Jeremiah 15:6 Meaning and Explanation
“Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Judgment can sound abstract until it is spoken in the second person, as it is here. The charge is stated directly to the city, the sentence follows in the same voice, and the closing clause lets us hear something of God's own weariness. Readers who wonder whether divine judgment is arbitrary will find the reason placed first and the reluctance placed last.
God names the cause behind Jerusalem's coming ruin: she abandoned Him and kept moving away. His outstretched hand answers that retreat, and He declares Himself tired of holding back the sentence.
The Context of Jeremiah 15:6
This is the LORD's own speech, delivered by Jeremiah to Jerusalem in the years before Babylon took the city. Verse 5 has just asked who would pity her; verse 6 supplies the reason no help is coming. The wider chapter alternates between the LORD's words to the nation and Jeremiah's own complaints. Verses 1 through 4 name Manasseh's sins in the city, verse 7 continues the sentence with the image of winnowing, and verse 9 pictures a mother losing her children. The chapter belongs to Jeremiah's warnings during Judah's final generation.
What Does Jeremiah 15:6 Mean?
Two verbs carry the charge. To forsake is to leave a relationship that was real, and the object is personal: 'thou hast forsaken me,' spoken by the LORD about Himself. To go backward describes direction of travel, a steady drift away from where the covenant was made. The response uses a phrase familiar from the exodus story, the stretched-out hand, now turned toward Jerusalem herself. The last clause is the strangest and the most tender: weariness with repenting, that is, with relenting. God has drawn back the sentence again and again, and He tells the city plainly that the pattern has reached its end.
The chapter opened by saying that even Moses and Samuel could not stand in the gap here, and verse 6 explains why intercession has run out of room. Both men had once turned away wrath by prayer, and both had done so for a people who could still be called back. Judah's direction of travel is the problem this verse names. Across Scripture, God's relenting is genuine, offered in response to genuine turning, and the same book will later hold out restoration on exactly those terms. What ends in this verse is the delay, and the reason for the ending is stated openly rather than hidden.
Backward movement is rarely a single decision. The verse describes a posture that developed over reigns and generations, small turnings that added up to a nation facing the wrong way. That is why the remedy offered later in this same chapter is a return, spoken to Jeremiah in verse 19 with the same root that judges the people here. The One who grew weary with relenting keeps calling for the turn that would make relenting fitting again. Judah's story shows that God's patience has a shape and a purpose, and that His warnings are given while there is still road to walk back.
Jeremiah 15:6 in the Original Language
nacham (נָחַם), 'repenting' -- to be moved in feeling, and so to relent from an announced action. Used of God it describes a real change of course in response to how people respond to Him, holding back a sentence He had every right to carry out.
Bible Verses Related to Jeremiah 15:6
“If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
- Jeremiah 18:8
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
- Jeremiah 2:13
“And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”
- Exodus 32:14
“The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.”
- Isaiah 9:12
Where Jeremiah 15:6 Echoes in Scripture
Jeremiah 18:8 states the principle that stands behind this verse. There the LORD says that if a nation He has spoken against turns from its evil, He will relent of the harm He intended. Jeremiah 15:6 shows the same divine willingness stretched to its limit by a people going the other way. Read together, the two verses keep God's judgment tied to human direction, and they leave the door of return visible even in a chapter of sentence.
How to Apply Jeremiah 15:6 Today
Drift is the ordinary shape of trouble in most lives. Nobody schedules a season of going backward; prayer thins, honesty slips, an old habit returns, and a year later the direction has changed. This verse invites an honest look at heading rather than at any single day. We can ask what we were doing with God five years ago and whether the line since then runs toward Him. Where the answer is uncomfortable, the same chapter shows the way forward, and turning around early spares us the weariness of trying to outrun a warning.
Reflection & Prayer
Which direction has our life been traveling lately, measured over years rather than days? A prayer: Father, You have been patient with us longer than we know. Show us where we have quietly gone backward, and turn us around while the way is open. Thank You for warnings that come in time to be heeded. Amen.