Bible Strands
Jeremiah 20:5
I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Jeremiah to the priest Pashhur, declaring that Jerusalem and Judah will be handed over to Babylonian forces following Pashhur's suppression of prophetic warning.
The words — The Hebrew verb נָתַתִּי (naṯattî) means "I will give," paired with חֹסֶן (choshen) for "wealth" or "stronghold," explicitly stating Yahweh's active role in surrendering the city's resources to invaders.
The thread — This pattern of divine surrender of national wealth recurs in Jeremiah 15:13, Ezekiel 22:25, and 2 Kings 20:17, where stored treasures and products are stripped by enemies as a direct consequence of covenant failure.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge that God actively transfers human security to hostile forces, demanding a clear-eyed assessment of judgment rather than a search for immediate deliverance.
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
Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 15:13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.
- Ezekiel 22:25 The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.
- 2 Kings 20:17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD.
- 2 Kings 24:12 Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.
- 2 Kings 25:13 Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.
- 2 Chronicles 36:10 In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 17:3 O My mountain in the countryside, I will give over your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, because of the sin of your high places, within all your borders.
- Lamentations 1:10 The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
- 2 Chronicles 36:17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
- Jeremiah 3:24 From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.