Jeremiah 11:11
Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
Jeremiah 11:11 belongs to the divine announcement that Israel had broken the covenant made with them when they were brought out of Egypt and had thereby forfeited its blessings. It predicts the breaking off of branches from the good olive tree representing the family of Abraham as adopted by God, with violation of that covenant given as the reason why he regarded them not. The loss of the covenant's blessings and the breaking off of Israel's branches are thus bound together with the threatened judgment as cause and consequence.
The threatened evil is punishment for wilful breaking of God's covenant, inescapable when it comes. Though the people shall cry out, he will not hearken to them nor turn aside the calamity to rescue them. Those who reject counsel and reproof cannot rely on mercy to avert the consequences of their wrongdoing.
That judgment came swiftly through Babylon for idolatry and other sins. Judah was sent into Babylonian captivity for seventy years, where they would learn what they had failed to learn under more favorable conditions.
It came only after Judah had repeatedly rejected mercy, when justice required punishment. Further intercession would not turn God from his purpose, and he told his prophets that it would not avert the judgment. Neither cries for help nor pleading could cause him to escape the exiles from the calamity or to turn aside from what he had determined.
Persistent, deliberate disobedience brings a just and inescapable harvest whose consequences prayer cannot miraculously remove. Prayer will not undo the results of deliberately continuing in sin, just as prayer will not bring health and strength to sustain continued transgression or remove the consequences of persistently sowing for disease. Mercy gives no ground for rescue to those who persist in rejecting reproof and sowing for the harvest they must then reap.
The verse is a clear and awful denunciation of sin. It was spoken in sorrow of heart over transgression. It carries a touching appeal to return to God, an appeal the mass of the people leave unanswered.