Bible Strands
Jeremiah 33:5
The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those places with the corpses of the men I will strike down in My anger and in My wrath. I have hidden My face from this city because of all its wickedness.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Judah during an active Babylonian siege. He announces that Chaldean troops will breach the city's defenses and slaughter its inhabitants.
The words — The text emphasizes פִּגְרֵי (pig.Rei), literally "corpses," and הַ/כַּשְׂדִּ֔ים (ha./kas.Dim), literally "the Chaldeans." These terms specify the physical reality of the coming slaughter and the historical agent executing it.
The thread — The motif of God hiding or setting His face against a city appears in Isaiah 8:17 and Jeremiah 21:10. These passages align with Jeremiah 33:5 by directly connecting divine withdrawal to national judgment.
Why it lands — The verse states that the city's wickedness causes God to withdraw His protection and permit military destruction. It requires readers to accept that judgment precedes any promised restoration, as seen in the surrounding context of Jeremiah 33:4 and 33:6.
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
They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 8:17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.
- Jeremiah 21:4 this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.
- Jeremiah 21:10 For I have set My face against this city to bring disaster and not good, declares the LORD. It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.’
- Jeremiah 32:5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’”
- Deuteronomy 31:17 On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’
- Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
- Isaiah 64:7 No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
- Jeremiah 37:9 This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not!
- Micah 3:4 Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
- Deuteronomy 32:20 He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation—children of unfaithfulness.