Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
Jeremiah 6 stands amid denunciations of sin and sorrow over transgression, joined with appeals to return to God that most of the people failed to heed. In that setting Jerusalem is called to accept instruction, lest rejection cause God to withdraw from her and leave her desolate, a land not inhabited. The warning makes instruction the dividing line between continued divine presence and utter desolation.
The phrase my soul expresses God's own person and self, meaning that God himself may depart from Jerusalem. It does not show a separate, immortal part of God, but God himself as having a soul in this sense. The verse also displays God's law in plain distinction from all other laws.
This warning to Jerusalem applies in the last days as God's call for a people to keep the whole law, including the Sabbath.
Jeremiah 6 stands amid denunciations of sin and sorrow over transgression, joined with appeals to return to God that most of the people failed to heed. In that setting Jerusalem is called to accept instruction, lest rejection cause God to withdraw from her and leave her desolate, a land not inhabited. The warning makes instruction the dividing line between continued divine presence and utter desolation.
The phrase my soul expresses God's own person and self, meaning that God himself may depart from Jerusalem. It does not show a separate, immortal part of God, but God himself as having a soul in this sense. The verse also displays God's law in plain distinction from all other laws.
This warning to Jerusalem applies in the last days as God's call for a people to keep the whole law, including the Sabbath.