This is my one hundred and seventy-third monthly teaching letter and continues my fifteenth year of publication. I started this series entitled The Greatest Love Story Ever Told with WTL #137, and have been expanding on its seven stages as follows: (1) the courtship, (2) the marriage, (3) the honeymoon, (4) the estrangement, (5) the divorce, (6) the reconciliation, and (7) the remarriage.

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD, Part 32:

THE ESTRANGEMENT continued:

This matter of the “estrangement” on the part of the twelve tribes of Israel from their Husband, Yahweh, is a very serious subject to discuss. Not only is it grievous to recollect, but it is one of the more lamentable recorded narratives found in Holy Writ. It is only regrettable for those who were/are under the Old and New Covenants (i.e., the house of Israel and the house of Judah), and no one else (see Jer. 31:31-33 & Heb. 8:8-12, which read pretty much alike). The former passage at Jeremiah is recorded thusly:

“³¹ Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³² Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Yahweh: ³³ But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the [united as ‘one-stick’] house of Israel; After those days, saith Yahweh, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

With this lesson, we shall examine the second chapter of Jeremiah which addresses this topic in detail:

Jer. 2:1-2: “¹ Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ² Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Yahweh; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.”

At the beginning of chapter 2, it would appear that Jeremiah was directing his message only toward the Judahites of Judaea, but at vv. 3-4, it becomes quite evident he was including the whole house of the twelve tribes of Israel whom Yahweh had married at Mt. Sinai. Here Jeremiah was commanded to leave Anathoth and proceed to Jerusalem where he was to loudly announce (actually yell, or vociferate; to utter or cry out loudly at the top of his voice) to every ear in Jerusalem the word he had received from Yahweh. At the time of Jeremiah’s commission to Jerusalem, near 629 B.C., the ten northern tribes of the house of Israel were already captive in Assyria. Nevertheless, Jeremiah’s words were to reach the ten tribes as well, and the admonish ment is still valid to this very day. In other words, if you are a descendant of one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the message of Jeremiah chapter two is for you at this very time, so listen up!

Although Jeremiah’s message was written originally nearly 2,630 years ago, it was directed to we Israelites of today as well, “... remember ... the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals ...” In this case it is Yahweh in the flesh, as Yahshua, that is remembering the “kindness” of Israel’s youth, as He patiently led them out of the slavery they had known in Egypt to become His Cinderella bride. When it is speaking of “espousals”, it means betrothal, wedding and nuptials. Therefore, it is our duty to look back in time to when our ancestors gave their wedding vows to Yahweh that they and their offspring would always be faithful to our Husband, Yahweh. When our forebears became unfaithful, we, their descendants, became unfaithful with them. That is why Paul stated at Romans 3:23 the following: “... for all have done wrong and fall short of the honor of Yahweh ...” (CNT). In other words, when our fathers did wrong and fell short of Yahweh’s honor, so we, as their descendants, fell short with them. Paul was not pointing out one’s personal sins at this passage, but our sins as a nation. Of course, though, it would be well to send our personal sins forward to the judgment, rather than allow them to follow us to the judgment. Inasmuch as sin is a transgression of the Law, and only Israelites ever had the Law, so only Israelites can sin. Non-Israelites never had the Law, so it is impossible for them to sin. How long is it going to take us to understand that Yahweh married only the twelve tribes of Israel, that He only divorced the twelve tribes of Israel, and He’ll only remarry the twelve tribes of Israel, and that until that remarriage we are all divorcees? This is where we fall short!

Adam Clarke, in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, p. 256, concurs that, “Their espousals refer to their receiving the law at Mount Sinai, which they solemnly accepted, Exod. xxiv. 6-8, and which acceptance was compared to a betrothing or espousal ...” Clarke was born at Moybeg in County Londonderry, Ireland, somewhere between 1760 to 1763, and died August 26, 1832. His most extensive work was his Commentary, which he began May 1, 1798, and with many obstacles to overcome, he was finished March 28, 1825. On the other hand, the Christian Israel Identity (C.I.I.) message was awakened by John Wilson in 1837, with his book Our Israelitish Origin, published in 1840. So there is a very slight chance that Clarke may have heard of it, but surely not enough time to address the subject fifteen years after the completion of his Commentary. Had Clarke been awakened to C.I.I., he might have used a more positive statement than “compared to a betrothing or espousal”, although he did quite well being one of the blind. Again, had Clarke comprehended that Yahweh actually married the twelve tribes, and that the Israelites became a wife in every respect, he, like all the other commentators, would have wrongly included in the marriage the converso Edomite-jews.

As for the phrase “... when thou wentest after me in the wilderness ...” it denotes how Israel, during her courtship with Yahweh in the wilderness, presented herself as a loyal bride-in-waiting. Ezek. 16:8; Hos. 2:20; Joel 1:8.

Ezek. 16:8: “Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith Yahweh Elohim, and thou becamest mine.”

Hos. 2:19-20, in respect to a future remarriage: “¹⁹ And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. ²⁰ I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know Yahweh.”

Joel 1:8: “Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.”

Exod. 19:4-8: “⁴ Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. ⁵ Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my [marriage] covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: ⁶ And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. ⁷ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which Yahweh commanded him. ⁸ And all the people answered together, and said, All that Yahweh hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto Yahweh.” This last passage represents the betrothal, wedding, and nuptials of Yahweh’s marriage to the twelve tribes of Israel! No others need apply!

Concerning the phrase “... in a land ... not sown...”, Jeremiah contrasts the present unfriendly relations between Yahweh and His people with their past love. Israel, as often elsewhere, is portrayed as a young bride. ... Walking after Him in the wilderness was an act of love on Israel’s part. Israel did leave Egypt at Moses’ bidding, and at Sinai were solemnly espoused to Yahweh. (See Barnes’ Notes on Jeremiah, by F.C. Cook, abridged by J.M. Fuller, p. 149.)

From the 6-volume Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, vol. 4, pp. 3-4, we get some background history of the 2nd chapter of Jeremiah. Like Adam Clarke, they apply this passage to the converso Edomite-jews rather than the twelve tribes of Israel. Otherwise, as “blind” people, they do respectably well:

“1. word of the Lord [sic Yahweh] came to me – probably in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah (ch. i. 2; cf. ch. iii. 6; cf. with ch. ii. 20) The warning not to rely as they did on Egypt (v. 18) was in accordance with Josiah’s policy, who took part with Assyria and Babylon against Egypt and Pharaoh-nechoh (2 Ki. xxiii. 29). Jeremiah, doubtless, supported the reformation began by Josiah in the previous year (the twelfth of his reign), and fully carried out in the eighteenth. 2. cry – proclaim, in the ears of Jerusalem – the head-quarters and centre of their idolatry; therefore addressed first. thee – rather, ‘I remember in regard to thee’ (Henderson): for thee (Maurer), or, as margin, ‘for thy sake.’ The kindness of thy youth – not so much Israel’s kindness towards God, as the kindness which Israel experienced from God in her early history (cf. Ezek. xvi. 8 ; Hos, ii. 15). For Israel from the first showed perversity rather than kindness toward God (cf. Exod. xiv. 11, 12. See also Exod. xv. 24; xxxii. 1-7, The molten calf of gold). The^, greater were God’s favours to them from the first, the fouler was their ingratitude in forsaking Him, (vv. 3, 5, &c.) espousals – the intervals between Israel’s betrothal to God at the exodus from Egypt, and the formal execution of the marriage contract at Sinai. Ewald takes the ‘kindness’ and ‘love’ to be Israel’s toward God at first (Exod. xix. 8; xxxv. 29; Josh. xxiv, 16, 17). But cf. Deut. xxxii 16, 17, and Ezek. xvi. 5, 6, 15, 22 (‘Days of thy youth’), implies that the love here meant was on God’s side, not Israel’s. thou wentest after me in ... wilderness – the next act of God’s love, His leading them in the desert without needing any strange god, such as they since worshipped, to help Him (Deut. xxxii. 12). V. 6, shows it is God’s ‘leading’ of them, not their following after God in the wilderness, which is implied ....”

I have examined this last quotation from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, and some of the passages cited by them bear mentioning:

Hos. 2:15, (quoting vv. 13-17): “¹³ And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith Yahweh. ¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. ¹⁵ And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁶ And it shall be at that day, saith Yahweh, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. ¹⁷ For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.”

Here the word “Ishi” means “my husband”, as opposed to “Baali”, which also means “my lord”. Matthew Henry, in his 6-volume Commentary goes into detail on this subject, vol. 4, p. 1133. His position is that both words have the same meaning of “my husband”, which in some cases is true, but if there wasn’t something reprehensible about this Hebrew term Baali, we wouldn’t be advised by the prophet to stop using it, as prescribed at Hos. 2:16!

“The valley of Achor was that in which Achan was stoned; it signifies the valley of trouble, because he troubled Israel, and there God troubled him. This was the beginning of the wars of Canaan; and their putting away the accursed thing in that place gave them ground to hope that God would continue his presence with them and complete their victories.” (See Matthew Henry in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, p. 1132.) From this it would appear that for those who are holding the gold and silver today, the valley of Achor will be the door of “trouble” for them, and a door of hope for the descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel!

Josh. 24:16-17: “¹⁶ And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; ¹⁷ For Yahweh our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed ...”

Ezek. 16:5-6, 15, 22: “⁵ None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. ⁶ And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. ... ¹⁵ But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. ... ²² And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.”

Adam Clarke, in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, pp. 461-462:

“Verse 5. Thou wast cast out in the open field] This is an allusion to the custom of some heathen and barbarous nations, who exposed those children in the open fields to be devoured by wild beast who had any kind of deformity, or whom they could not support.

“Verse 6. I said – Live] I received the exposed child from the death that awaited it, while in such a state as rendered it at once an object of horror, and also of compassion. ...

“Verse 15. Thou didst trust in thine own beauty] Riches, strength, alliances, &c.; never considering that all they possessed came from God; therefore it was his comeliness which he had put upon them. Witness their original abject state, and the degree of eminence to which they had arrived afterwards through the protecting power of God.”

Then Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, vol, 4, p.253, states at v. 22:

Verse “22: thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth. Forgetfulness of God’s love is the source of all sins. Israel forgot her deliverance by God in the infancy of her national life. See v. 43, to which v. 60 forms a lovely contrast (Jer. ii. 2; Hos. xi. 1).”

To sum up this part of our Bible study on Jer. 2:1-2, I will now quote Ezek. 16:43; 16:60; Hos. 11:1 & Exod. 4:22:

Ezek. 16:43: “Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith Yahweh Elohim: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.”

Ezek. 16:60: “Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee [as] in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.” (See Smith & Goodspeed)

Hos. 11:1: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”

Exod. 4:22: “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Yahweh, Israel is my son, even my firstborn ...”

It should also be noted at Exod. 4:23, Israel is spoken of collectively as “my son”: “And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.”

After exhaustively researching nearly every aspect of Jeremiah 2:1-2, we are now in an advantageous position to continue with verses 3 through 5 thusly: “³ Israel was holiness unto Yahweh, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith Yahweh. ⁴ Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: ⁵ Thus saith Yahweh, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?”

With verses 3-5 quoted immediately above, we do not lose the continuity of our context, for we were informed atHos. 11:1 and Exod. 4:22 that Israel was Yahweh’s “firstborn”. This has a significance that many may not completely comprehend! This brings to mind a very momentous question: When, where, why and how did “Israel” become Yahweh’s firstborn? In my opinion, it is referring to both Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and to his offspring, where the entire twelve tribes of Israel were considered “firstborn” by Yahweh. The first Biblical passage that might give us a clue is found at Gen. 25:22-26, where it records a very unusual circumstance concerning Jacob and Esau while they were still in the womb of their mother, Rebekah:

“²² And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of Yahweh. ²³ And Yahweh said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. ²⁴ And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. ²⁶ And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.”

It is very clear from the above quoted passage that Esau was literally the firstborn of Isaac. But, in the foreknowledge of Yahweh, He knew beforehand that Esau would take two Hittites and one Ishmaelite as wives, and by doing so mingled his genetics with the evil descendants of Cain. Thus, Yahweh disinherited Esau before he was ever born, leaving Jacob (later named Israel) to inherit the position of the “firstborn” of Isaac. Today there are many White Israelite women and a lesser number of White Israelite men following the error of Esau.

What all of this amounts to is, if you are a lineal descendant of Jacob/Israel, even though you may be the last of several children in your family (male or female; no matter how large the family), you are a “firstborn Israelite” in Yahweh’s eyes, even though you may not be the firstborn of your immediate family. So Moses wasn’t wrong when he stated to Pharaoh, “... Israel is my son, even my firstborn ....” And Moses meant every last Israelite, regardless of tribe or gender. Provisions for women to inherit are given at Num. 27:3-8 thusly:

“³ Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons. ⁴ Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. ⁵ And Moses brought their cause before Yahweh. ⁶ And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, ⁷ The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them. ⁸ And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.”

The only good observation that I have found so far in my collection of many commentaries about the “Holiness”, or Israel being collectively “Yahweh’s firstborn son”, is The Wycliffe Bible Commentary by Pfeiffer & Harrison, p. 600:

“3. Holiness. Holy (cf. Exo. 19:5-6). Firstfruits. The harvest firstfruits were set apart as sacred (Exo. 23:19; Lev. 23:9-21); so Israel, God’s firstfruits-people among the nations were sacred. The firstfruits were offered to God and could not be eaten by lay Israelites. So here, those who devour Israel shall be guilty. Offend. Better, become guilty (cf. Gen. 12:3) ....” No doubt, Pfeiffer & Harrison consider today’s converso Edomite-jews to be the “firstfruits-people”, but they couldn’t be more mistaken! Rather, the White Anglo-Saxon and related people are the true “firstfruits-people”. As the harvest of firstfruits were set apart as sacred, so also were the twelve tribes of Israel set apart as sacred! Of the Scriptural passages cited here we should take note of Gen. 12:3:

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all [the Adamic] families of the earth be blessed.” So now you know why the word “White” has become a curse-word today! I would encourage everyone in Christian Israel Identity (C.I.I.) to take heart during these evil days, as Scripture speaks out clearly that we are not alone at Deut. 32:9-12; Psa. 17:6-9 & Zech. 2:8.

Deut. 32:9-12: “⁹ For Yahweh’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. ¹⁰ He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. ¹¹ As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: ¹² So Yahweh alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.”

Psa. 17:6-9: “⁶ I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. ⁷ Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. ⁸ Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, ⁹ From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.”

Zech. 2:8: “For thus saith Yahweh of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

The reason I have quoted these last three passages, where it speaks of “the apple of Yahweh’s eye”, is because I wanted to impress upon the reader’s mind how our Almighty is continually watching over us, and the fact that nothing is hidden from Him! One may not, during the last fifty to sixty years, get that impression, but I can assure the reader that it is true. Not only is He constantly watching over we Anglo-Saxon and related Israelites, but He is ever vigilantly keeping track of every evil scheme and maneuver of Israel’s many enemies, especially the much-mixed converso Cain-Edomite-jews!

I am sure that Yahweh was watching when the Edomite-jews presented their Broadway production “Hair”. I am sure that Yahweh was watching when a full page front cover of Life Magazine featured a naked White female and a naked negro pressed against her breasts. Again, I am sure that our Almighty was taking note when the Edomite-jews showed their Hollywood film, “Guess Whose Coming To Dinner?” in their theaters throughout North America and the rest of the world. Again, I am sure that Yahweh saw every detail when the Edomite-jews, with their communistic infiltration into nearly all of our colleges, brainwashed our White daughters with the lie that if they would have a child by a black, that it would be more intelligent than a purebred White! Again, I am sure that Yahweh witnessed, with His all-seeing eye, how the communistic National Educational Agency advanced the same multicultural agenda that the colleges had promoted!

I am also sure that Yahweh attentively observed the Edomite-jews taking a leading role in the control and distribution of the habitforming drug trade. It is strange how a seemingly coordinated army of blacks and mexicans were stationed on almost every corner of every city, town and hamlet, ready to make a sale. About the same time, here in Fostoria, Ohio, there was a negress at the head of the local N.A.A.C.P. who made the brag of how many White girls her black cotribesmen were going to cause to become pregnant! I had a customer who claimed that he had this negress’ words on an audio cassette tape. This is only hearsay, but you can judge for yourself. We’ll never know, this side of Yahweh’s White Throne Judgment how, many blacks, mexicans and other nonwhites slipped hard drugs into a Pepsi or a Coke in order to date-rape our White daughters. It is also strange that about the same time as these hard drugs were being distributed to our children, the cell-phone came into existence, and myriads of blacks and mexicans had a cell-phone which gave them the ability to keep track of where the police were. And, cell-phones were quite expensive back then. Not only did they have a cell-phone, but most of them had (at the time) a new, or nearly new, automobile.

In addition to this, I am sure that Yahweh took notice of the father with a daughter living just a few miles south of Bowling Green, Ohio, who sent his daughter to the Bowling Green State University, only to be brainwashed by the professors there. The father of this girl was a very friendly, outgoing, happy-go-lucky sort of person. That is, until his daughter became pregnant by one of the black students there. After that, this father became very disheartened to the point that he hardly ever fellowshiped with his friends and neighbors, and the few times he was out and about, he kept his eyes directed downward toward the ground, without the usual smile he formerly had on his face, all because of the overwhelming shame of what his daughter had done!

I am sure that the stories I have related to you here are only the tip of the iceberg, and that the whole account would fill volumes of books, for these evil machinations have been going on now for about 7,500 years! However, Yahweh has kept a record of every last misdeed, for Jeremiah stated at 2:3, “... all that devour him (i.e., any of the twelve tribes of Israel) shall offend; evil shall come upon them (i.e., the converso Edomite-jews), saith Yahweh.”

Adam Clarke, in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, p. 256 states:

“All that devour him shall offend] As they were betrothed to the Lord (sic Yahweh), they were considered his especial property; they therefore who injured them were considered as laying violent hands on the property of God. They who persecute God’s children have a grievous burden to bear, an awful account to give.”

Additionally, Barnes’ Notes has this on Jer, 2:3b:

“Heathen, i.e., unconsecrated nations must not meddle with Israel, because it is the nation consecrated to God. If they do they will bring such guilt upon themselves as those incur who eat the firstfruits (Lev. xxii. 10, 16.”

Lev. 22:10, 16: “¹⁰ There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest, or an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. ... ¹⁶ Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass, when they eat their holy things: for I Yahweh do sanctify them.”

But to understand Lev. 22:10, 16, one must also read Lev. 22:9: “They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I Yahweh do sanctify them [i.e., Israel, the firstfruits]. In other words, the penalty was/is death! To fully comprehend this, one might be the sixteenth child, and a female, born to an Israelite family yet, she is firstborn like all of the rest of we (male or female) Israelites! If one cannot understand this concept, one simply cannot understand who the “firstfruits” are at Jer. 2:3! Further, the only way that we Israelites can be the firstfruits of Yahweh is because Esau was disinherited by the Almighty before he was born! It is similar to Judah’s literal first son Er, by the daughter of the Canaanite, Shua, who was a half-breed and was not recognized as a legitimate son. After Judah had a legitimate son by the full-blooded White woman, Tamar, her son Pharez was considered Judah’s firstborn son, although literally Pharez was Judah’s fourth son. Half-breeds are still considered Biblically illegitimate to this very day! So, John Hagee, how about that mexican squaw of yours’ and the unclean half-breed offspring you have fathered! John Hagee, you are no better than Esau! To all of the forgoing, Jeremiah proclaimed at vv. 4-5:

⁴ Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: ⁵ Thus saith Yahweh, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?”

Here it is quite clear that Yahweh was instructing Jeremiah to address this message to all of the twelve tribes of Israel, not just to the house of Judah alone. In searching through my many commentaries, I found only one that satisfactorily interprets verses 4 and 5. That was The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 660:

“4. Jacob ... Israel. The whole Hebrew nation is in view. The prophets frequently ignored the division of the kingdom and the exile of the northern tribes and addressed ‘the whole family which I brought up out of Egypt’ (Amos 3:1).

“5. Vanity ... become vain. The noun and verb come from the same Hebrew root, which means basically ‘vapor,’ ‘breath’ and so ‘worthlessness’ or ‘worthless.’ It is frequently used (as here) as a synonym for idolatry (cf. 10:15; 16:19; and many others.)”

The Wycliffe Bible Commentary cites Amos 3:1 on v. 4, but of necessity both vv. 1 & 2 must be quoted:

“¹ Hear this word that Yahweh hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, ² You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

The Wycliffe Bible Commentary cites Jer. 10:15 & 16:19 on v. 5, but we shall first read Jer. 10:14-16 to get the context:

“¹⁴ Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵ They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: Yahweh of hosts is his name.”

Ibid. Now to Jer. 16:19, but I will include vv. 18 & 20 for context:

“¹⁸ And first I will recompense their [Israel’s] iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things. ¹⁹ O Yahweh, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the [Israel nations] shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. ²⁰ Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?”

If one doesn’t get anything else out of this lesson, it is my prayer that one will not forget that Esau was bypassed as firstborn because Yahweh foresaw that he would mix his blood with some Hittite women. Therefore, all twelve of the Israel tribes are considered “firstborn”!