
- Jeremiah 14:11 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.
- Jeremiah 11:14 As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in their time of disaster.
- Psalms 106:23 So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.
- Jeremiah 7:15 And I will cast you out of My presence, just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.
- Exodus 32:11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
- Psalms 99:6 Moses and Aaron were among His priests; Samuel was among those who called on His name. They called to the LORD and He answered.
- 1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.
- 2 Kings 17:20 So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.