God pleaded with them not to provoke Him to anger with the work of their hands and their hearts, “but they hearkened not.” Jeremiah then predicted the captivity of the Jews as their punishment for not heeding the word of the Lord. The Chaldeans were to be used as the instrument by which God would chastise His disobedient people. Their punishment was to be in proportion to their intelligence and to the warnings they had despised. God had long delayed His judgments because of His unwillingness to humiliate His chosen people, but now He would visit His displeasure upon them as a last effort to check them in their evil course. {4T 164.3}

Gud bad dem indtrængende om ikke at opægge ham til vrede over deres hænders og hjerters værk, »men de hørte ikke.« Da forudså Jeremias jødernes fangenskab, som straf for ikke at give agt på Herrens ord. (165) Kaldæerne blev brugt som redskaber af Gud til at revse sit ulydige folk. Deres straf skulle svare til deres indsigt og til de advarsler de havde foragtet. Gud havde længe udsat sine domme fordi han ikke ville ydmyge sit udvalgte folk, men nu ville han hjemsøge dem med sit mishag over dem, som en sidste anstrengelse for at stoppe dem på deres onde vej.